Velva/Minot, North Dakota
John Ahearn leaned his big body on one arm of the couch and pointed a finger in Kathy Ljunndgren’s face.
“What the fuck did you tell them?” he said.
Ljunndgren flinched away from his finger. “Nothing,” she said. “I spit in his face.” Ahearn held the pose a few seconds longer. “I swear it,” Ljunndgren said. “I spit right in his face. I didn’t tell them anything.”
Ahearn grabbed a can of Olympia beer from the top of the television and guzzled half of it. He set the can down and belched.
“I’ve had about enough of those cops fucking with me,” he said.
“It’s about Nate,” Ljunndgren said. “They’re investigating the overdose.”
Ahearn sat in the recliner to the left of the couch.
“That cop got me fired,” Ljunndgren said. “And I needed that job. I haven’t even been home since I got fired. I can’t deal with my mother over this. She’ll make me stay home now. She’ll take the kids.”
Ahearn wasn’t paying attention. “What about those two coons, Roger and Tyrone? That cop mention either of them?”
“Just you.”
“Fuck.”
“He arrested me for possession. They took my last two hits from my purse.”
“Huh?”
“He took my last two hits.”
“And I suppose you want some more. That why you came?”
Ljunndgren shook her head. “I tried Roger but he wasn’t home. I got some from a friend. I can use more, yeah, but I came here to tell you about the one cop, that detective.”
“What do you know about him?”
“What do you mean?”
“The fuck I just say? You know where he lives, he’s married or not? He got a girlfriend? Any kids?”
Ljunndgren shrugged. “I could find out.”
“You followed out here?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You check?”
Ljunndgren fidgeted first, then shrugged again. Ahearn lit a Marlboro.
“Fuckers stopped me the other night, too,” he said. “After the party. Took my cash, but I got it all back.”
“He mentioned the party,” Ljunndgren said. “He asked me if I was there and if there were any drugs around. He asked about you specifically.”
“Fuckin-A right he did,” Ahearn said. He folded his arms across his chest. “They were waiting for me to leave. They arrested Kelly. Bullshit arrest. Just to make trouble. She’s still at the hospital.”
Ljunndgren scratched at the crook of her left arm inside the elbow. “I can use a hit, John,” she said.
“For free, I suppose.”
“I’m broke now that I don’t have a job anymore. That same cop did that, cost me my job.”
Ahearn wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I really need the hit,” Ljunndgren said. “For later, I mean.”
Ahearn checked his watch, then started to unbuckle his pants. “Kelly won’t be home until they clean her up,” he said. “You can work it off.”
Ljunndgren crouched down to help him with his pants. “Sure, John,” she said.
“I’m gonna fuck with that cop,” Ahearn said. “I’m not through with him.”
“I’d like to help you there,” Ljunndgren said.
“Find out he’s married, got kids and whatnot.”
Ljunndgren smiled cautiously as she pulled his thermal underwear down to his thighs.
Ahearn said, “Aren’t you the happy hooker?”
Ljunndgren took him inside her mouth.
* * * * * * *
Emily was checking the outline for her third lecture in six days. She was in her office in the humanities building when Dale stopped in with a bouquet of flowers.
“You’re forgiven,” she said.
Dale crossed himself after handing her the flowers. “And I swear on my favorite fishing pole that I’ll never be late for another one, although yesterday it was for a good cause. Remember?”
Emily breathed in the scent of the flowers. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to make promises you can’t keep?”
“Yes. And I promised I’d never do it again.”
They kissed as they embraced. Dale grabbed her ass. Emily slapped his hand away.
“You’re not that forgiven,” she said.
“Maybe we should head home for a quick lunch,” he said.
“A quickie? How romantic.”
“I know, but I’m waiting on another ME report back at the morgue. I have to head there later and then Don wants me to check in with some New York guy at the hotel. He thinks the guy might know something about what’s going on around here lately.”
“New York, huh?”
“A former cop from there. A detective, Don said.”
“Okay, well, maybe we better grab lunch or something. I have to be at the library for three, or did you forget again?”
Dale noticed the outline on Emily’s desk. “Actually, I’m not going to make it today,” he said. “Sorry.”
“I don’t expect you to attend these things when you’re working, but I really do wish you wouldn’t say you will.”
“Well, I am sorry,” he said. He pointed to her outline. “Reliving the moment?”
“Actually, I’ve been invited to do it again. In Fargo, next month.”
Dale took out his detective’s notebook and pen. “When?”
“Please.”
“I’m serious, Em. I’ll do my best.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Next month, the fifteenth.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Yeah, right,” Emily said. “Let’s go.”
They went home and made love in the kitchen. They used the counters, the table, and eventually climaxed on a chair. They were both sweating when they were finished. Emily had just enough time for a quick shower. Dale didn’t.
He headed back to the morgue for the ME report on Tyrone Williams. It was troubling Dale that the young airman had been found so close to the same town where John Ahearn lived.
Statistically, Williams was the third murder of the year in the county. Dale couldn’t recall when there had been three murders within the first month of a new year in Ward County. 2010 had started ugly. He wondered if it could get any uglier.
* * * * * * *
Emily had less than forty-five minutes before her library lecture. She took a hot shower and was so relaxed she nearly forgot the time. She quickly applied skin cream to her neck, arms, and hands and then dressed while a fresh pot of decaffeinated coffee brewed in the kitchen.
The telephone rang at the exact moment she reached for the coffee. She spilled some onto the counter.
“Damn,” she said, then crossed the room and answered the phone on the third ring.
“Hello?” she said, her voice somewhat frustrated.
“Emily Hehn?” a gruff voice asked.
“Speaking.”
“You the teacher from the college?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“You have nice tits for a teacher.”
Emily frowned at the comment and hung up. “Asshole,” she said. She hit the callback function but the call had come from a blocked number. She set the receiver back in the cradle as it rang again. She let the answering machine pick up.
“I’m gonna fuck you, bitch,” the same gruff voice said.
She picked up her cell phone and dialed Dale’s cellular number.
* * * * * * *
Pavlik argued on and off with the two special agents until he was fed up and started for the door. Agent Feller pulled a pair of handcuffs.
“We’ll use these if we have to,” he said.
Pavlik said, “You spending the week here or just a couple days?”
Agent Mears glanced at his watch. “Just another few hours.”
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Pavlik asked them. “That’s what this is about? James Singleton is here, in Minot someplace, and you two are making sure I don’t walk into him.”
“We’re just doing our jobs, sir,” Feller said.
“Without any legal authority, I might add,” Pavlik said. “And I have been pretty decent about it, haven’t I? The bullshit stunt that asshole Morris pulled.”
“No need to get excited, sir,” Mears said.
Pavlik had had enough. “There isn’t, huh?” He pointed at the two agents. “Okay, well, you guys let me know how they go, the next few hours. In the meantime, I’m going down for a beer.”
Agent Mears reached inside his jacket. “Sir, please sit back down,” he said.
“Fuck you,” Pavlik said.
Feller took a defensive pose at the door. “Sir, I advise you to sit down.”
Pavlik said, “And I’ll ask you just once to get away from that door, kid. Then I’ll move you out of the way.”
Pavlik felt the jolt somewhere in his left rib cage and was on the floor before he knew what had happened. He felt his body spasm a while before he could hear again. When he looked up, both agents were kneeling alongside him and speaking in calm voices.
“Just breathe easy,” Agent Mears said.
“Just relax, sir,” Agent Feller said.