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A vein in his temple throbbed. “Fine. We’ll go tonight. Go outside and wait for me by your car,” he grunted, looking pissed that he’d agreed to my terms. “I need to tie up some loose ends before I leave.”
Like call Eddie and warn him we were coming? “I’ll head over there now. Meet you when you get there.”
He shook his head. “No fucking way. We go together or not at all.”
Was it worth the risk of Eddie running to get Malcolm to come? In this case, yeah. “Fine.” I slapped some cash on the bar top to cover my two beers and a tip. I was quickly running out of money. The job at my father’s firm was starting to look more appealing.
When I went outside, the cool night air felt good on my flushed cheeks. I still wasn’t sure I’d made the right call, but it was too late to change course now.
About ten minutes later, Malcolm finally emerged from around the back. He was wearing his leather jacket and looked pissed as he strode toward me. “This is inconvenient as hell,” he grunted at he walked up to me and held out his hand expectantly.
“What?” I barked, glancing down at his open palm.
“You’ve had two beers and there’s no telling how much you had to drink before you walked into my bar. I’m driving.”
“There’s no way you’re driving my car. I’m perfectly sober!”
“You want me to join you on this expedition? Then I’m driving.”
I could argue, but this might be another stall tactic. We’d wasted enough time.
“Fine.” I dug my keys out of my purse and dropped them into his hand before I stomped to the passenger side and opened the door. There were papers on the seat, and I reached to pick them up, my fingers wrapping around the photo frame. Malcolm was still outside, grumbling under his breath, which thankfully meant he hadn’t seen my horrified reaction. I tossed the frame onto the floorboard, the papers covering it.
Malcolm got into the driver’s seat, filling my car with his presence. His knees hit the steering wheel, and he cursed under his breath as he groped around the side of the seat, presumably to push the seat back.
“It’s a bar to push it back in the front, underneath.”
He grunted in disgust, “Of course it is, cheap ass car.”
I shot back. “I was a Little Rock police detective. I sure wasn’t in it to get rich.”
The driver’s seat shot backward, and his knees fit under the steering wheel. “Unless you were on the take.”
My anger flared. “Already attacking my character?”
“I never said you were on the take,” he said with a smirk as he turned the key in the ignition. “I merely stated it was possible.”
“That’s a myth. Detectives in the Little Rock department aren’t on the take.” But even as I said it, I didn’t believe it. Something was going on in the department, and I’d been swept up in it as collateral damage.
A bitter sound emerged from his throat. “Don’t be so sure about that.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I take it you know this from personal experience? Maybe you’ve offered a few bribes of your own?”
He shot the car in reverse, and when he stopped, he turned to me with a wolfish look in his eyes. “I could answer that, but I plead the fifth in case I incriminate myself.”
“Your fancy lawyer teach you that?”
He punched the gas, throwing me back in my seat. “Yep.”
He made a running stop at the edge of the parking lot and headed toward town.
“How do you know where to go?” I asked.
“Because Eddie told me where he lives, or at least the general area, and it’s south of Jackson Creek.” He shot me a glance. “I take it you have the address?”
“Yep.”
“You get it from one of your dates?” he asked in a snide tone.
