She hadn’t even made it all the way to her car before a young man from inside the house, the one with the dreadlocks, had apparently come through the backdoor and around the side of the house. She was at her car door by the time he walked over to her.
“Dalbert’s the man you need to be checking out,” he said to her.
“Excuse me?”
“If you want to really know what happened to Rita Mae, you need to talk to Dalbert.”
“Who’s Dalbert?”
The man gave her a hard look. “Dalbert Lee, lady. Don’t you know anything?”
“But who is he?”
The man shook his head, as if she was some kind of idiot for not already knowing who the man was. One week in town? She should know everything apparently! “Your boyfriend will know,” he said to her.
Shocked, she started to ask what boyfriend did he mean, but caught herself. The chief did come to her defense inside of that house. They did have dinner together once and undoubtedly people in that town were talking about that too. It was easy to conflate facts with fiction.
But she did have questions about the man standing beside her car, and why would this Dalbert person know something about Rita Mae’s death. But before she could say another word, he took off. She turned as he headed back around the side of the house where he had, presumably, come from.
Charly wondered why he suggested she check out Dalbert Lee rather than telling it to the chief. But that town was filled with oddities.
And speaking of the chief, the young man had barely left before Boone came out of the house, too. He made his way toward her.
“Stop letting them use you like that,” he said to her.
Did everybody in Kentucky begin sentences as if they were already in the middle of a conversation? “Excuse me?”
“Fritz and that board,” Boone said. “Stop letting them use you like that.”
“They aren’t using me,” Charly said. “I work for the school now. The school felt somebody had to do this.”
“Why you?” Boone asked.
“Because Rita Mae Brown was a black woman, her grieving family is black, and, in case you haven’t noticed, so am I.”
Boone smiled. “I thought you were going to say you did it because they made you do it.”
“That too,” said Charly, and Boone laughed.
Then he looked down the length of her, and back up into her soft eyes. There was something about her that gave him a sense of longing every time he saw her! But why, he wondered? “Be careful out here,” he warned her. “I don’t want you fired before you get a chance to make your mark.”
Charly appreciated his concern. She managed to smile. “I couldn’t agree more,” she said.
Boone caught an undertone there. He stared at her. “You think there’s a chance of it happening?” he asked her.
Charly couldn’t believe she was discussing her private thoughts with a man she barely knew. But she answered him anyway. “It’s possible, yes,” she said.
“Despite the fact that you did what they told you to do and came here?”
“From what I’m hearing around the school, the board felt they were forced to hire me. Apparently the mayor insisted on diversity or something to that effect, and I was the only person of color to apply. I doubt if my following their orders is going to change that harsh reality.”
Boone agreed with her assessment, and he liked the fact that she, like him, didn’t sugarcoat the truth. He continued to stare at her. “Just don’t let’em see you sweat, kid,” he advised her. Then he frowned. “No matter what.”
Charly nodded. She understood. Then she found herself staring at Boone.
“What is it?” he asked her.
“A guy from inside Mrs. Brown’s house came up to me just before you came out.”
“Oh, yeah? Tried to hit on you, did he? I’ll set him straight. You aren’t that kind of girl.”
Charly frowned. What was he talking about? “No, it wasn’t about that,” she said. And if it was, she thought, she wouldn’t be bringing that up to him. And he was going on and on about it, despite what she said.
“You aren’t that kind of girl,” he was saying. “I’ll make sure they get the message. You’re hands off,” he added, which was an odd declaration for him to make, she thought.
“No, Chief.”
“Call me Boone.”
“Boone,” she corrected herself. “It wasn’t about me. He told me that if I wanted to know who killed Rita Mae, that I needed to check out somebody named Dalbert Lee.”
Boone was embarrassed that he had gone in that personal direction, but was too surprised by what she said to worry about what he’d said. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Who came up to you and told you about Dalbert Lee?”
Charly wasn’t sure if she wanted to expose the young man. “Just some guy.”
“Describe him.”
Charly hesitated. “I don’t want him harassed, Chief.”
Boone frowned. “I don’t harass people,” Boone said. “Describe him.”
“He’s not the issue,” Charly said.
“You don’t know that,” Boone said with a harsh tone to his voice. His eyes were big and staring at her, as if she was defying him and he didn’t like it. “Describe him,” he ordered.
But Charly would not be bullied. “He came to me in what I felt was confidence. I’m keeping his confidence. He is not the issue.”
Boone was unaccustomed to being forced to back down. But he backed down. “And he said to check out Dalbert Lee?”
“That’s the name he gave me,” Charly said. “You ever heard of him?”“
Had he? “I know him. Been looking for him. But why would that person connect Rita Mae to Dalbert?”
Charly shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“I would have an idea if you told me who he was,” Boone said.
“Who’s Dalbert Lee?” Charly asked.
“A drug dealer. The biggest we have in town. I’ve been searching for his ass all week.”
“So he’s a problem?”
“He’s a problem,” Boone said, nodding his head.
“But if that guy is to be believed and there’s a connection,” Charly said, “then he seems to be suggesting that Rita Mae Brown was on drugs maybe?”
“That would be the implication, yes,” Boone said.
“Were any drugs found in her system?”
“We don’t have the toxicology report back yet. The medical examiner’s office is backlogged bad with so many drug overdoses lately. But it’s coming. I put some fire under his ass. I’ll find out.”
“If it’s true, that certainly would exonerate Amos Yerkson,” Charly said. “I don’t think anybody would accuse the vice-principal at Saint Christopher’s of dealing drugs.”
“I don’t know about all of that,” Boone said, “but we’ll see.”
“Thanks,” said Charly.
“I’m not thanking you until you tell me what was the name of the guy who stepped to you.”
Charly smiled. “I don’t know his name.”