Dani threw the car in park and rummaged in her purse for her compact. She dug through useless item after useless item before finally finding it. She hurriedly pulled it out and flipped it open. The deputy had ditched the professional cop persona altogether. Her feminine assets were on full display. Kenny was a sloper that didn’t deserve her best. He was mostly erection, and there was only one way to deal with that: tease it until it pops.
She’d hastily gone to the local discount department store and picked out a dress that showed just about as much leg and cleavage as a bra and panties. When she’d stepped out of the dressing room and looked at herself in the full length mirror, she thought she had grabbed a child’s size. The store associate assured her that it was supposed to fit that way. Had a passing gaggle of teenage boys not ventured by and let out a series of catcalls and inappropriate propositions, she would have left the store with a different outfit. Their reaction convinced her it was perfect for a stiff dick like Kenny. So there she sat in her car, falling out of a dress made out of less fabric than a hand towel, applying last minute touches to her makeup. She was deep in utter self-disgust when her phone rang. She answered without looking at the display. “Hello?”
There was a long pause before the woman on the other end asked, “Is this Dani Savage?”
“It is.”
“You’re a cop?”
“I am. Who is this?”
“I…I got a message from Laura Farrow.”
“Laura? Is she okay? What’s going on?”
“She looked okay to me. She just said she couldn’t call her own self because she’s got a couple of hawks watching her…she said you’d know what that means.”
Without thinking, Dani nodded in response. “What’s the message?”
“Says to tell you there’s another one.”
“Another one?”
“That’s what she said. She said a skinny man told her there’s another one. Said it just happened. Said you’d know what to do.”
“Another one?” Dani’s cheeks turned bright red as she understood the message.
“That’s what she said.”
“Who?”
“Who what?”
“Who is the other one? What’s her name?”
There was a pause. “I ain’t got no idea. I don’t even know if it is a who. She just said there’s another one.”
Dani was about to press the caller for more information when she heard a knock on her window. She jumped and nearly dropped the phone. The smallest sense of relief hit her when she saw Kenny smiling back at her through the glass. She smiled in return and held up a finger to signal to him that she needed a moment.
Kenny nodded and stepped back.
Dani quickly held the phone back to her ear. “Tell Laura I’ll be in touch…Hello…Can you hear me?” She looked at the display and bit her lip when she saw the word Disconnected. She shuffled through the call log and grew even more irritated when the number of the caller was listed as “private.”
She caught a glimpse of Kenny standing next to her car and grimaced. With a sigh, she threw her shoulder into the car door and stepped out onto the gravel parking area.
Kenny smiled broadly and his eyes opened wide at the sight of Dani in her dress. “Lord almighty, you look as pretty as anything I’ve ever seen.”
Dani blushed. “Oh, well thank you. I was afraid the dress might be a bit much.”
“A bit much? I’ll be honest, there’s hardly much to it at all. That’s the best thing about it…Well, I mean besides the body that’s wearing it.”
Dani slapped his shoulder. “You are quite the charmer, Kenny.”
He smiled awkwardly. “If speaking the truth is being charming, then you’re easy to charm there, Ms. Deputy.”
“Dani,” she said as she grabbed his arm.
He was baffled by her touch at first, but slowly realized she wanted him to guide her across the parking lot and into the dance club. He puffed out his chest and grinned as they made the journey. Heads turned as they walked. Some men hooted and whistled, others stared with slack jaws and wide eyes. The women even seemed to be impressed with the girl on Kenny’s arm. Of course, he was convinced the females were awestruck by how good he looked in his new hat.
Once inside the club, Kenny turned toward a table in the corner. He looked for Step and was happy to see his partner had hidden himself at the far side of the bar. The skinny closeout king nodded in Kenny’s direction and then tapped his wrist to signal to him that the clock was ticking. Kenny nodded back and then turned, horrified to see Dani sitting down.
“Damn it, you’re a fast sitter. I’d planned on pulling your chair out for you and such.”
Dani smiled playfully. “Now, excuse me for saying so, but I’m impressed that a man like you would even think to make such a move. I’ll give you points for knowing it’s a thing that’s done.”
He sat down. “Hell, if I get points for thinking it, I hate to know what I missed out on for not getting a chance to do it.”
A chunky waitress dressed like she’d just jumped off the back of a bucking bronco took their drink order and scooted off to the beat of the music.
Kenny wrestled with the uncomfortable silence between them before finally blurting out, “You like keeping the law?”
Dani smiled. “I like it just fine. Not many jobs where you can drive fast and carry a gun.”
Kenny fought the urge to tell her he had one of those jobs.
“What about you? What do you do?”
The chubby closeout king searched his memory banks for the lies he’d decided to tell her. “I cross kids.”
The deputy looked at her date like he’d grown a third eyeball on the end of his nose. “How does one cross kids, exactly?”
