alone.Hitman walked toward them with a not particularly hurried gait, a notebook in his hand.
Barry pointed an accusing finger at Stumpy's body. 'He's dead!'
The sheriff nodded curtly. 'Yeah.'
'You took your goddamn time getting here! And why aren't there any paramedics? How did you expect to revive him or treat him or ... or stabilize him?'
'I knew he was dead,' Hitman said simply.
Barry wanted to punch the sheriff's reptilian face. He was filled with anger, but he knew that anger was only partially directed at the sheriff's dereliction of duty.
'I didn't say that he was dead when I called 911,' Maureen pointed out.
'Yours wasn't the only call.'
Barry looked over at Maureen, and they shared the same thought without saying a word. No one else was out this late, there were no other homes on this immediate section of the street, no crowd had gathered or onlookers had come by. The only other person who could have called it in was the driver who had hit him.
They told this to the sheriff and he dutifully took the information down, promising to trace the call and find out where it came from, but Barry had the feeling that Hitman would do no such thing. After describing how they'd heard the accident from inside the house and rushed out to find the body, the two of them stood next to each other and watched the sheriff lift Stumpy and deposit him into the rear of the ambulance. There was no stretcher, no body bag, just the naked battered corpse crumpled on the metal floor of the vehicle.
Hitman shut the double doors. 'Thanks for all your help,' he said without looking at them. He strode to the front of the ambulance, got in, and drove away.
'That was weird,' Maureen said, stunned.
'No shit.'
'He didn't even take photos of the crime scene or anything. Don't you think that stuff is pretty standard in any kind of investigation?'
'I don't know what to think,' Barry admitted.
'What kind of sheriff is he?'
They walked back into the house, shutting and locking the door behind them. Once again, they undressed and got into bed, but as much as he tried to divert his mind to other subjects, Barry kept seeing Stumpy's broken body and dead staring eyes, kept feeling the clamminess of the man's rough skin, and it was a long, long time before he fell asleep.
They'd arranged several days earlier to play tennis with Mike and Tina in the morning, and after a quick breakfast of Total and orange juice, they walked down to the courts, rackets in hand. It was a Sunday and it was early, but the Stewarts were already there and had obviously been warming up for some time. Mike's light blue shirt had a huge sweat stain on the back, and the court was littered with fluorescent balls.
'Practicing,' Maureen whispered. 'They're afraid we'll beat 'em.'
'Yeah.' Barry smiled thinly. Playing tennis was the last thing on his mind right now, and he was here only because Maureen had said it would be rude to cancel. 'We need all the friends we can get,' she told him.
They walked past the Stewarts' Acura and Barry opened the metal chain-link gate.
'Howdy neighbor!' Mike raised his racket in greeting.
'Good morning!' Maureen answered.
They stepped onto the court, the two women hugging, the men shaking hands. Barry had not yet told Mike about his encounter with Audrey, and he'd asked Maureen not to tell Tina anything either. The Stewarts and Hodges seemed to be closer to each other than either of them were to Barry and Maureen, and he could not be certain where their loyalties lay. He did not think either Mike or Tina were into anything kinky or were aware of Audrey's proclivities, but their friendship with the other couple might make them predisposed to believe any alternate version or explanation, no matter how far-fetched. And at this point, the last thing Barry needed was an eroding of his reputation.
They decided to volley first, and they split up: men on one side, women on the other. It was an easy, non taxing back-and-forth, allowing them to talk as they warmed up, and Barry described the night's excitement, explaining how Stumpy had been run over in front of their house and how the sheriff had made little effort to disguise the fact that there wouldn't be an investigation.
Mike looked taken aback. 'What?'
'That's what happened. Then Hitman drove away ...' He shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.
'That's not possible,' Mike said. 'I just saw Stumpy less than an hour ago.'
Barry felt a familiar tingle at the back of his neck. 'Stumpy's dead.'
'No, he's not. I saw him.'
'Where?'
'I was running the loop. You know, the same way we ran that time?' He gave Barry a warning look. 'And I saw him sitting by the side of the road off Ponderosa Circle. Well, not sitting exactly. Lying. Or whatever the hell he does. Anyway, he was there and making those retard noises--'
'Mike!' Tina admonished.
'Well, they are! And, as usual, I said hi to him, pretended to be polite, and ran on by. That was it.'
Mike obviously believed what he was saying, did not appear to be lying, and that was what was so disturbing. Both of them couldn't be right.
And if neither was wrong ... A man passed by. He smiled and waved.
'Hey, Travis!' Mike called out. 'You heard anything! about Stumpy being killed in a hit-and-run accident?'
'Killed? I don't think so! That geek was rootin ' around in Merl's compost pile this mornin '! I had to chase him out with a shovel!'
'Thanks!' Mike called out.
The other man nodded and kept walking.
'I know what I saw,' Barry insisted.
'I saw it, too,' Maureen added.
Mike shrugged. 'Well, I know what / saw.' He shook his head. 'Let's just forget about it. You two get your butts on , the other side of that net. Me and Tina are in the mood to whip 'em.'
But Barry could not forget about it. His distraction probably cost them the match, but he didn't care, and after they said their good-byes and walked back up the hill to home, he told Maureen he was going for a walk.
'Oh no you're not,' she said.
'What are you talking about?'
'You think you're tricky? I know what you're planning to do.'
'What?' 'Look for Stumpy.'
'How do you do that?' he demanded, caught.
'I know you. I've lived with you all these years, and I know the way you think.'
He tried to explain. 'Look, we both know Stumpy's dead. We both saw it. I just want to confirm the fact.'
'Why don't you call the sheriff?'
'Yeah, like we'd get an honest answer from him.'
'Well...'
'You're welcome to come if you want.'
Maureen shook her head. 'I've had enough exercise for one day. I'm going to take a nice cool shower and read a good magazine. You can play Hardy Boys by yourself.'
'Wish me luck.'
'Luck.'
He walked down to the bridle trail and headed up the path toward where he had first seen Stumpy. The trail ran through the forest just below Ponderosa Circle, where Mike claimed to have spotted him this morning.
He had no idea what Mike and that other guy had seen, but no matter what they thought, it had not been Stumpy, and he was going to prove it.
