Chasing a Blond Moon(61)

It took the boy fifteen minutes to catch two more of the right size and clean them.

Service cooked them, then sat back with Nantz and watched the boy eat.

Nantz poured champagne and handed out the flutes. “To your first fly-fishing success,” she said, raising the glass. “May this be the first of many!”

“I really like this,” Walter said, staring at the reel. “Can I take a rod back to school?”

“Season closes end of the month,” Service said.

“I want to practice casting all winter.”

“Take the one you’re using,” Service said. The champagne bloomed nicely in his belly and made him feel warm. Nantz leaned against him and kissed his neck. “If it was earlier we’d slip into the woods,” she whispered.

He kissed her and ignored the pain in his lip.

“I did good,” she said, “didn’t I?”

“Always,” he said.

“All ways,” she added. “I’ll find that photo for you,” she said. “Has Simon seen the old man?”

Service shook his head. “Not yet.”

“That’s not good,” she said.

She was right about that.

“I loved watching you guys,” she said. “You were really patient.”

“He learns fast,” Service said.

“Like his old man,” she whispered.





15

Limey Pyykkonen grabbed Service by the shoulder, thrust him into an office with a half brick and glass wall, facing into an open bay, and slammed the door behind them. Veins stood out in her neck and her face was bright red. “Just play along,” she said, her voice in total contrast to her body language. “Sit.”

He sat down across the table from her, his back to a yellow cinderblock wall. He saw Sheriff Macofome in the office bay, his arms crossed, watching.

She swept her hands upward in a flamboyant motion and slammed a fist on the table, causing him to jump. Her voice said, “Macofome’s wife knows about us. She’s kicked him out. Now he’s all over my ass about the Pung case.”

“What’s part A got to do with part B?” Service asked.

“The chief also found out about Shark. He wants to move in with me and I told him no.”

“Getting a little messy,” he said. “Why the dramatics this morning?”

“Macofome is crazy jealous and he doesn’t want you around. All of this will work out,” she said, gesticulating again. “But as long as I’m in the office, he’s going to hover, so I think we should get the hell out of here.”

“For lunch?”

“This has wiped out my appetite. There’s a complaint I need to follow up on.”

“Related to Harry Pung?”

Her facial expression hardened. “No. I’ve been ordered to ream your ass and to tell you to stop interfering in county law enforcement matters.” Her hand swept dramatically up again. “Do you feel duly chastised?”

“Totally humiliated and duly warned,” he said.

“Okay, leave and I’ll meet you outside the coffee shop across from Shark’s place. Now get the hell out!” she roared, her voice suddenly rising.

It had been the strangest meeting he could remember. He sat in the Yukon and lit a cigarette before heading for the rendezvous. Initially he smiled when he thought about her theatrics. The detective’s proclivities had landed her in a mess, but he couldn’t help but admire her style, especially her cool. He also couldn’t help wondering again if her style got in the way of her work and the thought made the smile fade.

She pulled up alongside him and told him to jump in with her. “Don’t bother with questions,” she said as he buckled his seat belt. “I’ve been down this road before.”

“Lansing?”

She nodded solemnly. “There was a city councilman. There had been kidnap-murder of a kid, the daughter of a friend of his. He promised the friend he’d put pressure on the department.”

“Did he?”

She rolled her eyes. “He was a practitioner of honey. We had coffee, we had meetings. Later it was dinner and drinks. He’d stop by my office, call me at home, send flowers. It went on for weeks, and I had to admire his sheer persistence. He asked me to take him to the crime scene, a motel. We ended up in bed.”

“In the room where the killing took place?”

She sighed. “It just happened. He wore me down.”

“And the wife found out.”

“Everybody found out. The motel manager had illegally crossed the police line and reinstalled a videotape for the motel security system. We were stars. Word got around and the wife found out. The manager’s tape disappeared and I got canned.”