I quick-stepped from Luke and circled to the other side of the bar where Dona and her friends reclined on stools. Hopefully they knew more than Marshall’s group. “So ladies, what’s going on?”
“Kind of quiet tonight,” said Dona. “Pickings are slim.” She looked across the bar and studied Luke as he slid back onto his stool. “You sure he’s not your boyfriend?”
I thought about lying for a second. “He’s my ex. Let’s pretend he’s not here.”
“That’s kind of hard to do,” said Dona. “He’s like a double-dip on the hottest day in August.”
“Dona, don’t push your luck.” I switched my scowl to a smile for her friends. They wore pony tails with fluffy bangs and heeled boots with their jeans and tanks. All in various colors, reminding me of a box of crayons.
“Did you hear any more about the truck hijacking? Anybody think that composite sketch looked familiar?”
Dona shook her head. “We taped the copy of the sketch on the door. Nobody recognizes him.”
“Too bad,” I said.
We watched as two men in ball caps asked Dona’s friends to dance. They giggled and paraded over to the jukebox to select a song.
“Dona,” I said. “Don’t you find it strange that there’s been hijackings in the surrounding counties but not our own?”
“To be honest, I don’t think much about hijackings. Why would I? You don’t normally see them around here.”
“True enough,” I said. “Don’t know why I’m thinking much about it myself.”
Two cowboys strolled to our corner of the bar. One tipped his hat toward Dona. The other looked me square in the eye and rolled his toothpick from one corner of his mouth to the other.
“Wanna dance?” he said.
I shrugged and looked him over. He was a rangy guy, without boots he was missing a couple inches on most men, but clean shaven and clear eyed. And young. “Why not.”
He took my hand and I followed him to the dance floor. He placed a hand at the small of my back, the other near my neck, and began steering me around.
“How old are you?” I said. “You look familiar.”
“Old enough,” he rolled the toothpick between his teeth. “You a cougar or something?”
“Do I look like a cougar? I’m twenty-six. How could I be a cougar?”
“That’s older than me,” he smiled. “I like older women.”
“Wait a minute. Did you go to Halo High? Are you friends with Cody Tucker?”
“I know Cody,” he said. “Are you one of his sisters? I thought I might know you. I’m Zach Stowe.”
“What are you doing hanging out at the Gearjammer, Zach? This crowd seems a little old for you.”
With his eyes on me, his toothpick took another trip across his mouth. “I’m saving up for truck driving school. I like hanging out with the guys. Learn a lot.”
“Good for you.”
He leaned me back in a dip. The lip of his hat brushed my forehead.
My back began to ache, but I kept my eyes on his. “Have you heard about the truck hijacking that happened yesterday?”
We popped back up and began another circle. “Sure. Everybody’s talking about it.”
“What do you mean everybody? Whenever I mention it, they say they’ve never heard anything.”
The toothpick sucked into his mouth and reappeared on his tongue. “That’s because some of ‘em are on the take. And we’re not sure which and don’t want to get anybody in trouble. Everyone also knows the guy you’re with is a cop.”
“Dangit,” I glanced over my shoulder at Luke, but Zach’s quick pivot had me looking back at him.
“You’re kind of cute,” said Zach. “Which sister are you? The wild one or the one that gets married all the time?”
“I don’t get married all the time. Just once and only for a minute.”
“Either way, you’ve been around.” He dipped me again.
“That line is going to get you absolutely nowhere.” I glared into his dark, hopeful eyes. “And no more dipping. It makes my back hurt. Tell me more about these guys on the take.”
“I figured it out from a few things they said. It’s risky, but you can make serious bankroll. They prearrange a place and time for the hold up. It looks like a hijack except you walk away with extra cash. They take your haul. Insurance covers the company. Everybody wins.”
“Everybody doesn’t win, Zach. You wonder why your insurance costs keep going up? Or why companies go out of business?”
