Criminal

clueless than Amanda. “I don’t understand.”
    “Lucy’s brother. He send you here to tell me to keep my mouth shut?”
    “We don’t work for Mr. Bennett,” Amanda assured the man. “He told us that he came here looking for his sister. We’re simply following up.”
    Callahan didn’t answer immediately. “Last year. Guy comes in here throwing his weight around. He was dressed real fly. Arrogant as hell.” That sounded like Hank Bennett all right. “Wanted to know did I give Lucy the letter he mailed.”
    “Did you?”
    “Of course I did.” His grip loosened. “Poor thing couldn’t bring herself to open it. Her hands were shaking so hard I had to put it in her purse for her. I never found out if she read it. She disappeared a week, maybe two weeks, later.”
    “When was this?”
    “Like I said, about a year ago. August, maybe July? It was still hot as Hades, I remember that.”
    “You haven’t seen Hank Bennett before or since?”
    “I count myself lucky for that.” He shifted in the chair. “Man wouldn’t even shake my hand. I guess he was scared the groovy would rub off.”
    Evelyn asked, “I know it’s been a while, but do you remember the other girls Lucy hung around with?”
    “Uh …” He pushed up his sunglasses and pressed his fingers into his eyes as he thought it out. “Jane Delray, Mary something, and …” He dropped the glasses back down. “Kitty somebody. She wasn’t here much—most nights, she was over at Techwood, but I got the feeling that wasn’t a permanent situation. I never got her last name. She was a lot more like Lucy than the other girls. Not a stranger to the King’s English, if you catch my drift. But they hated each other. Couldn’t stand to be in the same room together.”
    Amanda didn’t let herself look at Evelyn, but she could feel her own excitement reflecting off the other woman. “This place at Techwood—did Kitty have an apartment there?”
    “I dunno. Could be. Kitty’s the type of gal who’s good at getting what she wants.”
    “Did Lucy and Kitty know each other from before?”
    “I don’t think so.” He silently considered the question, then shook his head. “They were just the kind of girls who couldn’t get along with each other. Too much alike, I expect.” He leaned forward. “I’m a student of sociology, you dig? All good writers are. That’s the focus of my work. The streets are my dissertation, if you will.”
    Evelyn seemed to understand exactly what the man was saying. “You have a theory?”
    “The pimps know how to pit these types against each other. They make it clear only one can be their number one girl. Some of the gals are okay with being second string. They’re used to being kicked down, you dig? But then some of them want to fight for the top. They’ll do whatever it takes to be number one. Work harder. Work longer. It’s survival of the fittest. They gotta be on that number one podium. Meanwhile the pimps just sit back and laugh.”
    Sociology be damned. Amanda had figured that out back in high school. “When’s the last time you saw Kitty?”
    “Maybe a year ago?” he guessed. “She wasn’t spending much time here. That’s around the time the church off Juniper opened up a soup kitchen. I think that was more Kitty’s scene. Less competition there, anyway.”
    Evelyn asked, “Do you remember if Kitty stopped coming here before or after Lucy disappeared?”
    “After. Maybe a couple of weeks? Not as long as a month. They might remember her at the church. Like I said, that was more Kitty’s scene. She was fascinated by redemption. I gathered she had a religious upbringing. For all her faults, Kitty’s a prayerful woman.”
    Amanda had a hard time imagining a streetwalker feeling close to the Lord. “Do you know the name of the church?”
    “No idea, but it’s got a big black cross painted on the front. Run by a tall brother, real clean-cut. Well spoken.”
    “Brother,” Evelyn echoed. “You mean he’s Negro?”
    Callahan chuckled. “No, sister. I mean he’s a brother in Christ. At the end of the day, we all shuffle off the same mortal coils.”
    “Hamlet,” Amanda said. She’d studied Shakespeare two quarters ago.
    Callahan lifted up his sunglasses and winked at her. His eyes were bloodshot. The lashes reminded her of the teeth on a Venus flytrap. “ ‘Be all my sins remembered,’ fair Ophelia.”
    Amanda felt a flash of embarrassment.
    Thankfully, Evelyn took over. “This