by Thomas King
“Cooley shot him.”
“Mom’s kind of pissed that you got me shot.”
“I didn’t get you shot.”
“I told her that, but she’s still mad.”
Claire didn’t look up from her magazine. “When you two are done, let me know.”
“How you feeling?”
“It hurts like hell,” said Stick. “I may sue that bastard.”
Claire put the magazine down. “Sheriff Hockney is just down the hall. He wants you to stop in when you get the chance.”
“He probably wants to bawl me out for not catching Traynor.”
“I can’t believe she was behind the murders,” said Claire.
“Anybody buy any of the condos?”
“You won’t believe it,” said Stick. “Ora Mae sold fifteen of the expensive ones.”
“Before or after the shootout?”
Stick’s face lit up with a big grin. “After,” he said.
“It’s not all good news,” said Claire. “Now we have to find another computer firm. It’s going to set the project back at least two months.”
“Hell,” said Stick, “that’s not bad news.”
“What did she want?” asked Claire. “Why did she choose this reserve?”
“I’ll explain everything when we have more time.”
“You mean like late at night?” said Stick. “Like in bed?”
Problematic though it was, Thumps liked Stick better on death’s doorstep. Thumps looked at Claire. “How much longer does he have to stay in the hospital?”
“At least four days.”
“What are you doing tomorrow night?”
“Hey,” said Stick. “Knock it off.”
“Nothing,” said Claire. “Nothing at all.”
“What are you doing right now?”
Claire smiled. “Why?”
“We could practise for tomorrow night.”
“You guys are sick,” said Stick, and he turned up the volume on the television.
Duke was lying in bed, but he wasn’t asleep. “Hey,” he said. “Hear you’ve been causing trouble again.”
“That seems to be his calling in life,” said Claire.
“How come you let her get away?”
“She had a gun.”
“So did Beaumont.”
“Thanks for sending the backup.”
“For all the good it did,” said the sheriff. “How the hell did you know it was Traynor?”
“Beaumont might not have been the sharpest needle in the haystack, but he wasn’t stupid enough to leave the cushion that was used to muffle the gunshot in his townhouse.”
“Man,” said the sheriff, “that is one cold woman.”
No, Thumps thought to himself, just smart.
“By the way,” said Hockney, “you making a living from your photography yet?”
“Hand over fist,” said Thumps.
“’Cause if you get tired of staring at mountains and rivers, there may be a deputy’s job open.”
“My darkroom’s safer.”
“Suit yourself,” said the sheriff. “I hear Clarence Fellows is looking for a new position, too.”
The cafeteria was closed, and the coffee machine in the hall was broken. The perfect end to the perfect week. Thumps and Claire walked outside and let the cool night air wash over them.
“I know where we can get coffee,” said Thumps.
“When did you learn to boil water?”
“I’m a good cook.”
“Let’s stick with coffee,” said Claire.
Overhead, the sky was black and bright. And for a moment, in spite of his best efforts, he was on that beach in California where Anna and Callie had been found, lying in sand and starlight.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
Thumps looked up at the night canopy one last time. Somewhere under those stars, Virginia Traynor was winging her way to a fortune in stolen money. And somewhere a serial killer was walking the beaches of a distant coast, looking for his next victim.
“You think Traynor will get away with it?”
“Maybe.”
And somewhere under those same stars, Thumps DreadfulWater would be waiting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent, is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, scriptwriter and photographer. His second novel, Green Grass, Running Water, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. He is also the author of the acclaimed novels Medicine River and Truth & Bright Water and the bestselling short-story collection One Good Story, That One. Thomas King is a Professor of English at the University of Guelph. DreadfulWater Shows Up is the first title published under the Hartley GoodWeather pseudonym.
COPYRIGHT
DreadfulWater Shows Up
Copyright © 2002 by Dead Dog Café Productions.
All rights reserved under all applicable International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 978-1443-40359-7
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Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
GoodWeather, Hartley
DreadfulWater Shows Up
ISBN 0-00-200510-7
I. Title.
PS8563.083449D74 2002
C813’.6
C2001-902516-5
PR9199.4.G66D74 2002
HC 987654321
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