Page 86 of The Hard Way

I suppose that was the plan—bringing Jeremy to this place and giving him two really terrible options—turn himself in or die. And then Thor, the hot, dangerous good cop, arrives with a third option that they meant for him to take all along.

“You only have six hours to do this thing,” Thor said. “Six hours or we tell the cops and they’ll match your prints. And if you run, we’ll know.” Again the wince. “And we’ll find you. And we’ll kill you. In fact, I’ll personally fucking kill you. And if we hear you’ve told anybody about this conversation?” He brought his face near to Jeremy’s. “I’ll kill you even slower.”

I could see in Jeremy’s eyes that he heard this. Not only heard it, but recognized it as the truth. Like some universal bad guy communication passed between them. Bad guy ESP.

Message sent and received.

Chapter 14

Six hours later, Thor and Odin and I were in Mary Martha’s Attic, one of the kitschy little antique stores near the Cobblestone Supper Club.

Thor was up front talking with the proprietress of the store. I was looking through a box of old-fashioned collectible spoons. Odin was paging through a decrepit art book. Rembrandt. The early sketches complete with a dusty old book smell. He loved Rembrandt—not the big famous paintings but the minor sketches.

“Buy it,” I said.

“Yeah.” He said it in the way people sayyeahwhen they really mean,that willneverhappen.

Of course he couldn’t buy it. We were back on the run now. You didn’t get a five-pound book when you were on the run.

Odin’s phone pinged. A text from Zeus:On my way over.

Zeus had been trailing Jeremy, giving us periodic updates. Our lawyer had arrived at Jeremy’s home a few hours back. They headed to the Baylortown cop shop soon after. Zeus had been waiting outside since then, just to make sure Jeremy didn’t back out.

Once the plea deal was official, things would move quickly.

Thor came back with matching cupid statuettes. “What do you think?”

“Um…” I said.

“Not for us. For Margie. In penance for the one we broke during the pillow fight. Georgina up there told me that Margie’s come in a few times and tried to talk her down on them. Because they’re fucking outrageously priced.”

“But not for rich fucking bank robbers,” I said.

“I still want to hit First National,” Odin said.

“That wouldn’t be suspicious,” I said. “To come solve the mystery for my sisters and hit the same bank again. That wouldn’t be a flashing frame of neon lights around our connection to my sister and my identity. ”

“Wantto, not will, goddess.” Odin put down the book and picked up an ugly glass spoon with a flower painted on it. “I really just want to hurt Hank,” he confessed. “I just do. I look at him and what he’s been doing to these people in town, what he did to you, and I want him to hurt. What if his lawyer gets him a light sentence? Once he’s inside, it’ll be too late to fuck him up.” He picked up a slim, long copper spoon. “Just go to his door and put my fist through his face.”

Thor put a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll pay.”

Of course, it wasn’t Hank who needed to pay. It was Mahfoud the sadistic prison warden who needed to pay—and probably never would.

But Thor kept his hand on Odin’s shoulder because we were in it together. We got through things together. “He’ll pay,” Thor said again.

Odin took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said softly, accepting Thor’s calming attitude…for now. But I knew we’d all be relieved once Hank was arrested and out of Odin’s reach. A very large silver lining to Hank’s arrest that he’d never imagine in a million years.

“Come on,” I said. We went up to the counter and bought the cupids and a thank-you card, and paid extra for the woman to gift-wrap it. We headed to the Cobblestone to have a drink and work on writing the card.

Dear Margie,I wrote, then paused and tapped the pen on the table. “What to say to the woman who thinks we’re sexed crazed insurance investigators?”

Thor and Odin had quite a few ridiculous ideas. In the end, I just thanked her for welcoming us into her beautiful home and apologized for ourexuberance.

“Exuberance,” Thor snorted, but I thought it was a good word.

Zeus showed up soon after and ordered a drink and the frog legs like the freak he was.

“Well?” I said.

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