A Blind Eye by G. M. Ford Read Free Book Online Page B

gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” Corso said.
    She cast him an annoyed look. “Hold the guilt, Mr. Corso. I don’t need any help beating myself up.” She paced across the room to the window and stood staring out into the parking lot. “Maybe my detractors are right,” she said after a moment. “Maybe I have lost touch with the community.”
    Something in her tone caught Corso’s ear. He frowned and levered himself higher in the bed. “What makes you say that?” he asked.
    Her face said it was a stupid question. Her voice began to rise. “I’ve had a local family rotting away under a shed floor. They been right under my nose for the past fifteen years.” She waved an arm. “As the crow flies, it’s no more than five miles from here and I’ve…” She went silent. Knotted muscles trembled along the edges of her jaw.
    “Something personal here?” Corso asked.
    Her mouth sprang open in denial, but nothing came out. “You’ve got a good ear,” she said finally.
    “It’s what I do.”
    She continued to stare silently out the window.
    “So?” Corso pressed.
    “Miss Sissy Warwick,” she said.

7
    N ineteen seventy-three. I was twenty-two and fresh out of college.” She rolled her eyes and made a face. “I’d just figured out I was never going to be Shirley Temple. That dainty was never going to be the first thing anybody thought of when I came to mind. Horsy maybe…but not dainty.” She stifled a sigh. “Anyway…I came back home to lick my wounds for the summer. A little R and R before figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.” She looked over at Corso. “You ever live in a small town like this?” she asked.
    Corso shook his head. “Not since I was a little kid,” he said.
    “Well then, you’ve got to understand…towns like this are pretty much closed societies. People come and go, but nothing really changes. Most of the kids we send up to the university at Madison stay gone for a while. They meet mates, have children, move someplace else. They come back to Avalon on the holidays to show off the grandkids. And then later on they start coming back to see how their parents are getting along. And then later on for good…get away from the hustle of the city…you know, the urban lifestyle and all.” Corso nodded that he understood. “What I’m trying to say is that…up until a couple of years ago, we didn’t even have a motel. All we had was a hundred-year-old rooming house.” She folded her arms. “Which had the same people living in it for as long as anybody could remember. Because just about everybody who comes to town is related to somebody who already lives here and is staying out with them at the family farm. We really didn’t need anyplace to house strangers, because we didn’t have any strangers.” She sighed and scratched the back of her neck. “We’re not exactly a destination getaway…if you know what I mean.”
    Corso chuckled.
    “So when a young woman who isn’t related to anybody here in town shows up and takes up residence, it’s something people are going to notice. It’s something that’s going to get talked about over coffee and down at the barbershop.”
    “And that’s what happened?”
    “Right after I got home from college, so it must have been the middle of June sometime. Hottest damn summer anybody could remember.” Her eyes moved inward. “Sissy Warwick. Jet-black hair and those big blue eyes. Real exotic looking. Like nobody you ever saw before. Like she could have been from the Middle East or Turkey or someplace like that. Claimed to be twenty years old, but I always thought she was more like eighteen.” She caught herself rambling. “Anyway, Sissy Warwick shows up in town one day. Gets herself a room at Harrison’s. Next thing you know, she’s got a job as a receptionist at the medical center, and it seems like you can’t hardly walk down the street without running into her.”
    Corso smiled. “Town just wasn’t big