Garland nodded and looked at the water pitcher.
Brit reached for the large hospital cup and held the straw to the man’s parched lips. Garland took a sip. When he swallowed, he flinched in pain. An echo of pain hit Brit’s chest.
The constant beeping filled the moment of silence, then Garland spoke. “I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to find a piece of evidence that might help. But all I got is a general description.”
Brit moved closer. “We got a match on the bullet. It’s connected to another case.”
“The cop killer?” the man asked.
Quarles shook his head. “Not that case. But the guy’s wanted in connection to three murders.”
“I guess he’s pissed I’m not number four.” The trooper tried to smile, but it fell flat.
Brit smiled for him. “I bet so.” Hesitating, Brit asked, “What did this guy look like?”
“Guys. There were two of them.”
“Two?” Quarles’ voice radiated the surprise Brit felt.
Garland flinched as if something suddenly hurt. “Yeah. The driver stepped out of the car. I started telling him to get back in when I saw the other guy. The driver was blond, five ten, heavy, two hundred or more. Didn’t see the other guy. I don’t know which one fired.”
Brit digested the information. “Nolan Bright.” He looked at Quarles. “Stan and Nolan must be in on this together.”
~
Cali stood in her class room chewing on her thumbnail and studied the roses. They’d arrived fifteen minutes ago.
She’d been scared to look at the card. What if they’d been from Stan? They hadn’t been. Now she had an hour, her conference period, without conferences, to sit and question the wisdom of waiting to call Brit.
The door to her class squeaked open. Tanya pranced in, smiling when she saw the roses. “Good news, bad news.”
“What?” Cali asked.
“Good news.” Tanya pointed a finger at Cali. “He enjoyed last night. Bad news is he has zero imagination. Roses are so overdone. He should have found out your favorite flower or at least sent you something original. I got an orchid.”
Cali frowned, but refused to let Tanya’s opinion dampen her appreciation of Brit’s gift. “I think they’re sweet.”
“You would be that old fashioned.” Tanya scooted up to the desk. “I’ve got ten minutes, so give me the middle of the road version with some juicy details and cut the boring stuff.”
“Me?” Cali leaned back in her chair. “What about you? You were late this morning. And you got an orchid. So?”
Tanya smiled. “Okay, I’ll go first. Eric came over yesterday after you left. We spent the day biking and having a picnic at the park. Then we went to his place for dinner.”
“And?” Cali tried to raise her eyebrow the way Tanya did.
Tanya leaned in. “And I never went home. Let’s just say we’re no longer as horny as we were.”
Cali laughed. “Details.”
“Well, it was fabulous. No, it was…”
Leaning back in her chair, Cali finished Tanya’s sentence. “Mind spinning, out of this world, a little embarrassing, but you’d do it over again a thousand times.”
“You too, huh?”
Cali sighed. “Yeah.” She bit down on her lip and looked at the clock, wishing it was after lunch so she could call Brit. When she glanced back, Tanya studied her.
“Okay,” Tanya said. “You got the I-had-yummy-sex grin, but your Charmin blues are saying something else. What’s up?”
Cali blinked her Charmins at her friend. “Nothing.”
“Liar.” Tanya leaned forward. “Come on. What happened?”
“It’s crazy.” Cali dropped her elbows on the desk. “Really crazy.”
Tanya continued to stare. “I’m going to guess this has something to do with your dreams.”
“So you agree. I’m losing my mind.”
“No,” she snapped. “What happened?”
Cali took a deep breath and decided to spill the beans. Really spill them, just toss them out on the floor. “This morning, in my dreams, Mom told me not to tell Brit about the calls from Stan until after lunch. Then I saw an image of Brit getting shot and one of Nolan’s face.”
Her friend’s mouth fell open. “You didn’t tell me that Stan called.”
“He hadn’t. I didn’t know he had. Not until I got here this morning. He called twice and even left a number.”
“Oh, shit. That is spooky. What did you do?”
“I called Brit. I was going to tell him because I don’t believe that these dreams mean anything. But he didn’t answer. And so I hung up and didn’t leave a message. I told myself if he called back I would tell him, and if he didn’t then I wasn’t meant to tell him.”
“You didn’t call Stan, did you?”