“I’m here to check on my mom. Can you tell me what room she’s in?”
His lips drew down in a frown. “Did you have to ask? You know I will always put your mother in the best room in the motel. Right next to me, where I can make sure everything is to her complete satisfaction.”
“Room One?”
“You know it.”
“You’re the best,” she said, and walked out of the office, leaving Manny to his paperback.
Josie headed down the concrete walkway and knocked on the door to Room 1. Beverly Gray answered wearing three-inch-thick wedges, cutoff jean shorts, and a tight white low-cut scoop-necked T-shirt that Josie thought would look more appropriate on a teenager.
“Well, hey, darlin’! Did you come to take your mom to dinner?”
Josie recognized her mother’s exaggerated hillbilly drawl from her childhood, but after so many years away from home it sounded foreign.
“I’m still on duty, but Otto and I thought we’d buy you supper at the Hot Tamale.”
Her eyes lit up like she’d been invited to a special event, and Josie felt a twinge of guilt.
“Hang on. I’ll get my purse.”
Josie watched her mom take dainty steps back to the bathroom to check her makeup and her hair. Her high-heeled tiny steps had always looked completely ridiculous to Josie. There was nothing dainty about Josie; she walked tall and with purpose. At moments like this, Josie’s longing for her dad caused a deep ache. She was eight when he died, and now she could only imagine what kind of physical presence he had when walking into a room.
Beverly walked out of the bathroom, grabbed her purse off the motel room desk, and headed straight for the door.
*
Located across from the courthouse, the Hot Tamale was a popular diner for most everyone in Artemis. The service was quick, and the owner, Lucy Ramone, made everyone who entered feel like a friend. She also served up local gossip like it was her job.
At six-thirty the diner was still hopping, with tables and chairs scattered across the place in a haphazard manner that would drive Josie crazy if she were a waitress there. Lucy made it clear to her diners that talking came first, and so people were given free rein to arrange the tables to best suit their needs.
They wove their way through and sat in a corner by the window where Otto had pulled up chairs for them. Josie and her mom sat across from Otto.
“Are you rested up from your trip, Beverly?”
“Oh, my, yes. It doesn’t take much for me to liven up. Life’s too short for naps.”
“Do you have plans for your stay out here?” he asked.
Josie stared at the menu and listened intently.
“I guess that mostly depends on my daughter. Whether she can stand me here or not.”
“Oh, I know she could stand you. I think it’s more whether you could stand her schedule. I can attest to the fact that she’s not around much. The job is a killer.”
“Well, I don’t want to marry her, I just want to visit!”
Otto laughed as Lucy hustled up to the table. “How’s my two favorite cops in all of Arroyo County?”
“We’re just fine,” Josie said. “You doing okay?”
“Never better. Business is good.”
“Lucy, this is my mom, Beverly. All the way here from Indiana.”
Lucy bent down and hugged Beverly, who laughed and squeezed back. The two women chatted for a moment until Lucy finally wrote down their order and took off for the kitchen.
Otto picked up the conversation. “You were married to a police officer, weren’t you, Beverly?”
“Best man that ever walked the earth,” she said, and then sat her drink down to look at Otto. “Excluding present company, of course.”
“Understood.”
“He was a road trooper. Died in a line-of-duty accident. Ripped our lives right into two when he passed away.”
“Josie said he was a great cop and a great dad. That’s quite a combination.”
“She’s just like him. He was quiet and serious, always thinking about things. That’s why we were such a good match. I made him laugh. That’s just what Josie needs in her life. A man to make her laugh.”
Josie felt the heat seep into her cheeks at her mom’s comparison of Josie to her dad. After he died, her mom rarely talked about him. And as much as Josie would have liked to have discussed her dad, she wasn’t ready to talk about her private life in the Hot Tamale with Otto while on duty.
Josie pulled the conversation back to the present. “I have some bad news regarding your visit. It may be a while before I get a normal shift so we can spend some time together. A woman was found murdered, and in a small town like this, we throw everything we have on an investigation, meaning long hours away from home.”