Page 25 of A Winter of Discontent for Henry Milch
The concrete had been cleared of snow. There were no ice patches, mainly because of the portico and that they’d used a lot of salt. There were chunks of salt here and there but no ice. There were snowbanks on either side that didn’t look capable of telling us anything. There were footsteps everywhere surrounding the concrete, and since we’d only had a dusting overnight they could easily have been customers from the day before.
Then I noticed Melanie waving at me from the other side of the glass doors. She was motioning me around to the side door. I said to Detective Lehmann, “Excuse me. I’d better get the baby inside?—”
“One second. Before you go, I should tell you that the Ruperts have come up with a new defense.”
The Ruperts were my second or third cousins, Rupert Beckett and his son, Rupert Beckett. They’d murdered my second or third cousin Sammy Hart, and tried to murder me. Yeah, I know. It’s a bit of a soap opera. Anyway, they’d already confessed but then recanted and were now considering less truthful options.
“They’re saying that Sammy made advances toward them, and they killed him in self-defense.”
“He made a pass at them, both ofthem, and so they killed him?”
“That’s what they’re saying.”
“Even if that were true, which I doubt that it is, ‘no thank you’ works pretty well.”
“It gets worse.”
“How? How does it get worse?”
“They’re saying you made a pass at them too.”
“Okay. No. No, no, no. I did not make a pass at both of them or either of them in my grandmother’s backyard during a snowstorm with people in the house a few feet away.”
That’s the part where they tried to kill me.
“And… and this is the important part. Neither of them is attractive enough for me to make a pass at in any situation ever. There’s no planet anywhere where that would happen.”
“Their lawyers found out about your drug use.”
I was tempted to erupt like Mount Vesuvius. This place! Could no one keep a secret? Or at least keep a secret about me. Didn’t I have any right to privacy? But I did not erupt. Instead, I took a deep breath, and said, “I need to get the baby inside now.”
I walked around the building, down a neatly shoveled path and walked in the side entrance. Melanie opened the door for me. Before saying hello, she asked, “Who’s this?”
I put the baby carrier up onto the bar. Then slipped the blanket down from her face. I may have woken her because she gave me the dark scowl that always reminded me how much she looked like my grandmother.
“My sister, Emerald,” I said, and I touched the back of my fingers to her cheek. She felt warm. In a good way. “Sorry, I couldn’t find a babysitter.”
I was trying not to say my baby sister since it was pretty obvious she was a baby. Maybe I’ll start calling her my baby sister when she’s thirty.
“She looks sweet,” Melanie said. The baby looked angry to me, like she hadn’t appreciated the blanket over her face. But maybe Melanie was being nice. I dug around and found the plastic keys for Emerald to chew on. I offered them to her, and she snatched them out of my hand. Well, baby-snatch.
“Awwww… aren’t you just the best brother. Taking care of your sister.”
I smiled modestly. I absolutely agreed with her, but I wasn’t going to say so. “Areyouokay?” I asked with deep sincerity . It seemed an appropriate question.
“I’m fine. I’m not the dead person.”
That made me look over to the front door. From this angle I could see the front of the corpse. I couldn’t help saying out loud, “Oh crap. I know her.”
After Dr. Blinski was murdered in September, I, like many others in the county, tried to get my Oxy from Ronnie Sheck. I’d stood behind Roberta, Bobbie outside his trailer while we waited in line. She talked. A lot. What did she say though? She gave me a tip about a doctor down in Cadillac, a nearly two-hour drive.
“You do?” Melanie asked, looking up from my sister who she’d been shaking the plastic keys at. “You know Bobbie?”
Oh crap. I did not want to tell that story. “Yeah, I’ve seen her around. Small town.” Thinking it a good time to change the subject, I said, “Detective Lehmann said he interviewed you.”
“Pretty extensively.”
“And that’s why you called Ham?”
