“Huh.” Delores Estes shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Finally, she unlatched the door. “Come on in, then. I can’t be standing here talking to y’all while my fish gets burnt up.”

She waddled off in the direction of the kitchen, leaving Drue and Zee standing in the living room of the tiny, stifling apartment.

A moment later she was back, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. “Y’all can sit down over there,” she said, gesturing toward a green vinyl-covered sofa.

“I been thinking about that poor lady since all that happened that day,” she said. “I asked after her at the store, but Anna, that’s the lady who works there, she told me she don’t know nothing about it.”

“She has a serious head injury,” Drue said. “And a broken tailbone, among other things.”

Mrs. Estes dabbed at her perspiring face with the dish towel. “Yes, Jesus. That was really something. She hit her head so hard, I was afraid maybe she was killed or something. And my poor little grand-girl, it scared her so bad, we ain’t been back there since.”

“Was that the first time you’ve been to that particular 7-Eleven?” Drue asked.

“Oh no. We used to go there all the time, because that’s the closest store to me. Bitty, that’s my grand-girl, she stays here with me some days when her daddy is working, she’s always begging me to take her up there and buy her a treat. That day, I got my social check, so we went on up there like we usually do.”

“Can you tell me what happened that day? In the store?”

“I got me a Co-Cola from the drink cooler, and Bitty got her a Nutty Buddy. That’s a chocolate-covered cone, and it’s got nuts all over it. That’s her favorite. Anyway, while I was getting my Co-Cola, Bitty unwrapped her Nutty Buddy. We were walking up to the counter so I could pay, and Bitty was licking her ice cream, and the ice cream part, it just slid off the cone and fell on the floor. Then Anna started fussing at her a little bit, because I hadn’t paid yet, and that got me mad. That woman knew I was gonna pay! I had the money right there in my hand!”

“What happened next?” Drue asked.

“Bitty got her feelings hurt, and she started crying about that ice cream, and I told her I’d pay for another one. Right around that time, that white lady and that man came in the store. I wasn’t paying much attention to them, because Bitty was really having a fit. So I went over to the ice cream box to get another Nutty Buddy.”

“About the clerk, Anna, did she do anything to clean up the ice cream?”