She held her hand out to Iona, who studied the smudge. She wet her index finger and rubbed it lightly on the smear of red polish, effectively smoothing it out.

Dolan said, "You must have known Pudgie well."

"He mostly messed around with kids from somewhere else."

"Except for weekends when he went off with you," he said.

She looked up sharply. "We took some road trips, okay? He liked driving my car. Doesn't mean I screwed him. We were friends."

"Did he and Frankie know each other back then?"

"How would I know? I'm not in charge of either one of them."

There was a tap at the door. "Iona, honey? Sorry to interrupt." A woman stood on the porchlet, peering in at us.

Iona said, "My next appointment. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. We'll wait and talk to you when you get off work." Annette scooted over from behind the table, her bare thighs creating fart sounds against the plastic seat. I stood up to make room for her while Dolan stepped outside. Annette was already chatting with Iona's client, wagging her fingers in the air. "Hey, sugar, take a look. This is called Cherries Jubilee. The shade would look gorgeous with your coloring."

The other woman, in her forties, didn't seem that excited by the prospect, as her coloring was blah.

Annette clomped down the trailer step on her canvas wedgies and tucked her hand through Lieutenant Dolan's arm. "Iona won't be long. I'm working lunch today. Why don't you walk me over to the Moonlight and have a bite to eat. It's on me."

I said, "Great. Let's do that. What hours do you work?"

She said, "Usually lunchtime on. We're open from five in the morning until ten at night. The only other restaurant is the Mountain View so people go back and forth, depending on their mood."

The three of us walked down the rutted driveway and across the two-lane, road. Once in the cafe, we had our pick of the empty tables. Annette said, "It's mostly drinks and cold sandwiches. I can fry up some burgers if you want something hot."

"Sounds good to me. How about you, Kinsey?"

"Fine."

"What about something to drink? We have coffee, tea, Coke, and Sprite."

Dolan said, "Coke, I guess."

"Make that two."

Annette took her place behind the counter. She turned on the gas burner under the griddle, removed two hamburger patties from the refrigerator, and slapped them on the grill. "It'll just be a minute."

Dolan said, "Things slow today?"

"Things are slow every day."