Jerry handed Gus the keys to the old Toyota loaner car. Nick handed Jerry a thick envelope. “Thanks for your business. I guess saying stay out of trouble would be useless. Maybe don’t get killed would be better?”
“That’ll work, Jer. It’s not that we don’t like you, but Gus and I are trying to get out of the vehicular vanishing business. This should be our last one for a while. We’re actually leaving on a road trip back east if things ever settle down here.”
Jerry nodded and waved on his way into the garage. “Let me know how that works out for you two.”
“I don’t think Jerry believes we have a chance in hell of going on that trip,” Gus said, watching the shop door close. “He does know you pretty well. Do you think Carol’s dead, or are you guessing?”
“Carol was the one in contact with me. Brody would have never arrived to get the chip, and Carol would have never sent him without the feather. I bet she died with a little smile on her face like in the movie LA Confidential, when Kevin Spacey’s character Jack Vincennes mentions the imaginary name Rolo Tomassi to the corrupt Captain Smith – knowing he would tell the name to Guy Pearce’s character Exley, thereby screwing himself. I could imagine her with that little smile, knowing I’d kill Brody the moment he didn’t produce the feather. I’ll kind of miss her. Let’s get over to my house. We’ll drop the Toyota back here on the way to dinner. I’m starving. All these negative vibes are making me hungry. I hope Rachel and Jean didn’t get too upset when we weren’t there, and all they had was a short note. I figured it would be better to get this shit done without a phone trail someone could follow.”
“That is one cold ass movie reference. I’m sure Rachel and Jean loved the three word ‘be back later’ note of explanation.”
“You know, Guster… I thought that nap would do you some good, and keep you from being so damn cranky. I should have known better.”
“I’m hungry now. That makes me cranky too. That, and handling dead bodies all day.”
Nick settled into the passenger seat of Jerry’s old silver Toyota Corolla. “I think you need to sip a couple more to settle your ass down a little, Uncle Whiney.”
*
Rachel and Jean met them at the door with Rachel peeking around Nick at Jerry’s Toyota. “Uh oh. I told you Jean – there’s trouble in River City. How many casualties?”
“How dare you assume the worst, woman,” Nick said with his usual credible outrage.
“How many?”
Nick turned to Gus as they entered the house. “See what I have to endure. I am constantly under suspicion for something. She’s teamed with her acolyte, Jean the Assassin, to sweat me into revealing some imagined shortcoming.”
“How many?”
“One… but it wasn’t my fault. Uncle Whiney here laced in so many negative vibes from his Uncle Whiney bad karma hope chest, they caused a perfectly good transfer to fail miserably with consequences. I was barely-”
Rachel covered his mouth as Jean had begun giggling. “Do we have to run for it?”
“Nope. We’re calling in the Texas Rangers, the FBI, the Boy Scouts, and our favorite long arm of the law, US Marshals Tim and Grace. First though we’re going to Crabby Jim’s. I’m starving and Uncle Whiney’s off his meds. We need sustenance.”
“What do you think, Uncle Whiney.”
Gus pointed at Jean. “Don’t you start on me too, you little wart. I’ll drive home and see if Tina wants to come with us. We’ll meet you in the Wharf parking lot at 6:30, okay?”
“See you then, Gus. We’ll take care of dropping off the Toyota on our way.” Nick watched his friend walk out to his car with mixed feelings. He was beginning to wonder if Gus was getting a little frayed around the edges. Maybe it is time for the Guster to take a step back.
“You’re thinking Gus has had enough of us, huh?”
Nick grinned over at Rachel before he shut the front door. “Probably just me. Too many surprises and extenuating circumstances lately. I think maybe Gus is rethinking this whole sidekick thing.”
“I don’t want Gus to leave,” Jean said.
“He’s not leaving. We’ll still be walking you to school with Deke, and sitting at the Point or our deck together. Gus might want to take a break from our latest business ventures. I don’t want him out of our lives, but I think if he continues partnering with me, he might disappear on his own one of these days.”
“Dad… does he think you’d kill him if he left?”
Nick put his hand on Jean’s shoulder. “I don’t know, Jean. If he does, there’s nothing I could say that would convince him otherwise. I wouldn’t, and you have my word on that. I hoped you wouldn’t believe I’d do anything to Gus no matter what happens. I’ve told him as much, but I’m afraid Gus has seen a lot more of what I am the past month than he suspected.”