Best Served Cold

by Susan Rogers Cooper

  He put the bullet in an evidence bag, put the bag in the crime-scene kit and put the crime-scene kit in the back of his pickup. Then he drove on to Nick Permeter’s house. Three dogs and four men seemed to be waiting for him in the front yard. On closer inspection, only two of the humans were actually men – the other two weren’t much more than boys. But the one in the middle he recognized as Nick Permeter and the one next to him, standing a couple of inches taller than his daddy, Anthony reckoned to be the oldest son, the one who like to beat up on women.

  Anthony stopped his pickup and got out, pulling his uniform Stetson onto his head, his gun holstered and his badge riding his belt. ‘Mr Permeter?’ he said, looking at Nick.

  ‘What?’ Nick asked.

  ‘I need you to come with me back to the sheriff’s department.’

  ‘What the hell for?’

  ‘Got a few more questions,’ Anthony said.

  ‘Go ahead and ask ’em,’ Nick responded.

  ‘No, sir. That’ll be up to the sheriff. I need you to come with me peaceful.’

  ‘Or what?’

  ‘We do it the hard way,’ Anthony said, his hand resting on the butt of his gun.

  Nick laughed. ‘You gonna shoot me?’

  ‘No, don’t think so. But I might shoot one of your dogs.’

  ‘Hey, fuck you!’ yelled one of the younger boys.

  ‘Great language you’re teaching your children,’ Anthony said.

  ‘I’m teaching ’em not to take any shit off the likes of you!’ Nick said, then spat on the ground in front of Anthony.

  Anthony was rethinking his answer to the question: ‘You gonna shoot me?’ He sorta wished he could.

  ‘I need you to get in the truck, Mr Permeter,’ Anthony said, his voice almost stuck on the ‘mister’.

  ‘You don’t even have a squad car. How do I know you’re planning on taking me to the sheriff’s department? How do I know you’re not gonna take me out in the woods and shoot my ass?’

  Anthony smiled. ‘I guess you don’t. But you have my word I’m taking you to the sheriff.’

  ‘Don’t take that nigger’s word for nothin’, Daddy!’ the big one next to Nick said.

  ‘Don’t get him any more riled up, son,’ Nick said. Then to Anthony, ‘How ’bout one of my boys follows us in one of my cars?’

  Anthony nodded. ‘Sensible compromise. Shall we?’ he said, ushering Nick Permeter to his pickup while all three of the boys ran to an old Dodge Charger with the fading paint job of a Confederate flag – just like the Dukes of Hazard. No surprises here, Anthony thought.

  ‘I hate running out on you and Mama,’ Dalton said as he stood in the doorway of his mother’s hospital room.

  ‘You’re not running out,’ Holly said, stroking Dalton’s cheek. ‘You’re important to the department. They need you. Mama and I are safe here. Safer than going back to Longbranch.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess,’ Dalton said.

  ‘Besides, Milt said Jean’s on her way up here with Johnny Mac and Petal and we’ll all be staying in some motel rooms that the county’s paying for.’ She grinned at her husband. ‘And as soon as possible, I’ll move Mama there and we’ll have a grand old time!’

  ‘You think?’ Dalton said.

  ‘I know!’ Holly said, lifting herself up on her tiptoes to kiss Dalton on the lips. ‘Go, baby. They need you.’

  ‘Tell Mama—’

  ‘I know,’ she said and gently shoved him out the door, closing it behind him. She didn’t know how much good he was going to do the sheriff, what with worrying about Mama and the baby. Dalton was a worrier, that was sure, and there was very little she could do about that. But she’d call him every couple of hours to assure him that all was well. That’s about all she could do.

  She walked into the room and looked at her mother-in-law. Her face was pale except for the bruises, which stood out something awful on her wan face. Holly sat down in the chair next to the bed and took Mama Pettigrew’s hand in hers. ‘You’re gonna be OK, Mama. Dalton needs you and this baby needs you, so you gotta be OK. Because I don’t know much about babies, and I’m gonna need you too. You’re the only mama I got.’ And with that she burst into tears.

