Widow by Martha Miller

Author:Martha Miller [Miller, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626392717
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2014-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Bertha drove down South Fifth Street at least once a day. By Saturday evening, Rita’s Pizzeria was open with its the porthole window boarded up, as were windows in surrounding buildings. The pizzeria door had been replaced. The Crones Nest remained dark and empty, a handwritten sign next to the door reading Temporarily Closed.

Her Jeep had been swept up and taken to a garage that generally towed wrecked cars; some pieces were unrecognizable, and one of the wheels was never found, so she was positive the insurance company would total it. However, they were stalling, wanting police reports while the storage fees built up. Bertha was getting used to Toni’s little black, straight-shift Civic.

Monday morning, Alvin followed her into her office with the usual coffee. He claimed she was easier to talk to when she had caffeine. Bertha thought he was wrong, but she enjoyed the coffee and especially liked having it brought to her.

Steam rose from the cup as he placed it before her. Bertha sipped, scalding the roof of her mouth and her tongue.

Alvin said, “Easy does it, Boss.”

She swallowed and the liquid burnt all the way down. “Ain’t I been burnt enough?”

“Sorry.”

“You microwave the coffee?”

“How was I supposed to know you’d try to chug it?”

Answering a question with a question was one of Alvin’s favorite defenses. In fact, most people did it. Toni used to get about six lines ahead of her in the conversation—it had been an art—so having been trained by the best, Bertha was used to it and let it go, because the alternative of pointing out the non-answer would be exhausting. She picked up the cup and sipped this time. “Tell me this stuff isn’t left over from Friday.”

“It’s not left over from Friday. Walter, the floating bailiff, made it when he got in at six and then shut it off. So it was only lukewarm.”

Bertha blew into the cup. “I hope Alice is enjoying her Carnival Cruise.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t really have much use for my tongue anyway.”

“I’m sorry, okay?”

“Okay.”

January Johnson the first on the pile of weekend arrests. Of course, this was a dilemma; she’d made a deal in exchange for an interview of sorts, and she didn’t want to renege, even though making those kinds of deals was unethical and illegal. Maybe, with a good attorney, Johnson could garner a plea agreement or get some charges dropped. Bertha could see to it that the hooker got a decent defense attorney.

In the past she’d occasionally bent the rules to help someone, but she drew the line at breaking the law. If someone found out, she had a lot to lose. Her black robe was the only thing between her and the abyss. Why had she talked to the woman anyway? She could see the headlines, Circuit Judge charged with taking a bribe. If Bertha had learned anything of value from her, she sure couldn’t see it. Okay. No one called the shooting in. One of the shooters came back and talked to Fred Cook—probably threatened him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.