The Law Of Three: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars Read Free Book Online Page A

from there had
caused quite a bit of commotion in this realm and my friend a
generous share of trouble at the time. Apparently, they still
were.
    “Well, what if I had a talk with her?”
    He scrunched his brow and looked confused.
“What about?”
    “About me and what I can do to help.”
    “Were you just not listening?” he asked
incredulously. “The woman flat out said for me to ‘leave my devil
worshipper downstairs where he belonged.’ News flash, Kemosabe. She
was talkin’ about you.”
    “I realize that, Ben, but she doesn’t know
anything about me.”
    “Oh hell yes she does,” he returned. “At
least she thinks she does anyway.”
    “How can she?” Felicity chimed in.
    “Neither one of you is particularly low
profile,” he answered.
    “You mean the papers?” I asked.
    “… And the TV.” He nodded.
    “But that’s just media hype,” I told him in a
dismissive tone. “That’s not going to tell her anything.”
    “Well, guess what?” he chided. “She’s read
‘em and watched ‘em all, and as far as she’s concerned, they’re
gospel. And she didn’t get the nickname ‘Bible Barb’ for nothin’.
She’s drawn her conclusion, white man. You’re the wicked Witch, and
that’s all there is to it.”
    “But that’s just her,” I objected.
    He countered with a statement I hadn’t
expected, “And a few others.”
    “Who?” Felicity asked. “Arthur McCann?”
    “He’s one, obviously. But there’re more… A
handful of uniforms. Couple of detectives… Couple of the
higher-ups, including the new chief…”
    “What about my track record?” I asked.
    He started shaking his head again, “I got
news for ya’, Row. Your track record has a few potholes, which is
another reason why you aren’t scorin’ any points. Right now you’re
kinda looked upon as a loose cannon.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah,” he continued. “Chasin’ after Porter
on that bridge, the thing at the morgue…”
    “What about you?” I asked with a nod in his
direction. “What do you think?”
    He fell silent for a moment, looked away,
then sighed before bringing his eyes back to meet mine.
    “After what you did a few weeks back, I think
maybe you might be a bit of a danger to yourself, yeah.”
    He was talking about the fact that I had
deliberately run his van through a set of plate-glass windows in
order to get inside a building.
    “That was different, and you know it,” I
argued. “The sonofabitch had Felicity in there.”
    “Yeah,” he rebutted. “And that’s the only
reason I let it go, white man. If you’ll remember correctly, I lied
about what really happened on my report.”
    I didn’t have a comeback for the comment
because I knew he had done exactly that.
    “Listen, Row,” he started after an
uncomfortable silence. “You’ve still got friends in the department,
and I’m one of them.”
    “Even though you think I’m a danger to
myself,” I volunteered with a slightly sarcastic edge to my
voice.
    “Yeah, even though,” he echoed. “Cut me some
slack here. I know what you can do. I’ve seen it first hand. And
I’m even willin’ to trust you if you wanna know the truth.”
    “Trust me to what?”
    “To help stop this bastard.”
    “That will be hard to do if I’m cut off from
the investigation.”
    “I know.”
    My friend turned to stare out the window, and
I allowed my gaze to follow his. Our muted reflections stared back
from the pane of glass, mirroring our weariness like an overexposed
snapshot. The darkness of night was still holding its ground and
seemed in no hurry to relinquish its position. A quick glance at my
watch told me that there was a pair of hours yet to go before the
morning would ooze in above the heavy clouds.
    “So, where do we go from here, then?”
Felicity piped up again.
    “Back to the beginning. Back to what started
this whole conversation.” He turned his gaze to her, then to me.
“Do you think you can come up with somethin’ worthwhile off