If Catfish Had Nine Lives(35)

            “He’s been pretty involved in the poetry?”

            “Sure. When he’s not handling a situation, he’s having fun.”

            “What’s an example of a situation?”

            “Usually it’s been when someone drinks too much or something.”

            “I see. That happen a lot?”

            Cody thought a moment. “He had to get my wife straightened out once.”

            “Your wife?”

            “Oh, sorry. I mean my wife in the skit. I take my roles seriously, so I call her my wife.”

            “Jezzie? Jezzie was drunk and disorderly?”

            “Something was going on a couple nights ago. She was upset about something, and so was Orly. I just assumed that’s what it was. I guess I don’t know for sure.”

            “I see. Anyone else?”

            “Yeah, some guy who’d been hanging around was a mess a couple nights ago, too. In fact, he’d been hanging around the good guy—I mean, the guy who was killed. Norman.”

            “Tell me more about him.”

            “All the girls watched this one. Good-looking fella. He wasn’t a poet or an actor. He was just hanging out. He wasn’t causing any problems before, but he sure had too much to drink a couple nights ago.”

            Teddy. I was sure he was talking about Teddy.

            “What did Orly do?” I asked.

            “He handled the whole thing like a pro. He grabbed the guy and escorted him to his own tent.”

            “Did you by chance see them go into the tent?”

            “No, but that’s the direction they were going.”

            Which was also the same direction as the woods where Teddy had been found.

            “I see. Do you remember anything else about them?”

            Cody’s eyes focused in the distance a moment. “No, don’t think so.”

            “Thank you, Cody,” I said. If I’d had any more questions for him, I’d forgotten them now. I hadn’t even intended to learn more about Orly and Teddy, and now I just wanted to talk to them.

            “Welcome.”

            I excused myself and melted back into the crowd. I couldn’t call Teddy, just in case he was sleeping, and I couldn’t immediately find Orly. And I couldn’t leave to search elsewhere for anyone. I needed to stay in the general area, at least until the demonstrations were over.

            As I roamed and tried to tell myself that it was never a good thing to make an assumption based upon a third-party story, it was difficult to keep my focus where it needed to be. So when I saw Esther venturing through the tombstones as Joe rode his horse right behind her, it was an easy decision to join them.

            I approached as she was glancing at a tombstone on the far side of the cemetery. She either noticed me out of the corner of her eye or heard my footsteps as I got closer.

            “Oh! Hi, Betts, how are you?” she asked.

            “Good. You?” I wanted to ask about her date with Jake, but that seemed inappropriate. I’d ask Jake, though. I also wanted to ask her more about Teddy, but the timing didn’t seem right for that either.

            “I’m fine. Look who I found.” She pointed at the small tombstone.

            “Charlie Reagal,” I said. I looked at Joe, who was also interested in the tombstone, looking at it over Esther’s shoulder as the horse stood mostly still. It was a small rectangular stone that had gotten slightly off-kilter with the passing of time. The words on it were simple, stating only his name and birth and death dates. “Esther, any chance you know what Astin looked like, or maybe his son, Charlie?”