Johnny grinned. “It’s not important. If I need to know, I can find out.”
“You not being Mel’s cousin is a story that’s spreading like wildfire. It’s not the only thing. You some kind of cop, or just a nosy bystander?”
“Mostly the first thing. Sometimes the second.”
Crossing the floor, Steve opened the door with a fair bit of force. “How long were you two married?”
Johnny kept his response easy. “Long enough that I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
“Didn’t do a very good job of that yesterday, did you?”
No, he hadn’t. And Johnny was still kicking himself for not anticipating that kind of trouble.
Accepting the open door as his cue to leave, he headed out onto the porch. “Look, Melia’s still alive. She’s also a lot tougher than you think, and she knows her own mind better than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Steve’s answering scowl would have frightened small children. But overall, he looked more snarly than jealous to Johnny. Interesting. Maybe Mel had been right about him. Didn’t mean he hadn’t been recruited and sent there by Satyr, but it was also possible he was exactly what he appeared to be.
All in all, Johnny reflected as he drove off, the visit hadn’t told him much. He’d check the guy out, get the details on his trip to town the day before, and file the information away to be used as needed.
Next up, he stopped by the auto repair shop to talk to Percy. The mechanic liked Mel, and he was more than happy to gossip.
“This here’s my temporary helper, AJ. They don’t need him at the site today. So he’s helping me. He used to drive stock cars down Tallahassee way.”
“Before I got thumped in the head and lost some of the sight in one eye,” the mop-topped man put in.
Like Linda, he wore pop-bottle glasses and a perpetual smile. Maybe the two were related. Most people there seemed to be.
“When Percy’s hand’s back working right, maybe I could help put Doc Rose’s clinic together again,” AJ offered. “I haven’t done a lot of construction work over the past few years, so my hands are blistered up pretty bad right now, but that’ll pass. Hasn’t stopped me from pulling wrenches in my spare time. How’s your vehicle running?”
“Well enough to get me around.” Johnny turned back to Percy. “Mel said someone rolled a grenade into the examining room while she was looking at your hand. I don’t suppose you saw who did it.”
Percy shook his head. “Wish I had, but no such luck. Me and the doc were talking about Matt Damon, my wife’s favorite actor. I was telling Doc Rose about her and him when she spotted the grenade. After that…” He made an explosive sound. “Things went nuts. Some kind of gas started filling up the room. I don’t think it came from the grenade. I guess it couldn’t. Anyway, it was there, and man, it made me see stars.”
“Like nerve gas or something?” AJ made a disgusted sound. “In a puny little town like this? Man.”
“Hard to believe, huh?”
AJ shrugged and sighed. “I’d say yes, but one of my brothers died in a town even smaller than here. He was passing through, got in the way of a gas station robbery.” Nudging his glasses up, he peered at Johnny. “It’s tough losing a brother.”
What could he say to that? Johnny nodded, asked Percy a few more questions, and left.
Rolling the tension from his neck, he started for the closest construction site, the new high school, on foot. By ten a.m. the heat was oppressive, with air so humid it was like being in a sauna. A dip in any body of water over five feet deep that didn’t contain alligators would have been a godsend about then, especially if he could talk Mel into joining him.
She hadn’t been resistant to his kisses, so far. Not really. She hadn’t shoved him away and slapped him, or gotten angry and told him off. What she had done was respond, in a way that had tempted him to try and talk himself into her bed last night. That might have been taking advantage, but given his own reaction to her, did he care?
Yeah, he did. He’d cop to wanting her more than his next breath, but he was only going to push her so far.
“Yo, Johnny,” Laidlaw called to him from the far side of the street. Tucking his keys into his pocket, the big man jogged over. “Mel’s housekeeper makes fucking fine flapjacks. I got breakfast and a movie reenactment before my eyes were all the way open. Then a girl came by crying her eyes out and spoiled my second helping.”
“Was her name Cady Brewer?”
“Brewer, I think, but the first name was Susie or Sandy.”
“Susie.” Not that he couldn’t guess, but Johnny asked anyway. “Why was she crying?”
“Said something about a guy named Lowell.”
“Lyle.”
“She swears it’s Lowell.”
“He says it’s Lyle. Okay, that’s a red flag I’m going to pursue.”
“Slept with her older sister. I didn’t catch her name. Susie wants to rat the guy out to her daddy, but Mel said murder’s not the answer. Which is what her daddy would do if he found out Lyle’s been messing with his daughters, even if they are of age. I tell you, Johnny, I’m not having kids. I’m especially not having girls. I’d be in prison for life if a boy even looked cross-eyed at one of them.”
Johnny grinned. “You were in prison when McCabe found you.”
“On a trumped-up charge that McCabe saw through and untangled in a few weeks. If you’re wanting to have a chat with Lyle, Susie says he might be hiding out at the site where you appear to be heading. He’s supposed to be installing toilets today.”
Was he in the mood to torment a man who’d screwed a couple of young girls around for the sake of satisfying his own horny libido? Damn right he was.
“Good cop, bad cop,” he said to Laidlaw. “You want to wear the white hat for a change?”
“For real?” Laidlaw chuckled. “That’ll be a helluva switch. You sure you can do bad?”
“Oh yeah.” Johnny set his sights on the high school just coming into view on the edge of town. “I can do bad every bit as well as Ben Satyr.” His gaze hardened for a moment as he thought back. “I might even do it better.”
Chapter Ten
Melia saw seven patients in her house that morning, and three more between noon and one p.m. That, plus a visit from a teary-eyed Susie Brewer, left her wanting one of Gert’s famous mai tais. Or at least a bowl of chocolate mint ice cream.
Johnny reappeared while she was searching the fridge for something fast to eat. Gert had generously made flapjacks for Laidlaw, yet half an hour earlier, Melia had been forced to suffer through Bette’s God-awful gruel. Life was all about timing, she supposed.
“Leftover pasta salad?” Johnny leaned over her shoulder. “Chicken’s better.”
“This from the man who can make a meal out of Captain Crunch, Snickers, and hard lemonade. Laidlaw wanted me to set my house alarm this morning every time a patient came or went. I told him no, so he left an arsenal of weapons in the pantry. And between you and him, my phone’s been ringing every fifteen minutes since he drove off.”
“The plan is to keep you safe, Mel. Laidlaw went back to the camp where those first three dead men were camping. We figure a fourth guy got away. He wanted to see if there’d been a return visit.”
She removed the container of salad. “Was there?”
“Not that he could see.”
“What does the guy look like?”
“Generic as hell, according to Laidlaw. He’ll turn up at some point.” He snagged a rotini swirl, popped it in his mouth. “I missed my opportunity to vent my bad cop side on Susie Brewer’s man of the moment. Laidlaw said she was upset this morning. But since I can’t seem to help there, what say we take a drive?”
“What say we do. Where?”
“Bellwater.”
“You read my mind.” She forked up pasta. “How do you do that? I’m not as transparent as I used to be.” Was she? No. They’d just been thinking along similar lines. Maybe it had something to do with Gomer sleeping near the pantry door.
Johnny rooted through her utensil drawer for a fork. “Can we take the dog?”
“Pappy’d freak if we didn’t.”