“No. It could be someone I haven’t even heard of, some two-bit player in the Anacondas. But I went over to Stateville to see Johnny, and he’s pretending he never heard of Lamont. That makes me think, well, I’m sorry to give you the harsh unedited workings of my mind again, but—”

“You think Johnny murdered Lamont? I wondered, too, when he disappeared … But it’s hard for me to see a reason … Unless Lamont snitched out Steve … Yes, that could be a reason … But …” Her words twisted around with as much agitation as her fingers.

“Oh, that Johnny Merton, there’s nothing I wouldn’t believe of him. And yet, he set up a clinic in our neighborhood. He made the government give our children the same milk they handed out in the white schools. He looked after his little girl like she was the crown jewel. Dayo, that was what Johnny called her. And that made Daddy mad all over again because it was African. It means ‘joy arrives.’ ”

She gave an unhappy bark of laughter. “My daddy would have looked at me and said, ‘Joy departs,’ so why am I standing up for him?”

“Where was your mother when you were growing up?” I asked.

“Mama died when I was eight. My granny, she took me in for a while, but her heart was bad. And, anyway, Daddy wanted me home where he could keep an eye on me.”

I paid for the pie and the coffee and drove Rose back to her home. During the short ride, she tried cleaning her face with a tissue. She couldn’t face her father looking distressed.

“He’ll think it’s about sex. At my age, with my life, he’s still sure I’m off having sex with strange men.”

“Go for it,” I said mischievously, pulling up in front of her house. “It’s not too late, you know.”

She looked at me, startled, almost afraid. “You are a very strange woman. Where would I even find a man who’d look twice at me?”

As she got out of the car, I remembered a final question. “Do you know where Steve Sawyer is now? I think Curtis Rivers and Merton both do, and they won’t say.”

She shook her head slowly. “He was in prison a long time. I know Curtis, he visited Steve. But I heard, maybe he even died there. Don’t be thinking Curtis would tell me. He doesn’t like me any more than, well, he seems to like you. He thinks I was always carrying tales back to Daddy when we were in high school. He can’t forgive that.”

She hesitated, then leaned back into the car. “You’re a good listener, and I appreciate that. I’m grateful.”