Page 8 of Justice for Radar

“Sure thing. Can you give me the preliminaries?” he asked.

“Not on this one. Just come on in and bring some Scooby Snacks – I’m almost out.”

“Copy that, brother.” He disappeared off the mic and then clicked back on. “Marlin says a couple hours or more yet.”

“It’s no rush,” I told him. “Just need your eyes and reason on this.”

“You got me curious,” he came back, laughing. “I’ll be there, with beer. You’re cooking.”

“Fair trade. See you when you get in – over and out.”

I hung up the handset and sighed. Staring at the legal pad and switching screens, I started to hunt.

4

Justice…

A light knock fell at the door, and I sucked in a long shuddering breath as though breaking the surface after a long, deep dive. I took off my glasses and sat up a bit straighter as the door opened and Lucia poked her head in.

“Hi,” she said, and I smiled and knew it was a bit wan, but it was the best that I could muster.

“Hi,” I murmured back.

“Dad’s cooking dinner,” she said, jerking her head in the direction down the hall where the kitchen resided. “Told me to come get you, said that you couldn’t hide in here forever.”

I folded my hands in my lap and looked back to my laptop’s screen and the sleek lines I’d been drawing on my drawing tablet, restating things for this historical epic’s cover.

I cleared my throat and stared at the screaming confederate soldier on my screen, finally making a face. It just wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to. He didn’t look angry. He looked like he was having an orgasm or something. I sighed and realized lunch had been a long time ago and eating would probably be wise. I would either get a second wind or I would be done for today and either way was honestly good with me. This was the third cover I was working on today and honestly; my creative reserves were running on empty. Emotional trauma did that to a person, I guess.

“Yeah, I should probably give it up,” I said, and she leaned down and looked at the screen over my shoulder and laughed.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s the look that you’re going for with his face.”

“Not at all.” I sighed. “Maybe I just need to find a different head altogether.”

“Sounds a little morbid when you put it that way,” she said with a slight giggle, and I smiled.

“I Frankenstein’s Monster these things all the time.” I gave a stretch and winced as stiff muscles protested, and things acted like they wanted to pop but just wouldn’t give.

“You’ve been sitting way too long, and this chair sucks,” Lucia said judiciously, and I smiled.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” I said gently. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to even just be here right now. What you and your family are doing for me…”

“Pssht!” She waved me off. “It’s nothing, really. It’s nice not being just me and my dad for a minute.”

I smiled, nodded, and pushed to my feet, wincing some more.

“You need to move more,” she said. and I nodded.

“Apparently,” I agreed, following her out into the hallway, closing the door behind me out of a habit borne of living in a hotel for the last couple of weeks, the slight pang of anxiety ofdo I have my room key, hitting and fading almost immediately.

No need for a room key here, dummy, I thought to myself. The ingrained habit of incessant berating over the smallest mistakes follows me, a demon on my back, up the hallway.

I wonder if Billy noticed… if that’s why he abandoned ship just as soon as he could?

“Hey! There she is!”

I flinched at the boisterous greeting and shrugged my shoulders, ducking my head, forcing a laugh.

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