Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

DECEMBER 21, 1930

Three days after the two men from Georgia had first arrived in town asking questions about Frank Bennett, the skinny one, Curtis Smoote, came in by himself and ordered another barbecue and an Orange Crush.

When Idgie brought it over to the booth, she said, “Between Grady and your partner, ya’ll are about to eat up all my barbecue. That makes ten you three have had today!”

He squinted at her and said, in his high nasal little voice, “Have a seat.”

Idgie looked around the room and saw that it wasn’t busy, and then sat down across from him.

He took a bite of his sandwich and looked at her, hard.

“How ya doing?” Idgie said. “Found that man you was looking for yet?”

This time he glanced around the room and then leaned across the table, his face like a razor. “You’re not fooling me, girlie girl. I know who you are. Don’t think for a minute you’re fooling me.… You gotta get up early in the morning to put one over on Curtis Smoote. Yes sir, the first time I come in here, I knowed I’d seen you somewhere before, but I couldn’t place you. So I made a few phone calls, and last night it come to me who you were.”

He sat back and continued eating, never taking his eyes off her. Idgie, not batting an eye, waited for him to continue.

“Now, I got me a sworn statement from this fellow Jake, that works out at the Bennett place, that someone answering the description of you and that big black buck you got out in the back, there, come over with a bunch and took Bennett’s wife off, and that nigger threatened Bennett with a knife.”

He picked a piece of dark meat out of his sandwich and put it on his plate and looked at it. “Besides that, I was in the back of the barbershop that day, and me and a whole bunch heard you threaten to kill him. Now, if I can remember, you can be damn sure the rest of them will.”

He took a swig of his cold drink and wiped his mouth with the paper napkin. “Now, I cain’t say Frank Bennett was no particular friend of mine … no sir. I got my oldest girl living in a shack, outside of town, with a kid, because of him, and I heard tell of what was going on out at his place. And I would venture a guess that there’s others that wouldn’t shed a tear if he was to show up dead. But it looks to me, girlie girl, that you would be in a whole passel of trouble if he did, ’cause the fact that you threatened him twice is in the official record, and I can tell you right now, that don’t look too good in black and white.

“What we’re talking about here, girlie, is murder … running afoul of the law. And nobody can get away with that.”

He leaned back in the booth and took on a casual air. “Now, of course, just hypothetically speaking, of course, if it was me in your shoes, why, I’d figure it would do me a whole lot of good if that body didn’t show up at all. Yes, a whole lot of good … or if anything that belonged to him was to be found, for that matter. I’d figure it wouldn’t bode well if anybody could prove that Frank Bennett had been over here at all, you understand, and I’d figure, if I was smart, that is, it would be real important to make sure there wasn’t nothing to find.”

He glanced up at Idgie to make sure she was listening. She was.

“Yes sir, that would be too bad, ’cause I’d have to come back over here and arrest you and your colored man on suspicion. Now, I’d hate to come back over here after you, but I will, ’cause I’m the law and I’m sworn to uphold it. You cain’t beat the law. Do you understand that?”

Idgie said, “Yes sir.”

Having made his point, he pulled a quarter out of his pocket and threw it on the table, put his hat on, and said as he was leaving, “Of course, Grady may be right. He may just show back up at home one of these days. But I ain’t gonna hold my breath.”