Read Muller, Marcia - [McCone 03] Cheshire Cat's Eye, The_(v.1,shtml) for Free Online Page B

sidewalks crowded with parked vehicles. I settled for the middle of the street, keeping alert for approaching motors.
    I was not unfamiliar with this part of town, having worked cases here before, but now I was amazed to discover that people actually lived in the back alleys of this commercial district. The surrounding blocks consisted of stores, office buildings, and light industry, but here on a Saturday morning children played in the street, women hung laundry on porches, and men tinkered with old cars. The houses were largely wood frame and in bad repair. With my newfound knowledge, I recognized small squat Italianates and Sticks. The elegant Queen Anne, however, did not belong in this working-class neighborhood.
    I continued along for two blocks, skirting abandoned tricycles and toys, until I saw the sign for Prince Albert's Lighthouse. It was a simple woodcarving that hung at a right angle to the face of the brick building. Another sign in the window said CLOSED.
    Frustrated, I went up and peered in through the grimy plate glass. All I saw were worktables and unfamiliar machinery. A few light fixtures, similar to those at Victoriana, hung from the rafters.
    The home show at Fort Mason—obviously that was the place to go. But first I had unfinished business to take care of. I returned to the MG and steered it toward Johnny's Kansas City Barbecue.
    It was a mistake to appear there even at the tail end of the noon hour. I knew that as soon as I stepped in the door. Dark eyes in black faces turned toward me, and the level of noise dropped to a hush. Johnny Hart came forward, his face an angry mask.
    "What the hell you doing here?" he demanded.
    Summoning bravado, I said, "I thought I'd try some of your barbecued ribs."
    "Well, forget it. Just get your ass out of here."
    "Don't tell me you discriminate?"
    "Sure I discriminate,'specially against lying little sneaks."
    "Don't you want to know why I asked all those questions last night?"
    "I don't give a shit."
    "Sure you do."
    Exasperated, he looked around at his silent clientele. "All right, dammit. But we're not gonna talk here." He grabbed my elbow and propelled me toward the kitchen.
    Inside were two waiters and a dishwasher. They looked up, startled, as we came in.
    "You fellas get out there and take care of the customers, huh?" Hart said.
    Puzzled, they exited to the front of the restaurant.
    Hart leaned against a huge chopping block. "Lunchtime rush is almost over. So explain yourself, Miss Private Eye."
    I blinked. "How'd you know?"
    "I may be a nigger, girl, but I'm one of the literate ones. Your name's in the paper."
    "Oh. Well, then you know why I asked you all that stuff."
    "What I don't know is why the cover-up. You come around, you say, Look, I'm a private cop and this guy got dead—maybe I'll help you, maybe not. But I sure as shit won't lift a finger when you poke into things pretending to be some girlfriend of a knee-jerk liberal lawyer."
    I grinned.
    "What the hell's so funny?"
    "You have just insulted Hank Zahn twice. Once by calling him a 'knee-jerk liberal' and once by implying he'd ever ask me out."
    Hart tried to look stern, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
    I looked around the kitchen, sniffing. "Sure smells good."
    "So now you're trying to hit me up for a meal."
    "All I've had today is coffee."
    "Dammit, girl, I don't want to like you, and I don't want to feed you, and I sense I'm gonna end up doing both. Ribs?"
    "With fries?"
    "Beer?"
    "Coke."
    Hart went to the stainless-steel oven and threw some ribs on a plate, along with some greasy French fries from a vat of bubbling oil. While he was drawing my Coke, he said, "You still didn't explain yourself."
    "It's really very simple: I wasn't on the case last night. I couldn't represent myself as investigating it without a client."
    "So instead of this investigating, you snooped."
    "I'm nosy, I guess."
    He set the food in front of me. Ravenous, I dug in.
    "So what do you want today?" Hart