The Fedora Fandango: A Dieselpunk Adventure (The Crossover Case Files Book 5)

by Richard Levesque

“Great. I suppose that’s money I can’t afford to spend since I’m going to be laid up for a while, but it was still a good idea to have her in our back pocket.”

  I hadn’t kept Sherise up to date on the Elsa switcheroo I’d had as my back-up plan, and it was clear from her expression now that my conversation with Peggy had her confused, so I changed the subject rather than have to give her the whole story now. There would be time for that later. “I’m a little concerned about the fact that it’s the middle of the day and there’s apparently no one in the office minding the phone,” I said to Peggy.

  “Jed, I don’t know how to tell you this, but since the story broke this morning that The Sunsetters were both shot by the renegade Chief of Police, the phone’s been ringing off the wall.”

  “Because I got shot?”

  “Because you got shot by Buckman. And no one’s saying who killed the chief, so there’s a lot of speculation that it was you. On top of that, there’s your song on the radio, which has been playing on just about every station, even the ones that just cater to the symphony crowd. You’d better recover quick and hop this train while it’s still got a head of steam on.”

  I looked to Carmelita. “Do you think you could do some of the callbacks on a few of those? Get the preliminaries worked out so I can jump in when I’m out of here?”

  “You’d trust me with that?”

  “I would.”

  She looked a little chagrined.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t able to finish my last task. You had to kill Elsa and Buckman killed Hennigar.”

  “That’s all right. You still did all the preliminary work. It’s not your fault that things got messed up by outside forces, is it?”

  “I suppose not,” she said.

  “At any rate, this is your new task. Screen out the crazy ones who just want to talk about what happened in the tunnel. And then get the particulars from the handful that seem like they’ve got the most potential.”

  “And by ‘potential,’ you mean…?”

  I smiled. “Well, I certainly don’t mean cases that are easy to crack.”

  She nodded after a second, processing my vague instructions. “You want me to ferret out the ones who are most likely to be able to pay,” she said.

  “Yes. And not just able to pay. The ones who seem likely to be willing to pay. If we’ve got a whole orchard to pick from, I don’t want to waste my time on the ones who are going to try to nickel and dime me when I bill them. It’s going to take a little psychology on your part. You up to that?”

  “I can definitely do that, Jed. Thanks.”

  I turned to Guillermo and said, “Did Carmelita give you the little box I brought back?”

  “Oh, si,” he said. “That’s an interesting little thing.”

  “You’ll be careful with it, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “All right. Are you going to tell me what you’re so dressed up for?”

  “I’m going to take a little trip,” he said with a sly smile.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. Where to?”

  His only answer was to take off the fedora and hold it out so I could see inside. The sweatband bulged out a bit, and when I pulled it aside, I saw a net of wires and other components that looked all too familiar.

  “Are you serious, Guillermo?” I asked, alarmed.

  “Very. I get to see Elvira again. Well…not really see her again. But a version of her, yes?”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Then, before he could answer, I asked Carmelita, “Are you going with him?”

  “Of course,” she answered.

  “Guillermo, are you sure?”

  “It’s fine, lobo,” he said, putting the hat back on his head. “This will keep me safe.”

  “It’s not just that. You don’t think it will be a shock to see Elvira? And what about Carmella?”

  He shrugged. “Carmelita says Elvira told you that Carmella is…frágil. If Elvira thinks it’s not a good idea that I see her, well…then it’s not a good idea. As long as I see one of them, I’m happy.”

  “Well…I guess I can’t stop you, but…” I sighed. “Please be careful.” Then, to Carmelita, I added, “This is your new task, all right? Keep him safe and get him back here in one piece. Then start on those phone calls. You get me?”

  “I get you, Jed.”

  “Did Jetpack Jed ever come around?” I asked.

  Guillermo and Carmelita looked at each other, their glances betraying uncertainty.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “He started to regain a little bit of…personality on the way back to Guillermo’s house,” Carmelita said. “The rope held his wrists, but he tried using his feet on me.”