  Having grown up in the foster care system, it was true that Dalton’s family was the first she’d ever known. And, although Mama Pettigrew could sometimes be a pain in the ass, she knew that, in her own way, the woman loved her. And now that she was going to bear her first grandchild, that love was more evident than ever. This baby was going to need a grandma. All babies did. Holly didn’t have grandparents to give her baby. There would only be Mama Pettigrew. And that would be more than enough. If she made it through this hell.

  ‘Holly?’ came a small voice from the bed.

  Holly quickly wiped her tears away. ‘Mama! You’re awake!’

  Mrs Pettigrew squeezed her hand. ‘You’re OK? The baby’s OK?’

  ‘Yes, Mama. Everybody’s fine. Dalton had to get back to the shop but he’s fine too. You cracked your head on the window.’

  Mrs Pettigrew reached up and touched her head. ‘It’s all bandaged up?’ she asked and Holly nodded. Then Mrs Pettigrew got that look on her face, the one Holly knew could definitely mean trouble. ‘They didn’t touch my hair, did they? If they cut my hair, I’m gonna sue—’

  Holly rubbed the older woman’s hand. ‘Your hair’s fine, Mama. They didn’t have to cut anything.’

  ‘Well, they better not! I pay eleven dollars and fifty cents every week to get Rosalie Barber to fix my hair and I’m not gonna have some nurse come by and mess with it willy-nilly.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Mama. I won’t let ’em,’ Holly said and smiled.

  ‘See that you don’t, young lady.’

  ‘Yes, Mama.’

  ‘And Holly …’ Mrs Pettigrew started, her eyes getting droopy.

  ‘Yes, Mama?’

  ‘No more tattoos, OK? Not while you’re pregnant,’ the old lady said.

  ‘Definitely not, Mama.’

  ‘Good girl,’ Mrs Pettigrew said, closed her eyes and began to snore softly.

  Petal Hopkins looked a lot like her mother: dark brown hair, pale freckled skin and blue eyes rimmed with long black lashes. Unlike her mother’s sensible short cut, Petal’s hair was long, almost to her waist, and thick with waves. Johnny Mac Kovak thought she had the prettiest hair of any girl at Will Rogers Middle School. In fact, lately, he’d been thinking she was possibly just about the prettiest girl in the whole school. Even prettier than Miss Swan, who was his art teacher last year and who he had a pretty big crush on. But that was over. Miss Swan got engaged and Johnny Mac realized the futility of a May/December romance. But Petal. Hell, he’d known her his whole life. How come he was crushing on her now? She was like a sister – sorta. But not really.

  The two sat in the back seat of his mother’s SUV playing MadLibs. They were whispering and giggling because they were using bad words to fill in the blanks. Neither wanted his mother to hear that. He liked it when Petal giggled. It made his head spin a little.

  He even forgave her for the dumb name. It wasn’t her fault, after all. Her parents named her. There was this thing in her mama’s family. Jasmine, her mama, was one of five sisters. The others were named Rose, Lily, Daisy and Violet. Aunt Jasmine told his mother in front of him that she thought the next generation should carry on the tradition but Johnny Mac knew one of Miss Rose’s boys and his name was Trent. Shouldn’t it have been Tree, or Branch, or Bark, or something? Didn’t seem fair that Petal got stuck with her name.

  ‘How much longer, Aunt Jean?’ Petal asked from the back seat.

  ‘Look out the window. You can see the city coming up,’ Jean answered.

  Both kids stretched out their seat belts to look out of the front window.

  ‘Wow,’ Petal said.

  ‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ Johnny Mac said. ‘Houston’s bigger.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Oh, yeah. Lots. We went to Houston when we went on th
at cruise ship.’

  ‘I’d like to take a cruise one of these days,’ Petal said with a sigh.

  ‘Well, if you do, I hope it’s calmer than the one we went on.’

  His mother glanced at him through the rear-view mirror, thinking she couldn’t agree more. What with a plethora of murders and Milt’s heart attack, that cruise had been anything but calm.

  ‘So where we staying?’ Johnny Mac asked his mother.

  ‘The county okayed three rooms at the Holiday Inn but I’m upgrading us to a suite at the Regents Hotel, the hotel your dad and I stayed at on our anniversary.’

  ‘How many bedrooms does a suite have?’ Petal asked.

