The Hard Bounce - страница 24

I lit my smoke and stumbled to the shower.

And yes, I can smoke in the shower. I have a technique.

I got to the restaurant a little after noon. When I walked in, the mingling smells of beer, hot sauce, and frying hamburger made my stomach croak frog-noises. The stupid dream had made me hungry, so I wasn’t all that upset at meeting at The Pour House. They made the best burger in town. Cheap too, thank God. When I found Paul in a table toward the back, he was finishing a plate of buffalo wings and a basket of mozzarella sticks.

“About time, man. My burger’s almost here.”

Before I could say anything, the young waitress came over for my order. For breakfast, I went with a double bacon cheeseburger and a Sam Adams. Paul watched her exit as she walked off with my order.

“I think she wants me. What do you think?” His lips were red with wing sauce. He popped another in his mouth. The kid ate like he hadn’t been within three feet of a meal in days. For all I knew, he hadn’t. I remembered that kind of hunger. The ghost of it echoed in my gut as I watched him tear into his food like he was worried somebody would take it from him.

I stifled a yawn. Probably should have ordered coffee instead of a beer. “What have you got?”

He held up his finger and pulled the bone from his mouth, meat sucked clean off. Jesus. Maybe the answer to Cassandra’s disappearance was because Paul ate her.

“Nothing,” he said through a mouth full of half-chewed chicken.

I stared at him. “You beeped me, called me here, to tell me you found nothing?”

He gave me look filled with indignant hurt that nobody over the age of sixteen can quite pull off. “Nothing is something.”

I continued to stare. “What the…” The waitress brought over my beer. I practiced Zen breathing. Slow and even. It wasn’t working. I tried rubbing the remaining sleep from my eyes. “What are you talking about, Paul?”

“It’s weird. I been asking everybody, real casual like, you know? Just like, ‘Hey, seen Cassie around?’ Nobody has.”

“It’s only been two days since you saw her at The Cellar.”

He looked at me like I was missing an obvious point. “Dude. It’s summer. We’re off from school. Only got a couple weeks left before school starts again. Somebody should have seen her somewhere. It’s not like she’s some computer nerd or one of those inside-kid weirdos reading Twilight and shit. She’s normally out and about. Hanging, you know?”

“I know.” He was starting to make sense.

“I mean, she’s not at home, right?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Shit, man, I’m not eating a retard sandwich, here. If she was home, nobody would be looking for her, right?”

Super. Outwitted by a kid with less hair on his lip than Jennifer Lopez.

“Am I right?” He asked again, pleased by his rightness.

“Right.”

“So, if she’s not home, she’s got to be somewhere, right?”

“Right again, Watson.”

“Who’s Watson?”

“Never mind. Go on.” Goddamn public education system costing me a punch line.

“Anyway, if she was anywhere, somebody would have seen her there.”

Despite his roundabout reasoning, the logic was solid.

“I mean, there’s only a few places where we hang out. You know, where we can hang out. She hasn’t been at any of them. She’s not anywhere. She’s gone, man.”

After lunch, I went back to the office and gave Ms. Reese a call rather than head home and take the nap my body craved.

“Kelly Reese,” she answered.

“Hey. It’s me.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Malone?” Frost began forming on the earpiece.

“First of all, I’d like to apologize for last night. I was out of line.” Two apologies in a week. A personal best.

I knew it wasn’t her fault she was being used. I also had the impression she legitimately didn’t know the depth of what was going on. Either way, I needed an ally. Barnes sure as hell wasn’t going to be sending me a cookie basket anytime soon.

Silence.

“I laid some shit on you that I had no right to.”

More silence.

“Listen, this is going to be a lot easier if we can at least be civil to each other. I may be a fucking goon, but I’m owning up. At least give me that much credit.”

A sigh. “You’re right.”