Free 6 - The Eye of the Virgin: Ike Schwartz Mystery 6 by Frederick Ramsay

she said, not lifting her eyes from the screen.
    “I did. Claude only fired three shots before I hit the porch. He needs target practice.”
    “Very funny. Fix us a drink and sit down somewhere and behave. I’ll be a half hour or so at this.”
    Ike poured her a small Scotch and made himself a gin and tonic. He placed the Scotch on the desk beside her, stroked her hair, and walked to the door.
    “I’ll be in the upstairs sitting room if you need me. And I hope you do. Need me, I mean.”
    Ruth nodded, eyes still fixed on the laptop, and waved him away. On task, absorbed, working—focused.
    Ike trudged up the stairs to the small room off the bedroom. It had a television, a small sofa, end tables, and side chairs grouped around a silver Bokhara. To one side, a fireplace broke a large set of book shelves into two sections. A fire had been laid. He stooped and lit a match to the kindling. The fire caught. Ike flopped onto the sofa, sipped his drink and savored the scent of burning wood. Apple, if he guessed right.
    ***
    Forty-five minutes later Ruth found him asleep. She debated whether to wake him or not. She thought he’d be angry at her if she didn’t. She poked him in the ribs. Ike recoiled from the sofa like a scalded cat. That was the cliché that came to mind at any rate.
    “Wow, what’s up with you?”
    “I must have dozed off. Sorry.”
    “No problem. But what’s up with the jumping at me?”
    “Bad dream.”
    “You want to tell Momma?”
    “I want Momma to induce a nice dream. Are you finished with your agenda?”
    “Not quite. You’re next.”

Chapter Thirteen
    Sam bounced into the office grinning like she’d been voted prom queen or perhaps cast to play Tigger in the school play. Ike hadn’t seen a smile on her face like that in months.
    “Hey, there, Deputy Ryder,” Essie called from her post at the dispatch desk, “what’s up? You look like you won the lottery.”
    “Better. I’m here to greet the FBI liaison officer assigned to the ’cide out at the clinic.”
    “All that’s got you so bouncy? Lord, it must be the shade of J. Edgar himself that’s coming.”
    “Again, better.”
    “Oh, my, let me guess. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome, and I do mean dark, is coming to town. Hey, Ike, you hear that? Ryder’s Mr. Wonderful is going to be in town. I don’t reckon we’ll get much work out of her today.”
    Sam leaned on the door frame of Ike’s office. “Karl called me this morning. He’s here for as long as it takes to get us up to speed. You think you could make that a couple of years?”
    “That would be nice. How about we try to stretch a couple of days anyway. When did Karl say he’d arrive?”
    Sam turned her wrist over and looked at her watch. “He’ll be here in an hour, unless there are problems on the Sixty-six or the Eighty-one.”
    “Not likely this time of year,. So, see if you can manufacture a professional demeanor, turn on that battery of electronic machinery in your space, and start digging around. If I know you, you will find out who they’re going to surprise us with before your boyfriend gets here.”
    “He’ll be disappointed if I do.”
    “He’ll be disappointed if you don’t. By now he’s told them we are a good deal better at what we do than they give us credit for and they, that would be his team leader and the rest of the Quantico crowd, don’t believe him. They never do. The Bureau mavens always think the cops in the sticks are hopeless and hapless. We need to keep reminding them that more often than not, we make them look good, not the other way around.”
    “Not Karl.”
    “No, not Karl. So, give him something to report back.”
    Billy Sutherlin slouched in and sat heavily at the desk he shared with the other shifts.
    “Did you get the dishes in the machine before you came in?” Essie’s cornflower blue eyes locked on her husband like lasers. If she hadn’t also been beaming when she said it, Ike thought there might be trouble