Read Online Stalker (9780307823557) by Joan Lowery Nixon - Free Book Online Page B

just asking if there could be something else that was missed, like someone else coming to the house—maybe after you went to bed?”
    She shook her head stubbornly. “I didn’t go to bed for a while after that. I was watching the TV.”
    “Someone could have come to the Trax house while you were watching television.”
    She shrugged. “Huh. I guess.”
    “Or afterward, while you were asleep?”
    “I don’t watch everythin’ that goes on around here! I’m not a nosy neighbor!”
    Lucas nodded. “I’m sorry. You seem to have a good eye for details. I thought you could help.”
    Her eyes became little slits as she studied him. “What do you mean, help?”
    “There are some questions I’d like to ask you. Like, has either Elton or Darryl Krambo been here in the last few days?”
    “Oh, I can tell you that,” she said. She gave a heave of her chest, tucking back her chin, until she reminded Jennifer of the pigeons that strutted along Sherrill Park. “Eltonnever came around. Stella would have told me if he did, and there’s been no sign of him since—since she was murdered. But that Darryl, he’s been here. Oh, yes. Came to my house last week, rang my doorbell, and wanted to borrow some money.”
    “From you?” Jennifer gasped.
    She was sorry immediately, because Mrs. Aciddo scowled. “Why not me? I’ve got a little money to use when I want. Everybody knows I’m not poor.”
    “I didn’t mean it that way,” Jennifer said. “I just meant that people usually borrow money from family members, not neighbors.”
    “Darryl would borrow money wherever he could get it. That kind needs money bad.”
    “That kind?” Lucas prompted.
    “That kind on drugs,” she said. “Stella wouldn’t give him money for drugs. Even one night when he needed somethin’ so bad he was sweatin’ and shakin’ and makin’ a big fuss, she wouldn’t give him money. She didn’t like him messin’ with drugs. She got on him hard for that.”
    “Did you see him Tuesday?”
    “No.” She looked disappointed. “Tuesday he could have been here, I guess. I was busy gettin’ ready to go shoppin’ with Stella. It was her day off at the beauty parlor.”
    Something made Jennifer feel uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure what had nudged her, but she asked, “What beauty parlor?”
    Mrs. Aciddo suddenly turned to Lucas. “I can’t stand out here all night. If you’re not the police, you can’t make me.”
    “That’s right,” he said. “You can go home.”
    She took a couple of steps, and Jennifer came down thewooden steps after her. “Please tell me, Mrs. Aciddo. Where did Mrs. Trax work?”
    “How should I know?”
    “You were her neighbor, her friend. You went shopping with her. She must have told you where she worked. Is there some reason you don’t want to tell us?”
    Mrs. Aciddo’s short fat legs moved quickly, and Jennifer hurried to keep up. “ ’Course not. I told you everything you wanted to know. Right?” She paused and mumbled, “Maybe Stella worked someplace on Chaparral, I guess.”
    “LaSalon?”
    “Maybe. I’m not supposed to know everything about her. Now, go away and leave me alone. I’m missing my good TV shows, thanks to you and that man who is not a policeman.”
    Jennifer returned to the back steps and followed Lucas into the house. When he had closed the door, she said, “I remembered something. It may not mean a thing, but it’s—well—peculiar.”
    He turned to listen, so she added, “That guy who talked to me about Bobbie at school, the one whose name I didn’t get—” She stopped, embarrassed again, but Lucas merely nodded, so she said, “He told me something about his mother going to Stella to get her hair done when she used to work at LaSalon.”
    “Used to work?”
    “Yes, and Mrs. Aciddo acted so strangely when I asked her where Mrs. Trax worked. Why would she lie?”
    “Make a note,” he said. “That’s one of the things you can find out.”
    Jennifer had already