“Why don’t you have supper with me after work,” Miss Sink said. “When you pick up our little angel child.”

“Depends on what you’re cooking,” Frances said.

“I might just invite this lovely police officer I know,” Miss Sink said. “The handsomest young man you ever saw, and so sweet. The one who writes editorial pieces for the paper. He rents my little place on Plum Street.”

“Him? Lord have mercy, I’ve seen his picture. He’s too young for me, Aunt Ruby.”

“Why, that’s nonsense,” Miss Sink said. “Things aren’t like they used to be.”

“He wouldn’t be interested in me. He’s so good-looking and all.”

“And you’re pretty as a rosebud.”

“I’m older than him and have a child, Aunt Ruby. Reality, you know?”

“I’m going to make my sesame-honey fried chicken. Cheese grits and fresh tomatoes with balsamic vinegar,” Miss Sink said.

“And just where are you going to get fresh tomatoes this time of year?”

“You forget I can them,” Miss Sink said. “Now quit talking so I can be on my way.”

Smoke’s girlfriend, Divinity, was the first to notice the red Jeep Cherokee abandoned in the Kmart parking lot, no more than a hundred feet from the First Union Bank.

“Well, look at that,” Divinity said to Smoke. “That Jeep just sitting there, nobody in it and engine running, waiting for us, baby.”

“No it’s not ’cause we don’t want it,” Smoke told her.

Smoke’s mind was going through its routine, his concentration focused. He had turned off Puff Daddy when he’d picked up Divinity at the McDonald’s on West Broad Street, where she’d let him know by pager that she was waiting for him. She had her hand on his thigh, but at the moment, he was aroused by other things as he watched an ancient Chevy Celebrity driven by an old woman park in front of the twenty-four-hour money stop.

“Oh, now don’t be telling me you’re into that one,” Divinity complained. “Some old bitch driving that piece of shit?”

“It’s the people with new cars that don’t have money,” Smoke said as he watched the old woman rummage in her purse.

He drove past her and tucked his Escort out of sight behind the bank.

“Get in line behind her,” Smoke ordered Divinity.

“For what? She probably only gonna get twenty, thirty dollars. I’d rather do the Jeep.”

She looked longingly back at it, wondering why someone would be so stupid to leave it like that in times like these days. Smoke rubbed his hand between her legs. Divinity laughed and grabbed him back.

“All right, all right,” she said. “Whatever you say, baby.”

Miss Sink felt perfectly safe as she continued digging in her purse. She had no reason to worry about withdrawing cash from this particular location because it was just across from the Kmart parking lot, and Kmart opened at eight. Already there were quite a number of cars pulling in for bargains.

Loraine was awfully quiet in the back. She was strapped in and warmly dressed, and at the moment, not crying. Miss Sink got out of the car, still digging for her wallet. Her heart got tight as she tried to remember where she had shopped last, and if she might have left her billfold there. Her memory wasn’t as good as it used to be and she was always making up all kinds of excuses to deny it.