Kenny removed his dress cap and pinched the bill into shape. He had bought the hat after dropping Bones off at the doctor’s. The lady at the store said it made him look as handsome as a man like him could expect. He’d blushed because he’d never been called handsome before, expectantly or otherwise. He’d paid twenty-five dollars for the hat that was decorated with a beer keg and the slogan I’D tap that. He hoped to God above the lady cop would find the hat as alluring as the saleslady had.
Step stood at the edge of the parking lot puffing away on a cigarette and nervously staring at his watch.
“Don’t know why you had to come,” Kenny said, standing next to his partner.
“ ’Cause we ain’t got time to finesse this thing. We got to get down to what this lady cop was doing at Laura Farrow’s quick as shit.” Kenny raised his chin up and watched the neon sign flicker as it simulated a pair of boots moving across a dance floor.
“Well that don’t come down to nothing but asking a question or two. I can do that my own self.”
Step shifted his eyes toward Kenny without moving his head. “You’d think a thing like that wouldn’t be hard, but someone with your challenges is liable to make a mess of it.”
“Challenges? What challenges?”
“You’re just too dumb to get out of your own way, Kenny. I love you like a brother, but you don’t seem to get what’s going on here.”
“I do so. I called up that pretty lady cop with the double-D’s to chat her up and get her off our trail concerning the shooting in Baptist Flats. She’s taken a shine to me, and you want me to get her extra sweet toward me.”
Step slapped Kenny on the back and said, “Challenges, old buddy. Challenges.”
Kenny sulked. “You’re better looking than me, Step. You’re skinny as a greyhound, but I’ve seen enough pornographic movies to know that makes your pecker look big. This lady cop gets enough time looking at us together, she’s liable to put that fact together in her mind. She’ll start seeing me as the fella with the tinier hammer and end up running off with you.”
Step groaned. “First off, beyond getting some answers from her, I ain’t got no interest in your lady cop. Second off, you ain’t got the first clue what a lady thinks is important. Don’t no woman look at a man and think to herself, I sure hope he’s swinging heavy down there. No, sir. They look at a man and think, I sure hope this fella knows what he wants and how to get it.”
Kenny’s face twisted into a frown. “That’s a tough riddle to work out, because about all I want is her naked and enjoying the hell out of me in the same state of undress…Well, near same state. I’d more than likely keep my T-shirt on to hide my belly. That’s a bit much for a gal to see on a first date.”
“Challenges,” Step said, shaking his head.
“I’m beginning to get the idea that’s an insult, Step.”
Step saw a set of headlights appear at the other end of the parking lot.
“At least give me fifteen minutes alone with her before you show yourself. That way I can get a jump start on your looks over mine.”
The car pulled into a spot and idled.
“I’ll do what you said. I’ll let her know that I know what I want and how to get it.”
The engine to the vehicle turned off.
“Only I don’t want to get into the sex desires right off. I’ll make like I want to succeed in some kind of work, something respectable like crossing the kids to school or running a bingo hall or something like that. If I make like I’m good with kids and old people, she’s liable to get the idea I’m a nice guy. That will work out double good for us. A guy who runs bingo for old people ain’t likely to shoot a fella outside a bar, and it might be something that gets her stripped down to her birthday suit.”
Step was thrown to see his cousin Terry climb out of the driver’s side. The off-duty Baptist Flats cop spotted the pair of closeout kings and nodded. He walked toward them with his hands in his pockets and his head down. When he got within earshot of them, he spoke without breaking his stride or looking in their direction. “Follow me, Step.”
“What about me?” Kenny asked.
“Dani is five or ten minutes behind me. Wait here,” Terry said.
Step hesitated before he turned to Kenny. “Fifteen minutes. She starts asking you about the shooting, you clam up. You don’t know nothing, you ain’t heard nothing. Just do what you do and play dumb.”
Kenny grinned and nodded. “Ima go with that bingo hall story. Crossing school kids might make me look creepy. I always think those guys are creepy. Don’t they seem creepy? I best go with bingo.”
Step gently tapped Kenny’s cheek and followed his cousin into the dance club. As soon as he entered the building, he spotted Terry standing at the end of the bar. Step quickly joined him.
“Don’t look at me,” Terry said. “Order a beer and stare straight ahead.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m Dani’s backup.”
Step motioned for the bartender and shouted, “PBR. Draft.”
“I ain’t a fan of this.”
“This?”
“This meet-up with one of my fellow police officers, a police officer who suspects you and chubs out there of gunning down two fellas outside a bar.”
“We’ll be in and out in thirty minutes.”
The bartender placed a plastic cup filled with PBR in front of Step. “Tab?”
Step shook his head and threw a five dollar bill on the bar.
“Change?”
“It’s two dollar draft ain’t it?”
“Yeah,” the bartender said.
“You think Ima give you a fucking three dollar tip on a two dollar beer?”
The bartender grimaced, counted out three dollar bills from his apron pocket, and slapped them on the bar.
When he walked away, Terry chuckled softly. “A man in your occupation needs to learn how to go through life wearing soft-soled shoes, Cousin.”
“I’m supposed to tip him out three dollars?”
