“Oh, I’m only doing what Dolores would have done if she were here, Mrs Quist. She would have listened to everything you said and she would have taken a dollar a pot. You’re going to make twenty, twenty-five dollars apiece? You’ve always made that kind of money off Dolores. She always knew. I used to tell her, but she was too embarrassed for you to say anything. She was embarrassed for your greed. But she said you could have the pots, so you can. Except this one.” Joe removed the seed pot from the box. “Now, that’s your dollar bill on the floor, and you can pick it up if you want.” He hadn’t meant to frighten her, but Mrs. Quist stepped back as if he were going to hit her. “No? Then let me help you go.”

He carried the boxes to the Hudson and carefully laid them on the backseat. He held the door for her while she quickly got behind the wheel, put in the ignition key and pressed the starter. Her sunglasses trembled until she caught her breath.

“Joe, if I were you, I’d pick up all that money and clean up that house before Dolores sees it.”

“Dolores is dead. Died last year.” Joe pushed the car door shut. “I thought you knew.”

A Cadillac was squeezing through the alley along the back fence of the Reyeses’ yard, and Joe paid no more attention to Mrs. Quist as she pulled away. The Cadillac was a white coupe with chrome louvers, and it taxied like a fighter plane up to the pump. The driver’s window rolled down and a thin black arm hung jauntily out. A diamond ring winked from the pinky.

“Hey, you are back home, Joe. I looked for you last night at the Casa and you weren’t there.” Pollack grinned and shook his head, expressing separate emotions at the same time. “Someone said they saw your jeep outside here. That’s good. It’s good to come home.” Pollack had a sly ivory smile, a wide nose and a flat forehead that curved into tight gray hair with blue-black scalp shining through. When he spoke, his hands had the sort of fluttery movements that put Joe in mind of ladies’ fans at gospel meetings. When he got excited, his eyes looked as if they would pop from sheer spirit. He always dressed in a silk shirt during the day and a tuxedo at night. Altogether he gave the impression of an alley cat who had achieved a dignified old age. “It’s good to see you back here.”

“You drove all the way for the sight?”