Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,37

his head into his palms. “That asshole. I had him. I could have taken him out.”

Patty slapped Hank on the back, hard. “Wake up, son. No, you couldn’t have. That Indian was fine right where he was. What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t, all right? I was angry. I was so angry, I couldn’t even think. I just wanted to pound him, kick him till he couldn’t move. It’s my girlfriend we’re talking about here. He’s going to pay for what he has done. He’s a sick murderer. He’s sick. He should hang for this.” Hank stood up to get more coffee, slammed the empty tin mug down on the table, and poured the hot liquid, drinking it even though it burned him—didn’t care.

“Now, now. I get that, really I do, but there is the law you have to consider here. This boy has to be tried like the rest of us would be, and we don’t really know for certain what happened to Coreen. All we have is her dress and this witness. You sit back down, Ed.” Doby pointed at Ed, who looked like he was about to sneak out the door. “Ed, you’re in this too now, whether you like it or not. You came to us, remember? I’ll call your boss, get you excused from dam labor. And Hank . . . well, you’re just as dumb as the rest of the morons that I have to deal with on a daily basis in this town. Everybody is angry about something. He was in a cell, for cryin’ out loud. He was locked up. He was here. We had him.” Doby bent his tired legs and stood leaning on the dark table, giving them all a look like they were all in the deepest rigmarole they’d ever been in. “Now you all listen up. We’re going on a search to find that kid and bring him back here. He knows something. I know from the depths of my soul that he does, and until we will find out what that is—we’ll never know the truth about a lot of things.”

Patty nodded in agreement, wearing the same look of disgust on his face as he looked at Ed and Hank. “We move out now. No ifs, ands, or buts,” said Doby, reaching for his shiny wood- stock shotgun and tucking a dull, black revolver into his ankle straps.

Ed grumbled, Hank cursed, and Patty assisted in pushing them all out of the station.

***

Betty scrambled around her bedroom in a black slip after waking, fixed her bed, cleaned, dusted, and moved a bottle of swank perfume from one side of the dresser to the other. It was all she could do to calm her nerves before Doc arrived. She had quickly shooed Roy away and told him to come back later the next day. God, it had been hard to do that—he was such a bite—had to though, didn’t know what the hell was going on. Get rid of them. That was her line, one she’d repeated over and over through the years.

There was a time it had been easier for her there in her risqué home of homes. Seems like the men came and they went and there was no mix-up, no longings for more, no significance, no commitment.

“That dam,” she muttered, splashing water on herself to clean up a bit. She was wilting even in the cool, morning breeze.

“That dam, I’d say,” said Doc. “Roy filled me in on our missing little lady. I’d have come sooner, but I’ve been all night with dear Doris.”

“Doris. I don’t need to know names, Doc. That name is familiar. Well, to be honest I only know one Doris, from the bakery. It’s not her, is it? Oh, don’t tell me; I don’t need to know, really I don’t. She’s Irish, I think. I don’t know what to do here. Her bread is the best, I’ve ever had. Don’t tell me it’s her.” Betty fixed the pillow where the blonde had laid her head for so many days, like she missed her or something.

Doc sat on the bed with a look of concern, one that could not be appeased. “Did she up and leave? Did the medicine actually work? I mean, it’s good stuff if it did.”

“I don’t know. I was preoccupied, you know, Doc. I’ve got things going on here.” She bit her lip. She continued her fretting about what to wear. Doc followed after her into the walk-in closet, watched