“You’re supposed to be less memorable. You never know when you’ll need to be invisible.”
Step growled and gulped his beer. He hunched forward and watched the bubbles in the beer rise to the top. “You ever get the feeling everything’s shit?”
“What the hell you talking about?”
“The world is shit, Terry. You’re shit. I’m shit…”
“Goddamn, son. Who pissed in your boots?”
The front door opened, and Terry jerked his head around to see who was entering. A fat cowboy and fatter cowgirl appeared. “We best part ways. Just make sure nothing happens that requires me stepping in, and keep your partner on a short leash. He’s liable to salivate himself into an offense or two that requires legal solutions.”
“You don’t worry about Kenny. He’s ninety percent teddy bear.”
“It ain’t that ninety percent I’m worried about,” Terry said as he headed for the far corner of the bar.
Chapter 45
Dani threw the car in park and rummaged in her purse for her compact. She dug through useless item after useless item before finally finding it. She hurriedly pulled it out and flipped it open. The deputy had ditched the professional cop persona altogether. Her feminine assets were on full display. Kenny was a sloper that didn’t deserve her best. He was mostly erection, and there was only one way to deal with that: tease it until it pops.
She’d hastily gone to the local discount department store and picked out a dress that showed just about as much leg and cleavage as a bra and panties. When she’d stepped out of the dressing room and looked at herself in the full length mirror, she thought she had grabbed a child’s size. The store associate assured her that it was supposed to fit that way. Had a passing gaggle of teenage boys not ventured by and let out a series of catcalls and inappropriate propositions, she would have left the store with a different outfit. Their reaction convinced her it was perfect for a stiff dick like Kenny. So there she sat
in her car, falling out of a dress made out of less fabric than a hand towel, applying last minute touches to her makeup. She was deep in utter self-disgust when her phone rang. She answered without looking at the display. “Hello?”
There was a long pause before the woman on the other end asked, “Is this Dani Savage?”
“It is.”
“You’re a cop?”
“I am. Who is this?”
“I…I got a message from Laura Farrow.”
“Laura? Is she okay? What’s going on?”
“She looked okay to me. She just said she couldn’t call her own self because she’s got a couple of hawks watching her…she said you’d know what that means.”
Without thinking, Dani nodded in response. “What’s the message?”
“Says to tell you there’s another one.”
“Another one?”
“That’s what she said. She said a skinny man told her there’s another one. Said it just happened. Said you’d know what to do.”
“Another one?” Dani’s cheeks turned bright red as she understood the message.
“That’s what she said.”
“Who?”
“Who what?”
“Who is the other one? What’s her name?”
There was a pause. “I ain’t got no idea. I don’t even know if it is a who. She just said there’s another one.”
Dani was about to press the caller for more information when she heard a knock on her window. She jumped and nearly dropped the phone. The smallest sense of relief hit her when she saw Kenny smiling back at her through the glass. She smiled in return and held up a finger to signal to him that she needed a moment.
Kenny nodded and stepped back.
Dani quickly held the phone back to her ear. “Tell Laura I’ll be in touch…Hello…Can you hear me?” She looked at the display and bit her lip when she saw the word Disconnected. She shuffled through the call log and grew even more irritated when the number of the caller was listed as “private.”
She caught a glimpse of Kenny standing next to her car and grimaced. With a sigh, she threw her shoulder into the car door and stepped out onto the gravel parking area.
Kenny smiled broadly and his eyes opened wide at the sight of Dani in her dress. “Lord almighty, you look as pretty as anything I’ve ever seen.”
Dani blushed. “Oh, well thank you. I was afraid the dress might be a bit much.”
“A bit much? I’ll be honest, there’s hardly much to it at all. That’s the best thing about it…Well, I mean besides the body that’s wearing it.”
Dani slapped his shoulder. “You are quite the charmer, Kenny.”
He smiled awkwardly. “If speaking the truth is being charming, then you’re easy to charm there, Ms. Deputy.”
“Dani,” she said as she grabbed his arm.
He was baffled by her touch at first, but slowly realized she wanted him to guide her across the parking lot and into the dance club. He puffed out his chest and grinned as they made the journey. Heads turned as they walked. Some men hooted and whistled, others stared with slack jaws and wide eyes. The women even seemed to be impressed with the girl on Kenny’s arm. Of course, he was convinced the females were awestruck by how good he looked in his new hat.
Once inside the club, Kenny turned toward a table in the corner. He looked for Step and was happy to see his partner had hidden himself at the far side of the bar. The skinny closeout king nodded in Kenny’s direction and then tapped his wrist to signal to him that the clock was ticking. Kenny nodded back and then turned, horrified to see Dani sitting down.
“Damn it, you’re a fast sitter. I’d planned on pulling your chair out for you and such.”
Dani smiled playfully. “Now, excuse me for saying so, but I’m impressed that a man like you would even think to make such a move. I’ll give you points for knowing it’s a thing that’s done.”
He sat down. “Hell, if I get points for thinking it, I hate to know what I missed out on for not getting a chance to do it.”
A chunky waitress dressed like she’d just jumped off the back of a bucking bronco took their drink order and scooted off to the beat of the music.
