11
G-man had told Rickey he was driving out to Chalmette to buy some late-season Creole tomatoes at a farm stand he knew. He actually did go get the tomatoes, just so he wouldn’t have lied to Rickey. The stand also had some nice little seedless watermelons, so he grabbed a few of those too; a watermelon and lump crabmeat salad would jazz up the menu. Maybe some sort of vodka dressing.
He loaded the produce into his car and cranked up the air conditioner, but didn’t pull out of the parking lot. Instead he dialed information, got the number for Benjamin Stone, M.D., and let the automatic operator connect him.
The phone rang many times, and G-man was about to end the call, figuring maybe the doctor had celebrated his retirement with a vacation or something. Then the receiver on the other e
