Hard Case Crime: Honey in His Mouth by Dent Lester

Author:Dent, Lester [Dent, Lester]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Published: 2011-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

When Harsh saw Mr. Hassam the next morning, he threw up his arm and waved him over. He was very glad to see him. Mr. Hassam walked into the sun-splashed dining patio adjacent to the kitchen where Harsh was sitting on an iron spider chair eating breakfast. “You got back, eh? It seemed like you were gone forever.”

“I came in this morning early.” Mr. Hassam waved at the table. “I like to get my own breakfast. Excuse me.” He went into the kitchen.

Harsh listened to pans rattling for a time, then moved over to the kitchen door. “What are you fixing yourself?”

“Pompano sautéed in butter with capers. I like fish for breakfast. Could I fix you some?”

“I guess I could go for a little more. I got an appetite this morning, for a change. I’m glad to see you back, Mr. Hassam. I mean that. Nobody else around here offers to prepare me breakfast.”

“Thank you, Harsh. I do not see why you should not be popular.”

“Neither do I, but I keep having run-ins with different people around here.”

“You mean Brother?”

Harsh nodded. “Yeah, that’s who I mean. You know something, I never seen a guy like that bastard. I mean I don’t make him out. No crap. He scares the hell out of me, I’m not fooling you. You know what he tried to do yesterday afternoon? Blow my gut right out of me with a shotgun. Blow it right out of me.”

Mr. Hassam poured coffee into a cup. “Yes. Brother told me this morning. He is very sorry. He said he lost his head. He asked me to express his regrets.”

“He what?”

“He is very sorry, and wants to express his regrets.”

Harsh laughed. “Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Harsh, I could explain how you can avoid future trouble with Brother. I mean, I can tell you some things that may help you exercise restraint and tolerance.”

“I’ll restrain him with a brickbat, he points that shotgun at me again.”

“Harsh, here is the first thing I want to tell you. Brother has a mental handicap, an affliction known as paranoia. It comes and goes, and sometimes it reaches the point where he has to go to a sanitarium and take shock treatments.”

“That’s no news to me, Mr. Hassam. I had figured out he was nuts. You just watch him, anybody would know.”

“Harsh, if you will make allowances for his illness, I think you can handle him. Particularly now, since you bested him in the encounter yesterday.”

“Oh, he figured I licked him, did he? He had me guessing. I couldn’t tell what he thought. He ruined my night’s sleep. I kept wondering when he was going to pop in on me with another shotgun. That’s a tough boy, that Brother. You know what I did, I kicked him right in the privates as hard as I could. It didn’t faze the bastard. He got up ready to eat me. And he would have, except by then I had my mitts on the blunderbuss.”

“That is not so strange.

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