The Bogus Biker Read Free Page B

the phone is in the back, and Roger was behind the bar when the shot was fired and still in the exact same spot when I got up off the floor. So you had to know in advance that…”
    “Go home, Mother,” Bradley said, narrowing his eyes in what Penelope supposed he thought was a menacing expression but had always reminded her of the way he looked during pollen season when he had allergies as a child. “Just be glad you didn’t get arrested.”
    “For what? Besides, you wouldn’t arrest me.  Who’d give the guests at the B&B breakfast tomorrow morning? Who’d feed Abijah?”
    “That devil cat can starve to death as far as I’m concerned.”
    Jake snorted.
    “Just go home, both of you. And get your Reubens somewhere else from now on.” He whirled around, almost tripping over his size eleven feet, and stalked out.
    Jake unfolded himself from the chair. “Let’s go home, Nellie. Why don’t you take the road around Pine Branch Creek?”
    “What? That’s at least five miles out of our way, Daddy. Besides, that’s where all the bikers…” She let the sentence die. “You’re right. It’s a nice night for a drive. We’ll go through Burger Barn on the way out of town and pick up a couple of milkshakes. I’m beginning to feel empty.”
    “Goodnight, Mrs. Pembroke, Mr. Kelley,” Rosabel Deane said as they passed her picking up a beer bottle with gloved hands and dropping it into a bag.
    “Goodnight, Officer Deane,” Penelope said. “Good luck.”
    Rosabel smiled slightly. “Uh-huh.”

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    “What does Rosabel Deane need luck for?” Jake asked as he pulled himself up into the SUV, a harder job than sliding out of it earlier. “Got to be two dozen beer bottles in there, and twice as many fingerprints. She’ll need a miracle, not luck.”
    Penelope turned the key in the ignition, shifted into reverse, and looked over her shoulder at an empty lot as she backed out. “I think she’s interested in Bradley.”
    “You’re kidding me.”
    “Mary Lynn’s niece Frankie said she’d asked a few questions.”
    “So of course, that means a mad, passionate affair is going on.”
    “Daddy! No such thing, and you know it. You shouldn’t be talking about that sort of thing anyway.”
    “Nellie, I may be seventy-five, but I remember when I was nineteen and met your mother. There’s nothing new under the sun.”
    “Hush, Daddy.”
    Jake sighed. “ Rosabel Deane hasn’t been here long enough to get to know Brad well enough to be interested.
    “Six months.” Penelope turned into the drive-through at the Burger Barn. “What do you want?”
    “I’m full,” Jake said.
    Penelope ordered a chocolate shake. “Six months is long enough when you work with somebody every day.”
    “I wouldn’t know about that.” When they turned back onto Main Street, Jake said, “Take a right on Cherry Blossom.”
    “I know how to get to Pine Branch Creek, Daddy. I spent a lot of time there when I was in school.” Too much time one night, and you probably know it.
    “Yeah, but I don’t want to know what you spent a lot of time doing.”
    “You know I was good.” Except for once.
    Jake sighed again.
    “It was safe enough. Privacy, but not too much. Not anymore though. Not since the bikers took it over for their ramble.
    “Rumble,” Jake corrected.
    “I thought gangs rumbled.”
    “They’re a gang of sorts.”
    “They don’t really cause any trouble around here, do they? Just make a lot of noise.” She shifted gears and made a right turn. “So, you think Romeo wasn’t a real biker? He could’ve fooled me.”
    “I didn’t say that, but he sure came out of his leather quick enough when things got hot.”
    “He landed on me like a ton of bricks.”
    Jake chuckled. “You looked pretty funny all spread-eagled out like that.”
    “I didn’t feel funny. I felt like somebody set a blessed concrete block on top of my back. Maybe two of them.”
    “Slow down.” Jake leaned forward and peered