Kent Conwell - Tony Boudreaux 09 - The Crystal Skull Murders by Kent Conwell Read Free Book Online Page A

Interstate lanes packed with
side-by-side, bumper-to-bumper traffic stretch for miles, and you’ve got to feel sorry for the poor slob
who tries to enter from an on-ramp, which is probably
also backed up for miles.

    Streets for a mile on either side of the Interstate catch
the overflow traffic. The gridlock is so complex that one
simple fender-bender could hold up traffic for hours.
    So, when we pulled out into the traffic heading for
downtown, I kept my eyes on the road. “I want to talk
about you and me, Doreen”
    She jerked around and gave me a blistering look
when I used her given name.
    I continued, not planning on saying anything that
would create any more dissension between Marty and
the USS BI-oops, I mean, Marty and his wife. “Marty
told me about your situation, that you’d left Texas Investigation and that you were his sister-in-law. He also
mentioned you were divorced a few years ago. Now, in
this business, we have to work together. From now on,
I’m Tony and you’re Doreen. We don’t have to like each
other, although that would make things much more
comfortable, but we do have to cooperate with each
other-sort of use each other for a sounding board”
    I paused, expecting a heated retort. When she remained silent, I continued. “I contacted a friend at Texas
Investigation. You didn’t leave; they fired you. He said
you were hard to work with.” I glanced at her from the
corner of my eye. She was staring straight ahead and her
fists were clenched in her lap. I continued. “Now, I don’t
know about any of that. I don’t care about any of that. All I know is that you could find a home here at
Blevins’. If you want my help, I’ll be more than happy
to do whatever I can. And yeah, sometimes we work
with the dregs of society. That’s just the way it is.” I
chuckled. “But the truth is, Blevins’ isn’t really such a
bad place, and the job isn’t a bad job.”

    For several moments, the only sound was the clamor
of traffic. I didn’t know if I’d been too abrupt or too subtle. Finally, she cleared her throat. “My brother-in-law
talks too much”
    I laughed. “I won’t argue that”
    “Did he tell you Dora, that’s my sister, nagged at him
for a week to hire me?”
    Honesty is fine, but there is always a time for a little
discretion. “Nope”
    A few moments later, she asked, “Who did you talk
to over at Texas Investigations?”
    I arched an eyebrow. “Just a friend.” I glanced at her,
and for the first time saw a faint smile on her lips.
    “And you don’t want me to hassle him, huh?”
    “Something like that” I had the feeling that perhaps
we had broken the proverbial iceberg that seemed to be
separating us, but I was mistaken. I might have cracked
it, but it wasn’t broken. “So, tell me, what happened
over there?”
    “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” she replied. Then she
changed the subject. “How did you come to know this
O’Banion thug?”
    I glanced at her sharply.

    She saw the anger in my eyes and shrugged. “Well,
he is mobster, isn’t he?”
    Flexing my fingers on the steering wheel, I replied
brusquely, “Even if he is, not all mobsters are thugs”
    She arched a skeptical eyebrow. “So, how did you
two meet? Marty said something about high school”
    I drew a deep breath and released it slowly. “Eleventh
grade here in Austin. We got into a few schoolboy
scrapes together. He dropped out during his senior year,
and for a while, we lost touch with each other. Next
time I saw him was at the Texas-Oklahoma game up in
Dallas. He looked prosperous. We slapped each other
on the shoulder, sipped from his flask a little, lied a lot,
and then went our separate ways.
    “My first year on this job, I saved his bosses a couple
suitcases of money, which naturally put me in good
with them. Since then, as long as it doesn’t affect him,
he’s given me all the help I’ve asked for.”
    “So you think he can help us on