Free Bad Bones by Graham Marks Page A

he’d treated his dad, wanting to go after him to apologize. Tell him they would talk, soon, that now was just so not the right time. Frustrated, Gabe hit the top of his desk with his fist, jolting the mouse and bringing up the site about the Aztecs. Back to work.
    Before he went to bed, the other thing he was going to do was get one of his mom’s Ambiens. He knew where she kept them. He’d only take a half of one of the sleeping pills, as he really needed to punch out and he did not want to dream. Not tonight. As he started to read what was on the screen he tried to ignore the voice that said ‘sleep the sleep of the dead…’

Chapter Fourteen
    Gabe brought the bike to a slow halt. It was a kind of ‘What’s-wrong-with-this-picture?’ moment. Like what were two LAPD cruisers, lights flashing, doing parked right outside LeBarron Antiques? Had there been a robbery? The thought made his stomach cramp. It’d be just his luck that that was what had happened and the bracelet would be among the stolen items. His chances of getting Cecil LeBarron to sell it back to him – for the money he’d paid out yesterday – had been slim to nothing at best. But if the bracelet was gone, then – there was that voice again – he was dead in the water.
    He got off the bike and, completely on autopilot, chained it to a nearby bench. A large crowd had gathered either side of the shop, held back by the yellow and black crime-scene tape that was already in place. More people were turning up by the minute, which meant the cops couldn’t have been there verylong, their arrival signalling it was rubbernecking time.
    Gabe hung back, staying where he was for a moment. He wanted to find out what had occurred, but then again, maybe not knowing was better. Some part of his brain kept dragging up clichés like ‘Ignorance is bliss’ and ‘What you don’t know can’t hurt you’. He took a deep breath and walked towards the store alongside two older women who were chatting to each other.
    “What’s going on here?” one woman said as she checked her watch.
    “
I
don’t know, Charlene just called.”
    “She down here already?”
    “In the salon across the street.” Gabe saw the second woman nod to her left. “She can’t come out, she’s in the middle of having highlights.”
    “So, what, you’re her on-the-spot reporter, Alice?”
    “You don’t got to come, Sadie, I ain’t draggin’ you.”
    “It’s kinda on my way.” Sadie checked her watch again. “I got time. You think it’s a burglary, or what?”
    “I think I’m gonna ask that cop, see what he says…”
    Gabe tagged along, walking in the same general direction as the women, over towards a beat cop who was standing with his back to them where the tape was tied to a tree.
    “Officer?” Alice leant over and tapped the cop’s arm.
    The man, standing a good two metres, wearing mirrored sunglasses and carrying some extra weight, looked like his uniform had been sprayed on. He glanced down at Alice. “Yes, ma’am?”
    “What’s the scoop?”
    “Ma’am?”
    “In there.” Alice peered round towards the shop. “It a big deal, in there?”
    “I wouldn’t know, ma’am. As you can see, I am out here.”
    “You didn’t hear about anything?”
    “Look, you want to find out what’s going on in there, you have a couple of options.” The cop, his name tag said ‘Bernado’, smiled. “Cross the line and go on inside, which I would not advise, or wait till the detectives come out and ask them. And good luck with that too. Or wait for the six o’clock news. Best I can do.”
    Officer Bernardo smiled again and walked away. Gabe was thinking he should get closer to the shop front, keeping his ears open in case anyone had actually heard anything, when he saw, over by one of the cruisers, a plain-clothes cop talking to a small Hispanic woman. She looked distressed and the plain-clothes cop was patting her arm, trying to calm her. A witness?
    That train of thought