The Caveman's Valentine by George Dawes Green

Author:George Dawes Green [GREEN, GEORGE DAWES]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC022000
ISBN: 9780759521742
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2001-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

62

S ometime during the night Sheila came in the room. It was pretty embarrassing, her catching him like that.

She folded her arms.

“You having fun with the white girl, boy?”

He tried to bury his head under the pillow.

She poked him hard in the ribs. He sat up.

“You hear me?”

“Yes I did. Yes. Yes I’m having fun. Tonight I had the most fun since . . . since you threw me out.”

“Threw you out? You were never around, what was there to throw? I just got myself out of the damn hotel business.”

“Right. That’s a better way to put it, right.”

“Damn zookeeper business.”

“Right.”

“Well then. Is she giving you second thoughts about your cave nonsense?”

“I don’t even have first thoughts. I’m too tired to think.”

Sheila went to the window and looked out. Her bird-of-prey profile, checking out the farm.

“Boy, I see a light on in the big farmhouse.”

“That’d be Leppenraub. He’s worrying about my next move. I’m going to get him, Sheila. I’m going to get the evidence, and I’m going to nail that bastard.”

“Uh-huh. Have mercy on us, oh Lord of Vengeance. So you still think you’re the great private detective? Where’s your white car, boy?”

“OK, I was wrong about that. The car’s red. So what?”

“But you were sure about that white car. You said you had an eye for things that other folks couldn’t see. You said all sorts of shit. Oh baby. If your shit was a rocket ship, you could go to the moon. What the hell are you up here messing for, boy?”

“Love. For love’s sake. My friend was in love with the kid Leppenraub murdered.”

Sheila looked out the window again. She was looking at that light in the farmhouse. Weighing things out. Then she turned to Romulus.

She said, “Uh-uh.”

“What?”

“I just said, uh-uh.”

“You don’t think he did it?”

“You’re being misled.”

“Oh, goddamn it, Sheila—who’s misleading me?”

She sniffed the air. “What’s that smell? Some kind of ointment?”

“Essence of slippery elm bark.”

“What’s that? Voodoo? I don’t like it.”

“Who’s misleading me?”

“You are. As usual. As usual, boy, you’ve picked yourself out an enemy, and he can do no right. But look at that man! You’re so scared of him, you can’t see him. If you’d open your eyes, you’d see he’s got more fear than you do yourself. And it’s not a guilty fear, baby—it’s just plain fear.”

“You think Matthew was lying to me about him?”

She gave it a moment. “Matthew doesn’t seem like much of a liar.”

“Well then, what? You think Scotty lied to Matthew? But why would Scotty have lied? He was the victim, Sheila. Leppenraub did those things to him, and then he killed him to shut him up. And tonight he tried to kill me.”

“Pah! That man couldn’t kill anybody. He doesn’t have it in him. Which you know as well as I do.”

“I don’t—”

“Of course you do. I’m all in your head, so you can’t help but know what I know. You just won’t own up to it.”

“Then who came hunting for me tonight?”

“That I can’t say. Somebody’s up to no good, for sure.

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