Page 18 of Bait and Switch
Last night, or possibly this morning, he’d had a series of uncomfortable, murky dreams involving Peter. But now that his eyes were open, the images were quickly fading, and Gabe wasn’t awake enough yet to know if he was glad that he wouldn’t remember them.
Dammit, Peter, what the hell happened?
Yesterday’s unfortunate discovery forced itself to the front of his mind. Peter was dead and Gabe had been the one to discover his body on the sailboat kitty-corner fromThe GoldenTicket.There wasn’t even a frying pan to jump out of; he was in a whole potful of boiling water with no way out.
His phone started to buzz again.
“Fucking hell,” Gabe rasped.
Rolling over but managing to keep himself mostly under the covers to avoid the chilly fingers of the morning, Gabe patted around on the window ledge for his phone.
“’Lo?” He cleared his voice and tried again. “Hello?”
“Mr. Karne, when you didn’t answer, I thought you might have skipped town.”
Unfortunately, he was now awake enough to recognize the smug voice that belonged to the fuck weasel, Chief Deputy Spurring. Gabriel wasn’t sure who he disliked more, Deputy Spurring or Chief Rizzi. They seemed to have been cut from the same mold, just at different times.
“Nope, I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.”
“That’s good. We need you to come in and go over your statement. This morning.”
“Again?”
Gabe wanted to argue that he’d told them everything—and he had, mostly. Instead, he reluctantly agreed to show up at the station in an hour. After all, he had expected them to call him in again, but it didn’t mean that he’d been looking forward to it. And the fact that he’d been there less than twenty-four hours ago didn’t bode well. Ending the call, he immediately rang Elton.
“Since I promised I’d call you, I’m calling. They want to talk to me some more. I’m supposed to get down there as soon as I’m dressed. Might as well get this over with.”
A black, spindly legged spider with a body the size of a dime emerged from wherever it and its hordes of relatives had been secreting themselves. Gabe looked around for something to smash it with. The only thing they seemed to understand was violence. He grabbed the paperback he’d set aside a coupleof nights ago, but when he turned back, the damn thing had disappeared. Dammit.
“Did they say anything specific? And are you ready for me to call a lawyer?”
Not yet. He scanned the floor looking for the creature; however, he might need the services of a courageous spider killer.
“Sounds like they just want to go over my statement for the third time. Which, since I’ve told them the truth, won’t be difficult.” A flexible truth, but it had been the truth.
“I’ll drive you over.”
“Elton,” Gabe said, “I appreciate the support, I really do, but you had a root canal yesterday, and they just want to ask me questions. I can drive myself. No lawyer yet.” He was also tempted to add that he was forty-four, not five.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” the stubborn old man said, his words followed by the definitive click of the call ending.
“The fuck.” Gabe groaned again as he sat up and pushed himself to standing. He’d never had someone so determined to look after him. Not even his mother. It unsettled him. He wasn’t sure if he could allow himself to get used to it. What the hell did Elton see in him that no one else did? Ranger Man certainly didn’t seem to find anything worthy about Gabe.
It’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself, Chance.
Fine. He didn’t like Lundin anyway.
A full eleven minutes later,Gabe shivered as he huddled into his parka and tromped down the pier toward the lot. He hadn’t had time to shower but didn’t want to make Elton wait. The new shower system in the boat was better than nothing, but the tank took a bit too long to warm up. The last thing he wanted that morning was a cold shower before spending timewith his new friend Spurring and the rest of the gang. Besides, he couldn’t possibly smell worse than the interrogation room.
Tugging on the lock and chain, Gabe ensured the gate was secured behind him before crossing to where Elton’s truck idled. It was only then that he registered that Casey’s Wagoneer was not there. Where was Ranger Man? Maybe he’d heard him leave very early, but if so, he’d slid right back into a deep slumber. Wonderful, the next person to be murdered would be him because he slept like the dead.
Bad choice of words, Chance.
Last night, after Elton had dropped him off, Gabe had considered knocking on Lundin’s door, butThe Barbarahad been locked up for the night—and had adon’t bug mefeel to it. Instead, he’d climbed aboard theTicketand spent the rest of the evening obsessively going over every memory he had of Peter, wondering what he’d missed that might point to why he’d shown up on Heartstone.
By the time he’d fallen asleep, he hadn’t come up with a thing.
“I brought you some coffee,figured you might not have had the time to make any,” Elton said as Gabe opened the passenger door and climbed inside.
