Page 44 of The Newcomer
He shrugged. “Gone. Mom had pretty much figured out that Chuck was a loser, although she didn’t know he was a criminal loser. She’d kicked him out of her apartment, but was letting him stay in that room where you’re living now, if you can believe it. I’ve got no idea what happened to Rooney.”
“Kind of a funny name, Rooney.”
“I think his first name was Declan, but everybody just called him Rooney. Even his wife.”
“Wife?” Letty said. “He was married to the female accomplice?”
“So she claimed,” Joe said.
Letty took another sip of the hard cider, but it had grown warm and now, she thought, had turned her stomach sour. She emptied the rest into the sand.
“How long ago did all this happen?” she asked.
“Let me think.” He opened the cooler and offered her another drink, but she shook her head. “No thanks.”
“Maybe five years ago?” he said finally. “None of the money or coins or jewelry was ever recovered.”
Maya rushed toward them, her face alight with joy. Her little pink sun hat was askew, her arms and legs and tummy were coated in the sugar-fine white sand, and she was toting the plastic bucket Ava had given her, water sloshing over the sides as she ran.
“Letty, Letty,” she said, when she reached the blanket. She held the bucket out triumphantly. “We catched a fishy!”
“That’s a beautiful minnow,” Joe said, admiring Maya’s catch. “It’s a greenback. See how its back is green, but when it swims, you catch a flash of the silver on its underbelly?”
Maya peered into the bucket and nodded. “Her name is Minnie. I’m gonna keep her. Okay, Letty?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Letty said. “I don’t think Miss Ava allows pets, does she, Joe?”
“Afraid not,” Joe said. “But even if she did, a minnow is a fish, and a fish can’t live in a little bucket like this. They have to be able to swim in the ocean with fresh water moving through their gills, because that’s where they get oxygen to breathe.”
“Really?” Letty glanced over at him. “I didn’t know that. Must be a Florida thing.”
Joe laughed. “Not a Florida thing. More like a high school biology thing.”
“Oh yeah. High school. Mine was in a hick town in West Virginia, and probably only five percent of my graduating class went on to college,” Letty said. “And our biology teacher really was a perv.” She scowled at the memory of Mr. Parker, trying to corner her after class, using the ruse of “helping” her pass her midterm exam.
“I think we need to put Minnie back in the water, Maya,” Joe said, his tone gentle.
“Noooo,” Maya wailed. “It’s mine minnow. I catched her.”
Letty reached out and touched her niece’s hand. “Joe’s right, sweetie. Let’s put her back in the water. It’ll be fun to see her swim away with all her friends!”
Maya’s lower lip began to quiver. “I don’twantto.” She pressed the bucket tightly to her chest.
Joe stood up. “Maya,” he said impatiently. “If we don’t put the minnow back in the water, it can’t breathe. It’ll die. You don’t want Minnie to die, do you?”
Letty winced at the harshness of his response. He couldn’t know about Tanya. Couldn’t know what Letty herself didn’t know—whether or not Maya had witnessed her mother’s murder.
The child’s reaction was instant. Her face crumpled as she dissolved into tears. “My mommy died,” she whispered. “She’s in heaven and she can’t come back anymore.”
“I’m so sorry,” Joe said, looking over at Letty. He knelt down beside the sobbing child. “Come on, Maya. I’ll help you put the minnow back in the water. And then we’ll build a fort. Okay? Like, a cowboys and Indians fort.”
“I’ll help too,” Letty said, scrambling to her feet. She used a towel to dab the snot and sand from the little girl’s face.
“Okay,” Maya said reluctantly. She put her face to the edge of the bucket. “Bye, Minnie.”
“Youcoming to the cookout tonight?” Joe asked hours later, as they walked up toward the motel from the beach. He had the coolerand beach blanket tucked under one arm, with Maya asleep on his shoulder.
“There’s a cookout?” Letty asked, struggling to keep up with his pace.
