Goose in the Pond - Earlene Fowler [91]
I adjusted the ice pack on my eye and groaned. “How much longer is this going to take? I gotta go to the bathroom.”
Officer Girard opened the driver’s door and slipped in. “Chief Ortiz told me to drive you both to the station. He’s going to meet us there.”
“Please, just don’t take any fast corners,” I said. When we pulled into the station’s back lot, the Corvette’s presence informed us Gabe beat us there.
“I’m sorry for laughing at your name,” I told Officer Girard as she helped me out of the backseat.
“No problem,” she said. “Happens all the time. My parents were hippies.” She nodded toward the building. “He’s waiting for you inside.”
“Go ahead,” I said to Sam when we walked through the station. “I need to hit the john before our interrogation or I’ll explode.”
“Thanks a lot,” he said, giving Gabe’s closed office door a baleful look. “Let me face the lion alone.”
“I’ll just be a minute,” I said, giving him a small push. “Besides, haven’t you heard that male lions are all roar? It’s the lioness you really need to fear.” I pinched one of his biceps and giggled, regretting it when pain shot through the side of my face with tiny lightning bolts.
He turned dark, soulful eyes on me. “I see my mom’s reputation precedes her.”
When I returned I could hear Gabe’s deep voice shouting through the heavy oak door. His voice rose and fell in that mixture of Spanish and English he slipped into whenever he was feeling very angry or very romantic. Sam’s slightly higher-pitched tenor yelled an answer. I pushed open the door.
Gabe and Sam faced each other, noses only inches apart, wearing expressions of rage so similar I fought the urge to chuckle. If I ever wanted to know what Gabe had looked like when he was a rebellious and cocky eighteen-year-old, here it was in living color. The tendons on Gabe’s neck stood out as thick as ropes. “Of all the stupid, idiotic—” he was saying.
He stopped midsentence when he noticed my presence.
“They can hear you two clear to Santa Barbara,” I said, keeping my voice light and calm.
“Am I under arrest?” Sam spit out, his voice thick with sarcasm.
Gabe looked at him with flint-colored eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Then I don’t have to listen to any more of your bullshit. All I was trying to do was prevent a crime, and you treat me like the criminal. So why don’t you just shove it?” Sam stormed out the door, slamming it behind him. On the tan wall, a picture rattled.
Gabe walked out to the hallway and calmly told a nearby officer, “Go take a statement from him while the incident is still fresh in his mind.”
“Don’t you think you might have been a little rough on him?” I said when he walked back into his office.
Gabe turned still-angry eyes on me. “You think so? What you two did could have gotten yourselves killed. And for what? A stupid vehicle. You know, I can see where in his youth and stupidity Sam might be that foolishly impetuous, but you should have known better.” He picked up a large plastic bag that held the knife the man had used to slash the truck tires. The blade was narrow, evil-looking; its sharp tip had punctured a hole in the thin plastic bag.
“Do you know what it feels like to be cut, Benni? With one thrust, you could have been dead.” He tossed the bag back down on his desk.
“He was going after Sam,” I said in my defense. “Gabe, I didn’t even think. If I had stopped and thought and ran for help, Sam could be dead.”
He turned away from me, inhaling deeply. “I could have lost both of you,” he said hoarsely.
I went over, put my arms around his waist, and laid my head against his warm back. “But you didn’t. We’re okay.”
“Whoever did this is trying to get me to back off on the Cooper investigation.”
I walked around and faced him. “That’s ludicrous. They have to know you won’t give in to this kind of threat.”
His face hardened. “You should go out to the ranch for a few days.”
“No way. The festival starts tomorrow. I have a speech to give and a billion other things to do. I refuse to let this person intimidate me.”
He