Page 47 of Cougar Point

Ronnie says, “You’ve made quite a haul, young lady. What are you going to do with all those?”

She answers, “It’s for a science project.”

“What kind?” I ask.

She gives me a sarcastic look, says, “I’m going to turn aluminum into money.” She then gives us the bird and continues on her way. She’s a poster child for celibacy.We should arrest the little brat for stealing a shopping cart.

We locate a side door and stand on each side of it, listening. Wait five minutes and then ten. How long does it take to see if Vinnie’s there?

I say, “Duke should be back by now.”

“I’m right here.” Duke has come up behind us holding three Styrofoam food containers. He pulls his shirt down but not before I see part of a plastic baggy sticking out of his waistband. I smell marijuana. Smoking dope must make him hungry.

“Well?” I ask.

Duke says, “Someone’s up there. I didn’t see who but I don’t think it’s Vinnie. Do you want your money back?”

It probably paid for the dope. “Keep it. If anything else comes to mind, call me.”

He leaves, but he’s not headed in the direction of the jail. Not my problem.

I take out my phone and dial a number. Ronnie’s phone rings and she answers with a quizzical expression. I say, “Keep this line open in case I need you. I’m going up.”

“I’ll go with you. He’s my uncle.”

“Exactly. You might hesitate if he’s armed. You’ll be able to hear everything and come if I need you.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

“You’ll know when I locate him. I won’t hurt him.”I will if he makes me.

I go to the back of the building and find a door standing open. The screen door is trashed and lying on the ground. This must be how Duke snuck up on us. I enter. Inside on the left is a door that leads to the market. Straight ahead is a set of rickety wooden stairs with smelly indoor/outdoor carpet nailed to it. I smell marijuana and something else. Like dirty sweat socks mixed with Lysol and bleach. I hope I’m not walking into a meth lab. As I reach the top of the stairs, I draw my gun. The smell starts to burn my eyes and I almost turn around to go down. Drugs are not my thing. But I hear someone moving around and I whisper into my phone, “Someone’s up here.”

There’s a hallway that runs left and right, with three doors along its length. I pick the door straight ahead and think,What do we have for our guest behind door number one, Johnny?If whoever is in there is armed, I have some lead bullets for them.

I put the phone in my pocket so my hand is free and push the door open. I brace my feet, push my gun in front of me and prepare to force the door open. My breath catches as a man steps out of the room right in front of me, holding a gun of his own. I ease up on the trigger recognizing the black suit and slicked back hair.

“What are you doing here?” Sergeant Lucas asks, and looks at my gun. We both lower and holster our weapons, and I notice Lucas is wearing latex gloves. “Well?” he asks.

“Same as you. We came to find Vinnie.”

Ronnie comes up the stairs holding a Kleenex over her nose.

Lucas looks around. “As you can see he’s not here. It doesn’t look like anyone has been here for some time. Did you check the address in Custer that you were given?”

First of all, how does he know we were given the Custer address? Secondly, how did he get this address? It wasn’t on anyof the records we were shown. As I suspected, Lucas was holding back. “Not yet. My guess is the Custer address is older than this place.”

“Is that how you do things in Jefferson County?”

He thinks I’m sloppy. That’s a good thing. “We were on our way there when one of the trusties at the jail called and gave us this address.”

“Duke?” He laughs. “Did you pay him?” When I don’t answer he laughs again. “He called me too. Just think what the boy could do if he put his mind to work on getting a job.”

Rebecca comes onto the landing. “Sergeant Lucas?”

“Miss Marsh, Rebecca. I thought they were taking you home?”

“I couldn’t stay in the car. I thought I might be useful.”

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