Tortured Spirits by Gregory Lamberson Page B

shorter.”
    â€œI’m
shorter.”
    â€œWhat can I say? I have a bad habit of getting jammed up.”
    â€œHow’d you get out of there without being seen?”
    Jake didn’t feel like telling Maria about Jasmine. “Sometimes I’m as lucky as I am unlucky.”
    â€œI’ve read transcripts of your interviews with Geoghegan. You’re good at being evasive.”
    â€œI have a strong sense of self-preservation.” He pulled into the motel parking lot. “I assume you’re staying within view of my room?”
    â€œYou know it.”
    â€œIt’s not smart to stay at the same location as your stakeout subject, you know.”
    â€œIt’s not like I have backup. It isn’t easy watching someone 24/7.”
    â€œI could have seen you.”
    â€œYou saw me plenty of times. I guess I never made much of an impression on you before.”
    â€œI never saw your legs or that tan before, and eyes are a person’s most identifiable feature.” He parked, switched off the ignition, and faced her. “Do you want to have dinner?”
    â€œSure, why not? We’ve still got plenty to discuss. As long as it’s on you. I’m tapped out, and I’ve already charged more than I can afford.”
    Jake didn’t want to answer any more questions, but he saw no point in avoiding Maria since they were going to be traveling together anyway. “Just don’t expect anything fancy. We have to go somewhere with a patio, so I can bring Edgar.”
    â€œI approve of your chaperone.”
    They got out at the same time, and Jake took Edgar out of the backseat. “How about we meet down here in an hour?”
    â€œMake it an hour and a half. I want to shower.”

    Jake showered too and shaved. Then he picked up his phone and struck a number in his contacts. The phone on the other end rang two and a half times.
    â€œHello?” The boy’s voice was so much deeper than it had been the last time they had seen each other.
    â€œHey, Martin.”
    At the mention of Martin’s name, Edgar hopped around in his cage.
    That’s a good sign,
Jake thought. Sheryl had told him Edgar was losing a little more of his humanity each day.
    â€œJake! Do you have any news?”
    Jake felt a weight on his shoulders whenever Martin asked him that question. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I think I’m onto something.”
    â€œYou serious?”
    Jake heard the restrained excitement in the boy’s voice. “I’m serious that it may be nothing. I won’t know for another week or so. I wouldn’t even tell you this, except I’m going to be incommunicado at least that long, and I don’t want you to worry.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œYou listening to your mother?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œTell her I said hello, and keep your fingers crossed.”

    Maria stepped out of the shower and toweled herself dry. She blow-dried her hair, put on a bra and panties, then picked up her phone and touched a number.
    â€œSpeak of the
diabla,”
Bernie Reinhardt said in his customary monotone. “I was just thinking of you. How goes the Sunshine State? Do you look like Malibu Barbie yet?”
    â€œI could star in a Coppertone commercial,” Maria said.
    â€œWhen are you coming home? I get lonely poking at these stiffs without you. I keep catching myself talking to them.”
    Maria lathered cream on her legs. “Maybe another week.”
    â€œThat’s a long time. What gives?”
    She drew a disposable razor along one leg. “I followed Jake to a meeting in a nightclub. One thing led to another, and I ended up walking three hombres into the meeting at gunpoint.”
    â€œApparently you lived to tell the tale.”
    â€œJake and I are flying to Pavot Island. Before you ask,that’s in the Caribbean.”
    â€œPlease tell me you aren’t eloping. It will break your