I'm a fool to kill you

FIFTY

‘We got a tail,’ Jerry said.

He was driving, and if he said we had a tail we did. But I still said, ‘We can’t.’

‘We do.’

‘What now?’ Ava asked.

‘This time,’ I said, ‘I think we’ll find out who they are.’

‘They musta picked us up at the Horseshoe,’ Jerry said. ‘There was nobody following our cab on the way there.’

‘Maybe they picked me up at the Sands,’ I said. ‘I’m not as good at spotting a tail as you are.’

‘I doubt it,’ Jerry said. ‘I think you woulda noticed.’

I smiled. ‘It’s nice that you have all that faith in me, Jerry.’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘You guys are something,’ Ava said, with a smile.

Jerry and I exchanged a glance, and shrugged.

‘Where to, Mr G.?’ he asked.

‘Remember that time we found the body in the dumpster?’

‘Yep.’

‘Remember how to get there?’

‘Industrial Road, right?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Hold on,’ he said, pressing down on the gas petal.

‘Don’t lose ’em.’

‘I’ll just scare ’em a little.’

I would have preferred to do this without Ava in the car, but we didn’t have a choice. If we wanted answers we’d have to get them now.

‘Jerry, you got your.45, right?’

‘Mr G.,’ he said, as if I’d just asked him if he had both arms.

‘Ava, you got that little popgun of yours?’

‘I don’t think I’ll go anywhere without it for a while.’

‘Pass it to me, will you?’

‘Why can’t I hold it?’ she asked.

‘You’re gonna stay in the car when Jerry and I get out.’

‘But. . wasn’t I good at that junkyard?’

‘You saved my ass at that junkyard,’ I said, ‘but the point of this whole exercise is for me to save your magnificent ass, right?’

She sighed and said, ‘Right.’

As she handed the gun over the back of my seat I noticed Jerry giving me an odd look. I was going to have to remember not to be so informal with Ava in the future. I didn’t want him getting any ideas. They might be right.