Free Whistle Pass by KevaD Page A

the heat of Gabe’s mouth brushed his lips. Eye on the prize, Charlie boy. He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Gabe. Just what the prize might be was starting to confuse him.
    The car slowed. Lights glowed in the distance on the left.
    “What is it?”
    “Perkins pulled into Chandler’s Steak House. There’s a road just beyond it if you want me to make the turn.”
    “Yeah. Do that.” Charlie craned his neck as they drove past the lot. Perkins pulled up to the doors of the building, stopped, then drove to an empty space in the center of the lot. Gabe made the turn onto the other road. “Pull over.” Charlie opened the door and got out. So did Gabe.
    “You don’t have to come.”
    Gabe turned up the collar of his jacket. “Yes, I do.” A shoulder rose and lowered.
    Charlie nodded. “I understand. You need an idea of what those men felt before they died.”
    Gabe’s head lowered.
    Charlie rounded the car and pulled Gabe to him. “It’s okay. It is. When fear chokes off your ability to speak, that’s when you’ll know. It’s what they did about it that separated them from the others around them. Some ran toward the enemy. Some ran away. Some died never knowing who they really were. Others just stood, too scared to do anything.”
    Gabe’s mouth was at his ear. “Your scars are in the front.”
    “In all the commotion, I got confused and ran the wrong way.” His groin woke to the feel of the man in his arms. He pushed away before he surrendered to the blood flowing to the wrong place. “Stay low and behind me.” Crouched, he tied his boot, then hurried through the trees, Gabe at his heels.
    At the edge of the lot, Charlie duck-walked from car to car until he found a gap through which he could see Perkins’s Cadillac. The window down, Perkins’s fingers drummed the side of the door. Light footsteps clopped toward them. Charlie dropped flat to the ground. Gabe’s weight at his ankles alerted him Gabe had followed suit.
    The door swung open, and Perkins pulled himself out of the car. The man stood taller and wider than Charlie recalled, but they hadn’t really taken the time to introduce themselves on the hotel stairway. Six two, an easy 250 pounds. The snap-brim hat was the same.
    A shapely woman in a beige dress and heels strode around the back of the car. Dark blonde hair bounced on her shoulders. She hadn’t worn a coat to the meeting. Obviously, she had no intention of staying long. Perkins’s arms went wide. The woman threw her arms around the police chief’s neck. Perkins enveloped her in his large arms and rubbed a paw over her ass. The woman’s head bypassed Perkins’s open mouth.
    Charlie muted his chuckle. No good news, no kissee.
    Her hands went to his shoulders. She backed up a step. Perkins’s arms went wide again, and his lips moved as fast as if he’d just been caught cheating. The woman wagged a finger, spun on a heel, and stomped back the way she’d come.
    Charlie flexed a cheek. She was attractive. Might even be pretty once she got the scowl off her face.
    Perkins got in the car and backed out of the space. Acrid smoke flooded the lot, tires burned off rubber, and the squeal of the spinning wheels splintered the stillness. The car fishtailed onto the roadway and raced into the night.
    Charlie laughed and turned to Gabe. “Old Perkins didn’t get what he expected to get. I’d say an empty hand is all he’s going to bed with tonight.” Charlie froze.
    Gabe’s face was white as a dove.
    “What’s wrong?”
    Lips moved, but no sound came out. Gabe gulped a lump Charlie could see roll down his throat.
    “Charlie.” Gabe closed his eyes. When he opened them, they glistened under a glaze of fear. “That was Dora Black. The mayor’s wife.”
    “Isn’t that interesting.” Charlie stood. He turned and took a few steps toward the steak house.
    Gabe grabbed Charlie’s coat sleeve and jerked him to a stop. “What are you doing? You can’t go in there.”
    “Why