Great.
We got out of the car and walked up to Grizzly’s house. Ally forged ahead without a care in the world. I drug my heels and looked back at Matt. He’d gotten out of his SUV, pulled a handgun out of the back waistband of his jeans and tucked it in full view at the hipbone in the front. He leaned against his SUV and crossed his arms.
“They come back, sportin’ a bodyguard,” Grizzly said by way of greeting, not looking at us but looking at Matt. “So now, I suppose you want me to think you’re serious. Especially now with you and a shiner. Jeez. You knee him in the nuts?”
“How do you know it was a him?” I asked.
“Girls don’t go for the cheekbones.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know that.
“Did you?” Grizzly persisted.
“What?”
“Knee him in the nuts?”
“I bit him.”
“Bit him!” He threw his head back and laughed. “Next time, go for the gonads.”
“Good advice,” I said.
He looked at Matt. “Let me guess, trainee PIs.”
“No,” I said.
Grizzly swung his big head to me. “Bounty hunters?”
“Nope.”
“Not cops,” he said with derision.
“Un-unh.”
“Feds?” This was said with incredulity.
“I own a bookstore.”
Grizzly didn’t answer. Grizzly was staring at me as if a second head decided to sprout out of my neck at that moment.
“I’m a bartender and back up barista,” Ally put in.
Grizzly still didn’t answer. I noticed he had a cat in his lap and was stroking it. Two more cats sat on the cement railings of his porch and another one was curled up on his welcome mat, a welcome mat that had kitty-cat footprints printed on it.
“You like cats?” I asked.
“Who doesn’t like cats?” Grizzly returned.
“I like cats,” I assured him, and it was no lie, but I would have said it anyway because he also had a shotgun sitting across his lap.
“Me too,” Ally said.
Grizzly looked at Matt then back to us. “Who’s the guy?”
“Just ignore him, we are,” I told him.
Grizzly shrugged, it was all the same to him, then said, “Good thing you did for Mr. Kumar, he has it rough. Told me you were the biggest score he had all day with your cupcakes.”
I looked down the street to the corner store. Mr. Kumar was standing outside it, waving at us.
We waved back.
“We gotta take care of the little guy, you know? Franchises are takin’ over the fuckin’ world. In ten years this great nation is gonna be wall-to-wall franchise and every mom and pop shop is gonna be out of business. The franchise was the beginnin’ of the fuckin’ end for America. That and being able to turn on red. It’s red, man, don’t turn on red. Fuckin’ Nixon.”
I wasn’t sure what Nixon had to do with franchises and traffic lights but I wasn’t going to disagree with a guy who had a shotgun on his lap and weird goggles on his head.
“We’re looking for a friend of Tim Shubert’s, Tim lives across the road.”
“I know Tim. I know who you’re lookin’ for too. Mr. Kumar told me. Tim’s had lots of visitors the last couple of days. Seen him before,” he nodded at Matt then looked to us, “seen you before too.”
“His friend’s name is Rosie, little wiry guy, dirty blond hair?”
“The Coffee Man? Yeah, Tim brings back coffees for me. That guy is a genius.”
“Well, Rosie is my coffee man, he works at my bookstore.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“That’s a great bookstore, used to be you could read all day and not be disturbed. The old lady was cool. It still like that?”
“That old lady was my Gram. She left me the store when she died, I just added coffee,” I replied.
“You thinkin’ of franchisin’?”
“No way.” I threw up my hands for emphasis, just in case he had any doubts to my sincerity.
He nodded. “Then you’re the little guy too. I’d come to support you, ‘cause I read a lot, but I don’t leave this block. Need to keep my eye on things.”
“Sure,” I agreed.
This guy was nuts, but I liked him anyway.
Ally gave him our card and he put his hand in his shirt pocket and gave Ally one in return.
All it said was, “Tex, Cat Sitter” and had his number.
“You have a cat and go on vacation, you know who to call. Though, I warn you, I do both dry and wet food. I’m not into doin’ just wet or just dry, they need a treat but they need to keep their teeth clean. It’s important.”
We nodded our agreement and then jogged down to see Mr. Kumar.
“Me and Tex have been looking for your Rosie, but we haven’t found him,” he assured us when we got to the door.
“Thanks Mr. Kumar,” I said.
“No Tim either. Now I’m worried and I think Tex is getting worried too. Lots of people coming to knock on Tim’s door. He’s never been this popular.”
“Rosie had a following, he makes good coffee and people miss him,” I told him.