AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It took me a second to register what he meant.
“…Benjy and Ali?!”
“Yeah. Briefly.”
“How?! Ali didn’t exactly go after the smartest guys, but – Benjy?!”
“I got the impression it was based more on drugs than anything else.”
“…oh… why didn’t you tell me?”
“About them being involved? I thought you knew.”
“No – about suspecting him of being the shooter.”
He grimaced. “Like I said, I got the impression their… whatever it was, was based more on drugs than anything else. I never seriously thought Benjy could do something like that. So I guess I didn’t think it was worth bringing up something so…”
“Sordid?” I asked. I felt sick.
He took my hand, stopped me, and looked in my eyes. “Hey – I’m sorry. I would have told you if I thought there was even a chance that – ”
“It’s not that,” I said glumly. “It just… it sucks.”
“She was a good person. She just had her demons, that’s all.”
“What, you have demons, too?”
“We all do. Just different kinds.”
“And you think Benjy’s demons drove him to kill her?” I asked bitterly.
“No, I think Lou did. And he’ll pay for it, I swear to you. Even if we can’t get the Santa Muertes and Dan Peters, and we have to spend twenty years in prison, Lou Shaw is a dead man. That I promise you.”
I know it sounds strange, but I felt oddly comforted.
“I don’t think they’ll put you in prison for twenty years,” I said, in as light a tone of voice as I could muster.
“Trust me, if they put you in the pen, they’re gonna toss me in, too, and throw away the key.”
“Naaah… twenty years for revealing the identity of an undercover agent, plus telling you, Sid, and Kade… you’ll be out at least ten years before me.”
“Well, we’ll have to get married before, then, so we can get conjugal visits.”
I looked at him in surprise. He was joking, but it was a hell of an unexpected turn to the conversation.
I decided not to get all serious about it, though. “So you’ll come to the women’s prison and give me a good pounding every once in a while?” I asked seductively.
He laughed. “Every chance I get, baby. Every chance I get.”
150
We found a trail down to a deserted beach and walked along the rocky shore in the twilight, our boots crunching in the broken shells.
“Don’t think I’ve ever done this before,” he said.
“What, take a walk with a pretty woman?” I teased him.
“Not by the beach. Not since I was thirteen, anyway.”
