Page 53 of Cougar Point

I smile. Lucas downs his drink. Tammy goes to fill it again, and he puts a hand over it. “We’re hoping one of you can help us find someone.”

The jovial atmosphere is sucked out of the room like losing pressure in outer space. Tammy puts the liquor back on the shelf and turns with her arms crossed below her ample breasts.

I say, “We’re looking for Vincent Lombardi.” They look at each other like they genuinely don’t know the name. I say, “Vinnie.” This animates them.

Tammy smiles and takes the Jack from the shelf again and sets it in front of Lucas. “You should ’a led with that.” The rest of the men laugh like I’ve told a joke.

“Does he live here in Custer?” I ask.

Hank says, “You mean Vacuum Vinnie.”

“Vacuum Vinnie?” I ask.

Hank looks around at his audience. “We call him that cause he sucks liquor down like a vacuum. He gets the half-empty drinks and pours ’em into a beer bottle and takes it back to the camper when he’s out ’a money.”

The man next to him says, “And he’s always out of money.” They all agree.

“The camper?” I ask.

“What’s he done now?” Tammy asks.

Lucas says, “We’re not at liberty to say.”

Hank says, “It’s an ongoing investigation, then?”

Lucas nods, and a man at the end of the bar comes over to us, reaches in his back pocket and pulls out a leather wallet with a gold badge inside. “Thomas Tittle. I’m the town constable.”

The men all snicker, and Hank stands, puts his thumbs in his belt and mimics the constable. “Town Constable Tommy Tittle. You got a problem, it better be little.” Tammy hides a smile behind her hand. Hank says, “Go get ’em, deputy dawg.”

Tammy holds a hand up. “Be nice, Hank. Tom did get us a stop sign.”

Tittle says, “We had speeders coming through town and I got the county government to pay for a stop sign to slow ’em down.”

Hank says, “You mean Tammy convinced her friend on the town board to get it. She hoped it would divert some traffic to her tavern. How’d that work out, Tammy?”

Tammy gives him the bird and everyone chuckles again and pats Hank on the back.

Comedy night in Custer!

I finish my Scotch to be polite while Tammy tells us about the camper Vinnie crashes in when he’s on the run. The camper is gone and so is Vinnie.

“Your friend should be here by now,” Lucas says.

“Do you mean Detective Marsh?” I correct him. “Let’s go see.”

We step outside, and Ronnie is waiting for me with the windows up and the engine running to keep the air conditioning going.

“I’ve got some things to do,” Lucas says, waves to Ronnie, gets in his pimp car, and leaves.

“Find anything,” Ronnie asks as I get into my Explorer. I let her drive so she quits fidgeting.

“He’s not here, Ronnie. That’s something eliminated.”

“Yeah. I guess. What was Lucas like?”

“Lucas is an encyclopedia on the Marsh and Lombardi families.”

Ronnie raises an eyebrow. “I barely knew who Lucas was.”

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