Free Daddy's Little Girl by Ed Gorman, Daniel Ransom

sure.
    “Just wonderin’,” Jake said in his slow drawl, “if you wanted me to get anything when I run into town this morning.” He smiled over to Ruth Foster, seeming to have a special fondness for the woman.
    She smiled back at him. “Nothing for me, Jake. You might ask Minerva.”
    Minerva shook her head and laughed. “Unless you can find a big strong man who wants to look around in the basement.”
    Jake glanced first at Ruth Foster then back at Minerva. “What about the basement?” he said.
    “Heard some strange noises in it last night.” Minerva pointed to her goose egg. “Somebody or something hit me.”
    Jake smiled. His smile was very uncomfortable. “Maybe you just fell down.”
    Minerva laughed and waved her hand at Ruth. “She’s trying to tell me that it was a bat. Now you’re trying to tell me that I just fell down.” There was some genuine irritation in her voice.
    Sensing her friend’s dismay, Ruth took on a defensive tone. “I’m not doubting your word.”
    “Neither am I,” Jake said.
    Minerva checked out each one, appeared to be weighing whether or not she believed them. Finally she shrugged and said, “Well, I suppose we’ll never know what it was, I guess.” She glanced at Ruth. “No matter how many times it happens.”
    Ruth shook her head. “The times before, it was the wind. That I’m sure of, Minerva.”
    “The wind,” Minerva said, tired of the whole discussion. “Maybe it was.”
    Jake pawed at his shirtfront with a pudgy hand. “You sure neither of you ladies wants anything from town?”
    Ruth thought a moment. “A cake from the bakery would be nice.”
    “For you, maybe,” Minerva smiled. She pinched more than an inch around her waist. “Not for me.”
    “Oh, Minerva, you haven’t gained five pounds since I met you thirty years ago.”
    “Thanks for the flattery, but if you don’t mind I’ll pass on the cake.”
    Ruth smiled fondly at her friend. “Well, we’ll see tonight when I set it on the dining room table.”
    Jake laughed. “Maybe I’ll stop by myself, just to see how things are going.”
    “A white cake with chocolate frosting sounds good,” Ruth said.
    “Just watch me resist,” Minerva said, touching the goose egg, wondering fleetingly about the noises she’d heard last night.
    Already she knew she was going to give in tonight.
    Not only have a piece of cake but also eat the ice cream Ruth inevitably served along with it.
    “Well, ladies,” Jake said. “See you presently.”

4
    Dave Evans leaned his head back, savoring the marijuana that was doing wonderful things to his seventeen-year-old brain.
    Near the door his friend Bobby Coughlin stood guard. Never knew when one of the pisshead teachers from Burton High was going to walk in and grab you.
    Dave, a handsome blond kid who could easily have made first-team quarterback if he weren’t more interested in girls and fun, was generally in enough trouble that any more would get him kicked out of school.
    Such as the sort of trouble he was contemplating for tonight, just so that he would get his first opportunity to slide inside the most elusive girl in town, Angie Fuller.
    “Hey, man, somebody’s comin’.”
    “Yeah, it’s me,” Dave said. “I’m comin’. I’m thinkin’ of how good Angie’s gonna taste tonight.”
    Bobby, who wore glasses, weighed not much more than a concentration camp victim, and was generally considered to be a pioneer in the ways of dorkiness, could only shake his head in envy. Bobby’s role was that of go-fer. By seventh grade he had learned that his only hope of surviving the cruel and capricious world of teenagers was to be a supplicant, to attach himself to the most powerful and popular kid he could. In return for Bobby’s services, he would receive protection and a measure of power himself. Which was just what he got from his relationship from Dave. Nobody picked on Bobby, because they knew if they did they would have to answer to Dave, something few