Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)(67)

Max nodded. “Last week.”

“If you got a bunch of stuff to sell, you sure ain’t from around here. Ain’t nothing here but a hard-ass sheriff and some dirt-poor farmers.”

“Rose Hill,” Max replied. “I got me a house there.”

“Man, you must’ve stepped in some serious dog shit,” Joe said. “You got all that, and I got nothing.” He leaned his elbows on the bar and looked down into what was now an empty glass. “Damn, this is one helluva life.”

A minute, maybe two, passed without anything more being said. Then Joe reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He fumbled through some papers, then pulled out a faded photograph. “If you’re traveling back and forth between here and Rose Hill, maybe you seen Rowena.” He passed the picture to Max. “Rowena’s real pretty and she’s got this long blond hair—”

Max took the photograph and studied it for a moment then asked, “Who’s the girl?”

“Our kid.”

“I ain’t seen the woman, but I seen the kid. She’s at the rooming house where I live.”

“Rooming house?” Joe repeated. “I thought you said you owned a house.”

“Almost own a house. Soon as I get enough money for a lawyer, I’ll get what’s rightfully mine.”

Joe had a built-in distrust of people like Max. People who say they got this, that, and the other thing, then start looking to pick your pocket. If this guy was looking for a scam, he’d met his match. “Could be there’s reward money, if you got knowledge of Rowena.”

Max looked at the picture again. “I’m pretty certain about the kid, but I ain’t all that sure of the woman.” He turned to Joe. “How much reward you offering?”

“Five hundred.” The truth was Joe couldn’t scrape together five hundred if his life depended on it, but the truth didn’t matter when you were scamming a scammer.

“It could be she’s the woman,” Max said, “but her hair’s different. Dark brown and shorter.”

Joe took the picture and tucked it back into his wallet. “Okay, how about you give me the address, I check it out, and if she’s Rowena, I give you the five hundred?”

“I ain’t no sucker,” Max said. “Once you find this babe you ain’t gonna give nobody nothing. I already said I’m sure about the kid, so gimme two-fifty now, and I’ll trust you for the other two-fifty.”

“No dice. For all I know you ain’t seen neither one of them. I ain’t ready to do business less you got solid proof.”

“Okay, gimme a week, and I’ll be back with a picture of the woman and kid.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Joe nodded. He said he’d meet Max in the bar a week from Thursday, then climbed down from the stool and walked out the door.

Max drained the last of his drink and returned to the pawnshop.





Searching for Rowena





When Max went back the pawnshop was open. He retrieved the bundles from the trunk of his car and carried them in.

“This time I got just what you wanted,” he said. He set the big spaghetti pot on the counter, then followed it with the clang of the cast iron skillet.

Edgar smiled. “Now this is stuff I can sell.” He picked up the skillet and measured the weight of it. “Seventeen bucks.”

“Eighteen,” Max countered.

Edgar turned the skillet over in his hand, hesitated a minute, then said, “Yeah, okay, providing the stuff ain’t hot. I ain’t looking for trouble with the cops.”

“It’s good,” Max answered. “I’m just cleaning out my house.”

To Max it didn’t seem like that much of a lie; in a few short weeks it would be his house and everything in it would belong to him. So what if he wanted to get rid of some stuff a bit early. He was entitled.

On every item they dickered back and forth, a dollar more, a quarter less, until both parties were satisfied they’d made the best deal. After all of the household items were tallied up, Max collected seventy-two dollars. He also had the ten he’d lifted from Doc Payne’s wallet, plus thirty-eight bucks from the previous trip. As he pocketed the money, he gave a grin. “I’ll be back next week,” he told Edgar.

With more than a hundred dollars in ready cash, Max was well on his way to having enough to hire a lawyer. Next trip he’d probably be collecting two-fifty from Joe Mallory; maybe if it was the same woman he’d get the whole five hundred. After that a few more raids and he’d be good to go. Things were looking so rosy, he could afford to splurge a bit, maybe buy a bottle of bourbon and stop by Maggie Sue’s for another visit.

Max had a grin on his face when he climbed into the car. He was already thinking about Maggie Sue. He made a U-turn on Graymoor and headed back toward the highway.

~

Joe Mallory didn’t have five dollars to spare, never mind fivehundred, but he wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip through his hands. Max Sweetwater was the first lead he’d had on the whereabouts of Rowena.

When he left the bar, Joe walked back to the gas station. Frankie, the day kid, left in fifteen minutes, and Abe never worked evenings. He’d be the only one there and slow as it was at night, Abe would never be any the wiser.