“She carries on quite a bit about her dog,” Friar said as he navigated his cruiser through the streets of Baptist Flats.
Gus sat in the backseat with Luna Conway’s feet resting in his lap. The woman turned restlessly about every two minutes, each time coming close to squashing Gus’s testicles flat as dinner plates.
“She does do that,” Gus answered Friar. “Didn’t even know she had a dog, to tell you the truth.”
Luna whimpered incessantly, occasionally asking no one in particular if anyone had gotten her dog.
“She’s in shock,” Nola said. “Who knows if she’s even got a dog? She could be reliving a memory about a dog from when she was twelve.”
“Pikes go back a good bit in the dog-fighting business,” Gus said. “Can’t imagine no kind of dog would fare too well under a Pike’s care, even if she is a Conway now.”
“My dog,” Luna mumbled frantically.
Friar turned in to the motel parking lot. “She’s in it deep. Someone wanna tell me why we ain’t taking her to the hospital?”
“Hospital will ask questions,” Nola answered. “Those questions may get back to the people who put her in that cave.”
“And?” Friar asked.
“And we don’t want them to know yet. They’ll find out soon enough. Better we get a few hours’ head start before they find out on their own she’s missing. And even when they do discover she’s gone, the last thing they’ll suspect is that the law found her.”
Friar pulled the car into a parking space. “Because?”
“Because the law would have taken her to the hospital,” Gus interjected.
Friar looked into the rearview mirror and spotted the chubby-cheeked grin of the man Spivey called Partway. “Oh. That actually makes sense.”
Nola pushed the passenger-side door open. “You sound surprised.”
“I’m surprised that I actually understand what’s going on. Most of the time I ain’t got a clue.” He climbed out of the cruiser and quickly opened the back door.
“You say that like you’re proud,” Nola said as she hurried to her motel room and unlocked the door.
“I kind of am,” he said, placing his hands under Luna’s arms. He attempted to gently extract the now flailing woman from the car. “I’ve been a deputy close to seven years. For someone that’s smart enough to know what’s going on, that ain’t no big deal, but for a fella like me, that’s a pretty damn good feat.”
Luna planted her heel squarely in Gus’s enlarged, soft sack, and he barked out a groan that could’ve stirred the dead.
Friar stopped his efforts to pull Luna out of the car long enough to laugh at Gus’s misfortune.
Nola rolled her eyes and made her way back to the cruiser. “Stop dicking around. We’re trying not to be seen.” She pushed Friar aside and managed to pull Luna out of the car without further incident. She squatted down and hoisted the delirious woman over her shoulder and carried her to the room. All the while, Luna continued insisting that someone check on her dog.
By the time Friar and Gus entered the room, the bath water was running. The two men hovered around the entrance, not knowing what to do with themselves. As Friar finally moved to the TV to fetch the remote, he glanced in the mirror and accidentally stole a glimpse of a now naked Luna. His cheeks flushed, and he felt a surge of embarrassment travel from his head to his toes. Before he could turn away, he noticed the fist-sized purple blemishes that covered her torso, and his embarrassment gave way to outrage.