1980: You Shook Me All Night Long (Love in the 80s #1) by Casey L. Bond Read Free Book Online Page B

chest read “Walker.”
    “You lawyering up?” he asked pointedly. Finally, no bullshit.
    “Are you actually willing to listen instead of point the finger at me?”
    He smiled. “Hammond’s old school.”
    “Are you his partner?” Maybe Walker was good cop. Hammond was bad. He’d eaten three donuts in front of me. My stomach was eating itself. I was a breakfast man.
    “We all work together here, but no. Chen is his partner. He’s on vacation this week, though. You want to tell me how this all went down? How’d you get the Firebird?”
    I sat the front chair legs down with a thump. “I run a garage across town. I rent a space and work out of the garage at my house on the weekend. Early Friday morning, Todd Armistead shows up, tells me to fix it quick. I’d done business with him a few times before, always on imports, but I don’t get paid to ask questions. I get paid to fix cars. He wanted it back that day, but I told him it would take awhile. He said he’d be back first thing Monday, warned me not to drive it other than to see if she was fixed and then he walked away.”
    Walker pulled out the chair across from me, the legs scooting across the floor. The smell of bacon wafted from his clothing making my mouth water. I’d chew on his sleeve at this point.
    “How’d you come to drive it Friday night?”
    “My brother took my car. He was picking a girl up for some concert at USC and wanted a ride. We only have the one, so we share. There was some kind of fight at the concert and he was hauled in with a bunch of other kids until the police could figure out who caused the whole thing. Officer Hammond called me a few hours later, told me to come down to the station.”
    “Hammond called you?” Walker’s brows knitted together. He looked my age.
    “Yeah.”
    “Joey didn’t speak with you?”
    I shook my head. “No, it was Hammond. He said to come to the station, gave me the address and hung up the phone. I freaked out and decided to take the Firebird to get him.”
    Walker jotted notes down in a little notebook, his tongue sticking out of his lips as he concentrated. “Interesting.”
    “What is?”
    “Nothing,” he said, looking up with a smile. “Let me do some digging on this Armistead guy. You need a bite to eat?”
    “Yeah, that’d be great.”
    “Hold tight.” He stood up and scooted his chair back in before turning to the door. Within ten minutes, I had a full plate of heavenly-smelling breakfast in front of me: eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuit, coffee and orange juice.
    Very interesting indeed.
----
    W alker came back in as I wiped my mouth with the paper napkin. I looked up at him and the man behind him, who was dressed in a suit and tie.
    “This is Lieutenant Garrison.”
    “Hello.”
    Garrison nodded, his stark-white hair buzzed to perfection. “We have a deal for you to consider.”
    Walker eased the door closed behind them. “Turns out Armistead is an alias for Michael Crane. Crane’s big time. We bring him down and we cut the car theft industry in this city in half.”
    Garrison nodded. “Cut the head off the snake and he’ll die.”
    My eyebrows shot up. “He’s that big?”
    Walker and Garrison confirmed with grunts and nods. “Why’d he choose me and why’d he come himself?”
    “You’re new in town.” That was their only theory. I didn’t know him, couldn’t identify him and wouldn’t know he was the biggest smuggler of stolen automobiles on the west coast at the time. Holy shit. If the cops didn’t give me a heart attack, Armistead or Crane or whoever he was would shoot my ass.
    “I’ll do what you ask, but you have to promise me one thing,” I told them.
    “What’s that?” Garrison asked.
    “Joey and Tina have no record. Everything is wiped away. And you keep them safe. If something goes wrong, I’m the only one at risk.”
    Garrison pursed his lips. “Done.”
    “So, what do I have to do?”
----

    T he old cop was intimidating . He looked more