Blabbermouth (A Brit Moran Mystery)
Page 27
“How long will you be in the neck brace, Barbara?” I asked.
The Stork couldn’t move her head, but her eyes shifted sharply in my direction. Her face flushed, as if her blood was boiling beneath the skin. “I wouldn’t be in this thing if I hadn’t tried to save your life.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I appreciate it. Hopefully, it’s only a minor fracture.”
Sheila switched the subject back to the case. “What about Julio Hernandez? Did you ever find out why he was in your hospital room and why he followed you to Vegas?”
“You weren’t here last night when I got back.”
“We had to rush Barbara to the emergency room.”
“Well, the police were here. They took my statement and left, then Forest Gardner dropped by. We had a few beers and discussed the case, detective to detective.”
Sheila rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, he filled me in. The night of my auto accident, Forest was working a vice case. When Marty called him to report that I’d crashed my car and was on my deathbed, Forest drove straight to the hospital. He didn’t stop to drop off the informant who was working with him.”
“Julio was working with the vice squad?”
“Keep that under your hat. I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody.”
“So it was Forest who sent Julio to Vegas?”
“That’s right. At the time, the police considered me to be the prime suspect in the Codger’s disappearance, but Forest stuck his neck out and vouched for my character. Meanwhile, I fled the state, which put him in an awkward position with his cynical colleagues in Homicide. Forest is a policeman first and foremost, so he sent Julio to Vegas to keep an eye on me. Of course, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw him in the hotel lobby.”
Susan entered the room with a coffee tray. “Did you tell Brit the good news?”
“They didn’t tell me,” I said. “What’s the good news?”
“Sheila and Barbara have agreed to stay until the trial is over.”
“But the trial won’t begin for months!”
“I know, but they’ll be called as witnesses. Of course, that’s just my excuse to get them to stay. It wouldn’t be the same around here without them.”
I turned my thoughts to the trial. I will be the star witness for the prosecution. My testimony alone should generate enough publicity to get this journal published, especially if I insist on referring to these pages to “refresh my memory” while I’m up on the stand.
When the public reads my journal and sees how I solved an impossible case, I would be surprised if my services weren’t in demand from here to Timbuktu. I’ll need a passport to handle the Timbuktu cases. The local cases should be a snap, once I get business cards and a car.
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My soulmate won’t return my calls. I’ve left her twenty messages. When I called today to leave message twenty-one, I got the machine as usual, except the greeting had changed. I listened to a man’s accented voice inform me that the Morenos weren’t available to take …
I hung up the phone, sick to my stomach. Cynthia had obviously reconciled with Sergio. The sly bastard must have moved back in and poisoned my soulmate against me. Worse yet, I think you’re only allowed one soulmate per lifetime.
I could count up all the misfortune I’ve suffered—one car crash, two abductions, three headlocks, and so on—but I prefer to count my blessings. It doesn’t take as long, and besides, it makes me feel better. For in spite of everything I’ve been through, I’m still here to tell my story. And that in itself is no small miracle.
I should be dead.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel Travis was educated at the University of Texas at Austin (B.S. in Advertising), and the University of Texas at Dallas (M.S. in Management and Administrative Sciences). His novel, Blabbermouth, was a Top 100 Semifinalist (out of 5,000) for the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. He lives in Dallas.
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FIRST EDITION
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events, establishments, and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, incidents or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Joel Travis. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22