“Yeah,” I replied. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
He shook his head. “I still dunno how you can eat that crap ta’ begin with.”
“To each their own,” I said with a shrug. “I like it.”
“Yeah, well we already knew there was somethin’ wrong with ya’. That’s just more proof.”
We were still sitting in a booth at the Metro, Felicity and I on one side, Ben on the other. We had arrived well after the lunch rush, and the dinner rush was still around an hour away yet, so the diner was only around half full. Still, given that our conversations tended to take unexpected turns, my friend had asked them to seat us back in the corner away from the rest of the patrons.
“What about you, Firehair?” He glanced over at Felicity.
Half her Reuben was already stuffed into a Styrofoam carton and was sitting on the table in front of her.
“Aye,” she returned, nodding toward the container. “And lunch tomorrow.”
“So I guess I’m the only one thinkin’ about those pies behind the counter?” he asked.
“You’re on your own,” she told him.
“What she said,” I echoed.
He glanced at his watch and from the look on his face did some mental calculating. Finally he mumbled, “Aww hell, why not…”
A second later he flagged down our waitress and ordered a slice of the coconut cream.
“So, other than you trying to backfill that bottomless pit you call a stomach, what’s the grand plan?” I asked.
“Whaddaya mean?”
“Well, I know I’m the one who insisted we eat first, but we seem to be ignoring the gorilla, if you know what I mean.”
“Hey, you tell me,” he grunted then wagged his finger between us. “You two were s’posed ta’ be figurin’ out your precautions. I’m just along for the ride.”
I turned to look at Felicity. “I don’t know that we really need any. You seemed to handle things just fine earlier.”
“Yes I did,” she replied. “But that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with not having something to back me up.”
“Backup’s a good thing,” Ben agreed.
“Of course it is,” I said. “But, I’m not sure what it would be in this case. I definitely don’t want to drag anyone else into this.”
Felicity nodded vigorously. “Aye, I agree with you there.”
“Not ta’ change the subject, but how you feelin’ anyway, Row?” Ben asked.
I turned back to my friend. “Fine, why?”
He shrugged with his eyebrows. “Just wonderin’. I couldn’t help but notice that ever since the hospital, you haven’t had your face all pinched up like normal.”
“My face what?” I asked.
He waved his hands and shook his head. “Not normal normal… I mean like the normal when you’re havin’ a la-la land headache… Ya’ don’t have that crease in your face that usually comes along with ‘em.”
“Oh… Well… You know, I hadn’t thought about it,” I replied. “Actually, my head feels fine for a change.”
“That could be another problem then,” Felicity chimed in.
I glanced her direction once again. “What do you mean?”
“I banished Emily Foster,” she said. “She might be gone for good.”
“You left that spell open ended enough to summon her back though.”
“True, but you know as well as I do there’s still no guarantee she’ll come.”
“As pissed as you sounded?” Ben interjected. “I wouldn’t if I was her, ghost or not.”
“Really?” Felicity scoffed. “It’s never seemed to stop you before.”
“Yeah, I know,” he replied. “Me, cockroach, squish. I get it. Honestly I think you just take a perverse pleasure in givin’ me a hard time.”
“Yes, I do,” she said with a grin.
“Coconut cream,” the waitress said as she appeared and slid a generous slice of pie in front of Ben. “Would anyone like more coffee?”
Felicity passed on the java, but Ben and I both opted for a fresh cup even though the doctor had warned me off. Once the waitress was gone, I tried to steer the conversation back into the proper lane. “Look, right now Judith Albright needs to be our concern. Maybe we should skip the morgue and go straight to the crime scene.”
“We don’t really have one,” Ben explained. “The last place she was seen was the house where she lived with the vampire whacko. Already been over that with a microscope. No sign of struggle, no nothin’. Her purse, keys, and car were gone, and that’s it. The geeks are goin’ over ‘er computer but nothin’ yet… So there’s not much ta’ see. All we know is…”
Before he could complete the thought, he was interrupted by the sound of a cell phone, which was warbling deep inside his pocket. He settled his pie-mounded fork onto the plate and then fished around until he retrieved the screaming device. Giving a quick glance at the display, he raised an eyebrow then flipped the phone open and put it against his ear.
“This is Storm,” he said, his voice taking on a somewhat more official tone than usual. “Yes… What time? Okay. Actually, we were just discussin’ a different approach ourselves. No, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Just a second, let me get somethin’ to write with.”
He switched the phone to his other hand but continued holding it against the same ear as he sent his newly freed appendage searching for a pen. A moment later he had a notebook out on the table and a ballpoint in his fingers.
“Go ahead,” he told the person at the other end. “Yeah… Yeah… Okay, got it. CSU there yet? Good. Who’s runnin’ the scene? Yeah, got it. Uh-huh, we’re on our way.”
He folded the phone and tucked it back into his pocket then re-inspected what he had written before doing the same maneuver with the notebook.
“I take it we’re going somewhere?” I asked.
“Looks like you kinda got your wish,” he replied. “Seems we all of a sudden officially have a crime scene. State trooper just found Judith Albright’s car at a rest area on Highway Seventy just outside Wright City.”
“That’s an hour from here,” Felicity said.
“Yeah, just about,” Ben agreed then shoveled in the forkful of pie, which he quickly followed with a second much larger portion. After swallowing he added, “So, we better get movin’. It’s already gonna be dark by the time we get there.”
My wife pulled out her cell phone and stabbed a speed dial number then tucked it up to her ear as she said, “Let’s hope RJ can run by the house and let the dogs out, or we’ll be having a mess to clean up.”
In his typical fashion, he managed to down the rest of the pie before Felicity and I were fully out of our seats.
Just like my wife had said, the roadside rest area was something on the order of an hour from where we were when the call originally came in. However, with Ben behind the wheel the trip was instantly reduced to 45 minutes. If he had elected to use his emergency light and siren, that probably would have shaved it back to 30 or even less. Having white-knuckled a few rides with him in the past, I was perfectly content with taking the extra time.
For the better part of the trip we had engaged in idle chitchat, both about the case and about nothing at all. However, for the last 10 minutes or so, things had fallen relatively quiet. I didn’t really mind since I was still dealing with the aftereffects of my earlier episode at the morgue, so I had laid my head back and closed my eyes under the guise of resting for a bit.
Unfortunately, the physical drain that was pulling me down was the least of my worries. While there was a lull in the conversation between the three of us in this plane of existence, inside my skull it was a completely different story. The ethereal chatter was almost deafening. I couldn’t make out the words just yet, but I knew that
