I tried to get my heartbeat under control. I didn't have much luck.
I couldn't place the feeling right away-sort of like an electric generator spinning in my intestines. Not going anywhere, not hooked to anything, just making useless electricity. It was a few more minutes before I recognized it as shock. I'd felt this way a year ago, after I'd killed a man. I'd woken up a few nights afterward with this same feeling-disconnected inside, like someone else had just vacated my body and left me the shell. I told myself this was only a college lesson, for God's sake.
I started the car again. I decided to take comfort in the mundane and drove next door to Taco Cabana for enchiladas to go.
When I got back to 90 Queen Anne my favourite car was parked conspicuously across the street. Deputy Frank had the window down on his black Ford Festiva and was rubbing a finger along the top of his moustache while he read a magazine.
He might've been a little more obvious if he put wavy hands on his windshield wipers, but only slightly.
I parked the VW and walked across to his car. Frank pretended to ignore me.
In his passenger's seat was your normal stakeout gear-junk food, a camera, bottled water, a tape recorder and shotgun mike. He had his suit jacket off so the shoulder holster was in plain view. There was a black briefcase between Frank's knees.
He flipped a page of Today's Parent.
"Colic," he said, like he was talking to himself. "It's driving me crazy."
"That's rough," I agreed.
I waited. Frank turned a couple more pages. He read like he was looking at assembly instructions, his eyes flicking back and forth around the pages in no particular order, looking for the schematics on proper babybuilding.
"You supposed to be keeping tabs on me?" I asked.
Frank nodded, tapping his thumb on a picture of a new superabsorbent diaper.
"Sheckly?"
Frank nodded again.
"You want to come in for some enchiladas?"
Three times was a charm.
Frank put down his magazine, picked up his briefcase, and got out of the car.
We walked around the side of the house. My landlord Gary Hales was standing in his living room, watching out the window as I brought the man with the shoulder holstered gun and the black briefcase onto his property. Gary loves it when I do stuff like that.
I opened the door of the inlaw and Robert Johnson padded up, bumped into Frank's leg, then stepped back indignantly, his superkeen animal senses suddenly warning him that I wasn't alone.
"Hey, blackie." Frank bent down and scratched Robert Johnson's ear.
Frank apparently passed inspection. Robert Johnson began rubbing the side of his face vigorously on Frank's shoe.
Frank glanced around the room, still in read schematic mode, until his eyes came to rest on the exhibition sword in the wall mount. "Tai chi?"
I nodded, surprised. Nobody guesses correctly.
Frank waved at the futon. "Okay?"
"Sure," I said.
He sat, putting his briefcase on the coffee table. I went into the kitchen and took out the two foam boxes of enchilada dinners. Robert Johnson materialized on the counter instantly.
I got out three paper plates in wicker plate holders. Two enchiladas for me, one for Frank, one for Robert Johnson. Flour tortillas and beans and rice and grease all around.
I took the food into the main room, set Robert Johnson's on the rug, and handed Frank his.
Frank sat forward on the futon. He rolled a tortilla into a tube, dipped it in enchilada sauce, and bit the end off.
"Enough's enough," he said. "The briefcase has some prelims from the M.E. on Brent Daniels, some paperwork I borrowed from Hollywood Park on Alex Blanceagle.
There's also some other cases from the Avalon Department where"-he stopped, considering-"where Sheckly's name has figured prominently."
"And you're showing all this to me?"
Frank read the wall. He chewed his tortilla. "Some guys I know at Bexar County-Larry Drapiewski, Shel Masters-they tell me you're solid."
I tried not to look surprised. Larry and Shel didn't always tell me I was solid. The adjectives they used about me much more frequently had to do with gas or liquid.
Frank must've caught them at a weak moment.
"You should be giving this to Samuel Barrera," I suggested.
Frank gave me a brief smile, then he slid the briefcase toward me across the table.
"But Barrera would feel obliged to say where he got the information," I continued. "You need someone who can take a little heat off you."
He finished his tortilla, wiped his fingers, then stood up.
"Shame you didn't come home today," he speculated. "I'll wait until midnight, then decide to call it quits. Agreed?"
I nodded. "Good luck with the colic."
Frank actually smiled. "Yeah. And, Navarre-I hear things at the department. Elgin, some of the other guys who were at Floore's last night. They're hoping you come back into Avalon County sometime when they're on duty. If I were you, I wouldn't do it."
When Frank was gone, I kicked off my Justins and let my toes expand to their normal size. Robert Johnson came over and discovered that his head fit perfectly in a size eleven boot. He shimmied in up to his waist and stayed that way, his tail flicking back and forth.
"You're weird," I told him.
His back legs padded a few times. The tail flicked.
Then I remembered I wasn't supposed to be home.
That left several options, none of them pleasant. I reclaimed my boots and headed out toward Monte Vista.
51
When I got to the SaintPierres' house the realtor was just leaving.
"Mr. SaintPierre?" she asked.
Her tone was mildly amused. She held the front door open for me with just her fingertips, up at ear level, the way my mom used to hold up my dirty Tshirts, asking if I could get them in the hamper for once.
"Thanks," I said.
"I made some sketches." She wedged her clipboard snugly under the arm of her rottenapple brown blazer. "The house has marvellous flow patterns."
"I've always thought so."
She nodded, pursed her lips, then appraised the front of the house one more time.
"Well, I'll get back to you."
"Allison gave you a time frame?"
"She said immediately."
"Perfect."
She gave me another amused smile-probably never met a talent agent before-then offered me her business card. Sheila Fletcher amp;c Associates. The ink was the same colour brown as her jacket and her nails. She waved three fingers at me as she walked down the driveway and got into her Jeep.
Sure enough, the interior of the house had great flow patterns now. Easy when there was nothing to flow around. The white sofas and the artwork pedestals were gone. The Oaxacan wall hangings had been removed so the walls were all white paint and windows. Six million moving boxes were stacked by the door.
The bar was still set up, however, and there were two glasses on it, one sticky with lipstick and bourbon residue, the other half full of tepid water. The fireplace had been used the night before. The smell of smoke lingered from the poorly working flue. After the previous night, smoke was not a smell I was glad to encounter.
I went upstairs and started checking the bedrooms. The first was packed. In Les' room the fourposter bed was stripped, the roll top desk taped shut, his closet empty. I opened one of the moving boxes packed in the corner. Les' Denton High School yearbook was on top.
"What the hell are you doing?"
I turned and found Allison was in the doorway.
She'd raked her blond hair into stiff wet rows, rinsed but not shampooed. Her complexion was pasty, the corners of her eyes unhealthy red. Her figure was totally hidden under a man's white dress shirt and baggy khakis. Maybe they were Les'. The shirt was speckled with some light brown liquid.