The Bogus Biker Read Free Page A

him.             
    Bradley moved closer to the table and leaned down. “What are you two doing here?”
    “Having a Reuben and a beer,” Jake said. “At least, I’m having a beer. Your mother’s drinking water.”
    Bradley closed his eyes briefly. “Why tonight? Do you know… ”  He straightened up and tried to rearrange his face to look like the hardboiled cop he aspired to appear. “Just sit there, and don’t move. I’ll get back to you two later.”
    Penelope looked around for Roger and saw him leaning against the far end of the bar. She’d heard her ex-husband say that raids, while not the norm, never bothered Roger Sitton. “He likes the excitement,” Travis said once.
    The four bikers, along with everyone else who had been in the Sit-n-Swill, had effected a get-away. Everyone, Penelope thought, except Daddy and me, thanks to that sleazy biker character. She glanced across the table at her father and rolled her eyes. He winked.
    “Was that a gunshot we heard?” she whispered.
    “Reckon it was. Check out the mirror behind the bar.” He nodded toward Officer Parnell Garrett who was examining a thin web of cracks that ran out from a single hole. “What kind?” Penelope asked.
    “I’d say a thirty-eight. At least it didn’t hit anybody.”
    “Do you think it was meant to, or was it just a random shot? Somebody raising he…Cain.”
    “Neither, if you ask me.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    “I saw one of those biker fellows take something out of his vest pocket. Could’ve been a gun.”
    “They hadn’t had time to drink enough to get mean.”
    Jake shook his head. “Diversion. Cover.”
    “Cover for what?”
    “The shipment maybe.”
    Penelope digested that. “Those four bikers got out of here in a hurry.”
    “Three,” Jake said.
    Penelope tried not to smile. “Oh, you heard him, too?”
    “Yankee. Some fancy school back east. Had a lot of them in the army during the war. Couldn’t understand most of what they said.” Jake chuckled. “Always hated it when one of ‘em started yelling at us through a megaphone when we were training. We didn’t know what the Sam Hill he wanted us to do.”
    “So the biker rig was a disguise? Interesting.”
    Jake lowered his voice. “What about those fellows who stayed last night—the ones who got your curiosity going?”
    “Come to think of it, they talked like that, too. Yankees.”
    Jake nodded.
    Bradley skirted overturned chairs as he crossed the floor. “You two see anything?”
    “Bikers,” Jake said. “I think one of ‘ em might’ve fired the shot.”
    “You saw him do it?”
    “No, just saw him take something out of his pocket. Couldn’t swear to what it was.”
    “So who was in here?” Bradley asked.
    “None of the regulars,” Penelope spoke up.
    “I hope you don’t consider yourself a regular here.” Bradley’s well-shaped eyebrows came together at the bridge of his nose. “If you want a Reuben, you can get one at the Daisy Café.”
    “They close at five-thirty,” Jake said. “Besides, Roger’s are better. And I can get a beer. Ben’s never bothered to get a liquor license at the Daisy. ‘Course, there might be a reason he can’t…”
    Bradley huffed and waved a dismissive hand. “What else did you see? Anybody you haven’t seen before?”
    “Just the bikers,” Penelope said. “Four.”
    “One took quite a shine to your mamma,” Jake said.
    “Not now, Daddy.”
    “One of them was hitting on you?” Bradley’s face turned red.
    “Nothing so dire,” Penelope said. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
    “Tonight of all nights,” Bradley muttered.
    “Why do you say that?” his mother asked. “Something going on?”
    “You know I can’t tell you that.”
    “I think you just did. The entire police force—all five of you, minus Chief Malone, naturally, didn’t show up for nothing. Besides, you got here before anybody had time to call.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Because