Finding Susan by Dakota Kahn Read Free Book Online Page A

This had shaken her badly. She felt awful about what she’d done. Or maybe she just felt awful about having to stay in this old rotten place and waking up to find a creepy guy like Joe Bob washing rodents in her kitchen sink. That would stand to reason. That would be enough for most people.
    Would it be enough to get her to pack up her car and head back to San Francisco? He could only hope.  
    But the man was stirring.  
    “He’s coming to,” Blake said.  
    Joe Bob had opened his eyes a couple of times, but this time they were staying open, and he was now working his mouth.   He looked around the room and made eye contact with Blake for an instant.   It was a shock - his eyes looked strange and different. There was malice there, malice and a sharp intelligence no one would have connected to the man. Blake frowned, wondering if what he’d seen was real or all in his mind.   Then all that disappeared and Joe Bob’s face crinkled up like it was about to cry.  
    “What’d I do?” he said.   His eyes squeezed tight, and he let out a big sob.   “I’m so sorry, Miss Becker.   I am.   I didn’t even think you’d be here.   Miss Gladys, she would let me come in after I done my hunting at night and store some stuff here sometimes.   She’d sleep right through.   I’m just so sorry.”
    “Oh, there there,” Kate said, and she was holding Joe Bob up.
    “Don’t do this again, Joe Bob,” Blake said.   Joe Bob looked at him, his eyes still squeezed tight, and he nodded.  
    “Yes, sir.   I won’t never do it again.   I’m so sorry.”
    “Blake, don’t scold him.   He’s had enough to go through.   How are you feeling?”
    “My head hurts, Miss Becker, and I’m awful thirsty.   Think I could have something to drink?”
    “Sure,” she said, and gently let him down before going to the sink.   The pipes sounded like the legions of the damned were shouting to be let free when it first turned on, and then water spouted out.
    Blake kept his attention on Joe Bob.   There was something strange about seeing the man there, blubbering and moaning like a child.   Joe Bob looked at Blake again, and smiled.   All the childishness was there that Blake could expect, but that one glance into Joe Bob’s eyes still stuck with him.   It was like looking at somebody else for a split second.  
    “Mr. Officer Spanner, do you think that once I’ve had my glass of water you could give me a ride back to my house?   I don’t feel up to walking.”
    “Sure,” Blake and Kate said at the same time.  
    Kate didn’t bother looking at Blake.   She was rinsing a glass out a few times, and then filling it to give to Joe Bob.   A little moonlight was streaming in through the window above the kitchen sink.   For a moment, Blake angled his high-power flashlight away from Kate, leaving her in darkness.   The light from the moon seemed to caress her as it came in.  
    She was wearing an over-sized t-shirt, which Blake guessed she slept in.   It was baggy but didn’t de-sex her.   Rather, the folds seemed to press against her with an intelligent prescience, like the shirt itself knew just where a man might like to look and curved there in ways to reveal nothing and suggest mighty intriguing worlds.  
    “Would you please put the light back here, Officer Spanner?” Kate said in a mock-officious voice.   Blake did as she asked.   “And I’m not sure what you were thinking, sir, but I could still see you in that light, and I’m not sure I liked where your eyes were headed.”
    Blake’s eyes widened with surprise, and his jaw clenched to keep from saying what he would have liked to.   She sure cheered up fast.   How Kate could turn this situation into some bizarre pick-up scene was beyond him.   It was apparently beyond Joe Bob, too, who was looking between the two of them with a very confused expression between sips of his glass of water.  
    “Finish that up, Joe Bob,” Blake said through near-to