“May, I haven’t partnered with Crowe. Something happened yesterday and… erm… last night,” and that morning but I didn’t go into that, “I met him, we’ve talked, he helped me with a situation and that’s it. We aren’t partners.”
“He as cute as they say?” May asked, eyes still dancing with excitement.
Crowe? Cute?
I couldn’t help myself; I threw back my head and laughed.
“What’s funny?” May talked over my laughter.
“Vance Crowe is not cute,” I said when I got myself under control.
May’s nose scrunched. “That’s damned disappointing. I heard he was a little hottie.”
“Oh, he’s hot all right, but he isn’t cute. You don’t describe a man like that as cute,” I told May.
May’s eyes lit again. “How do you describe him then?”
I thought about this and couldn’t come up with anything. He was simply indescribable. You had to see him, and if you were lucky (which, surprisingly, I was) feel him.
“Just… not cute,” I said.
May must have caught something on my face because she smiled wide. “Bet he wouldn’t describe you as cute either,” she told me.
Whatever.
Time to move on.
“You hear anything about Roam and Sniff?”
“Not word one. They’re out on the street, of course, probably spreading this Crowe and Law Death to All Denver Dealers Crusade story far and wide. I was you; I’d get those boys in here. Pronto.”
I nodded because she was so right. Then I went into the office to get what I had to get done, done, so I could go and look for my boys.
I checked my email, my voicemail, did a few return calls and took the two morning appointments I’d made with a couple of my kids. I had a free afternoon, which I was going to use to do some paperwork, make some calls and sit out in the rec room and talk to the kids but I grabbed my purse and headed out to Hazel.
Hazel and I cruised the streets of Denver checking out Sniff and Roam’s places, then checking out places where all the kids hung out, the whole time keeping my eyes peeled for Crowe or Cordova.
I came up with zilch. No one had seen them (this meant no one was talking).
I got myself some chicken tenders, an M&M cookie and a diet cola from Safeway and sat in the car eating and thinking of where Roam and Sniff would go.
Then it hit me.
Shit.
I put my head to the steering wheel and said to Hazel, “Please tell me no.”
Last night, Roam had looked at Crowe like he’d stepped right up to the Messiah. There was the vague possibility that Roam would try to tail Crowe, especially if he was shit-hot to “help” me in my crusade and looking for a mentor. This meant Roam would look in three places.
One was the Nightingale Investigations office. I didn’t know where this was but I figured a phonebook or the Internet would tell me (and Roam).
However, I doubted Roam would approach the offices. Watch them, maybe, approach them, no.
There were two other Nightingale Boys hang outs that I knew of.
One was Lincoln’s Road House, a biker bar.
The other was Fortnum’s Bookstore.