“Oh, yeah? When? After I’d been gutted and lay bleeding to death in a ditch somewhere?”
“Absolutely,” he said, clasping his hands behind his head. “I mean, I wouldn’t jump in the ditch and try to suppress the bleeding or anything, but, sure. I’d call for help or something.”
Offering my best smile ever, I said, “You’re a real saint, Swopes.”
“My mom says the same thing.”
The realization that Garrett actually had a mother kind of disturbed me. But only for about twelve seconds. I rarely held thoughts in my head any longer than twelve seconds. Damn my ADD.
We sat in silence awhile as I jotted down some notes. I glanced up from underneath my lashes a few times to check on Garrett. He obviously took his tailing duties seriously, considering he had yet to take his eyes off me. The smell of the burgers and green chile on the grill had my mouth watering. By the time Peggy brought our burgers, I was moments away from drooling uncontrollably. Either from the smell or the lack of sleep. I couldn’t be sure which.
“So, why are we here?” Garrett asked between bites. The asshole slipped Peggy a five-spot to bring him his burger first. Never trust a man with a penis.
“The man Reyes went to prison for killing isn’t dead,” I said, salting my burger before I’d even tried it.
“Are you serious?”
That got Peggy’s attention, too. She glanced over at me as she wiped down the next table.
“Can I get a coffee to go?” I asked her.
“Sure can.” She headed to the pot as I took a bite of one of the best burgers I’d ever had. Or I was just really hungry. It was hard to tell.
“And you’re going to find him?” Garrett asked after she strolled off, an annoying mixture of humor and doubt in his voice.
“Thanks for the vote,” I said, swallowing hard and washing the bite down with an iced tea chaser.
He shook his head. “Instilling confidence isn’t really my thing.”
“No!” I said, shocked.
“You ’bout done?”
“Holy cow, are you finished?” Having barely taken two bites, I blinked in surprise.
“Yep. It’s a man thing.”
“That can’t be good for the digestion.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, a grin brightening his features that may have been attractive, had I found nice-looking men with amazing skill appealing. Good thing I didn’t.
Ten minutes later, we paid simultaneously and walked out the same way.
That’s when I saw it. My heart leapt into my throat. My hands covered my mouth in shock. I ran, stumbling forward. “Misery!” I yelled in my best melodramatic tone.
“Holy shit,” Garrett said, walking up to us, Misery and me, as I wrapped my arms around her fender. At least I think that’s what the thing on the side was called. “You get very Shakespearean sometimes.”
Misery’s tires had been slashed. All four of them, and probably the spare on the back as well. Brutally. Heartlessly. And quite annoyingly.
“How much you want to bet,” Garrett said, kneeling to analyze the vandalism, “these slashes were made by a big-ass hunting knife.”
“I’m fairly certain they were. Farley Scanlon is a big fat liar!” I yelled into the dark atmosphere. I opened my phone to call the police.
On the bright side, two hours later, Misery had some brand-spanking-new radials. She looked good. I filed a report with the police, explaining who I was and my encounter with Farley Scanlon. The big fat liar. Maybe he didn’t like being called fat, but since he wasn’t, I really didn’t see the harm.
“Are you good to drive?”
I frowned at Garrett. “Why do people keep asking me that?”
“Because you haven’t slept in two weeks?”
“I guess. I’m fine. Just, I don’t know, stay close.”
“Roger that.” He walked to his truck and started it up, waiting while I paid for Misery’s new rubber. She was so worth it.
Chapter 16
There comes a moment when you know you just aren’t going to do anything else productive for the rest of the day.
When I finally got home to my slightly-bigger-than-a-bread-box apartment, I realized how untidy I’d been keeping it. Garrett’s replacement had been outside the apartment building, waiting for us when we pulled up, and Garrett took off to catch some
But I was thankful he’d left when I stepped inside my humble abode. Either Mardi Gras had been celebrated really early and in my apartment, or my apartment had been ransacked. Big time. Apparently, the slashing of the tires was more than just a gut reaction to the
“Mr. Wong, what did I say about letting strangers in?” I glared at his bony shoulders, then glanced at the girl with the knife behind me and shook my head. “That man never listens.”
I scanned my living room. Papers and books cluttered the floor. Drawers sat open in different states of undress. Cabinet doors stood ajar, as though they’d been trying to fly.
Armed and ready with coffee carafe in hand, I crept to each closet — I only had two in the whole place — and peeked in. I would’ve had my gun, but it was in one of the closets, making the point moot. They’d been hit as well, their belongings strewn across the floor to mingle with underwear and shoes and hair scrunchies.
Still, it wasn’t vandalism for the sake of vandalism. It was more deliberate than it looked at first glance. Cabinets and drawers had been scoured for information, while anything inconsequential had been tossed aside, including my emergency stash of chocolate. Clearly my intruder had no taste.
My computer had been turned on as well, so unless Mr. Wong had discovered Internet porn, someone was trying to figure out what I’d been researching. And that someone seemed a tad nervous.
In a moment of horror, I realized my mouse was gone. Just … gone. Who would take a poor, defenseless mouse? I looked back at his wireless USB connector — he loved that connector — and let myself grieve the loss of the mouse I’d taken for granted far too often. Then I picked up my phone and called a semi-friend, a cop named Taft, to file a quick report. The cops can do nothing without reports, so I wanted them to have one on file.
“I can stop by if you need me to,” he said.
“No, whoever did this — and I have a good idea who it was — is long gone.” I gave Taft my statement over the phone.
“So, have you seen my sister?” Taft’s sister had died when they were kids and had been following him around his whole life.
“I think she’s playing with Rocket’s little sister at the asylum.”
I’d recently introduced the two girls, in a roundabout way, and they’d been inseparable ever since. A good thing, ’cause it got her out of my hair. But I suspected Taft missed her, even though he couldn’t see her and didn’t even know she’d existed until I told him a few weeks ago.
“Good,” he said, putting up a brave front. “I’m glad she has a friend.”
“Me, too. I’m going over to the office real quick to check on things there, just in case. I’ll call you back if anything’s askew.”
