The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by Cameron W. Bruce

Author:Cameron, W. Bruce [Cameron, W. Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Humour, Adult, Paranormal, Contemporary, Crime
ISBN: 9781466855908
Goodreads: 20944639
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 2014-09-30T07:00:00+00:00

17

You and Me, Kermit

The Black Bear was like an easy chair in my mind: worn, comfortable, familiar. When I opened the door the shock made me blink. Becky had been busy.

She watched me approach her across the floor with apprehension seeping into her eyes, but when I glanced pointedly at the curtains, the new paint, and the hardwood flooring that had replaced the linoleum, she straightened a little, her jaw firming in resolve.

“Hi, Ruddy,” she greeted.

“What’s all this?” I demanded.

“All what?”

“What are you doing? What’s with all the artwork, and the curtains?”

“I told you I wanted to spruce the place up, use a warmer color palette.”

“But this looks ridiculous!” I railed. “Can you imagine what Dad would say about windows covered with—with lace?”

“Oh, Ruddy.”

“Come on. This is the Black Bear. Next thing I know, you’ll want to get rid of Bob.”

She glanced over at the stuffed bear, then back at me, her eyes unreadable.

“Becky, no.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going to get rid of the bear.”

“But can’t you see what you’re doing? You’re changing the, the…”

“Ambience,” Alan suggested.

“The ambience of the place!”

“Exactly.” Her eyes glared at me through her smudged lenses.

“But don’t you understand that the beauty of this place is that it never changes? You drive through Kalkaska and there’s a McDonald’s now, and a Burger King, and just when you think the whole place has lost its charm, there’s the good old Black Bear Bar and Grille, thank God. Why, we’ve got people who’ve been coming here since we were little kids! What are they going to think when they see you’re playing dollhouse?”

“Wow, what an asshole you can be,” Alan noted.

Becky fixed me with the sort of unhappy, mournful expression she had mastered through a lifetime of practice. “What do you think, that nothing in life will ever change?”

“Just not the Black Bear,” I told her forcefully.

She shook her head slightly, and I found her unwillingness to fight back infuriating. “It’s that goddamn Kermit,” I stormed, attacking from another direction.

That got her. “What about him?” she murmured.

I gestured at her sweater, which was stylish and feminine. “He’s got you all…” I groped for words.

“Hot,” Alan suggested. “Sexed up.”

“Jesus!” I snapped at him.

“Ruddy, don’t you dare even think of going near him. If you do…” Becky warned.

I leaned forward almost eagerly, bearing down on her. When we were growing up my physical bulk so overwhelmed her frail frame I regularly bullied her just by staring her down, and I was doing it now. “Or you’ll what?” I taunted.

She backed away from me. “I’ll get an injunction and banish you from the Bear. I’ll get the judge to say you can never come in here again.” She folded her arms.

I sat down on a bar stool as if sucker-punched. “Oh.”

“This has got nothing to do with him, Ruddy, except maybe that he’s given us a way to make the money to buy some things.”

“Running numbers,” I muttered glumly.

“Using our nonswipe account to help another vendor,” she agreed.

“Would you

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