Fletch Reflected

25

“What’s that noise?” Peppy asked.

“Duncan,” Jack answered.

When Jack had returned to his half of the cottage he found his door open.

Peppy was sitting on the sofa bed with a beer can in hand and four empties on the floor.

“I never heard that car make so much noise before, except on the track,” Peppy said. Duncan’s racing track was far from Vindemia’s main buildings. “He’s ridin’ it around the estate roads at full throttle?”

“He’s chasing people in pickup trucks.”

“Chasing them!” Peppy’s expression was wry. “What’s he gonna do if he catches anybody? Cry in his face?”

“I’m making sandwiches for my father and me. How many do you want?”

“He’ll whine at them. Complain about how life isn’t fair. It’s all his father’s fault.”

“How many sandwiches do you want?” Jack repeated. “Seeing you’ve made yourself at home, anyway.”

“What kind of sandwiches?”

“Cheese. It’s all I’ve got. How many?”

“Several.”

“Running out of bread,” Jack said. “This healthy bread comes in small packages.”

“Jack, is your dad anything?”

“Anything like what?”

“Anything important. I mean, he was at that party last night.”

“Journalist,” Jack said.

“You mean, he’s on television?”

“No,” Jack said. “He’s never been on television.”

“Newspaper writer.”

“Something like that.”

“‘Cause I need help.”

“You know Chet has left Vindemia?”

“Yes.” Peppy shifted his booted feet on the floor. “And I’m not goin’ to prison for that son of a bitch.”

Jack was dealing sliced cheese on pieces of bread on the kitchenette counter. “What do you mean?”

“Will your dad be able to help me?”

“He may be able to.”

“Chet got me to do somethin’ I didn’t want to do,” Peppy said. “Somethin’ I didn’t know I was doin’.”

“Sure,” Jack said.

Peppy shrugged. “You don’t know what I’m talkin’ about.”

“No,” Jack said. “I don’t.”

“You find yourself doin’ some ridiculous things around here.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“Have you found I tell you no lie?”

“I guess.”

Peppy leaned forward. Elbows on his knees, he rubbed his eyes with the balls of his hands. “Chet told me he’d get up and go riding with his father on this particular morning. He’d be at the stables before aawn, have the horses saddled, surprise his old man, you know?”

“Yeah …” Doctor Radliegh sitting cross-legged in the woods, Arky the boxer dog in his lap, talking to Jack, saying he was “surprised” his children never went riding with him; he was “surprised” one morning Chet did go riding with him….

“Want a beer?” Peppy asked.

Then there was the explosion.

“Jeez!” Jack jumped back from the counter. “What’s that?”

Instantly the roaring sound of the engine stopped.

“Haw!” Peppy stood up. “Ol’ Duncan just bought it.” He hitched up his jeans. “Yes, sir. I do believe ol’ Duncan just blew himself to hell and beyond.” He smiled at Jack. “Probably blinded himself in that mirror car, again, wouldn’t you guess?”