  “Oh no,” I said, guessing the rest.

  Carmelita shrugged. “What could I do?”

  “It’s only a broken arm,” Guillermo said.

  “Did you send him back?”

  “Yes,” Carmelita answered. “I know you told me I should send him through on the spot if he gave me any trouble, but I felt like it was more important to let Guillermo get a look at him before I did that, so I got him back to the workshop after I put him in his place.”

  To Guillermo, I asked, “Do you know what happened to him? Why he seemed so dazed?”

  “Just guesses. I didn’t have enough time to experiment on him.”

  “So, what’s your best guess?”

  He nodded toward the fedora on my head. “The net inside, it’s made for your brain. Mine is made for me. When the other Jed wore your hat…” He shrugged and then finished his thought: “It hurt his brain.”

  I nodded. “But not permanently?”

  He shrugged again. “Like Carmelita said, he came around a little bit. He still wasn’t talking like a regular person, though. He seemed…”

  “Confused,” Carmelita finished. “Disoriented.”

  “All right. Well…I guess he deserves what he got. Maybe he’ll end up all right back in his world. I suppose it was the fuss he made that caused you to be a little delayed in getting up to Griffith Park?”

  “Yes, Jed,” Carmelita said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right. It all worked out.” Putting my free hand gently on my chest, I added, “Mostly anyway.”

  She smiled at this and said, “Also, I think I figured out grief.”

  “Grief?” I asked, confused at first but then remembering our philosophical conversation in the cemetery a few days earlier.

  “Yes. I did a temporary re-programming where I blocked my receptors from registering Perdida so I couldn’t see or hear her. Then I typed a note saying she’d been hit by a car, and then I deleted the files so I wouldn’t know I’d blocked anything or written the note myself. Everything was on a timer, so it was all temporary, but…I missed her so much for those three minutes, Jed! It was quite astounding.”

  “Three minutes,” I said.

  “Yes!” she answered adamantly. “That was sufficient, I think.”

  I nodded. “Nice work, Carmelita. I’m glad you got that figured out.”

  Everyone else was smiling broadly. Peggy was the first to jump in, saying, “We should let you rest. Besides, I’ve got phones to answer.”

  “And I’ve got calls to return,” Carmelita said.

  “And they’re my ride,” Sherise added. She leaned forward for a kiss.

  “Thanks for coming,” I said. And then I added, “Could I talk to Guillermo alone for a minute?”

  Sherise squeezed my hand one more time, and then the three women in my life left me in the room with my genius compatriot.

  “You don’t want me to cross over,” Guillermo said when we were alone. He looked a little sad as he said it, and I guessed that if I had really insisted he stay in this world, that he would have complied. That wasn’t it, though.

  “No, Guillermo. You go. Visit with Elvira. You’ll like how she’s turned out, I’m sure, and she’s going to be pretty amazed to see you.”


  “What is it, then?”

  I sighed. “When I was in the tunnel last night, before Sherise fully came around, there was one more thing that happened. You remember I told you about the other Jed? The one I saw in my vision?”

  “The one who was building a crossover machine.”

  “Yes. That’s him. He succeeded.”

  He looked alarmed. “He crossed over?”

  “Yes. Came out of a portal just like the ones you and Carmelita have made. He’s the one who took the guns and the money before the cops got there. I’m just glad he didn’t spot the paralyzer on the ground.”

  “And you think he’s still here?”

  “Unless he’s got some way to open a portal without a machine. Or he’s got his own Guillermo or someone else in his world who’s going to open it for him at a pre-arranged time. But…I don’t think so. When I asked him what he wanted, he just said, ‘What you’ve got. Your world.’ That doesn’t sound to me like someone who’s planning on just looking around. Plus, the way he gathered up those guns and took the cash…he’s planning on staying.”

  Guillermo nodded. His old eyes looked sad. “That’s no good.”

  “I know. And I think it gets worse.”

  He sighed. “How?”

