Kathy Hogan Trocheck - Truman Kicklighter 02 - Crash Course by Kathy Hogan Trocheck

Author:Kathy Hogan Trocheck [Trocheck, Kathy Hogan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery: Cozy - Retired Reporter - Florida
ISBN: 0061091723
Publisher: HarperTorch
Published: 1997-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

The truck’s black paint gleamed in the late afternoon sun. It was a heavy-duty Chevrolet pickup, but that’s where its resemblance to a tow truck ended. Where the bed would be on an ordinary truck, Eddie’s truck was built up, with a menacing looking twin-pronged set of H-shaped jaws extending off an arm that folded up and down. There were two sets of what looked like wheeled dollies strapped on either side of the tow bar. A decal on the cab’s rear window summed up Eddie’s approach to his life and work. “No Fear,” it said.

“Impressive,” Truman said.

“Get in and I’ll give you a demo,” Eddie offered. “Where’s Wormy’s car? We’ll tow his ass outta here in a New York minute.”

Behind them, they heard the showroom’s doorbell pealing.

Ronnie and Hernando Boone were still talking rapidly as they walked toward the Mercedes. Wormy trailed a few steps behind.

Bondurant slowed only a little and nodded quickly at the repo man. “Hiya, Eddie,” he said. Then he joined Boone beside the Mercedes.

Eddie was staring at Boone. “I know that brother from somewhere,” he muttered. “Not a real brother. Part Indian or something.”

“Miccosukee,” Truman put in. He was straining to catch part of the men’s conversation, which had turned aggressive.

“I don’t like it,” Ronnie was saying.

“Don’t have to like it. Just be there,” Boone shot back. “Weedon Island. They’re putting in a new road to the visitors’ center. Midnight.”

“Eddie!” Wormy had snuck up behind them. “Don’t you got a job to be doing? We ain’t paying you to stand around here and jerk off with this old man all night.”

Eddie’s cheerful round features tightened into a wooden mask of hatred. “I do the snatch on my timetable,” he said. “Not yours. And I ain’t going in that snake-pit down there till late tonight. You don’t like it, get the car yourself.”

Wormy rocked back and forth on his heels and made a sucking sound with his tongue against his front teeth.

“Think I can’t, boy?”

Eddie clenched his fists and took a step closer, glaring down at the top of Wormy’s head. Truman half hoped Wormy would start something so that Eddie would finish it. He wasn’t a violent man, but it was beginning to look like violence was the only thing somebody like Wormy Weems could understand.

Eddie’s mouth didn’t move as he spoke. “You notify the cops about the pick up?”

It was not what Truman expected to hear.

“It’s taken care of,” Wormy said. He turned and stalked back inside the office. Eddie let out a long sigh.

“I thought you were going to haul off and flatten him,” Truman said.

“Would have, if he’d called me a nigger,” Eddie said. He laughed ruefully. “And if the brother in the Mercedes wasn’t still here. Three against one, that’s bad odds where I come from.”

Truman touched Eddie’s elbow. “Two against one.” He liked the way the kid handled himself. Like a man.

“Right,” Eddie said.

He got in the tow truck and started the engine. It was surprisingly quiet for such a big vehicle.

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