Joyce & Jim Lavene - Taxi for the Dead 02 - Dead Girl Blues Read Free Page A

before the right police officer—one of Abe’s people—finally figured out what was going on.
    The door opened, and a handsome young cop nodded to me. “You’re free to go. Abe wants to see you right away.”
    “What about Jane Darcy?”
    “That’s already been taken care of.”
    Which meant no bonus for me and Debbie.
    I walked into the hall, ready for this day to be over. Mr. Darcy was seated inside another small room with the door partially open. Jane wasn’t with him. He was sobbing, his head bent forward.
    What could I say that hadn’t been said? I hated it, but he saw me.
     “All we wanted was a few more months,” he said. “Our youngest granddaughter is about to graduate from college. Jane just wanted to see her finish. Was that so much to ask?”
    I had no answer to his sorrow or mine for that matter. I needed a drink, and I needed to see my daughter. I left him there without a word.
     

Chapter Three
     
    I was surprised to see Debbie waiting outside the police station. The weather had turned, and heavy clouds hung over the mountains in the distance. No doubt people were praying for rain.
    Sometimes I felt so far from the normal, everyday aspects of life that nothing seemed to mean anything. I didn’t care if there was a drought or there was flooding. I didn’t follow the Tennessee State Volunteers anymore. I got through Christmas for my daughter. It was as though part of me never came back to life at all.
    I’d decided it was my heart, thinking about it through many long, sleepless nights. The organ was still beating in my chest, but it was empty of emotions. It was the twenty-first century. We all knew emotions came from some part of your brain. But it was my heart that felt dark and lifeless.
    “Abe sent me back for you.” She shrugged. “What are we gonna do about the van?”
    “He’ll have it fixed like he always does.”
    “Why doesn’t he buy you a new one? I’m sure he could afford it. You know he must be rich after all these years.”
    We started walking up the sidewalk together toward Simon’s Mortuary and Deadly Ink, Abe’s tattoo shop next door. Traffic was still heavy. People rushed by us on the sidewalk with their heads down, destinations and plans for the evening in mind. Women clutched their bags, and men held their briefcases close to them.
    “I don’t speculate on Abe’s finances,” I told her. “As long as he pays me, I don’t care. I suppose if the van is ever wrecked badly enough he’ll get a new one or at least another used one.”
    “Yeah, but how are we supposed to get home?”
    “He’ll think of something. He always does. You gotta figure he’s been at this for a long time. His first drivers must’ve had wagons and horses. Who knows what will come after us?”
    Having a free moment, Debbie started her daily diatribe on what was happening with her husband. “So things have gotten even weirder with Terry. I’m not sure what to do.”
    She’d agreed to take on the twenty-year service for Terry, a cop, after he’d been shot and killed at a convenience store robbery. Debbie was the only LEP that I knew of that had done such a thing.
    Abe had visions of them being together—we all knew it. Debbie was devoted to her husband and two children. I didn’t see them having a relationship any time soon. Still Abe courted her in his weird way. I was glad I didn’t have to face that problem.
    But again, like Abe’s magic affected his dead workers after twenty years, something unusual had begun happening with Debbie’s husband too.
    “He won’t eat anything but raw meat now,” she continued. “It has to be really bloody too. I had to start going to a friend of ours who hunts. The meat in the store was too clean and old for him. What do you think of that?”
    Considering the last time I’d seen Terry, his legs had become shorter and covered in thick hair, I didn’t know what to say. He was going through some sort of transformation—into what I wasn’t