I dialed a number.
“Las Palmas,” a woman said, after answering on the sixth ring.
“Certainly,” I said, doing my best to mimic the snooty Landry Lamming. “Helen Huggins,” I continued, cursing myself for making up such dumb names, “in room twelve B, if you please.”
“Uh… well… hold on,” the night clerk said.
There was silence and then a series a clicks and bangs. A man’s voice finally said, “Who is this?”
“Excuse me,” I said primly, “but I asked for Miss Huggins in twelve B. They must have connected me with the wrong room.”
“Who is this?” the man repeated. “Are you the one who called twelve B earlier tonight?”
“Who, may I ask, are you, sir?”
“Police Sergeant Bryant,” he said. “Did you call earlier tonight?”
“I was looking for my friend,” I said. “Miss Huggins.”
“Did you ask for a man named Latham?”
“No. Who is he?”
“He was with the woman in twelve B.”
“Oh my,” I said in a fey tone.
“What’s your name, sir?”
“Is Miss Huggins in trouble, Officer Bryant?”
“I’m asking the questions, Mr...?”
“Is Miss Huggins there, Sergeant?”
“Two men have been shot,” Bryant said, trying the frank approach. After all, maybe I really was a foreigner, far from home and unfamiliar with the legal customs of America.
“And Miss Huggins?” I asked, all aflutter.
“There was a woman. She fled the scene. You say her name is Huggins?”
I chose that moment to hang up.
Nathan and Fearless were having a good old time talking about Fearless’s experience in the county lockup. I came back and downed my drink. Fearless took that as a cue to stand.
“See you later, Nathan,” Fearless said.
“But you didn’t finish your story.”
“Save it for the next time.”
Fearless clapped Nathan on the shoulder, and we left.
WE MADE IT back to Fontanelle’s court near five. I let Fearless have the mother’s bedroom. I took the child’s bed, just a urine- stained mattress on the floor, because I was the smaller of us two. As scared as I was, I needed sleep. We had nothing to go on. Elana’s purse was ripped open and the bond was gone. The bond was gone and we didn’t know who had it. I had a pretty good idea that it was in Elana’s possession, but at five in the morning I hardly even cared.
I slept soundly until I felt a tongue on my face. I opened my eyes and saw Blood, Fearless’s adopted dog. I sat up and pushed him away. Fearless was drinking some hot liquid out of a cup and relaxing, slouched back in his chair. From his demeanor you would have thought that we were on vacation.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“’Bout twelve-thirty.”
“Where’d this dog come from? I thought you left him with Dorthea.”
“I called her, and she told me to come get ’im.”
“What you think Fell gonna say when we got pets in her court?”
“That’s three questions wit’out you sayin’ good mornin’,” Fearless said.
“Good morning,” I said.
Fearless’s face broke out into a friendly smile. “Fontanelle said it was okay. She said that she might even want a good watchdog to protect her garage when she holdin’ stuff fo’ people.”
I got up and pulled on my pants. After using the toilet and washing up, I was almost ready for the day. Fearless was sitting in the blue chair, so that left me the red one. They were both wooden and badly painted. My chair wobbled whenever I shifted.
