John Belushi Is Dead by Kathy Charles

Author:Kathy Charles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MTV Books
Published: 2010-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

22

BENJI DROPPED ME OFF at home, and I didn’t invite him in. I was relieved to be out of his car, away from him and away from that gun. I picked his hubcap up off the front lawn and handed it to him, and he carelessly threw it into the backseat.

“You want to do some more Black Dahlia spots tomorrow?” he asked. “We could go downtown to her old apartment.”

“I promised Lynette I’d help her out tomorrow with the yard work,” I said, thinking fast. I needed time to digest what the hell had happened that afternoon. All I knew was I didn’t want to be near Benji at the moment, not when he was acting like this. He tilted his head quizzically at me.

“Helping Lynette? Has she got the day off?”

Tomorrow was a Wednesday. Shit. “Yeah. She’s taking the day off. So see you later?”

I caught something in his eye that let me know he knew what I was doing, that there was no “yard work” arranged. I was backing off, backing away from him. His face flashed recognition, but a moment later it was gone. I thought again about the gun.

“Fine,” he said, sniffing loudly and wiping his nose with his finger. “Smell you later, I guess.”

And then he took off.

As I walked up the path I heard the phone ringing inside the house. I scrambled for my keys and the ringing stopped, but as I put my key in the door, it started up again, shrill and insistent. I raced inside and picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Who’s this?” the voice asked, and at first I didn’t recognize it.

“This is Hilda. Who is this?”

“Hilda? It’s Jake. Jake Gilmore. We met the other day. I’m Hank’s neighbor.”

“I remember.”

“So I made an impression on you? Nice.”

“What do you want?” I snapped, in no mood for his games. My encounter with Benji had left me exhausted, but what Jake said next immediately got my adrenaline running.

“I’m calling about Hank.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” I heard something crash in the background and Hank’s voice, angry and distressed. He yelled something that I couldn’t make out, and then there was another crash. “What was that?”

“He’s tearing the place up,” Jake said. “The neighbors are threatening to call the cops. I found some sedatives the hospital sent home with him but he refuses to take them. Can you just come over, please? Seriously, if they call the cops, his ass is getting hauled out of here, and I don’t have money for bail, you dig?”

I heard something crash again in the background and an angry woman’s voice yelling something I couldn’t make out.

“How about you go inside and mind your own business?” Jake yelled back.

“Okay, I’m coming,” I said, then I hung up and called a cab.

The cab ride felt like it took forever, and by the time I finally got there my fingernails were bitten down to the quick. I raced up the concrete stairs to Hank’s place. Jake was outside the front door, arguing with an old woman who was shouting in another language.

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