Free Murder Grins and Bears It by Deb Baker Page B

janitor friend guarded the door
making sure no one was coming down the hall, so I slipped the
feather into my pocket. My first possible clue, I thought, grasping
for straws, or in this case, feathers.
    Coming out of the building, I sucked in deep
breaths of fresh air, grateful to be alive and well.

    ****

    I’d never been to the motor vehicle
department before, so I wasn’t prepared for the foul dispositions I
encountered. According to Kitty, they’re always like that.
    I was treated less than subhuman, and if I
ever run into that woman in a dark alley, watch out.
    “ You can’t just have a
license,” she snorted with disdain. “You need a vision test, a
written test, and then you get your temporary license. If you pass.
After that, you take a road test.”
    “ I’m ready for the first
step,” I said. “Kitty, stay close by, I might need
help.”
    “ If you cheat, you have to
wait six months before you can try again,” said Miss Foul
Personality.
    Kitty moved off into the waiting area.
    I passed the vision test with flying shapes
and colors. The written test was the problem.
    After looking over the questions I asked the
woman “How am I supposed to know all this stuff?”
    “ Didn’t you read the
booklet?”
    “ The booklet? Oh, never
mind. I back-seat drove for Barney for forty-some years, I can pass
this test.” I filled it out and handed it in as if I was still in
grade school.
    “ You failed the test,” she
said, throwing a booklet in my general direction.
    “ When we were back in the
truck, Cora Mae hooted, “I can’t believe you failed the test for
your temps. That’s the easiest part.” Hee, hee, haw,
haw.
    “ It was the signs,” I said,
putting on my directional to turn toward Stonely. “Those shapes are
very confusing. I don’t know how Lead-Foot Kitty managed to
pass.”
    “ I’m a good driver,” Kitty
said. “I can teach you because when you finally manage to get your
temps, you can’t drive alone.”
    “ What do you
mean?”
    “ You have to have someone
with a permanent license in the car with you.”
    The rules the government manages to come up
with! “I wouldn’t have to do this in the first place if Blaze would
pay attention to his job and leave me alone. His priorities are
mixed up.”
    I dropped my partners at their homes and
pulled into my driveway.
    Detective No-Neck Sheedlo was still planted
in a car on the side of the house, but I didn’t see the savage
tracking dog.
    Star had offered to entertain Heather, Big
Donny, and Grandma Johnson at her house for the afternoon, so I had
my place to myself for a few hours.
    I pulled out a police catalog I’d snitched
from Blaze’s house last time I visited. Using my credit card, I
called in an order and requested overnight delivery.
    “ A detective badge,” I said
into the phone, noticing they weren’t cheap. “And a voice-activated
micro-recorder.”
    For the first time in days I took a nap on
the couch. When I woke up, I rubbed my neck and realized I was
still sitting up. That’s one thing I seem to be doing more and
more. Sleeping upright is becoming easier.
    I spent the rest of the afternoon in the
woods looking for Little Donny, walking down deer trails leading
away from Carl’s bait pile, stopping once in a while and calling
out his name. I followed trail after trail, calling and calling
until my voice became hoarse and my legs grew heavy and weak.
    Little Donny had been missing since Monday.
Lost without food or water or shelter for three days. How long
could he last? Was he still alive?

    ****

    “ How can you sit here
stuffing your face with scrambled eggs when Little Donny might be…”
I hesitated and glanced at Heather and Big Donny, who were staring
back at me with wide, terrified eyes. “Hungry too,” I
added.
    “ Now, Ma,” Blaze answered.
“We’re doing everything we can to find him. Didn’t you see the
planes going over? We’re searching on the ground and from the sky.
What else can we