Page 130 of American Hellhound
“Ghost can’t be happy about that.”
And here was the clinch, all ready to be delivered. Julian had set her up better than if he’d been in on the scheme. “Well, he’s worried about Knoxville, you know,” she confided, and heard her voice get a little theatrical. She had a feeling if she looked across the table, Ava would be trying to hide a smile in her glass. “He and the boys really pride themselves on being Robin Hood and his Merry Men around here, looking after the city.” She lowered her voice yet again, but saw two of the students straining forward to hear, unabashed. “Doing the things law enforcement can’t and won’t.”
“Oh yeah,” Julian said, nodding. “The Dogs are such a huge part of Knoxville.”
“Exactly. And a new club, a bunch of outsiders trying to line their pockets – probably bringing drugs and porn and God knows what into town with them – doesn’t sit well with Ghost at all. He’s worried.”
“Of course,” Julian said.
“I’ve talked with Vince – Lieutenant Fielding with the PD – and he says they’re having a really hard time digging up good leads on these people. The force is obviously very concerned.”
“Obviously.”
“Dad’s trying to see if anyone around town has heard or seen anything,” Ava said. “He’s trying to get a hotline set up. Info he can pass along to the police.”
“Sometimes people are hesitant to talk to the cops,” Maggie said. “Afraid they’ll get in trouble. Guilt by association and the like.”
“People feel more comfortable coming to the Lean Dogs,” Ava said. “He wants to make sure they have every opportunity to play their part in keeping the city safe.”
Julian nodded, expression concerned and serious. “My,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything about this new club, but we’ll sure be on the lookout, don’t you worry.”
“That would be wonderful,” Maggie said, touching his arm for emphasis.
“Do you have a number for the hotline?” he asked. “We can hand it out to anyone who’s interested.”
Since they’d stopped at Kinko’s on the way over, she already had a stack of cards in her purse. She handed one over and he scanned it seriously before he slipped it in his apron pocket.
When he finally headed back to the kitchen, Maggie sent a wink across the table to Ava.
She winked back.
~*~
The trick to spreading gossip, Maggie had learned, was to drop it in the right ears. The big box chain stores were always a dead end. It was best to hit the local boutiques, the hardcore locals whose families had lived in Knoxville for five generations, who loved the city like a living thing. Craftsmen, artists, the heads of book and social clubs. By ten-forty-five that morning, they’d hit up all the most important gossips – the ones Maggie was on speaking terms with, anyway. Some had seemed more outwardly interested than others, but all had gotten that fever-gleam in their eyes: blood in the water, good story to tell.
“This time tomorrow,” Maggie said as they turned into Dartmoor, “everybody in the city’s gonna be on the lookout for the Dark Saints.”
“You’re scary good at this,” Ava said, head leaned back against the seat; Maggie could tell her eyes were closed behind the lenses of her shades; the sun falling through the car windows was warm, soothing.
“Lots of training, lots of practice,” she said lightly, though her stomach twisted. Thinking too hard about the training part of it always brought up old cotillion memories she’d rather stay buried.
“Oh, hey, speaking of,” Ava said as they parked in front of the central office. Ava’s truck was next to them, and through the office windows, Maggie could see that Mercy was holding Millie in his lap, Cal coloring madly at the desk. “Grammie came by the house yesterday.”
The words were a bucket of cold water dumped over her head. She kept her voice neutral, she thought. “Really? What for?”
“To deliver the typical casual insults.” Ava turned her head to look at her, gaze unreadable behind her sunglasses. “And to check on you.” She bit her lip. “Actually, I, um, told her you were pregnant.”
All the breath gusted out of her lungs on one deep, shaky exhale. Here she was, a grown woman in her forties, married, co-head of a household. But the mention of telling secrets to her mother sent her spinning back to the old days. “How’d she take it?”
“She was shocked, I think. But she seemed, I dunno, maybe I imagined it, but contrite almost.”
“You definitely imagined it.”
Ava made a face. “She seemed genuinely worried. I told her she should get in touch with you…in the midst of overstepping my boundaries and giving her the business.”
Maggie snorted. “Good for you.”
They went into the office to find Cal in the middle of explaining his drawing – something sloppy and green that looked vaguely like an animal – to his daddy in rapid-fire detail. Mercy, to his credit, nodded along with interested “uh-huh”s and “yeah, I see”s.