He twirled me around and pressed me closer. “I didn’t say I plan to do it. You want to go out and see the backup moves I’ve been practicing? These guys will let me borrow a cab for an hour.”
A hand clamped on Zach’s shoulder and we stopped mid-twirl. I stumbled against Zach and looked above his shoulder.
“I’m cutting in,” said Luke.
Zach looked at me for approval, and I nodded. “I’ll talk to you later.”
He peeled himself off my body and tipped his hat. “Later, darlin’.”
His caustic glance bounced off of Luke. Taking my hand, Luke led me closer to the jukebox. Always On My Mind played and couples crowded the floor.
“That teenager was getting pretty friendly,” Luke remarked, wrapping an arm around my lower back. “Make you feel young again?”
I rose on my toes and wished I had worn heels instead of my boots so I wouldn’t have to crank my head back to look at him. “One of Cody’s friends. I learned something very interesting.”
“What’s that?” Luke bent to press his cheek against my hair and pulled me into his lean body, so he could hear me. Or to get to second base without trying.
“It seems everyone knows you’re a cop, which is causing an epidemic of amnesia. And I think you better talk to your truck driver again. His hijacking might have been preordained.”
“Shit.” Luke straightened, dropping his arms and my balance.
I teetered and plummeted to the cement floor, taking out the girl next to me with my windmilling arms.
“Hey.” She hollered and grabbed her date.
He followed us to the floor.
The girl, actually a good-sized woman weighing somewhere between one hundred forty and one hundred sixty pounds, fell on my splayed body. With unplanned accuracy, her man landed on top of his date. I felt the crush in my knees and pelvis, shrieked, and tried to kick. Which is impossible with three hundred fifty plus pounds flattening you to the ground. Above me, I could hear the muffled bellows of the woman. Her date’s stomach prevented her screams to be clearly understood.
The man placed his meaty hands on either side of my body and glared at me before pushing off. Leaving his date sprawled over me, he chose to draw back a fist and throw it at Luke. I watched from my ground level view as Luke pivoted to avoid the blow. The man followed through with a stumble, tripped over our bodies, and fell on top of us again.
Zach swam in my vision, kneeling next to me on the ground. “Miss Cherry, are you all right?”
I gave him a does-it-look-like-I’m-all-right look. “Get these people off of me.”
The fallen warrior scrambled up again and readied to take another swing at Luke.
“Ma’am.” Zach held a hand to the cursing woman laying on top of my body.
She raised her head, growled at Zach, then looked at me. The suggestions and names she called me were perhaps impossible to do, but intensely creative. Using my body as a cushion, she pushed back onto her heels and rose to her feet. Her date’s lunge at Luke landed her a hairs width from crushing my sternum.
I rolled onto my stomach, pushup mode, and eyed Zach. “Tell me when it’s safe to stand.”
Instead, he grabbed my armpits and pulled me across the sticky floor toward the jukebox. We hunkered against the glowing panels with our knees folded and watched the brawl. Our backs vibrated to Johnny Cash. I held a handful of torn leather fringe in my hand.
“This is why I shouldn’t wear skirts,” I said to Zach and allowe
d him to slip a comforting arm around my shoulder.
Zach tipped his hat back to give me a broad grin and a wink. He had lost his toothpick. “‘Cause everyone saw you’ve got on green panties?”
“Exactly.” I winced as Luke took a blow to the chin from a guy in a bass fishing t-shirt and Braves cap.
“You want to get out of here?” asked Zach.
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s weird. You being my brother’s friend and all. I should take that one home and clean him up anyway.” I nodded at Luke as he charged the bass fisherman. “But hey, if you hear anything more about the hijack, will you let me know?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Zach.
Then stole a kiss before I could sock him.
Sixteen
Lucky for Luke, a bag of convenience store ice, the kind best used for coolers, sat in my freezer, ripped and readied for drinks. The ice was one benefit of roommates. With a forty-year-old fridge, there was no automatic nothing, and my lazy kin didn’t like to bother with the fill-and-break trays. I threw a handful of ice in a washcloth and gave it to Luke for his chin.
