Read Online StoneDust by Justin Scott - Free Book Online Page A

furnishings a young couple did not purchase on a salary, while Georgia herself had a certain ease I associated with boarding school and a trust fund, or a doting father.
    â€œMrs. Bowland just left. She’s got another meeting about Steve La France. You seen them bumper stickers? She is one smart cookie. Good thing for Steve. He’s dumber than his old man, and we’re talkin’ dumb.”
    â€œActually, I came to see you.”
    â€œFind me another job?”
    I shook my head. The Bowlands’ living room looked like a bomb had hit it: lampshades askew, vacuum hoses snaked like fire hoses in the blitz, paper towels and Windex spray everywhere. I picked up a double photo frame that had tumbled to the carpet. One side showed Georgia holding her baby like an unsolicited delivery from Federal Express, the other, Rick in a Brooks Brothers shirt grilling hot dogs at the Fire Department cookout.
    â€œYeah, you don’t give me work any more. It all goes to your Mrs. Mealy. Well, let me tell you something, Ben. I don’t need the work. I got plenty.”
    â€œYour Mrs. Mealy” lived in an apartment over my barn with her daughter, Alison. I’d found them hitchhiking and homeless and brought them home. Marie and her armies had a field day broadcasting their speculations upon our relationship, but gradually the stories had died down, particularly as I was seen around town with several other ladies, including the far more gossipable first selectman.
    â€œI knew you had plenty of work. That’s why I passed a couple of things Mrs. Mealy’s way.”
    â€œSo she could pay your rent.”
    Marie, a voluminous, outwardly jolly lady, preferred bad news to good news, dirt to joy. Offering no fuel on the subject of rent, I asked instead, “Are you still working for the Fisks?”
    â€œSure. Though there’s things going on there that would curl your hair.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œWhere’ve you been? The party?”
    â€œI was there.”
    â€œYou were?”
    â€œIt was great. Duane did a marinated lamb he could open a restaurant with.”
    Marie looked at me with undisguised pity. “Not the cookout. The party . After. In the Jacuzzi.”
    â€œI didn’t get in any Jacuzzi.”
    â€œThat’s ’cause you weren’t invited.”
    â€œWho was?” I knew, of course, but I hoped to flatter her into my camp.
    â€œThe Bowlands. The Barretts. The Carters.”
    â€œWow. The Bowlands? The Barretts? And the Carters? The builder Carters? Sherry and Bill?”
    â€œYou heard it here first.”
    â€œAnd the Fisks.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t believe the bathing suit Michelle bought for that party.”
    â€œBut they’ve been in bed together for years.”
    â€œ What ?” Marie grabbed my arm in a powerful hand and jerked hard. “What do you mean? What do you know?”
    â€œMarie. It’s a joke.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, joke? What kind of joke?” she demanded, and I saw a lifetime of orgies pass unreported before her eyes.
    â€œAn expression.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œRick Bowland and Ted Barrett are on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Right? They have to approve new construction. Right? Bill Carter is a builder. And Duane does drains and footings and septics and speculates in land. When you’ve got a bunch of friends all in the business of building or regulating building, you could say they’re in bed together.”
    â€œOh, I’ve heard that expression. Yeah, but you made a joke—Hey, that’s pretty good, Ben.” She laughed loud and long, with great relief, and slapped one ample thigh.
    â€œSo they stayed overnight?”
    â€œIt was one of those parties, if you know what I mean.”
    I said, “Oh, come on, Ted and Susan are the tightest couple I know.”
    â€œYeah,” Marie admitted. “You never hear