Kenny wrestled with the uncomfortable silence between them before finally blurting out, “You like keeping the law?”
Dani smiled. “I like it just fine. Not many jobs where you can drive fast and carry a gun.”
Kenny fought the urge to tell her he had one of those jobs.
“What about you? What do you do?”
The chubby closeout king searched his memory banks for the lies he’d decided to tell her. “I cross kids.”
The deputy looked at her date like he’d grown a third eyeball on the end of his nose. “How does one cross kids, exactly?”
Kenny chuckled nervously. “What I meant to say is I cross kids from school to the other side of the street, so they won’t get hit by a car or nothing.”
Dani nodded. “Oh, you cross kids.”
“Yeah, right. And I own a bingo hall.”
“And bingo?” she asked, trying to sound impressed.
“Lot of old people like bingo, and I like old people. Just made sense to buy a bingo hall.”
The waitress set the beers on the table. “Twelve-fifty.”
“Twelve-fifty?” Kenny asked, sounding incredulous. “Wha’cha do, squeeze it out of gold?”
“Nah, sir,” the waitress smirked. “You said bring two of our biggest glasses filled with our best beer. This is them glasses with that beer. Twelve-fifty.”
Kenny shook his head, grumbled and then handed the waitress a ten and a five. “Shrink up the glasses and tamp down the quality for our next round.”
The waitress took the money and then said to Dani, “Ain’t you a lucky gal,” before walking over to the next table.
Kenny watched her walk away and said, “Don’t expect I’ll be seeing change.”
Dani sipped from her glass after saying, “You get down to Baptist Flats much, Mr. Kenny?”
Kenny shrugged. “Been there once or twice, mostly at night. Never seen the place during the day, come to think of it.”
“What goes on at night in Baptist Flats that needs your attention?”
“Business.” He gulped from his big glass and struggled to swallow the bitter brew. “Their best beer tastes a bit like mule piss, if you ask me.”
“You got bingo hall business or kid crossing business in Baptist Flats at night?”
Kenny stared at her as he tried to decipher her question. The realization came over him slowly that he had talked himself into a corner. “Neither. I dabble in this and that in between crossing kids and calling bingo.”
“You’re a regular entrepreneur.”
He studied her face to determine if she’d just insulted him. Satisfied that being an entrepreneur was a good thing, he raised his glass and winked at her.
“I’m surprised a catch like you ain’t attached,” Dani said, sounding as sincere as she could.
“It is a bit of a mystery to me, too. I ain’t figured out this whole trigger business.”
Dani’s eyebrow involuntarily arched up. “Trigger business?”
“You know that one thing that pleases a woman…not in a sexual way. Makes her forget the badness of life. In a still way.”
“Still way?”
“Yeah, that’s the way I understand it to mean. Quiets a woman in the head. Makes her at peace with the way of things.”
The deputy was momentarily speechless. She had not thought him capable of such deep thought. “You are full of surprises, Kenny Fable.”
He blushed before taking another sip of his expensive beer. His attention was quickly diverted when a young man, thick with muscles and topped with long flowing hair, pulled up a chair and sat next to his date. The heavily browed individual set an unsettling stare upon Dani’s breasts.
“Can I help you?” Dani asked.
The young man didn’t respond.
“Son,” Kenny said
, struggling to hold back his inclination to slam his glass of beer into the stranger’s head. “You’re sitting at the wrong table, casting your eyes on the wrong lady.”
“You’re pretty,” the young man finally said with a deep groan of a voice.
“Right as you are about that,” Kenny said standing, “Ima have to ask you to leave.”
The young man peered up at Kenny. “Now that you’re up, run and get me a beer, chubs.”
“You should move on,” Dani said to the young man.
He turned to her. “No fucking way. You’re the prettiest thing I’ve seen in a while. Way prettier than anything in his shithole, and sexier than anything at school. You and me are gonna get to know each other real good.”
“You go to school, do you?” Kenny asked with a smile.
“I thought I told you to get me a beer.”
“Where? That is, where do you go to school, I mean?”
The young man stood and towered over Kenny. “Knoxville.”
“Well, you’re far from home, ain’t you? High school?”
Laughing, the young man said, “College, hick shit. I’m the fucking Sam for the team.”
Kenny cocked an eyebrow. “Well, first off, Sam, you’re gonna have to apologize to the lady for your language, and second off, you might want to find this team of yours and join up with them. Dani and me are on a date.”
“Sam’s not my name, shit-for-brains. I’m the strong side linebacker for the football team. I crush fucks like you for kicks. Your date with Dani is over.” He ripped the beer out of Kenny’s hand and drank it in two gulps.
“Well goddamn. First you step into my time with Dani, and now you done stole six-twenty-five from me…”
“It’s okay,” Dani said, standing. “Let’s just go somewhere else, Kenny.”
The young man grabbed Dani’s arm. “I like you at this table. Kenny will be all right.”
Kenny moved around his chair. “You’ve worked up to something I was trying to avoid. I wanted to display my gentle side to the lady, but now Ima have to get ugly for your beat down.”
Savage Reckoning Page 18