Kenny chuckled nervously. “What I meant to say is I cross kids from school to the other side of the street, so they won’t get hit by a car or nothing.”
Dani nodded. “Oh, you cross kids.”
“Yeah, right. And I own a bingo hall.”
“And bingo?” she asked, trying to sound impressed.
“Lot of old people like bingo, and I like old people. Just made sense to buy a bingo hall.”
The waitress set the beers on the table. “Twelve-fifty.”
“Twelve-fifty?” Kenny asked, sounding incredulous. “Wha’cha do, squeeze it out of gold?”
“Nah, sir,” the waitress smirked. “You said bring two of our biggest glasses filled with our best beer. This is them glasses with that beer. Twelve-fifty.”
Kenny shook his head, grumbled and then handed the waitress a ten and a five. “Shrink up the glasses and tamp down the quality for our next round.”
The waitress took the money and then said to Dani, “Ain’t you a lucky gal,” before walking over to the next table.
Kenny watched her walk away and said, “Don’t expect I’ll be seeing change.”
Dani sipped from her glass after saying, “You get down to Baptist Flats much, Mr. Kenny?”
Kenny shrugged. “Been there once or twice, mostly at night. Never seen the place during the day, come to think of it.”
“What goes on at night in Baptist Flats that needs your attention?”
“Business.” He gulped from his big glass and struggled to swallow the bitter brew. “Their best beer tastes a bit like mule piss, if you ask me.”
“You got bingo hall business or kid crossing business in Baptist Flats at night?”
Kenny stared at her as he tried to decipher her question. The realization came over him slowly that he had talked himself into a corner. “Neither. I dabble in this and that in between crossing kids and calling bingo.”
“You’re a regular entrepreneur.”
He studied her face to determine if she’d just insulted him. Satisfied that being an entrepreneur was a good thing, he raised his glass and winked at her.
“I’m surprised a catch like you ain’t attached,” Dani said, sounding as sincere as she could.
“It is a bit of a mystery to me, too. I ain’t figured out this whole trigger business.”
Dani’s eyebrow involuntarily arched up. “Trigger business?”
“You know that one thing that pleases a woman…not in a sexual way. Makes her forget the badness of life. In a still way.”
“Still way?”
“Yeah, that’s the way I understand it to mean. Quiets a woman in the head. Makes her at peace with the way of things.”
The deputy was momentarily speechless. She had not thought him capable of such deep thought. “You are full of surprises, Kenny Fable.”
He blushed before taking another sip of his expensive beer. His attention was quickly diverted when a young man, thick with muscles and topped with long flowing hair, pulled up a chair and sat next to his date. The heavily browed individual set an unsettling stare upon Dani’s breasts.
“Can I help you?” Dani asked.
The young man didn’t respond.
“Son,” Kenny said, struggling to hold back his inclination to slam his glass of beer into the stranger’s head. “You’re sitting at the wrong table, casting your eyes on the wrong lady.”
“You’re pretty,” the young man finally said with a deep groan of a voice.
“Right as you are about that,” Kenny said standing, “Ima have to ask you to leave.”
The young man peered up at Kenny. “Now that you’re up, run and get me a beer, chubs.”
“You should move on,” Dani said to the young man.
He turned to her. “No fucking way. You’re the prettiest thing I’ve seen in a while. Way prettier than anything in his shithole, and sexier than anything at school. You and me are gonna get to know each other real good.”
“You go to school, do you?” Kenny asked with a smile.
“I thought I told you to get me a beer.”
“Where? That is, where do you go to school, I mean?”
The young man stood and towered over Kenny. “Knoxville.”
“Well, you’re far from home, ain’t you? High school?”
Laughing, the young man said, “College, hick shit. I’m the fucking Sam for the team.”
Kenny cocked an eyebrow. “Well, first off, Sam, you’re gonna have to apologize to the lady for your language, and second off, you might want to find this team of yours and join up with them. Dani and me are on a date.”
“Sam’s not my name, shit-for-brains. I’m the strong side linebacker for the football team. I crush fucks like you for kicks. Your date with Dani is over.” He ripped the beer out of Kenny’s hand and drank it in two gulps.
“Well goddamn. First you step into my time with Dani, and now you done stole six-twenty-five from me…”
“It’s okay,” Dani said, standing. “Let’s just go somewhere else, Kenny.”
The young man grabbed Dani’s arm. “I like you at this table. Kenny will be all right.”
Kenny moved around his chair. “You’ve worked up to something I was trying to avoid. I wanted to display my gentle side to the lady, but now Ima have to get ugly for your beat down.”
The young man laughed.
“Now, judging by that head of yours, Ima guess your jaw is like china, the wedding dishes not the country. One tap with a fist and you’ll go down like a cut-through oak tree.”
“That what you think?”
“It is.”
The young man moved in front of Kenny. “Fire away, fat man.”
