Read Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images for Free Online

car door and threw my crutches into the back seat, and purse on the passenger seat. I climbed in awkwardly and then drove around for several minutes trying to find him.
    All of the Ocean Alley streets that are parallel to the ocean have letters as names. They start with B Street because a hurricane in the mid-1940s wiped out the boardwalk and A Street . It’s why Aunt Madge wouldn’t buy a B&B closer to the ocean than D Street. Hurricane Sandy came ashore eighty miles south of Ocean Alley, so we still had B Street, though the boardwalk and its shops had sustained a lot of damage.
    I sat at the stop sign at the intersection of G and Conch and looked around for about ten seconds, taking in the bungalows and two-story apartment buildings that comprise most of Ocean Alley . “It’s no good. He isn’t going to let you find him.” The car behind me gave a light honk. I waved into the rear view mirror and drove through the intersection.
    After another fruitless two or three minutes of driving around, I pulled into the In-Town Market parking lot . I had called Mr. Markle yesterday to say I was sorry he was robbed, but he said he was too busy to talk to me. Typical.
    I was crutching into the store as Nelson Hornsby came out . We stared at each other for a second before he spoke.
    “If you’re here to ask me to sit above the dunk tank this year, I’m not dried out from the last time.”  His smile seemed forced.
    “No, not that. Just checking on Mr. Markle.”
    Nelson gave me a blank look.
    “His store was robbed the same day the woman was killed at the hospital. Tanya Weiss.”  He knows her name, you dolt.
    He stared at me for a couple of seconds . “I guess we were all so stunned at her death that it was hard to pay attention to much else that day. It must have been a shock to you, finding her.”
    “I’ll say . Guess no one there knew her really well,” I said, wondering how he would respond.
    “True . She was just getting to understand what all of us did.”  He made to continue to his car.
    “Have you heard anything about who might have done it?”  I watched his face as I said this . “I heard she wasn’t too popular.”
    He flushed . “People seem to think she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe walked in on someone selling drugs or something like that.”
    “Ah, do you…” I began.
    “Have to get home and fix dinner.”  He gave his shopping bag a shake, apparently to emphasize that he had bought food to cook.
    I crutched into the store, and was surprised to see Mr. Markle at the cash register, which was unusual . My gaze swept what I could see of the store. There were almost no customers. Because of the robbery? That’s not good.
    I crutched to the part of the store whose sign proclaimed ‘Health and Beauty’ and scanned for some nonprescription pain reliever . The price was annoyingly high, much more than the chain drug store down the street, but I wanted to buy something, and I needed pain reliever. The prescription stuff made me too woozy to drive.
    Mr. Markle was still at the cash register, but since there was no one waiting to check out, he was ticking items off on his clipboard . He looked up at me as I neared the register and then back at his clipboard. “Hello Jolie. Need any dented cans?”
    “No, Harvest for All is in good shape at the moment . I just came by to say I’m sorry you got robbed. It must have been scary.”  I put the bottle of pills on the counter.
    Pen in hand, he gestured around the store . “Obviously other people thought so. Two of my staff quit.”  He picked up the bottle and scanned it while I dug in my purse.
    “Gee, what about Clark?”  The senior in high school dated Alicia, daughter of the best volunteer at the food pantry.
    “Didn’t want to. Parents made him. Four-forty-nine.”
    “And, um, customers?”
    “Still get the older ones, but they come in the morning, in a group.” He handed me change for my five. “Quite the