Free Love Nip by Mary Whitten Page A

wearing clothes that weren’t from this era, answered. She wore bright blue colored spandex and a hot pink sweater. The sweater hung loose around her neck and showed a little skin over her right shoulder. Let me tell you, she should not have been allowed to wear spandex. Her yellow headband was wrapped around a seriously bad blonde dye job.
    “Can I help you?” the woman asked.
    “We ’re looking for Richie,” Axle informed her behind his shades. He thought he looked so cool. He did.
    “Yea h, come on in. I just made some sweet tea, would you two like some?” she asked politely as she led us to her living room.
    “No thank you, we just need to ask Richie a few questions and we will be on our way,” Axle answered for both of us. I knew he was just as tired of swe et tea as I was.
    “Well, he’s not in any trouble now is he?” she asked before she left.
    “No , ma’am,” was all he gave her. By the look on her face she wasn’t satisfied.
    “I swear I’m going to throw up if one more person offers us sweet tea,” Axle complained as soon as Richie’s mother left the room.
    My phone beeped, letting me know I had received a text message. I looked down to see the message was from my mother. ‘Emily, I am making dinner. Come by at seven, I have big news.’
    “I didn’t even know my mom knew how to send a text. I can’t imagine what her big news is,” I groaned. I hadn’t talked with my mom since her date with Robert. I wasn’t looking forward to that talk. I put my phone back in my purse just as a little kid walked in.
    “Who are you two?” the boy asked, resting his hands on his hip.
    “We ’re the scary monsters that live in your closet,” Axle snapped at the kid, which in return made the little boy run out screaming.
    “Axle, you jerk ! Why did you do that?” I asked, slapping his arm.
    “I hate kids,” he said.
    “I knew you would come see me sooner or la ter.” A man walked in sporting full war gear. He even had paint on his face. He was decked out in camouflage from his head to his toes. I didn’t know they made that many different styles of camouflage gear.
    “What the —never mind. Richie, we came to ask you a few questions about Maggie and Charlotte,” he stated.
    “Ah yes , the broads. I see, what questions might you have for me?” he asked as he sat in a recliner directly in front of us.
    I turned to look at Axle, this one was all his.
    “When was the last time you saw the girls?” Axle asked.
    “That’s an easy one, at the meeting. I was standing next to them when they started to fight,” he replied, smiling. This was a game to him. His answer made my ass itch and not in a good way.
    “O kay, did you hear what they were arguing about?” Axle asked.
    “Yea h, something about a party that Charlotte wasn’t invited to,” he answered, rocking back in the recliner and grinning with excitement. “I wasn’t invited either, but you don’t see me gettin’ all uppity about it.”
    “You do know these two girls are missing, right? Can you at least act like you care?” I demanded. I hadn’t realized I said it out loud until it was already out.
    “Emily,” Axle snapped. “ Um, so Richie, did you see anything out of the ordinary during the meeting?”
    “Nope,” he said, glaring at me.
    “Do you know anything about the vampire Maggie was afraid of?” I asked , glaring right back.
    Richie’s face went white as a ghost. “What? That’s just stupid ,” he nervously stated, trying to force a laugh. After a few more questions it was obvious we weren’t getting anything out of him so we left.
    “He’s lying,” I said to Axle as we climbed back into his Mustang.
    “Are you about to also tell me you think he did it?” he joked.
    “Actually , now that you mention it, I could see him doing it. He seemed to think this was funny,” I replied.
    We stopped for lunch and brought it back to work. I ate my food on the way back so I was wondering what exactly I was going to