He expressed his thanks and did his cop thing, a quick walk-through of my house, checking for the boogie man. Or more likely, Todd.
I pulled a long neck from the fridge, another benefit of roommates, and plunked into a kitchen chair to wait out his inspection. “They’re probably all at Red’s.”
He strode back in, holding the ice to his chin. “I haven’t been in a bar fight in about ten years.”
“You weren’t old enough to drink in bars ten years ago,” I handed him a beer.
He flashed his dimples and straddled the chair across from me, the bottle dangling from one hand. “Didn’t stop us back then, if I remember correctly.”
I wished he’d keep those dimples locked down. And the memories. “You think your truck driver lied about his part in the heist?”
Luke tossed the ice on my kitchen table and took a long draw from his beer. “He was shot and didn’t make it. I don’t think the charade would have gone that far.”
“Did you know your driver wasn’t supposed to be driving?”
“What do you mean?” The beer bottle halted before his lips.
“Trucker Joe said the real driver had a D.U.I. and your driver took the route at the last minute. Do you think the real driver had an arrangement with the hijackers?”
“The carrier told us it was a last minute change of drivers. Who’s Trucker Joe?”
“A big guy Todd and I met out at the rest stop on Tuesday night,” I grinned. “He has a little fur ball called Princess Yapadoodle. I think she’s a dog, but I’m not for certain.”
“Princess Yapadoodle?” Luke’s nose wrinkled. “You and Todd went to the rest stop Tuesday night?”
“I had just learned about Tyrone and wanted to see where it happened. I couldn’t help myself.”
“You never try to help yourself,” he sighed and scrubbed his curls with one hand. “And you never keep your mouth shut.”
“You can be very insulting sometimes.” I kicked off my boots and stretched on the chair.
He stopped mid-sip and set his beer on the table. “You think I’m insulting you?”
“Yes.”
“I meant it literally, not as an insult. You broadcast information faster than CNN.”
“That is also insulting.”
“But true.”
We stared at each other for a long moment. Long enough to set my nerves to tingle and my brain to partially shut down. I hopped from my chair and did three laps around the kitchen to encourage my blood to flow to other parts.
“So tell me more about this lawyer who wants his portrait done,” Luke said, turning in his chair to watch my tour of the kitchen.
I noticed his eyes remained on my legs.
“Rupert has horrible taste in everything but me and vodka. By the way, he knows Max Avtaikin. He said he bought my paintings to kick Max in the pants. How do you like that? Spending thousands of dollars just to tick someone off. Rich guys are crazy.”
“Your art cost thousands of dollars?”
“He bought three life-size oils from a gallery. He wants a full-size portrait of himself standing by a Christmas tree and maybe one of his family. We’re talking serious cash.” I wandered into my studio-turned-living-room to look at my rows of portraits hiding behind the big television. “That guy is nuttier than a giant pecan, but he’s richer than Croesus.”
“That’s great, hon’,” Luke followed me into the living room. “I guess you’ll be moving on to bigger things sooner than later.”
“Halo’s not a stepping stone for me, Luke. I love my town and my family.” My thoughts flashed to Pearl and Grandpa. “Most of the time, anyway. I had always hoped to settle here and have a family. Atlanta’s close enough to gallery hop.”
“You’d do better elsewhere.”
I turned to face him. “Your cousin Shawna...”
“Step-cousin.”
“Your step-cousin is trying her best to destroy me,” I said. “She thinks I have incriminating pictures of her, which I do not. And she’s using my art, the paintings Rupert Agadzinoff bought, to sully my reputation.”
“Sully your reputation?”
“Yes. Sully. As in blackmail me. She has threatened to broadcast the paintings in local churches if I don’t hand over these pictures. She had posters made to humiliate me. Do you know what will happen? She’ll ruin me. I’m not even allowed to eat at the farm now.”
“Don’t you and Shawna have more important things to worry about? She’s got her new art shop. You’ve got this big painting deal.”