Kenny smiled and made a show of it. He balled his hand into a tight fist, spit on it, and took a fighter’s stance. “Ima catch you just to the left of your chin. You’re gonna hear a snap and then this awful pain is gonna start in your ears. You’re gonna think your eardrum’s been busted, but it ain’t. That’s just what happens when your jaw breaks. It’s the damnedest thing.” Kenny reared back.
The young man defiantly jutted his chin out.
Kenny smiled and kicked the stranger in the groin, sending him tumbling to the floor in the fetal position.
Dani covered her mouth as she let a laugh slip out.
A grin spread across Kenny’s face as he watched Dani’s reaction. “He’ll be all right. I only kicked hard enough to teach his firstborn a lesson.”
A line of young men, matching the bulk of the stranger writhing in pain, moved quickly through the crowd toward their fallen teammate. “Well, shit,” Kenny said. “I didn’t expect they made more his size.”
“What the fuck?” one of the ball players yelled.
Another one advanced on Kenny, but was quickly felled when Step moved in and sent a boot to the back of his knee.
The patrons in the crowded bar formed a circle for the anticipated rumble.
“I got this, Step,” Kenny said. “I still got time left on my date.”
“Your timeline’s been pushed up, partner.”
Randle watched from his vantage point just behind the crowd and shook his head. “Fucking slopers.” He made his way through the crowd with his badge raised above his head. Stepping into the small clearing, he said, “Police.”
All eyes turned toward him.
Randle looked toward Dani and winked. “You boys got some beef on you. You play sports?”
“Yes, sir,” one of the strangers said nervously.
“College or pros?”
“College.”
“Scholarships?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The one on the floor holding his berries is some kind of Sam,” Kenny said.
Randle rolled his eyes. “I can handle this, friend.”
Kenny nodded.
“I think y’all better pick up your boys there and leave here with your scholarships intact. You understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
The gaggle of scholarship football players gathered up their wounded and meekly exited the dance club. The crowd, disappointed that a brawl had been ended before it started, dispersed and went back to drinking and dancing. Randle slowly slinked back to his position in the corner of the club.
As the murmuring of the other patrons grew louder, Step sat at Dani and Kenny’s table.
“It ain’t fair, Step,” Kenny said. “I still got some more time.”
“Sit down, Kenny.”
Dani peered over in Randle’s direction to see if he was paying attention. Her fellow Baptist Flats police officer smiled and nodded in response.
“C’mon, Step.”
“Kenny!”
The chubby closeout king took his seat at the table.
Still standing, Dani said, “You boys need to work something out?”
“It’s worked out,” Step said, kicking out her chair.
She hesitated and then sat down. “This is quite the treat, being under the attention of two handsome men.”
“You ain’t gotta go on with the act,” Step said. “You come here to pry into our knowledge of the shooting in your town the other night.”
She sat stiffly.
“Them boys that was gunned down, they ain’t worth the time you’re putting into this investigation.”
“You knew them?” Dani asked.
“No,” Step answered.
The deputy studied his face. “Then how do you know they ain’t worth the time?”
Step leaned forward. “Let’s just say I’m familiar with their type.”
“What type would that be?”
“The type that gets killed in front of a shithole bar in a two-bit hick town.”
Dani narrowed her glare.
“Don’t go on about her town like that. Step don’t mean no offense,” Kenny said. “We spend more than half our weeks in shithole bars in two-bit hick towns.”
“The point is,” Step said, “them boys is dead. They most likely deserved it. You need to get off it and get on with that Laura Farrow business.”
Dani’s heart thumped a little harder. “You got an interest in Laura Farrow?”
“I got an interest in your interest in Laura Farrow,” Step said.
Dani didn’t respond. She just shifted her gaze from Step to Kenny and back.
“We ain’t gotta go there yet, Step. Let’s settle into another round of beers and ease into this missing girls business.” Kenny turned to find the waitress.
Dani fixated on Step. “You’re the skinny man.”
“Skinny man?”
Kenny panicked. “Now hold on. Just because he’s skinny don’t mean he’s fit. I may be cursed with girth, but I am blessed with plenty of other fine qualities—”
Dani leaned in toward Step and worked hard to control her temper. “There’s another one?”
Step slowly nodded.
“You took her?”
Leaning away, Step said, “No, but I’m gonna find her.”
“Who is she? What’s her name?”
“Sarah,” Kenny started, but stopped when he got a hand to the back of his head from Step.
“We don’t know nothing about your lady friend,” the skinny closeout king said. “Far as I can tell, most cops in these parts ain’t been too keen on the subject of missing girls.”
“Listen to me,” Dani said, sounding rushed. “We don’t have time to play around. Every hour that passes for this girl puts her farther and farther out of reach, do you hear me?”
Step pitched a cigarette into his mouth. “You really care about finding this girl?”
