Bobo went back behind the counter and looked on the computer. “Here,” he said. “Here it is.”

The girl’s name was Lisa Gray and she lived in Marthasville.

“What a surprise,” Fiji said.

Bobo said, “Do you know you’re snarling? You know this girl?”

“Yes. I was at her wedding.”

“What should I do with this thing?” Bobo regarded the electronic item dubiously. “Smash it? Sell it? Put it in the bathtub?”

“I already took care of that,” Fiji told him. “It’s still broadcasting, but it can’t hear our voices.”

She sounded very sure. “But if it can, it knows where we’re going,” he said.

“We?”

“Yeah. We’re going to talk to this girl. We’re going to find out why she did this. She sure didn’t look like any spy to me.”

“I know you feel like you need to go do this. But . . . well, I guess I can’t talk you out of it.”

“No,” Bobo said. “I’ll see you at six.”

He walked with her to the door. She picked up Mr. Snuggly as she crossed the road, and put him down when they’d reached her yard. The woman and the cat went up the walkway together side by side, and she looked down at the cat. He saw her lips move. Bobo smiled. She was talking to it.

“You deserve a whole can of tuna,” Fiji was telling Mr. Snuggly as she opened her front door. “Let’s get you one.”

“About damn time,” said Mr. Snuggly.

24

At six o’clock, Bobo picked up Fiji and they set out to the address Lisa Gray had given when she’d bought the drying rack. Bobo had already entered it into his GPS.

He didn’t feel much like talking on the way to Marthasville. He was bracing himself for an unpleasant confrontation. When he rang the doorbell of the dilapidated rental house, in the middle of a row of identical dilapidated rentals, the girl he remembered from the pawnshop answered the door.

He glanced over at Fiji, and she nodded. This was the girl whose wedding she’d witnessed. From the way her tight T-shirt fit, Bobo was as sure as shooting that Lisa was expecting a baby.

Lisa’s reaction to seeing them was a dead giveaway. She was scared; more than that, she clearly felt guilty when she looked at him.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a rush. “Mister, I’m really sorry.” She stepped back to let them in.

Feeling old and sad, Bobo stepped in after Fiji. It was no surprise that the rent house was small, or that it was in ill repair, or that Lisa and her new husband didn’t have much. It was a surprise that the living room was not only neat, but clean. The only sign of activity was a huge basket half full of laundry.