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Yeah, I got a friend or two. I wasn’t always a grump. “She was filling me in on the meeting. Says she feels like it’s going to help.” And I hope she’s right. Either way, there’s a long road ahead, and I know better than to trust a teenager. “I’m also waiting on a callback from a detective with the Chandor PD.”
“From what you told me before, it sounds like the kid’s going to need all the help he can get.”
I snort. “Exactly.”
He nods slowly. “That’s nice of you, John. I’m proud of you.”
Why that condescending, son of a—
His palms flash up. “Alright, alright. I’m done.”
Better beis all I can say. I iron out my spine, add a little starch, and strike my best boss pose. “Now, to what do I owe this interruption?”
He adjusts his lanky self to a more appropriate posture. “Just got off a call with Gonz.”
I cough-laugh. “You mean the whipped puppy dog?” The one whose happy nuptials I was forced—I mean, blessed—to witness?
“That’s the one, sir.”
Walker—okay, Tripp—doesn’t call me sir much anymore, and it’s clear as Mississippi mud he doesn’t mean it now, either. That infernal twitching of his face tells the real story. “So, the loser called from his honeymoon?”
“Yeah.” Suddenly, Walker is frowning. Takes me a second, but I catch on. Gonzalez’s honeymoon is with Walker’s little sister.
I tappety-tap my pen. “Has he told you all about it,Tripp?”
“Shut it, Chavez.”
I grin. “Where’d the happy couple go again?”
“Europe.”
“Sounds romantic.” I follow up with wobbling eyebrows.
Grimacing, Tripp shifts in the chair.
A tour through Europe sounds alright, if that’s your thing. Deann and I made it all the way to Fort Worth for one whole night at the worst little bed and breakfast ever.
Maybe it was a sign.
“John?”
I give my head a dash. “What did the lovebird want?”
“He called to say that the Blaisdell trial date has been set and that depositions are coming up. Guess I’m on the witness list, too.”
Makes sense. Walker was there during the shootout when the drug-dealing slime finally met his Waterloo. Right here in nothing old Chandor.
See? That’s my point. Hollie does not need to be walking around alone.
“I put it all in an email.”
This time, I bob the pen between my fingers. “Then what are you bothering me for?”
“A friendly heads up is all. Everything alright, John?” He shoots me an eye that tweaks my conscience.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Besides that Walker talks too much?
He shrugs. “You’re acting strange, and you looked different when I walked in.”
