Blanche Cleans Up

by Barbara Neely

  Ardell reached down to pick up her bag. Blanche stopped her.

  “I’ve waited as long as I can, Ardell. Tell me what’s up.”

  Ardell let a clot of people break around them before she spoke. “I’ve come to tell you that the old police headquarters burnt down last week, so any information they mighta had about why you left town in such a hurry is gone up in smoke. Your mama’s gettin’ old. And you and me both need less work and more money. I got an idea about how we can get both.”

  “Good!” Blanche grinned. She picked up Ardell’s bag and they headed, arm in arm, toward the escalator.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Barbara Neely’s short fiction has appeared in various anthologies, including Breaking Ice, Things That Divide Us, Angels of Power, Speaking for Ourselves, and Test Tube Women. She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, where she is working on the next Blanche White mystery.