Anna appraised Dick and thought that he might be a good match for her friend, Widow Schumacher. Widow Judy Schumacher was short, just like Dick, and she had a strong personality, too. Plus, she had expensive tastes, and Anna knew the widow’s life insurance policy was darn near about to give out. It’d be good to get her hitched up to someone who could take care of her like Dick could. It seemed somehow unnatural for a man and a woman not to be enjoying the sanctity of marriage together when there was no reason to prevent it.
Dick kept dialing Chief Scott’s number on the cell phone, but just like Joe Bob, Chief Scott wasn’t answering.
“Do you know how all this happened?” Anna asked.
“I would if that good-for-nothing Chief Scott would pick up his gol-darned phone,” Dick said. “Worthless S.O.B.”
“Joe Bob ain’t answering his phone either,” Anna said.
“I’ll bet he’s not.” Dick pressed the binoculars to his eyes again and squinted, forming little fleshy mounds around the eyepieces. “You know this guy?” He passed the binoculars to Anna again.
“Sure enough,” Anna said, and filled him in on the details. They went through the binocular exchange routine a few more times, with Anna confirming the names of injury victims and Dick making notations.
Just then, Anna heard somebody calling her name.
Speak of the devil! She turned around to find Widow Schumacher waving at her. Anna motioned for her to come on over.
“How’d all this happen?” the widow’s cheeks were flushed with all the excitement, and Anna decided that made her appear pretty attractive. It would be the perfect time to introduce her to Dick. And then who knew what might happen? They might fall in love and live happily ever after, just like she and Joe Bob had!
“I’m not sure yet,” Anna said, “but this here’s the man to tell you.” She tugged on Dick’s arm to get his attention. “Dick, this here’s Judy Schumacher. I been meaning to introduce you two for some time.”
This was obviously a lie, as the idea had just occurred to her, but it seemed like it wouldn’t hurt anything if she’d said so. “Judy’s a widow, so she’s single just like you,” Anna told Dick.
Dick glanced back over his shoulder at the refinery. “Is that so?” he said.
“I was thinking I might invite you two over for dinner with me and Joe Bob one night next week. How does that sound?”
Dick backed away. “I’d love to, he said, but my case load is about to get really busy.”
“Well, what about right now?” Anna asked. “You’re not doing anything but standing out here rubbernecking with the rest of us! Let’s head over to Caliente and get acquainted.”
“Sure, sure,” Dick said. “It’s just that I gotta get to the hospital.” He cleared his throat. “Right now,” he added. With that, he turned and fled.
Widow Schumacher looked flabbergasted.
“Oh, don’t take it the wrong way,” Anna said. “He’s such a good man. You should have seen the way he was fussing over everyone who got carried out of there. For the life of me, I never seen a man who cared so much about the good of other people.”
She’d set up a dinner later.
CHAPTER 27
Miles wanted to stop by his house to pick up some fresh clothes and his special designer shaving cream, but Cameron and Nash convinced him that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
In the end, we decided to set up shop in Gracie Miller’s root cellar. Since my client was M.I.A. and probably wasn’t returning any time soon, it seemed like as good a place as any. Plus, if she did unexpectedly return, I’d be able to deliver Dorian’s settlement offer the minute she walked in the door.
Gracie had her root cellar pretty well equipped as a storm shelter. Canned food was stashed everywhere, and there were even cots for when hurricanes came through and spun off tornadoes. The door to the root cellar was hidden behind a wood shed and wasn’t visible from the street. Anybody who might be looking for it would have to know it was there. The only reason I knew it was there was because Derrick had been working down there one day when he collapsed. Gracie had called the hospital, then she had called me.
We got electricity from an old generator Gracie had in the shed above-ground. Of course, Cameron knew how to turn it on and make sure it kept working. He set up his computer network, hacked into PetroPlex