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himself.
If your man on the motorcycle had his gun out when he should
have this might have been a different story. I said to Jeejay. How is
your man, by the way?
He has a broken jaw. Crawley hit him with a knuckleduster.
It just goes to show you can never assume that Crawley doesn t
have a weapon no matter how many he drops.
Talking about dropped weapons, the one Crawley dropped is
probably the same one that he used to kill Agent Simpson and his
fingerprints will be all over it. Jeejay said happily.
Fine Jeejay but first we have to catch him before we try him.
It was dark when we closed down the sprung trap. I had missed
the promised softball session with Daniel so I decided to call him
to apologize rather than face him. Feeling somewhat depressed, I
drove home to my grandfather s house.
The place seemed barren when I stepped into the kitchen and it
reminded me of Luisa and that reminded me of the gun in the glove
box of the Jaguar so I went back into the garage and collected it.
I spent an hour cleaning the house before I started on a spaghetti
dinner complete with canned sauce.
I ate it in front of my grandfather s old television which cut off
both sides of the picture.
Not that it made much difference because I didn t see anything
on it. I looked at it but I saw nothing. I was too busy running over
in my mind all the things that had gone wrong with trying to nail
Barforth Crawley.
When the front doorbell rang, I was surprised to see that I had
eaten all the spaghetti because I didn t remember doing it.
I put down my plate and picked up the gun before I went to the
front door.
Through the peephole, I saw a shapely woman and I immediately
thought it was Luisa returning to duty.
I opened the door with the words Why didn t you tell me you
were married?
But I m not married! Agent Jadi Benton said.
Jadi! What are you doing here? Aren t you on a case in
Washington?
I was but the suspect ran back to the city and I took the
opportunity to resign. I ve come to take the job as your assistant.
Really? I thought you were mad at me when you slammed
down the phone the last time we talked.
I didn t slam it down, I dropped it. I couldn t believe it when
you said that the reason why you didn t make love to me was
because you didn t have a condom. I had been thinking that you
were already married or engaged or had AIDS. I knew you weren t
gay but I never once thought that you held back because you didn t
have a condom.
Well, that and the fact that I was a virgin. I never even had a
girlfriend in high school.
That is because you have no concept of self-worth, Freddie.
Well, aren t you going to invite me in? She had a valise with her.
I opened the door wide. You can t believe how much I have
missed you. I told her as she stepped in and strangely enough I
wasn t lying.
Jadi walked straight into the main bedroom and started
unpacking her valise. She cleared one drawer by the simple
expedient of dumping its contents into the drawer below it and she
deposited her underwear in the upper drawer.
Then she swept every hanger in the closet to one side and hung
her own clothing in the cleared space. After that she went into the
bathroom and ran a bath while she set her toiletries out around the
hand basin.
We are going to have to modernize this place a bit, Freddie. I
know it reminds you of your grandfather but I think we can get his
photograph blown up and hang it on the wall instead. Strange, but
I had never thought of that.
She took a bath with the bathroom door wide open.
Freddie, pour me a drink and come sit over there on the toilet.
Talk to me as you used to do when we were in the woods together.
I handed her the drink. It was my grandfather s bourbon with
branch water.
She took a sip and grimaced but she said: Nothing like a shot of
bourbon to get rid of inhibitions. What have you been doing while
I have been away, Freddie?
I gave her an expurgated version of Luisa s sojourn in town and
explained how Barford Crawley had escaped from our various
attempts to arrest him.
He seems to lead a charmed life. I remarked.
Or the devil looks after his own. Jadi countered.
Hand me that towel over there Freddie. She said pointing at a
towel that made mine look like single-ply tissues.
She stepped out of the water and wrapped herself in the bath-
sheet. She smelled of roses, lavender and sweet-peas.
That s better! She said as she pinned her steam-damp hair up.
Let s go to bed.
I divested myself of clothing and jumped into the bed just as she
slipped under the sheet.
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