Chapter 17 – Bam
Chapter Seventeen
BAM
“When you passed by the security camera, did you look at it?” Josie asks as I pull out the kitchen chair to settle in and watch her finish making breakfast. I offered to help, but she said everything was done.
In the time between me climbing out her bedroom window to fetch clothes from my apartment and returning, she made the bed, showered, and mixed up biscuits.
She gave me the task of setting the table while she cut the biscuits with a small drinking glass.
“Yeah.” I wanted her dad to see me coming in this morning. Making sure I pass by the camera when I leave and return takes extra effort since that means matching trips in and out of the window but we have to keep up appearances for her dad.
“Hope you weren’t wearing that.” She points a flour-coated finger in my direction.
I glance down at my gray graphic T-shirt that has “Nirvana” in faded green. “Your dad a Kurt Cobain hater?”
“Not the T-shirt, silly. Your face. I’ve never really known what smug looked like until today.” She shakes her head and then returns her attention to the biscuits.
I pick up a spoon and peer into the back of it, trying to see what she means. I look normal, if a little less grouchy.
“It’s the mouth,” she supplies. “You’re not smiling, but the corners of your lips are quirking upward. If my dad saw it, he’s going to be sus—” She stops talking mid-word when the phone rings.
“Should I answer it?” Her hands are a mess, so I reach for the phone, but she jumps in front of me.
“No, I’ve got it. Hey, Dad, what’s up? No, he just came over this morning.
I don’t know why he was looking like that.
Probably beat someone up last night and felt good about it.
Yes, I’ll tell him. Yes, I will make sure the doors are locked.
No, I won’t do anything dangerous. I’m still working on that one case.
The missing basketball player.” She listens for a bit, but I can’t make out anything her dad is saying.
“Yes, I love you too.” She holds out the device white with flour. “He wants to talk to you.”
Alarm is bright in her eyes.
“No problem.” I give her a wink. “Yes, sir,” I answer into the receiver.
“You taking care of my girl?”
“Yes.” I keep my voice as flat as possible. No smugness.
“You doing anything I wouldn’t approve of?”
“I’d give my life for hers.”
There’s a prolonged silence. Josie’s dad is smart. He clocks immediately that I didn’t answer his question. My girl gives me a worried stare before rushing over to the sink to wash her hands.
“You being careful?” he finally says.
“Yes, sir.”
Josie tries to take the phone from me, but I fend her off easily with one arm.
“You two are young. Very young. Josie’s got a bright future in front of her.” Meaning don’t get her pregnant.
“Brighter than mine, and I’m going to be very careful to keep it shiny and fresh and full of options.”
Josie sighs and puts the biscuits in. She gets the gist of the conversation.
There’s another pause before Josie’s dad finally replies. “Can’t keep you apart because Josie’s headstrong, but I’ll hunt you down and disembowel you if she is ever hurt.”
“Sir, I’d fall on your sword before you even took a swing if that happened.”
“Let me talk to Josie again.”
I hand the phone over and give her a reassuring nod. She takes it and then murmurs her goodbyes.
“That was stressful,” she says.
I draw a hand across my forehead, and it comes away dry. I wasn’t nervous talking to her dad even though he sounded like he would have no problem running me over with his truck. “It’s all good.”
Since I’m sticking around, I couldn’t lie to him. It is one thing to sneak around, but when he confronted me point-blank, I had to be truthful. He needs to be able to trust me, to take me at my word.
“I guess you can use the door at all times.”
“I probably will use the window for your dad’s peace of mind. If he sees me leave, he can tell himself you’re still his untouched princess.” I pull her down on my lap and give her a bruising kiss until the timer goes off.
“I’m still the same girl,” she grumbles as she crawls off my lap to go and pull the biscuits out of the oven.
Breakfast is awesome enough that Josie is able to put her dad out of her mind. She pulls out her notebook and lays it open so we can both look at the info map she’s drawn.
“There’s obviously a link between Cole and the gambling, so if we can find out who the bookie is, wouldn’t that lead us to the killer?”
“Maybe. Like I said, doing away with a paying customer, even a late paying one, doesn’t really make sense from a business standpoint. You might rough someone up but snuffing them out means no money.”
“At the very least, maybe it can help us track his last moments. What we really need is his cell phone.” She sits back and taps the end of her pen against her lips. “The person who killed him must have it.”
“Why don’t we see if any of his friends had a location tracker on him and can look it up?” I suggest.
“Do guys do that?” Josie asks in surprise.
“I’ve seen it. Depends on the friend crew. Might as well check it out. After that, I’ll run over to my club and find out who keeps the books for the other gang—I mean organizations.”
Josie rolls her eyes. “Please. If you can’t lie to my dad, you shouldn’t be able to lie to me.”