Woman Chased by Crows by Marc Strange Read Free Book Online Page A

the rent, I buy the cigarettes.”
    â€œYou have children come up here for lessons.” Pimple again. “You don’t care about them?”
    â€œYou see any children?”
    â€œThis is a workplace, there’s a law against smoking in a workplace.”
    â€œToday the place is closed. Today it is my private place. I am beside an open window, see? I blow my smoke outside with the car smoke. You going to arrest me for a cigarette?”
    â€œI think you should put it out.” This time from Toothbrush.
    â€œYou, with the ugly moustache, you smoke, too, I can smell it on your clothing. You want one but you cannot have one because your partner with the pimple in his eyebrow would not like it.” She blew smoke in their direction. “You are just jealous.” She smiled.
    â€œMaybe we should take you into the station and question you there.”
    She smiled again. “You have badges, you have guns, you have authority. You can do what you want.”
    â€œDid you see him?”
    â€œHe was walking on the street.” She looked down at Vankleek. The newspaperman, the overcoat with the black beard, was talking to a pair of OPP officers on the opposite sidewalk. “I saw him from this window.”
    â€œYou recognized him?”
    â€œOf course I recognized him. Who could forget a man like that?” She squashed her cigarette on the brick sill outside the window. The sill was black with burn marks.
    â€œHe didn’t come up here? Come to your house?”
    â€œHe did not visit me. I was hoping he would.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œHe was an attractive man. He had beautiful hands.” She clenched hers.
    â€œWhere were you last night?”
    â€œAt home.”
    â€œAlone?”
    â€œAll alone,” she said. “That’s how I live.”
    â€œWhat time did you leave here?”
    â€œNine o’clock. Later than usual. The evening class was over at eight. I stayed for a while. I was dancing. Alone.
Giselle
. You know
Giselle
?”
    â€œAnybody see you leave?”
    â€œMy driver.”
    â€œWho’s that?”
    â€œEd. He drives a taxi. He picks me up every night. He took me home.”
    â€œWhere would we find him?”
    â€œI would try the taxi company,” she said. “There is only one taxi company in this town.”
    â€œYou know his last name?”
    â€œYes, it is on his license, on the back of the passenger seat. His picture and his name and his cab number. His name is Edwin Kewell. With a K and two Ls. His middle name is Arthur, it is not on his license. We talk a lot. He likes hockey. He does not like parsnips.”
    â€œEnough about Mr. Kewell,” Toothbrush said. “We’ll talk to him. He drove you home?”
    â€œThat is correct. He picked me up at five minutes after nine o’clock. I smoked a cigarette in the doorway while I waited for him.”
    â€œHe pick you up all the time?”
    â€œFor a year now. I like to know who drives me places. Sometimes when people take you for a ride you do not know where you will wind up, you know?”
    â€œWhat time did you get home?”
    â€œAbout half past nine.”
    â€œYou live that far away?”
    â€œNot that far. Six or seven blocks. We took the long way.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWe were talking.”
    The Pimple liked that. “Just talking? Do you and Mr. Ed have more than a
Driving Miss Daisy
relationship?”
    â€œMr. Kewell has never been inappropriate.”
    â€œDepends on what you consider appropriate. Half an hour to drive six blocks? Sure you didn’t park somewhere? Fool around?”
    â€œOr plan to meet up later? Maybe go out and shoot somebody?”
    â€œBeing a policeman must be hard. Only ever thinking the worst. Poisons the heart, does it not?”
    In the end they didn’t take her anywhere for further questioning, but they promised her they would be back. She said she looked forward to