A horn honked long and loud.
“The guy behind us doesn’t think so.”
Neither would Prudence. “Damn it!” I hit the gas, cursing at the bad timing of all of this.
Three blocks later we were back on track to pull into Zelda’s drive within a few minutes. “I could have had that son of a gun.”
“Maybe, but probably not. The way your aunt talks, they’re slippery devils, like your lidérc.”
“The lidérc is slippery and smoky. That imp is just a pain in my butt.” I frowned into the rearview mirror. “I sure hope that whatever is going on back there with the cops has nothing to do with that little shit, or your nephew is going to be coming my way to deliver another ass-chewing.”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
I told Harvey the story about the store that was broken into early that morning and about the honey products that had been partially destroyed.
“And Masterson joined Coop at the party, huh?” Harvey shook his head. “That seems a bit like a prostitute showing up for Sunday school.”
“I agree. Either Dominick knows the imp is free or he’s looking for someone else.” We both pondered that in silence as I pulled into Zelda’s drive. “There’s something I didn’t mention about our visit here today.”
“What’s that?”
I pointed out the windshield. “We have a special guest.”
Mr. Black stood on the porch dressed in a long dark duster, staring back at us.
The curtain in the downstairs window swayed, a shadow moving behind it.
Harvey leaned forward. “Is that who I think it is?”
“Yep. Mr. Black needs to talk to Prudence and me.”
“Then why’d ya bring me along?”
“Because I’m not going in that house alone.”
“Couldn’t you have wrangled another sucker to drag inside?”
“No. You’re the one I want by my side.”
“Why?”
“Because Prudence has never made you hurt me.” Unlike several others, including Cooper. I killed the engine. “Are you ready?”
“Hell no.”
“Me neither. Let’s go see what’s got Mr. Black looking like he’s about to cloud up and rain on our heads.”
Chapter Ten
“That there porch ghost of yours looks mean enough to hunt bears with a hickory switch,” Harvey said, still staring out the windshield. “You sure you’ll be needin’ a bodyguard in that badger’s den? Might be better if I wait out here in the getaway car.”
“You’re going in that house with me, old man, even if I have to drag you by the beard.”
He lifted his hands as though I had him at gunpoint. “There’s no need to bare your teeth at me, curly wolf. It was just a notion. I’ll go in with you, but you need to buy me lunch if we make it back out with our hides still in one piece.”
My cell phone rang as he was reaching for the door handle.
“Hold on a minute.” A glance at the phone’s screen made me cringe. “Shit.”
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Your nephew.”
He made a pained face that probably matched mine. Calls from Cooper were often unpleasant yet necessary—much like routine pelvic exams and colonoscopies.
Harvey pointed at my phone. “You better take that or the boy will hunt you down here and join our little fright fest. You remember what happened the last time Coop paid Prudence a visit with us.”
Yeah, I’d left with more bruises.
“Okay, I’ll make it quick. Let Mr. Black know that I’ll be a few more minutes.”
“Will do.” Harvey raised one finger in the windshield, apparently using the game of charades to send Mr. Black my message.
“I meant go up there and tell him.”
“I ain’t gonna go shoot the shit with your ghosty-lookin’ pal on crazy Prudence’s front porch. You think I’m studyin’ to be a half-wit?”
I wrinkled my nose at him and then hit the answer button. “Hello, Detective Cooper.” I made an effort to sound polite being that he’d probably been up since zero-dark-thirty, not to mention that he was secretly dating my best friend. “How can I help you?”
“Who is this?” Cooper sounded suspicious.
“You know who it is. You called me.”
“You’re being way too nice. If someone is holding you hostage, cough twice.”
“Nobody is holding me freaking hostage. What in the hell do you want?”
Harvey grinned at me, giving me a thumbs-up.
“Ah, that’s more like it,” Cooper said. “Where are you?”
“Who needs to know?” As far as Detective Hawke was concerned, I was working on my tan up on the moon.
“I do.”
I chewed on my lower lip. I wasn’t sure if Cooper checking up on my location was a good thing or bad. “Am I in trouble?”
“If you don’t answer my fucking question, you will be.”
When I still hesitated, he growled. “Would you just tell me where you are, Parker?”
I glanced out the windshield. Mr. Black was still watching us as blasts of wind ruffled his white hair. Harvey was looking out the windshield, too, but his focus appeared to be centered on a tan rectangular rock that was stuck in the snow near the base of my wipers.
I came clean. “I’m about to pay Prudence a visit.”
There was a pause on Cooper’s end, and then, “Weren’t you just there yesterday?”
“Are you keeping a diary on my whereabouts, Detective?”
“Christ, woman. Why do you have to be so damned prickly all of the time?”
“That’s rich, coming from you, Mr. Cactus Pants.”
“That’s so lame. You’re slipping on your insults.”
I huffed. “Is there a reason you called, or did you get bored in between painting little pistols on your toenails and carving hearts in your desk with ‘Cooper + Hawke’ in them, and decided now was as good a time as any to harass innocent Deadwood citizens?”
He chuckled. “That’s more like it, Sparky.”
I pulled my phone away to scowl down at it, then held it back up to my ear. “Did you just call me ‘Sparky,’ Coop?”
“Okay, let’s call a truce now, Parker, before one of us pushes the other too far and winds up in jail wearing my handcuffs.”
While Cooper was making his vague threat, Harvey
