Lust Demented

{XII}

I COULD FEEL LARS WATCHING me walk away into the night. It reminded me of the soft, but obvious steps Detective Anderson took stalking me through Gramercy. Concerned with everyone else, but himself, Lars couldn’t resist poking his toes through his own plot of reincarnation. His old man was just abolished from mental and physical slavery. Everyone could make a fuss on the big green machine, but Percy was definitely unliving it up by now.

A street guerilla carrying a santa sack approached me speaking the city’s universal second language. Oblivious to anything other than his own plight, he was just hitting us up.

“Could you spare some change… so I could maybe get a coffee and a croissant?” He pronounced the breakfast treat with the accent of a French pastry chef.

I had a plan to have no plan. Some people measure a period in their lives by who they loved… where they lived… for Percy, Lars, Gloom, and I it was always measured by what we were writing. My head was light, glowing from the inside. The world recently opened up losing its limits. Lars hadn’t moved. Still standing just how I left him, the Brooklyn night shading over him.

The Coffey Street crime scene was nearly desolate, except for one parked car that stood out like a lonely watchtower in the Sahara. The woman behind the wheel was busy with a task that called for her complete attention. The way she turned at me when I was a mere couple steps away hinted towards the presence of a sixth-sense.

“Farrow?” Apparently the sergeant’s tone revolved around why the night was full of strange coincidences and why she didn’t buy into the existence of coincidences.

“Sgt. Bethany Powers.” I was close enough to see in the window. The silver gun was glistening against her pale freckled skin. She was in civilian clothes with her red hair tied up in a bun.

“Get in the front. You don’t have to ride in the back this time.” Sgt. Powers eyed me up and down as if I was giving off toxic radiation. I wondered how badly I stunk of the East River. It was strange cozying into the front seat next to her. Even more bizarre when I realized I was sitting on her 9mm’s clip. I picked it up and tried to hand it to her, but she wasn’t ready. I let her finish what she was doing and tried again. The second time she accepted it with a smile.

“Went to the range today. Fucking thing gums up sometimes. Way things are going...”

“Too many suspects or not enough?”

“We have a few.”

“Anyone I know?”

“Each and everyone you know personally.”

“I know a lot of people… me… myself and… I.”

“It’s good you know yourself.”

“oh yeah… and now I know you.” I leaned in close to her, hoping she’d loosen up and let go, but instead she pulled her head back, itching her chin with a hooked trigger finger.

“Farrow, this bonding time really warms my heart, but I’m on my way to pay Missy a visit.”

“So you found her?” I didn’t believe it for a second.

“Other way around. She found us. She’s scared of you Farrow. She called the precinct for protection. Someone let it slip that you want your name on A Greater Truth.” Sgt. Bethany Powers… if you count to one, she’s already on two.

“Her book?” While I didn’t believe her, I did fall beneath her eyes. There wasn’t much else to do, but wait and see what she was getting at.

“You live mysteries, don’t you?”

“Doesn’t everybody?”