Page 15 of Carnival Queen

“Yeah. Geez, mister, it’s just a damn float.”

“It’s someone’s private property. You destroyed these floats, and now they have to pay to rebuild them.”

“I-I didn’t destroy anything.”

“I’m supposed to believe you didn’t destroy these a few nights ago and were back to do the same tonight?”

“No! We weren’t here, I swear!”

“Sit your ass down,” said Bull. He zip-tied his hands to the chair, shoving him against the wall. Maybe, just maybe, a bit too hard as his head cracked against the wall.

“Ow! That hurt!”

“It’s supposed to, dumb ass. Who sent you?” The younger man said nothing. Then they heard the door open and someone spilling their guts to Angel.

“…then we said we’d just mess the floats up a bit and get out. We weren’t going to hurt anyone.”

“Yeah, yeah, dickhead,” frowned Angel, shoving him to the chair beside his buddy.

“What did you tell them?”

“All of it! Have you looked at them?”

“We won’t get paid,” he whispered.

“Paid by who?” asked Bull. Both men looked at him and shook their heads. “Boy, you better answer me, or I will rip your throat out.”

“We don’t know. That’s the truth. Some guy approached us while we were at the Bengal Casino and said he’d give us five hundred dollars if we’d just break into this warehouse and wreck the floats.”

“What did he look like?” asked Angel.

“I don’t remember,” said the young man, looking down. Bull gripped his shoulders, shoving them back against the chair, painfully stretching the muscles and tendons.

“Boy, you’d best start remembering, or I’m going to hit you so hard your memory will truly be impaired going forward.”

“I-I didn’t get a great look at him. He came up beside us and said not to look at him. He said to take the money, break into the warehouse, and tear apart the floats. He was about my height, older, maybe fifty or something.”

“Yeah, that’s pathetically old,” frowned Angel.

“He had on a nice suit.”

“A nice suit. Was there anyone with him?” Both men shook their heads and then looked out the window to see the police car. “Looks like your ride is here.”

“Please don’t have us arrested,” said the first man. “I’ve got a girlfriend and a kid.”

“Should have thought about that before,” said Bull. “If you suddenly get a powerful memory of something else, you let those nice policemen know, and we’ll come talk to you.”

“Bull. Angel, nice to see you, fellas,” grinned the officer.

“Nice to see you, Reliq. Still with the force, I see,” smirked Angel.

“That’s why they call me Reliq the relic. I guess my folks named me appropriately. We’ll book these two into the parish jail. If they’ve got priors, we’ll let you know. I don’t recognize them, but that doesn’t mean anything. All seems senseless to me. I mean, they’re damn parade floats, not new cars.”

“Thanks, man.”

Bull and Angel watched them leave and then stared at one another, turning to look at the floats.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Bull.

---