“Yeah. You know who we’re talkin’ about?” Tex asked.
Winnie looked at Tex then her eyes scanned all of us. “What now with Jeremiah? I had some boys come talk to me earlier this week about him. I don’t know anything and I don’t want to know anything. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. I haven’t seen him in months and I like it that way.”
I couldn’t blame her.
Shirleen grabbed me and pulled me forward. “See this girl here?”
Winnie nodded, her eyes wide as she looked at me.
“Well, while Jeremiah was rippin’ you off, he was also rippin’ off my girl Ava. Stole her money and her dead auntie’s jewelry. A little while ago she got herself a man who found out this little piece of ugly history. He’s the kinda man who doesn’t like that shit much and went lookin’ for payback. Jeremiah felt the heat, got angry and, a coupla days ago, took it out on Ava. You get what I’m sayin’ to you?” Shirleen asked.
The wary hardness went out of Winnie’s face and it went soft as she gazed at me. “Oh honey,” she whispered.
“I’m fine,” I told her, smiling just to prove my point.
“You don’t look fine to me,” Winnie said and I could see the concern in her eyes.
“No, really,” I promised quietly, got closer and knelt down by her chair.
She looked down at me. “Was it your man who came by earlier this week?”
“Probably,” I said.
“Which one was he, the Native American or the one with the mustache?” she asked.
“The mustache,” I answered.
She smiled and reached out a hand to me. I took it and she squeezed.
“He’s cute. Drives a Porsche, looks good in it too,” she told me then went on. “He’s got a great mustache. Most men would look all kinds a fool with that mustache but he works it real fine. Real fine. Seems a good sort. A whole lot better than Jeremiah.”
She had that right, all of it.
“Right now, he’s also kind of angry,” I fibbed. It wasn’t exactly a lie, more a significant understatement. “After Noah… or, sorry, Jeremiah beat me up a couple of days ago, Luke’s payback turned to retribution. I’m trying to find Jeremiah before Luke does and turn him in to the police so Luke won’t do anything gonzo and get himself into trouble,” I said.
She shook her head and squeezed my hand again. “Seems to me Jeremiah could use someone metin’ out gonzo retribution but I’d hate to see your man get himself into trouble. I’d like to help but, like I said, I haven’t seen Jeremiah in months.”
“You have an address? Phone number? Did you meet any of his friends? Did he say anything to you that might help us find him?” Daisy asked.
Winnie let go of my hand and looked at Daisy. I stood up and stepped away.
“Like I told those boys that came lookin’ for him, I don’t know anything. My family tried to find him after he –” Winnie stopped talking and looked away and I could tell she was embarrassed.
I kind of understood how she felt but I was a white woman with a somewhat hefty inheritance that Noah luckily couldn’t figure out how to steal. She was an elderly, disabled black lady, living in Aurora, Colorado, not a penthouse on Central Park in NYC. You could tell she wasn’t exactly rolling in it. What Noah got from her probably cut deep into whatever end-of-life living-in-a-wheelchair safety net she had.
This pissed me off so much for a moment I considered calling off the Noah chase and letting Luke do whatever Luke was going to do. Then I realized it could mean I wouldn’t get to process all my life’s complications in a warm bed with Luke lying next to me so instead I vowed octuple revenge against Noah, rat-bastard.
“This is beginning to tick me off,” I announced, crossing my arms on my chest. “We’re not getting anywhere. We keep running into dead ends but they’re dead ends that the Hot Bunch moved through days ago. We’re never going to catch up. Luke’s gonna find Noah and I’m not altogether certain Eddie and Hank are going to keep this whole thing off the radar when Noah turns up with a cap busted in his ass.”
“Sugar, Luke ain’t gonna be aimin’ at Noah’s ass,” Daisy told me.
“Listen to you, ‘a cap busted in his ass’. You’re cute,” Shirleen said. “I can see why Luke likes you, outside of the fact you got a great ass that is. Luke strikes me as an ass man.”
She was wrong. Luke didn’t discriminate. He was a whole package man.
“I have an idea,” Sissy threw in and everyone looked at her. “You, Indy and Jules lure your boys home somehow, I don’t know, pretend you’ve got flu or food poisoning or something. We’ll assign each one of you a buddy. The minute they get close to you in bed, you give the high sign, we’ll jump out of a closet, stun gun them and cuff them to the bed. Then we can keep searching and maybe talk Eddie and Hank into helping us on account of they’re cops and will want to do this lawful like.”