  ‘This one has a large living room with a fold-out sofa for John, a bedroom with a king-sized bed for you and me and a connecting room with two queen-sized beds for Holly and Mrs Pettigrew.’

  ‘Cool,’ Johnny Mac said, but could feel himself blush even as he said it. He turned his head to stare out of his side window.

  They got to the hotel and Jean drove the car up to the front and parked it under the portico. Johnny Mac and Petal looked at each and mouthed ‘wow.’ Then a guy in a red jacket came out with a shiny gold cart and began unloading the stuff out of the back of the SUV. Petal grabbed Johnny Mac’s hand and squeezed. Getting close to his ear, she whispered, ‘That’s a bellhop! I’ve seen one on TV.’

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ he whispered back, reminding himself to tell her later about the steward on the cruise ship that would leave them towels shaped like little animals. She’d like that.

  With her crutch under one arm and the other around Petal’s shoulders, Jean ushered the children into the hotel, smiling to herself as they oohed and awed over the chandeliers and other over-the-top accoutrements. Jean knew they’d be talking about this at school for weeks. Poor little country bumpkins, she thought with a smile.

  The room was even better than his mother had described, Johnny Mac thought. It had a kitchen with a small fridge loaded with all sorts of nuts and chocolates. There was also booze, but he knew better than to try to grab any of that. His mother was quicker than he thought she could be, though, coming up behind him and closing the fridge door.

  ‘Everything in there, even the tiniest piece of chocolate, costs an arm and a leg. If you want something we’ll go to the store and get it. We eat nothing out of this fridge that we don’t put in there ourselves. Got it?’ she asked, eyeing both children.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Petal said while Johnny Mac just nodded his head in mute agreement. He wondered how they’d know if he took just one tiny piece of candy but, as his dad said, he’d been treading on thin ice lately so he’d better watch his P’s and Q’s. He didn’t know what P’s and Q’s were but he knew what would happen if that thin ice broke.

  He and Petal wandered into the bedroom to look around, then found the bathroom with its huge sunken tub. ‘Wow! It’s like a swimming pool!’ Johnny Mac said.

  ‘More like a sauna,’ Petal said. Her parents had a hot tub so she knew about that.

  Johnny Mac looked at her and felt himself blushing again. Jeez, he wished he’d stop doing that. It was the height of dorkdom.

  ‘But there’s no reason we can’t wear our swimsuits and get in!’ Petal said, grinning at him.

  Johnny Mac could feel himself falling in love.

  Inez Pettigrew woke up again and felt her hand being held. She looked over and smiled at Holly, that silly little girl who’d won her boy’s heart. And maybe a little bit of hers, too. But she felt something – or somebody – squeeze her other hand. Carefully she turned her head, hoping to see her son. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t Dalton. Instead it was her sister Mildred, sitting there all high and mighty, looking like the cat who ate the canary, staring down at Inez like she thought her being in that hospital bed was somehow her fault.

  Inez pulled her hand away from Mildred’s. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, Dalton called me to say you got hurt, and I couldn’t let my big sister be lying in some hospital bed without me coming to check on her.’

  ‘I’m not your big sister, Mildred Maxine! I’m two years younger than you, even though you’ve been trying to forget that fact for nigh on eighty-some-odd years!’

  ‘I said you were my “big” sister, Inez Dolores! Not older. I mean, you been outweighing me by some big numbers since you was thirty years old.’

  Inez Pettigrew turned quickly to her daughter-in-law. ‘Can you get this she-devil out of here? I cannot believe you and Dalton were trying to send me to spend time with the likes of her! What were you thinking?’

  Holly had no answer for that. This was her first time meeting Dalton’s Aunt Mildred as she hadn’t – as Mama Pettigrew said – seen fit to show up for her only nephew’s wedding. And she was beginning to see Mama’s point. The woman was – well, Holly didn’t like to speak ill of people in general but, hey, she thought, you gotta call a spade a spade and a bitch a bitch. Aunt Mildred sure fit the latter category.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere, Inez! I’m here to take care of you and bring you back to Topeka with me. We’ll have a grand old time with me pushing you around in your wheelchair,’ Mildred said.

  Mrs Pettigrew turned on her daughter-in-law. ‘Wheelchair? You didn’t say anything about a wheelchair! I thought it was my head that got hurt!’

