Homicide My Own - Anne Argula [61]
“You said all that?”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“Go on,” I said, seeing my career thrown out with yesterday’s coffee grounds. You play it careful your whole life and then something runs over you like you weren’t even there.
“Well, he asked what kind of shape the prisoner was in, and I said it looked like pretty good shape ‘cause he’s right over there on the porch of the Honeymoon Cottage, and he said, What?”
“He said what.”
“He said, What? He was a little surprised.”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I was doing the wee-wee dance.
“Don’t anybody say another word! Don’t anybody move an inch! Not until I come back from the bathroom.”
“Your Royal Highness…,” said the brat.
“Not a word!”
What control can you hold over a situation when your back teeth are swimming? I made it to the bathroom, did my thing, and went into one of those hot flashes where I was sure my very duppa would ignite the toilet paper and I would go up in smoke.
I stripped off my clothes and jumped into the shower, setting the lever full right. This place, like the rest of the island, was on a well, and that deep ground water came out cold as ice picks. A minute of that did the trick. I toweled off, got my clothes back on, and went skidding back to the porch.
“The lieutenant was a little surprised,” I prompted. “Don’t tell me he was a little surprised, tell me what he said, and tell me what you said.”
“I already told you. He said, What! Surprised, like.”
“And what did you say?”
“I told him not to worry because ‘The Prisoner’ was under house arrest, under guard.”
“Did you, and this is very important, did you tell him Stacey was here too?”
“Of course not, I told you I played it cool.”
“Did he ask who you were?”
“Oh, yes, he wanted to know who I was.”
“And did you tell him?”
“Yes…”
My hands were going for her throat. She saved her own life when she added, “I told him I was the deputy.”
“Did he ask for your name?”
“No, he seemed satisfied.”
“You told him you were a deputy, and he seemed satisfied?”
“Normally, it’s not this hard for me to communicate with people, even if I do stand all day with a sign in my hand. People normally seem to understand me when I talk to them.”
“The lieutenant was satisfied, okay. What did he say?”
“He said good-bye.”
“Did he say anything else? Before he hung up?”
“Yes…one other thing.”
“I want the exact words.”
She took a moment, either reluctant to repeat it or careful to make sure she had it verbatim. “He said, tell those two nimrods to get their asses home, with the prisoner.”
I paced the porch, talking to myself now. “This could be okay…this might still work out…prioritize…” but when I tried to get my priorities right in my head, Jeannie’s murder and that prick Nascine kept coming out in the first position, in spite of myself. The lieutenant, however, must not call again and find us still here, and I knew Nascine was not going to take his roughing up without some form of retaliation. And if he believed what his wife was sure to tell him, that her long gone girlfriend was back, it might be enough to rattle him into something quite desperate.
We had to get out of the Honeymoon Cottage. We were legally stuck with Houser, but we had to get rid of the other two and make ourselves a moving target, preferably on soil sovereign to the Shalish Indian Tribe.
“Odd? Odd, you still want to see the Coyotes?”
“Yes,” he said. “We have to.”
“Good. Let’s do that. Okay, girls, pack up, we’re checking out.”
We were back in our uniforms, our weapons and gear strapped back on our hips.
Frank and Angie were sorry to see us go, and a bit put out a bit by our staying past the check-out time, which complicated their scheduling and clean-up. They hoped we had a good time and that we would come again. I had no energy left for convincing