Free Fortunes of the Dead by Lynn Hightower Page A

table.
    â€œCheryl used to date a guy named Rob, pretty serious, but he didn’t have anything to do with this.”
    I nodded without agreeing or disagreeing.
    â€œRob and Cheryl dated a long time. Rob was an ATF intern two years before Cheryl.” Ray stacked his coffee mug on his plate. “He’s a good guy. Sometimes he’d play pickup games when he was over, you know, at the apartment. Most of the time, though, when we played it was me, Van, and Cheryl, and a bunch of other people who’d hang out once in a while at Woodland Park. You know where—”
    â€œYeah, right down the road. Cheryl pretty athletic? She good at sports?”
    Van scratched the back of his head and laughed. “ Hell no, Cheryl sucked at basketball. It’s funny, because see, the first time she came out and wanted to shoot baskets I was blown away. I figured, a girl walks up to a couple of guys at the same apartment complex, she’s going to be pretty good before she puts herself on the line.”
    Ray was smiling. “Cheryl was from a small town—”
    â€œDanville,” Van said.
    â€œYeah, Danville. And she was used to having a neighborhood gang. She watched us off and on for a while after she moved in, and she decided we were going to be her new gang.”
    â€œShe’s even worse at softball. Oh man, does she stink. But she doesn’t care, you know, she falls on her ass, she just laughs it off. She’s kind of a guy’s girl. Not a jock or anything like that, but a chick you can hang out with and be easy. And it was cool because then other girls start coming out to play, ’cause Cheryl is there, so it’s like girls are welcome, and next thing you know we’re all showing up regularly and we got a group.”
    I took a sip of my mocha espresso. It was cold, but because it was full of chocolate, still worth drinking. “What do you guys think happened? You got any idea?”
    Van went still and tense. Then he shrugged, stretched, and yawned. “Person you ought to ask about that is Robbie.”
    â€œWhy don’t you shut up and butt out?” Ray said.
    â€œLook, Ray, I’m not saying Robbie did anything. He’s a pretty straight-up guy and Cheryl was crazy about him.” Van looked at me. “She really was. They’d been living together for two years, and he broke up with her because he didn’t want any attachments. That’s why she moved into the apartment. They’d make up—break up. Cheryl was always getting upset, you know, because he didn’t spend enough time with her, and stuff. And Robbie, he wants to work for the Feds, and he figures he’ll be moving a lot, and I think for a while there he was just figuring himself as the loner with no ties.”
    â€œHe was stupid,” Ray said. “And when he figured it out and wanted to get back with Cheryl that last time, she didn’t want him back.”
    â€œNah, she was having too much fun. Lots of guys asking her out. She was pretty attractive.”
    â€œEither of you guys ask her out?”
    â€œNaw, I’m taken,” Van said. “And Raymond here is gay.”
    â€œI am not. You’re an ass, you know that?”
    â€œI ought to, you tell me often enough. He’s not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
    Ray leaned forward. “Cheryl and I were just friends. Any time one would be out of a relationship, the other one of us would be in one. It got to where we were sort of break-up buddies. We’d hang out and listen to all the whining and trash the ex, go to movies and all of that.”
    â€œWhy do you think I need to talk to Rob?” I asked.
    â€œYou remember you said something about Cheryl having something on her mind? There’s something to that,” Van said. “She was acting kind of upset, but kind of excited. She stopped dating, and started working just all the time, and she asked us if