1980
“Come to The Red Crab. Now,” Grizz told Guido and hung up without waiting for a reply.
Twenty minutes later, Guido found Grizz in his office. He was sitting at Mavis’s old desk and drinking a beer. Guido walked in and shut the door behind him.
“Tell me everything,” Grizz said.
“Not a whole lot to tell,” Guido began, perched in one of the little chairs set before the desk. “I started noticing little things a few months back.”
“What little things?”
“I used to get pissed because the morons never properly bagged their garbage, and when they’d put it out on the curb, all the beer cans and liquor bottles would spill over onto my driveway.”
“So you deduced that Kit’s parents were looking for me because of an ongoing garbage dispute you’ve had with them?” Grizz snorted.
“No, no. There aren’t any more cans or bottles. What I’m trying to tell you is that they’ve sobered up. I see them leaving every Sunday morning all dressed up. I think they’re going to church. Last Wednesday night, there were some cars parked at the house. Some kind of meeting. Noticed when they left that they looked like a bunch of Bible thumpers.”
Grizz didn’t say anything. He was thinking.
“But the reason I needed to talk to you is because her mother, Delia, saw me sitting on the porch this morning. She fucking came right over to talk to me, like it was the most natural thing in the world. She asked me if I remembered her daughter.”
“What’d you tell her?” Grizz sat straight up in the chair now, his body rigid.
“I acted casual. Told her, yeah, she ran away a few years ago, right? I told her I didn’t remember a whole lot about the kid. Then her mom asked me something else. Asked me if I ever remembered seeing a big, scary-looking guy with a lot of tattoos around their house when they weren’t there.” Guido paused and frowned. “I think she was asking me about you.”
Grizz was anxious during his drive back to the motel. It was an emotion he wasn’t used to, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. He didn’t know why, but he felt a desperate need to hold Kit in his arms. To smell her, inhale her scent. Breathe her in. Kit. His wife and one true love. His only love. He’d never thought in a million years that he could actually fall in love. But Kit did something to him. He couldn’t explain it. It was like she melted him from the inside out. She was the only woman he made love to. The only woman who ever fell asleep in his arms. And the only one that ever would.
He smiled when he remembered how happy Kit had been when he’d told her he would be giving up his criminal activities. He honestly didn’t know if he would truly be able to stay away from this life, but he would try. For her. Especially with the baby coming. He didn’t do drugs or drink much, but he didn’t have to. In a sense, Kit was his addiction. He couldn’t get enough of her.
A horn honked, pulling him back from his thoughts. The light had turned green. He thought about getting out of his car and punching the person in the face who was beeping behind him. When he looked in his rearview mirror, he saw it was just a kid. He could be taught a lesson. But Grizz was too restless to get home to Kit. He waited until the light turned yellow. Several cars had started beeping by now. A split second before it was going to turn red, he gassed his Corvette and sped through the light, leaving the long row of cars behind him stopped.
That kid didn’t know how damn lucky he was.
A minute later, he saw flashing lights in his rearview mirror. He took a quick right into a gas station. The police car pulled up behind him. Grizz took his wallet out and had rolled the window down before the policeman walked up to it.
“May I see your license and registration, sir?” the young cop asked.
Grizz handed both to him. “You must be new.”
He allowed his mind to wander while the policeman walked back to his squad car to check him out. So many ties from the past recently. Matthew Rockman showed up at the motel a week ago. Delia and Vince had sobered up and were looking for Kit. Both coincidence?
Grizz had been watching from number four last week, so he knew Kit had followed Matthew onto State Road 84 after Matthew had asked Chowder for directions. Grizz ran outside as soon as they’d both pulled onto the highway. He ordered two guys in the pit to follow each of them and report back to him immediately.
Less than an hour later, both guys returned and reported that Kit had gone to the grocery store and the other guy had headed north on University Drive. There hadn’t been any interaction between either vehicle. Kit apparently had stayed behind the other guy until she turned off on Flamingo Road. She never passed him or even pulled up next to him. There was no contact at all.
He would have to think about this, give it careful consideration. If her mother was indeed nosing around and asking questions, it could interfere with the life he’d made for himself with Kit. That nosy nun didn’t get anywhere when he’d first had Kit taken, and she finally gave up. But with Delia’s renewed sense of sobriety, who knew what kind of trouble she could stir up? He would have someone keep an eye on Delia to make sure she didn’t contact the police. And if she did, he knew who to talk to on the inside to make sure it didn’t go anywhere.
In the meantime, he would have to think about this and come up with a plan. And for now, he would be happy to go home to his beautiful and sweet wife. She had recently told him the morning sickness was gone. She was feeling better. He would go home and make love to her until she screamed in pleasure.
Yeah, he was in love with a screamer. He grinned at the thought.
The cop pulled him back from his thoughts. “Sorry to have bothered you, sir,” he almost squeaked as he handed Grizz his license and registration. The cop’s hand was shaking so hard he almost dropped them.
Grizz swiped them out of his hand and gave a snort of disgust. He shifted into gear and sped off. He didn’t have to look in the rearview mirror to know he’d covered the rookie in a hailstorm of stones and loose gravel.