road a couple of hundred yards from the beach. He thought it would handle the sand better. He left his scooter in the carport.
“Where’d you get the gun?” J.D. asked.
“The dude in the bar gave it to me.”
“The same one who gave you the two hundred bucks?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Bullets?”
“They were in the clip in the gun.”
“Did you reload them?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Did you?”
“No, ma’am.”
J.D. cleared the pistol and dropped the clip into her hand, looked at it. “There’re several rounds left in the mag. Maybe we can get some fingerprints.”
She turned back to Bates. “Did the man in the bar tell you why he wanted these guys dead?”
“No.”
“Weren’t you curious?”
“No, ma’am. I wouldn’t have done it either, except I didn’t want the other guys in the bar to think I was a pu—, uh, chicken.”
J.D. smiled. “A chicken, huh?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Were there other people there when you met with the man who gave you the money?”
“No. Just Big Tony. The bartender.”
“Did you just happen to wander in and find them there with a job for you?”
“No, ma’am. Big Tony knows my number. He called me.”
“Okay, Steve,” J.D. said. “Take him back to the station. I may have some more questions for him when I get through with these victims.”
Steve laughed. “I think if ol’ Clyde here had any idea who these victims were, he’d have left town.”
“That would have been a wise move,” she said.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked.
“My car’s in the driveway up there,” she said, pointing to the nearest house. “I’ll take you home and we can get your formal statements. You know the drill.”
We drove in silence the short distance to my cottage. I felt like an errant schoolboy being driven home by the principal. J.D. was not happy, but I wasn’t sure what Jock and I had done other than almost get killed by a teenager.
We went into the house. “Coffee anybody?” I asked.
“Put some on and come sit down,” said J.D., a peremptory tone in her voice.
I went to the kitchen and Jock sat on the sofa, a bemused expression on his face. J.D. took a chair and sat quietly. I put the coffee on and returned to the living room. I sat on the sofa next to Jock facing J.D.
She looked at us for a moment. “I don’t want to lose you guys,” she said. “You come here and start turning over rocks and something big crawls out and tries to kill you.”
“J.D.,” I said, “we were jogging on a public beach.”
“You know what I mean, Matt. You’re not cops. I am. It’s my job to turn over rocks. I get paid to do that. You’re the amateurs. Civilians.”
“Not exactly amateurs,” I said. “Besides, you’re part of what we’re doing.”
“I know.” she said, “And Jock you have resources I don’t have. Matt, you’re developing facts that we didn’t have before, but this is the second time somebody’s tried to kill you.”
“The second time this week,” I said. “People have tried to kill me a lot more than twice.”
She frowned at that. “We cops seem to generally have some immunity. The bad guys are at least reluctant to kill us because then the full weight of cop world falls in on them. But you guys are civilians and don’t have the same protection.”
I looked at her. “Do you want to end our little cooperative affair?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know what I want. But I don’t want you dead.”
She was looking directly at me as she said this. There was a softening about her eyes and mouth, a glint of tears welling. She looked away, rose, and went into the kitchen. My heart did a little lurch and Jock just sat and smiled.
We sat quietly for a couple of minutes, neither of us saying anything. I rose and went to the kitchen. J.D. was standing at the sink staring out the window to the bay, her back to me. “You want some coffee?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She turned without looking at me, went to the coffeepot and poured a cup, handed it to me, and went back to the living room. Not another word. I followed her. She sat back down in her chair and said, “We’ve got to go check out Big Tony and O’Reilly’s. See if we can get a lead on the man who hired that idiot Bates to kill you guys.” The softness was gone. Detective J.D. Duncan was all business.
I nodded. “I’d also like to see if we can