“I do…Of course I do.”
Two streams of smoke ejected from his nostrils. “Ima put that claim to the test.”
“I’m not interested in your test. I’m interested in finding this girl.”
“Those fellas in your town, Kenny shot the one and I run the other one down in my truck.”
Dani sat silently as her mind unfolded every move she should make to arrest Step and Kenny.
“Holy shit, Step! What in the name of baby Jesus are you doing?” Kenny stuck up his hands in disgust. “I just can’t figure you out. First you’re afraid Ima spill the beans about what we done, and then you come right out and say it like you was confessing to nothing more than a bad habit.”
“She said she cares about finding the girl. Now she can prove it.”
Sternly, Dani asked, “How does your confession play into your little test, Step Crawford?”
“Kenny and me know who took her. We don’t know why, and we don’t know where, but we know who. You take us in and put us under arrest, the girl stays missing. Simple as that.”
“You need to let the authorities handle the missing girl.”
Step laughed. “You ain’t stupid, so quit acting like it. There’s only one authority in these mountains that counts.”
Remembering her interrogation of Trace Connor, Dani faked a smile and nodded. “I know all about Boss.”
Step huffed out a cloud of smoke. “You’re one rung below the top. Boss don’t do nothing but push parts into place. You want the Pikes. In particular, you want Harley Pike.”
Dani hesitated. “I don’t have the authority to cut a deal…”
“No deals,” Step said. “Me and Kenny will find the girl and take care of the Pike situation. When that’s done, we’ll turn ourselves in.”
“Hold on,” Kenny said. “I ain’t admitted to nothing. As far as pretty little Dani knows, I cross kids and call out bingo.”
“Shut up, Kenny! She knows you’re full of shit.”
Dani looked at the chubby closeout king and nodded. “He’s right.”
Kenny’s cheeks flushed. “Well, I was just trying to impress you because you’re so darned pretty. I don’t cross kids, and I ain’t never called out bingo. Can’t stand the game to tell you the truth—”
“That’s the deal,” Step said, cutting his partner off. “You’ll get the lost girl back, and you’ll get to arrest us.”
Dani considered his offer. “I’ll agree if you tell me why.”
“Why what?”
“Why did you set up this date and confess to the shooting? You don’t need me.”
Step took a deep drag on his cigarette and then let smoke roar out of his tight lips. “Why? Because I was hired to close you and your uncle out. I ain’t got the first clue how you pissed the Pikes off, but they ain’t the kind to close out cops on a whim. I figure we might be able to help each other out.”
Dani mulled over this new information. “I take it ‘close out’ means…”
“It means what you think it means.”
Kenny sipped from Dani’s expensive beer, red-faced. “You should have told me, Step. I didn’t know, Ms. Dani. I swear to the heavens.”
“He didn’t know,” Step said.
Dani leaned back and tried to settle her thoughts. “This girl, Sarah, you know she’s alive?”
“I know Harley and Boss. They don’t do nothing without profit in mind. There’s no profit in taking a girl and killing her.”
Dani looked toward Randle. He was watching their table with great interest.
Step turned to his cousin and then back to Dani. “Your partner ain’t what he seems.”
“He ain’t my partner,” Dani said. “Mostly he’s a useless ass with a badge.”
“Then I take that back,” Step said with a smile. “He is what he seems. He’s also my cousin.”
Dani had to work to prevent her mouth from dropping open. She clenched her jaw and shook her head.
Kenny chuckled. “Boy’s going to be mad you showed him out for what he really is, Step.”
The skinny closeout king shrugged. “He’ll get over it, but we’ll keep him in the dark for now, because we need him ignorant.” He stared at Dani. “We got a deal?”
Dani twisted her glass of beer around absentmindedly as she weighed her options. Finally she sighed heavily and said, “We do.”
“Good,” Step said, almost feeling hopeful. He leaned in. “The one thing we got working in our favor is ol’ Harley is off on one of his trips. That leaves his sister, Bonnie, in charge. It’ll be a good deal easier to get her to move off-script. We just gotta fuck things up for her. You understand? We do that, we’ll find that girl.”
“Okay,” Dani said, “I’ll bite, but how do we fuck things up for her?”
“You’re going to make an arrest.” He tamped out his cigarette on the table. “Cousin Terry over there is going to come to me with news of your arrest. I’m gonna pass that news along to Boss, most likely I’ll bring Terry with me to give the news a little extra spice. Boss will go bull-fuck nuts and pass the news up to Bonnie. Kenny and me will follow the shit storm all the way to the girl.” Step stood.
“And just who am I arresting?” Dani asked.
“Sarah’s daddy, a dead fella, meat-cutter by the name of Billy Campbell. Kenny will take you to him.” Before walking away, Step tapped his partner on the shoulder. “You’re back on the clock, Kenny. Use the time wisely.”