Page 33 of Rest In Pink

“Wow,” Peri said, dwelling on the magnificence of her accomplishment.

“Yeah,” I said, dwelling on how far Faye would go to get Peri and her money.

* * *

When we got back to the house, we told Anemone about the underwater triumph, and I said, “That pool is huge. I don’t know how she did it.”

Peri said, “Practice,” and Anemone laughed, and I went into the library and shut the door and hit Favorites 1 on my phone.

When Vince answered, I said, “Faye tried to take Peri from the club today. Scared the hell out of her. What can I do?”

“Margot left a notarized letter telling us that she’d given you and Anemone temporary custody and that Faye was not to take her under any terms. I’ll talk to her and explain the law. It’ll be fine.”

“You are a good, good man.”

“And don’t you forget it,” he said,

“And thanks for splitting Cash’s lip.”

“That was my pleasure. Truly.”

“Hey,” I caught him before he hung up.

“Yeah?”

“Did you ever see a movie calledShane?”

“Everyone’s seenShane. George was babbling about that last night at the station. You’ve never seen it?”

“No. It sounds macho. Let me suggest some girl movies you’ve never seen.”

“I can’t believe this. That movie is a classic.”

“Have you seenHis Girl Friday?The Desk Set?Bringing Up Baby?It Happened One Night? No? But Vince, they’reclassics.”

“We’ve got a movie night coming up, honey,” he said. “You pick one and I’ll pick one. We’ll start withHigh Noon. It’s everything you need to know about being the girlfriend of a hero.”

He hung up before I could say, “Why would I want to know how to be the girlfriend of a hero?”

So now I was going to have to watchHigh Noon. Well, if he was going to make me watch a damn western, he’s going to watch Grant and Russell make iffy journalism and great love.That’sa classic.

Then I remembered Peri. Fine, she could watch with us. Something appropriate for a child like her.

LikeTaken.

Chapter Fourteen

Bartlett had scrounged himself a working chair from somewhere in the municipal building, something that Marvin had never thought of doing, so I gave him a point for that. It was old and ratty, but stable.

“Quite the scrap last night, eh?” Bartlett said. “We handled that like pros, didn’t we?”

His only contribution was the one second delay as he got knocked over by Cash and then puked on before he crawled off to the side while George and Mac and I subdued everyone, at which point he’d bravely offered to handcuff any leftovers. Yeah, I wasn’t in the mood for his BS, especially since I’d spent the hours I should have spent peeling those stockings off Liz in booking and filling out paperwork after Bartlett claimed he didn’t know how to type. George hadn’t bought into his bullshit but he also hadn’t wanted Bartlett around, so he’d told him to get lost.

I put a piece of paper with a URL that Liz had looked up for me on his desk. “Go there. It’s a site that teaches you to type. That’s your mission for the day.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Bartlett said.

“Yeah, he is,” George said from the door of his office. He gestured for me to follow him and we went down the hall to the back of the station where our two holding cells were, with just a wall separating it from where animal control kept the wild animals they capture caged up, which I thought was appropriate. I hoped we didn’t have to arrest anyone else this morning because we were at capacity.

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