Gargantuan_ A Ruby Murphy Mystery - Maggie Estep [100]
“Please?” the girl says. She looks down at Crow then back up at me, adding another please.
“How about you eat something and we’ll think about it,” I say, offering the sandwich.
She stares down at the sandwich in much the same way she was staring at me a few seconds ago.
“What is that, meat?” she asks.
“Yeah, pastrami and bologna.”
“Thanks, but I’m a vegetarian,” the prisoner says. “I don’t eat anything with a face.”
This takes me by surprise and I look down at the sandwich in my hand, suddenly picturing a face on it.
“This doesn’t have a face,” I say.
“At some point it did.”
I can’t really argue with that even though deli meat is so far removed from animals that it practically is vegetarian.
“So,” I say, feeling like a complete jerk, “you definitely don’t want this?” I indicate the sad-looking sandwich, even though I know the answer and, in fact, wonder if I’ll give up meat. Up till now, I’d always thought vegetarians were just pale people who liked being difficult. But this face thing has freaked me out.
“No, I’m not going to be eating that,” the girl affirms.
“Mind if Crow has it?”
“I don’t know if processed meat is good for him,” the girl says, sort of sternly. “I feed my cats raw meat.”
Christ.
“But go ahead,” she adds, “he’s probably used to it.”
I can’t believe this girl, this prisoner, is making me feel like shit about what I feed my dog.
I pick the sandwich up and stuff it into one of my huge pockets. I reach for the bottle of water and give that to the girl. She takes the top off and drinks loudly.
“Thanks,” she says, after draining half the bottle.
I remove my gun and the cell phone out of my other pocket and though I’m not actually pointing the gun at the girl, she takes a step back and turns paler than she already is.
“Oh, sorry,” I say reflexively before remembering that yes, I should be pointing a gun at this girl, particularly right now.
“I’m going to let you call this neighbor of yours, but at the slightest hint of asking for help or letting him know where you are…” I let the sentence trail off and I wave the gun at her a little, trying to act like it means nothing to me to use it. And it wouldn’t have meant anything to me to use it earlier in the day, when I so clearly saw this girl’s jockey boyfriend as an immediate threat to Darwin. But things are a little different now. Though I don’t want her to know that.
“Thank you,” the girl says softly.
“Number?” I ask, keeping the gun pointed at her with one hand while preparing to punch the numbers in with the other.
She recites the number and I dial. It rings once and I hand her the phone, bringing the gun very close to her face. I watch her blink several times.
“Ramirez,” she says into the phone, “it’s Ruby.”
I can tell the guy is asking her where she is and I carefully watch her face.
“Don’t worry,” she says, “I’m fine but I won’t be home for a while. I wonder if you could please feed the cats until I get back.”
Her voice sounds pretty tense but she’s not up to any direct funny business that I can see.
“Don’t worry about it,” she’s saying. “Please just feed the cats, okay?”
At that I snatch the phone away from her and hang it up and I’m worried now, feeling like a jackass because surely the neighbor can have the number traced.
“That was bad,” I say, bringing the gun closer to her face. “You sounded upset.”
“I didn’t say anything to make him suspicious,” the girl says, “though maybe the way you snatched the phone away and hung it up might get him wondering.”
“Don’t be a smartass, girl,” I say between my teeth. “This isn’t a game.”
“I’m aware of that. Even though I don’t know what the hell good having me here is doing you.”
“You mentioned that. But I don’t think you know your own value. That jockey of yours is pretty crazy about you.”
“Not anymore he’s not, and anyway I don’t know what you want from him. He’s a powerless person, you know.”
“And powerless people take it out