Free Last Ditch by G. M. Ford Page B

senior. One of those throwbacks to
the
rubber hose days of law enforcement who liked to hurt people. I was
pleased to
see that the years had treated him badly. Since I'd seen him last, he'd
put on
thirty pounds and grown a veiny red nose with the texture of a golf
ball.
    I
pulled open
the door. Before I could open my mouth, the Utile neat one stuck a gold
badge
in my face and started to step over the threshold. I wedged an arm
against the
doorjamb about chin high and let him run into it. He staggered back two
steps
and nearly sat down in the geraniums.
    "Somebody
invite you in?" I asked.
    He
was about
thirty-five, a good-looking little Hispanic guy with a thick head of
black hair
combed straight back. Just as neat as a pin in a blue silk suit,
matching tie
and pocket hankie and one of those custom-made shirts with the little
rounded
collars.
    He
readjusted
his suit and stepped back up to me.
    "What
are
you, blind?" he demanded, shaking the badge in my face. "We're
SPD."
    "So
what," I said. "That doesn't give you the right to come walking into
my house without an invitation."
    He
looked back
over his shoulder at Wessels.
    "You
hear
this guy?"
    "I
hear,"
Wessels said. "Leo's a laugh a minute." I looked out over the little
guy's head. No way these two guys worked together on a regular basis. I
figured
they sent Wessels along in case I got hostile with Little Lord
Fauntleroy here.
    "Hey,
Frank. They eliminate the department height requirement or what?"
    Wessels
kept a
straight face. "Affirmative action," he said.
    I
already knew
the answer to the next question, because I ran into her once in a while
up at
the Coastal Kitchen on Capitol Hill, but I asked him anyway, just to
piss him
off.
    "How's
Jean?" I asked.
    Wessels
shrugged and shuffled his feet. "I don't have nothin' to do with her
anymore. She's a dyke. She and her gap-lapper girlfriend got them a
condo up on
the hill."
    "Hope
it
wasn't something / said?"
    He
showed me a
mouthful of yellow teeth.
    "Probably
that little tiny dick-of yours is what did it."
    Rebecca
poked
her head out from under my aim. "Why, Officer," she said in her best
Blanche DuBois drawl. "Surely that must be some other Leo you're
referring
to. I assure you, sir, this man's appointments are second to none." And
you wonder why I love this woman.
    It
was hard to
tell, but I think maybe Wessels blushed.
    She
grabbed me
by the belt and pulled me out of the doorway.
    "Won't
you
gentlemen come in," she said.
    Rebecca
and I
sat on one side of the dining room table. Detective Peter Trujillo
removed a
pencil and a small spiral-bound notepad from his suit jacket, hung the
jacket
on the back of a chair and then sat down directly across from us.
Wessels lounged
in the corner.
    Beneath
the rim
of the table, Rebecca squeezed my knee. Hard. Using her nails. Years of
dating
the same woman had taught me to interpret a wide range of nonverbal
signals.
The nails were a dead giveaway. I knew this one. This was, of course,
the old
"if you start busting this guy's balls and make this take any longer
than
necessary, I'm going to disembowel you and feed your entrails to feral
swine" squeeze. No doubt about it.
    Several
calls
to Jed's answering service had failed to turn him up, so I was on my
own. If
things kept up the way they'd been going, Rebecca was going to cripple
me, so I
decided to put an end to the banter.
    "I
want to
make a statement," I said. "And then you can take Wessels here back
to the zoo." Nobody moved.
    I
pointed at
the pencil on the table by his elbow.
    "You
might
want to write this down, Sparky," I said. "I'm not going to be
fielding questions afterward."
    Reluctantly,
Trujillo picked up the
pencil.
    "You
ready?" I asked. "I'll try not to use any big words."
    I
opened my
mouth to speak but stopped. An intermittent yellow light pulsed around
the
room. Wessels noticed too. He bumped himself off the wall, and we
walked out
through the archway and across the huge living room, with Trujillo and
Rebecca in hot