Mr Holland, I find it damn inconsiderate you dont post your office hours. Call me at the Green Parrot Motel to talk this thing out.
Garland T. Moon
We were back at her car now. She opened the driver's door and reached across the seat and picked up a revolver. It was an ancient .38-40 double-action, the metal as dull as an old nickel with holster wear.
'Keep this. You can add it to your historical collection,' she said.
'Nope.'
'I got a friend in Austin to run Moon on the computer. Corrections thinks he did two snitches in Sugarland.'
'Thanks for coming by, Temple.'
S
he lowered the revolver, which she held sideways in her palm.
'Where's it end?' she said.
'Excuse me?'
'You gave up your badge, then your career as a prosecutor with the Justice Department…' She shook her head. 'Because you think an accidental death takes away your right to judge people who are evil?'
'Pete and I are fixing to fry up some fish. You're welcome to join us.'
'You make me so mad I want to hit you,' she said.
Later that evening, I called the sheriff at his home.
'My PI made a 911 on Garland Moon,' I said.
'So?'
'Nobody was dispatched.'
'What's the man done?' he asked.
'He was in your custody. You let him out. I don't want him on my doorstep.'
'You think I want this lunatic on the street?'
'To tell you the truth, I'm not sure, sheriff.'
'You're a natural-born pain in the ass, Billy Bob. Don't be calling my house again.'
After I hung up, I called a friend in the sheriff's department and got the address of Mary Beth Sweeney. She lived in a new two-story apartment complex with a swimming pool just outside of town. It was 9 p.m. when I walked up the brick pathway at the entrance, and the underwater lights in the pool were turned on and pine needles and a glaze of suntan lotion floated on the surface. The lawn was empty, the portable barbecue pits left on the flagstones feathering with smoke.
I climbed to the second landing and rang her doorbell. My right hand opened and closed at my side and I felt warm inside my coat and wished I had left it in the Avalon.
Her face had a meaningless expression when she opened the door.
'Sorry to bother you at home. But I heard Garland Moon was at my office,' I said.
'Yes, is there something I can tell you?'
'Maybe. If I'm not bothering you.'
I waited.