“Gallery. Commission.”
“Let it go,” he said.
“You don’t realize how hard I’ve worked these past five years to establish my studio, Luke. You weren’t here. I finally had folks trusting me to capture their children and hunting dogs on canvas. It’s not about the money. If I wanted to scramble for gallery shows, I would have stayed in Savannah.”
I felt close to tears and I don’t do tears, so I stomped my foot. “In a matter of months, Shawna has wiped out everything I’ve worked for. Now she’s ready to deliver a pile driver to my career in local culture. And I don’t know why.”
“Ever since I moved back you two have been at each other’s throats,” said Luke.
“Before you arrived she barely acknowledged my existence.”
“So you’re blaming me for this?”
Luke could be such a man sometimes. I held my outrage in with crossed arms.
“I’m asking you if you know of any reason for your step-cousin to want to drive me from my hometown. Other than her usual snobbery, jealousy, and ugly antics.”
He stared at me for a long minute. “You’re being overdramatic.”
“Thank you for the interesting evening. I hope your chin heals quickly and goodbye.”
“Cherry, don’t be like that.”
He reached for me, but I retreated and bumped into the infernal television.
He shoved his hands in his back pockets and shuffled back a step. “Look, I don’t want to get involved with Branson business, whether it’s Shawna or anybody else. You know my feelings about my stepfamily. And now that I’m living back at home, I can’t get away from the Bransons, particularly Shawna. Don’t ask me to get entangled in your Shawna mess.”
“Max Avtaikin is willing to help me, but you aren’t.”
“What does Avtaikin have to do with this?”
“He’s the only one in town who will back my art. You see what Shawna’s done? She’s made me challenge my scruples by getting in bed with Max Avtaikin.”
“Getting in bed?”
“You know what I mean.”
We were interrupted by the sound of the kitchen door swinging open and banging against the wall. A moment later, my siblings invaded the living room. Casey and Cody ignored us to flop on the dead pheasant couch and shoot the TV with the remote. The TV blared on behind us.
&n
bsp; “Take it outside,” said Cody. “Y’all make better doors than windows. Can’t see a thing.”
“You’d think this wasn’t my house,” I said, fixing Cody with a determined big sister stare.
“You’d think right,” said Casey. “Move it along.”
Luke snagged my wrist. “Come on. It’s not worth the fight.”
We exited the living room to find Todd in the kitchen, leaning against the countertop. Pen in hand, he tapped a syncopated rhythm across a newspaper he had spread across the counter.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I picked up an AJC on the way home. Looking at jobs in Atlanta.” Todd tossed the pen on the counter and turned his back on the Atlanta newspaper.
“Why? I thought you got a job at the SipNZip. I know the graveyard shift is no fun, but I thought your layoff was temporary. It’ll tide you over and you won’t have to commute.”
“SipNZip called and said the job was no longer available.” Todd drummed his fingers against the cabinets behind him. “I don’t get it.”
I sucked in my breath. “How can they offer you the job and then take it back? Who do they think they are? Donald Trump? This is Halo, Georgia. That’s just plain rude.”
“Someone made a mistake,” said Luke. “Sorry to hear it, McIntosh.”
“Are you hiring at the station?” asked Todd. His drumming increased. “I’ll do just about anything.”
Luke shook his head. “Money’s tight everywhere. I’ll keep my eye out, though.”
“Luke, do you know who owns the SipNZip?” I said.
“Don’t go getting all self-righteous with the SipNZip, Cherry.” Luke folded his arms.
“They’re new. They don’t know how things work around here,” I strode to Todd’s side. “I’ve a mind to go in there and tell them what I think about their treatment of you.”
“It’s all right, baby,” said Todd. “I’ll get another job.”
“Rupert’s car is picking me up in the morning,” I said. “I’ll just swing by the SipNZip on the way out of town. A friendly inquiry.”
Hijack in Abstract (A Cherry Tucker Mystery) Page 11
