When Old Men Die by Bill Crider Read Free Book Online

which by the time you get close to the Causeway comes right up to the street and then goes under it.   Sometimes I fish there when I don't want to go out on the pier.
    I stopped at Jody's Bait and Tackle.   According to the hand painted signs on its flaking blue plywood walls, if you didn't want squid or mullet or bait shrimp, you could buy table shrimp instead.
    When I fished, I usually bought my bait shrimp from Jody, and he knew Ro-Jo and Harry, both of whom occasionally scavenged along the street.
    Jody's place was lighted inside by a couple of bare fluorescent bulbs, and the smell of shrimp and fish was nearly overpowering.   There were some dusty rods and plastic lures on the wall, and some reels in a glass case.   Jody, a heavyset black man, was behind the beat-up counter.
    "What's biting today?" I asked him.
    "Same thing that was bitin ' yesterday," he answered.   " Nothin '."   He looked me over.   " Speakin ' of bitin ', somethin ' bite your face?"
    "My cat," I said.
    "You got to watch them cats.   They bad about that."
    "You selling any bait?"
    "With the fish not bitin '?   You old enough to know better than that."
    "Maybe things will pick up."
    He shrugged.   "Business always slow this time of year.   I never thought I was gonna get rich sellin ' fish bait.   You want some shrimp?"
    "Not today.   I'm looking for somebody."
    "Who might that be?"
    "Outside Harry," I said.   "Or Ro-Jo.   Either one."
    He thought for a second.   "Now that you mention him, I ain't seen Harry in quite a spell.   What you think he up to?"
    "I wish I knew.   Dino's worried about him."
    Jody knew Dino.   Everyone who had lived most of his life on the Island knew Dino, even if he didn't like to get out of the house.
    "Harry and Dino, now there's a pair.   They pals?"
    "That's what Dino tells me."
    "Huh.   I guess it could happen, but they a funny set of buddies if you ask me.   Ro-Jo Dino's pal too?"
    "Not that I know of.   I want to ask Ro-Jo something about Harry."
    "Ro-Jo by here yesterday, but I ain't seen him since."
    "What time yesterday?"
    Jody looked at an old green and white Dr Pepper clock on the wall over my head.   The black numbers were faded, but you could still see them.
    "Just about this time.   Say he goin ' up to the Randall's."
    Randall's was the big supermarket in the shopping center not far up the street.   I didn't think Ro-Jo would be going in the front door.   I thanked Jody for the information and started to leave.
    "You sure you don't want some bait?   Little mullet, maybe?   You never can tell when them fish gonna start in to bitin '."
    "Not today.   I'll be back tomorrow."
    "That what you say now.   Don't do my pocketbook no good."
    I turned back and put my last ten on the counter.   "Do you have a piece of paper and a pencil?"
    He reached under the counter and brought out a stained notepad and the stub of a pencil that had the paint chewed off.   I wrote my number and Dino's on it.  
    "If you see Ro-Jo, tell him I want to talk to him," I said.   "Then call me.   If you can't get me at home, call Dino.   That's his number."   I put my finger on it.
    He covered the bill with his big hand.   "I be sure to do that," he said.
    Â 
    I went on up to Randall's, hoping that Ro-Jo might be sticking to a kind of schedule.   Harry was like that.   He went by certain places at the same time every day, and Randall's was close to a cafeteria where Ro-Jo might go looking for a bite to eat if the grocery store didn't work out.
    Ro-Jo wasn't at the fragrant dumpster behind Randall's, however, nor was he behind the cafeteria.   With the money I'd given him the day before, he could have afforded to go through the line, but that wasn't his style.
    It was mine, however, so I went in.   Feeling in need of some serious cholesterol and fat, I had a bacon and cheese steak, some macaroni and cheese, and some