Free Full Scoop by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes Page B

answering your questions.”
    “Could I get a quick picture?”
    Queenie pushed past Maggie. “Take a picture of this door,” she said, and slammed it in his face so hard the house shook.
    “Holy shit!” Cook shrieked the words.
    Carl Lee Stanton jumped, and the car swerved to the center lane, almost sideswiping the pickup truck that barreled past them. He yanked the steering wheel to the right, and they rode the shoulder for a few seconds before he managed to get control. In the passenger seat, Cook twisted around, covered his eyes and gave an enormous shudder.
    “What the hell is wrong with you?” Carl Lee yelled. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
    “It’s Loopy,” Cook said. “He’s deader’n hell.”
    “Are you sure?” Carl Lee glanced around, trying to get a look. “Did you check his pulse?”
    “I don’t have to, man. He’s stiff as a board.” Cook’s voice was muffled behind his hands. “His eyes are open, Carl Lee. He’s staring right at me.”
    “Just what I need,” Carl Lee muttered. “A dead clown in the backseat.”
    “I can’t ride in a car with a body. No way can I—”
    “Shut up!” Carl Lee shouted. “I don’t need you freaking out on me on top of everything else.”
    “You don’t understand. I have a serious phobia ! Some people fear heights, elevators, and snakes, but I fear dead people.”
    “So don’t look at him.”
    Cook babbled on. “I was raised way up in the mountains,” he said. “When somebody in my family died the undertaker put them in a casket and delivered it to the house. It would sit there for three whole days! Somebody had to sit up with the dead person all night; I was five years old my first time.”
    “We’ll just have to make an appointment for you to see a shrink once we get to Beaumont.” Carl Lee turned on the radio. He searched for a country-western station and paused when he found a news station. He turned up the volume. “Be quiet, I want to see if they mention us.”
    “And when my grandma died the ground was frozen so she couldn’t be buried until it thawed. My old man put her in a junk car at the back of our property and covered her with a blanket. I still have nightmares.” He wiped his hands down his face. “You gotta let me out of this car, man.”
    Without warning, Carl Lee backhanded him.
    Cook reared back. “Why’d you do that!” he demanded. “Look, my nose is bleeding! I’ve got blood all over my good western shirt.” He reached for a dirty handkerchief on the floor, shook it out and pressed it to his nose. “I don’t want to be part of this anymore if I have to ride with a dead man in the backseat staring at me. Stop the car and let me out.”
    Carl Lee reached beneath his seat, pulled out a pistol, and, darting a quick look at Cook, put it to his head. The man froze. Carl Lee listened to the newsman who was in the process of recounting Carl Lee’s crimes and giving a description of him. In the distance ahead, a police car sat on the side of the road. Carl Lee checked his speed and lowered his gun, pressing it below Cook’s rib cage. He passed the patrol car and glanced in the rearview mirror several times until they were well past it.
    “Now, you listen to me carefully,” he told Cook. “I’m not going to dump a body in clear daylight, you got that? It’ll be good and dark by the time we get to the other side of Shreveport; then we’ll get rid of it.”
    Cook swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed several times. “Whatever you say, Carl Lee,” he said, eyes fastened on the barrel of the gun. “I can wait until it gets dark.”
    “And just so you know—” Carl Lee looked at him. “I can dump two bodies as easily as one.”
    They found Butterbean eating a cardboard cereal box from the recycling bin. “Uh-oh,” Maggie said. “I didn’t think to move the bin, but I feel better knowing she’s had a snack.” The animal didn’t let their sudden presence interfere with her dinner. She chewed