Dive Bar Detective by Archer Hay

Author:Archer Hay [Hay, Archer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

After a discreet side bar with the Chief, Brandy turned her attention back to her other customers.

Ralph almost seemed disappointed that he wasn’t among the credit theft victims. He was lamenting how the thieves could favor Big Joe as a victim over him—asking Big Joe how much credit he had on his card and declaring that it wasn’t enough to bother with when Ralph had so much more.

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Brownout said. “It ain’t a competition. If you want, I’ll steal your card, Ralph. Then you can be part of the in-crowd.”

They all laughed at themselves.

“Hey, Brownout. I heard you telling Finn about your hand-crank radio to the Pentagon. You should bring that in some time. I’ve heard about those crank-radios, but I’ve never seen one in my life. How do they work? I bet Finn would really get a kick out of seeing one.”

“Oh, it’s nothing fancy. Nothing like kids have now. He’s seen way better electronics.”

“Well, bring it in. That’s an order,” Brandy said. “I want to see it and I think Finn would like to see it. If you’re going to talk the talk about your direct line to the Pentagon, you better walk the walk.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” he said giving her a salute. “But I don’t know if it will work in here. It’s pretty dark and you don’t have any windows.”

“I thought those things were supposed to work in underground survival bunkers,” she said.

“Maybe so. I ain’t never tried it.”

The front door of the bar opened and as soon as she saw the silhouette against the glare of the afternoon sun, she immediately scooped Brownout’s bologna sandwich onto the floor. Hairy sprung to action and started wolfing it down at Brandy’s feet. She knew Hairy wouldn’t move an inch if he thought bologna sandwiches were going to rain upon him.

It was James Fraley, health inspector.

Brownout didn’t protest Brandy using his sandwich as a decoy to keep Hairy still. He was an ally all the way. Meanwhile, Brandy’s mind raced about how to get Hairy outside or upstairs. As James approached the bar, all she could hear was Hairy’s juicy smacking and gulping. She turned up the volume on the TV.

“Hi Brandy,” James said looking around the bar.

“Hi James. What brings you in today? I thought you already did your inspection for the month. Are you still looking for your tablet?”

“No. No,” he said seeming a little uneasy and still looking around the bar. “Hey, do you happen to have a computer I can plug into? I need to charge my phone. It’s on its last legs and I forgot to bring the AC adapter and I don’t want to have to sit in my car. It’s too hot. If you have a computer I can plug into, it should only take about fifteen minutes.”

“Um, sure,” Brandy said. It seemed like an unusual request, but it was going to buy her just enough time to sneak Hairy out without James seeing him.

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