Free To Sleep Gently by Trent Zelazny Page A

Doesn't matter to me."
    "Okay, well, I've still got a little while here. I'll think about it."
    For the next fifteen minutes Dempster browsed around the store. He read the backs of a dozen books, found a couple that interested him, but decided not to buy them. He sampled CDs at a listening station and discovered that he didn't like contemporary pop music with the exceptions of Liz Phair and the Hollis Wake. He studied the movie rentals. Some looked good and some looked bad. Some looked abysmal.
    He was reading the back of a video box when his arm bumped the shelf and knocked several movies to the floor. He crouched down to pick them up, and as he gathered them into his arm a pair of feet entered his vision.
    He looked up, then stiffened, staring at the red hair and blue eyes of Carly Whittaker.
    They were quiet for some moments, ogling one another, each trying to read the other's mind. Up close she was even prettier, and though he felt that it was high time he looked away, he found it impossible.
    "I saw you in here yesterday," she said.
    "Could be," he told her, "given that I was in here yesterday."
    Once again he tried looking away. But her eyes were like magnets that pulled his eyes to hers. He watched her place a hand on her hip, and shift her weight to one leg. She was wearing jeans today, and a white blouse, which made the redness of her hair stand out like flames on a snow hill.
    "Well?" she said.
    Dempster looked deeper into her eyes. She was daring him. "Well what?"
    "You gonna put those movies back on the shelf?"
    He felt the videos in his hands. He'd forgotten he was holding them, and suddenly they were very heavy. He managed to break eye contact, turn, and put them back on the shelf.
    He wasn't sure what his thoughts were, but he didn't want to look at her again. He was afraid that if he turned back and looked into those blue eyes, he would never see anything else as long as he lived.
    "You okay?"
    "Sure."
    "You seem nervous," she said. "Am I scaring you?"
    "I don't scare easily." He knew that much was true.
    He could smell her, feel her electricity. Only now did he realize that she wasn't wearing her green apron. He told himself not to, but looked back into her eyes. And cursed himself.
    "It just seems," she said, "that your I.Q. has suddenly dropped to doorknob status."
    "Thing is." His voice was tight, though he did manage a grin. "I like redheads too much." There was nothing complimentary in the way he said it.
    She smiled as sparks came into her eyes. "In what way?"
    Before he could come up with the proper phrasing, his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the Caller I.D., and saw that the number was Charlie's cell. Connecting, he said, "Charlie, hang on a second." Then to Carly Whittaker, "See ya."
    She smiled, then turned on her heel and vanished.
    He brought the phone to his ear and asked Charlie what was up.
    "We're in Dallas," Charlie said. "The flight out of here doesn't leave for another hour." He cleared his throat. "We're suddenly having a bit of an issue. Freddy hasn't completely explained it to me but it looks like our fence man in Albuquerque is no longer our fence man."
    "What?"
    "Guess Freddy got some dirt on him and gave him the boot."
    "That's not good," Dempster said.
    "I know, it's a bit unsettling but don't worry about it. Not like it's never happened before." Charlie paused and cleared his throat again. "He just lined someone up in Corrales. Guy by the name of Frazier. Here, wait, I'll give you the new information."
    "Call me with that when you get to Albuquerque, if you don't mind," Dempster told him. "I'm out and about right now."
    "Yeah, sure thing."
    "This Frazier guy—you know anything about him?"
    "Not really. Freddy's apparently worked with him before, says he's a good guy, can move the stuff real fast. Said he'd almost wished he'd gone with him in the first place."
    "Wonder why he didn't."
    "I'll call you when we get to Albuquerque."
    "All right."
    They