  ‘Yes, Mama,’ Holly said, stroking the old lady’s shoulder. ‘That’s all that got hurt.’ Turning her eyes like daggers on Mama’s sister, she said, ‘Mama doesn’t need a wheelchair and I don’t think she’s going to be going home with you.’

  Mildred rolled her eyes. ‘Inez isn’t in her right mind now, what with the head injury and all, and I’m sure not listening to the likes of you! My boy John William saw you at the sheriff’s department last year and he told me all about you! You and your tattoos and your pierced this and that! At least you got your hair a natural color now! My boy John William said that when he saw it, it was purple or pink or something awful like that!’

  Mrs Pettigrew pulled herself up in the bed. ‘So that’s why you didn’t come to the wedding! You know, I never did tell you this but Daddy always said you were a prissy-like brat!’

  ‘Well, you did too tell me that! Whenever we had a fight! And no, Daddy never said that! Not ever! See?’ she said, looking at Holly. ‘She’s not in her right head!’

  ‘I’m right enough in my head to tell you that your boy John William is gay! Bet you didn’t know that!’ Inez Pettigrew all but shouted.

  Mildred stood up. ‘That’s an awful thing to say! How dare you?’ She held her hands up and wiped them against each other. ‘That’s it! I wipe my hands of you! I don’t care if you get in a hundred hospital beds, I’ll not be coming by to check! I no longer have a sister.’

  ‘That’s true enough,’ Mrs Pettigrew said with a grin, ‘but you still got your gay son!’

  Mildred was out of the door in a flash. Holly had been looking from one sister to the other for a while. Now she came to face her mother-in-law. ‘Is it true? Is John William really gay?’

  ‘Oh, hell, honey,’ Inez said, patting Holly on the arm. ‘I got no earthly idea.’

  Considering the fact that Nick Permeter was coming along peacefully, Anthony decided not to handcuff him to the inside of his truck. He did check his rear-view mirror frequently to see if the next generation of Permeter brothers were still following, and not getting so close they could ram him. He wouldn’t put a hijacking beyond the Permeters. But they got through Longbranch and out the other side to the sheriff’s department with no problems. Anthony parked in front so that they could all go in through the public front doors.

  Anna Alvarez saw them coming and met Anthony on the public side of the bullpen.

  ‘Need some help?’ she asked, checking out the three younger men.

  ‘You might want to keep an eye on these guys while I talk to their dad. That OK with you boys?’ he asked.

  The elder brother leered at Anna and said, ‘No pr
oblemo.’

  Anna rolled her eyes and indicated the two benches in the waiting area. ‘Sit,’ she said, and waited while they did so. Anthony was already on his way back to the interrogation room with Nick Permeter.

  ‘So,’ said the still-leering elder brother, ‘what’s a hot babe like you doing in this line of work?’

  ‘I enjoy arresting guys that piss me off. And you’re about an inch away from it,’ she said, turning her back on the trio and going to the bullpen.

  ‘Hey, spunky broad. I like spunky broads.’

  ‘Likes to cut ’em down to size anyway!’ said one of his younger brothers and the other laughed.

  ‘Fuck you!’ the elder said.

  ‘It’s against the law to use obscenities in the sheriff’s department,’ Anna said, having no idea if it really was or not.

  The elder crossed his arms over his chest and stared out of the glass front doors.

  Inside the interrogation room, Anthony said, ‘So we’ve been having a bit more excitement around here.’

  ‘Like I give a shit?’ Nick said.

  ‘Just need to know where you were at certain times.’

  ‘Where’s my lawyer?’ Nick said.

  ‘I have no idea. Where is your lawyer?’ Anthony asked with a grin. ‘This that same ex-cousin-in-law?’

  ‘Fuck you,’ Nick said.

  ‘Nick, you have a very stunted vocabulary. Has anyone ever told you that? Like your last teacher? Fifth grade, right?’

  ‘OK, I don’t have to sit here and take this shit from the likes of you! I’m outta here!’ Nick said and stood up.

  Anthony stood up, too. ‘You’re making me arrest your ass. I don’t want to do that, Nick. But you’re a material witness so—’