  “He said he’d see me around. That’s the same thing the Jed who kept hijacking me said.”

  “The one who made you do bad things.”

  “Or tried to. Now he’s here. And he knows about the machine. About everything, apparently. What do we do, Guillermo?”

  He shrugged. “Find him, I think.”

  “And send him back?”

  “He’s a smart one. It might not be so easy.”

  “Nothing ever is,” I said.

  We looked at each other in silence for close to a minute, Guillermo probably running scenarios similar to the ones my mind was playing out.

  Finally, he said, “Tell the detective.”

  “O’Neal?”

  “Si.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t do that, Guillermo. It would mean telling her everything else. The Roulette Wheel of Doom. Where I come from. All of it.”

  “She told you some secrets. About the boy. Other things.”

  Dietrich, I thought, but still I said, “This is too much. It’s too big. She’ll think I’m crazy.”

  “You rather she thinks it’s you when this other Jed robs a bank?”

  “I don’t think he’s going to be that bold.”

  Guillermo shrugged. “I don’t know, lobo.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh. It hurt. “Well, I don’t know either. There’s nothing I can do right now, though. Not until I get sprung out of here. Keep an eye out for anything strange, and we’ll see what can be done about tracking him down once all the dust from Griffith Park settles.”

  “All right, lobo. Get some rest now.”

  He reached out and I shook his calloused old hand.

  As he turned away, I said, “Tell Elvira I said hello.”

  “I will. And I promise I’ll be careful.”

  “Please do.”

  “See you soon, lobo.”

  As he crossed the threshold, I said, “See you around, Guillermo.”

  My words—spoken unconsciously and automatically—echoed in my mind after he was gone, crashing into a chorus of doubts that I tried to counter with strength and resolve. All the while, icy spikes coursed through my veins. It was a long time before I fell asleep.

  * * * * *

  The adventure isn’t over. Jed Strait will be back in Book 6 of The Crossover Case Files soon. If you want to be notified of the next release, make sure you sign up for Richard Levesque’s email list, follow Richard on BookBub, or subscribe to his blog.

  Author’s Note

  And so ends another adventure for Jed Strait. Thank you for coming along on this ride. I’ve been having a blast writing these books, and I’m very pleased to see that the reaction to them has been positive.

  Since the early planning stages of this series, I’ve known that there were going to be moments with multiple Jeds—something I started exploring in Book 4, The Jetpack Boogie. Now, that’s been kicked up to another level, and it’s been fun putting Jed in these situations and then watching him find ways to get out of them again. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

  There’s more to come, of course, and I hope you’ll stick around to follow Jed on the rest of his adventures. You can stay up to date on the next release by signing up for my newsletter, following me on BookBub, or subscribing to my blog.

  If you enjoyed The Jetpack Boogie, I would be most grateful if you would leave a review. As an indie author, reviews are a key part of my ability to get my books in front of readers, so if you could post even a short note about what you liked about this book, you would be helping me an awful lot.

  And don’t forget that if you sign up for my free newsletter, I promise not to bother you with anything other than notices about discounts on books and news about new releases. Plus, if you sign up, you’ll get a free copy of my short story anthology, Rough Edges, which isn’t available through any online retailers.

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  About the Author

  Richard Levesque was either born too late or too early.

  You decide.

  On the one hand, he’s consumed with writing the kind of stories Raymond Chandler might have come up with if he’d been interested in time travel and aliens rather than murders and femmes fatale.

  And on the other hand, he likes taking those noir-ish ideas and projecting them into the near future, a time where he imagines our technology has overtaken us and where the kind of integrity found among some of those detectives from old literary LA might still come in handy.

  When he’s not thinking of intricate plots for his characters to struggle their way out of, he’s busy teaching English at Fullerton College in Southern California, where he’s lived most of his life. He does not own a fedora or a trench coat, but he is a sucker for wet, dark streets, long, ominous shadows and a gritty soundtrack playing somewhere in the background.

  You can learn more about Richard and at his website.

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