The Detective's Last Case by Gerald Lopez

Author:Gerald Lopez [Lopez, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-11-27T02:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Party Time

GABRIEL AND “POPS” walked along the beach and talked. Pops aka the detective found it interesting how the town steadily rose up from the beach. Soon they were in a large outdoor restaurant raised up from the beach on a wooden platform. There was a thatched roof overhead and wooden poles holding it up, but no walls. A woman with long, wavy, brown hair was singing “Histoire D’un Amour”, and Marianne who was now casually dressed in a cropped, off the shoulder, red top, shorts and black flats, was dancing. She held her hand out to the detective who took it and joined in the dance.

“You’re good, Detective,” Marianne said. “And the dancing’s not bad either.” She smiled and tossed her head back.

“And you’re dressed more comfortably—no heels,” the detective said.

“Our part in things is over, and we can rest now—for a while at least.” She let her hands wander down to the detective’s posterior. “You have nice legs.”

“Those aren’t my legs your hands are on.” He turned when he heard someone yelling in French.

“What the hell are you doing with my sister?” Arnou said in English. “I didn’t approve her giving any freebies away today.”

Marianne angrily walked up to her brother and slapped him hard across the face. Arnou pushed her away with such force that she fell on the floor.

“That’s no way to treat a lady,” the detective said, and prepared himself for a fight that was long overdue.

Arnou ran toward him but the detective got the first punch in. People scattered from where they’d been eating at outdoor tables.

“Not in here!” Marianne said, trying to push Arnou and the detective out onto the beach.

The woman who’d been singing rushed forward, and with Marianne’s help they pushed the intertwined fighters onto the beach. Both men had landed on their backs and were rolling around in the sand fighting, while a crowd gathered. Gabriel cheered the detective on from the side, while Marianne and the singer watched from above.

“Give him a good one for me, Detective,” Marianne said.

“Beat the shit out of him, Pops!” Gabriel said.

The gathered crowd was shouting and urging them, on when Robertito appeared.

“That’s enough!” Robertito said. “Break it up!” He had to physically get between the detective and Arnou in order to pull them apart. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you both in jail to cool off.”

“It’s Gabriel’s birthday,” the detective said.

“Shit,” Arnou said. “Sorry, Gabriel. I’ll go. Marianne! Give the kid a drink on the house and whatever he wants to eat—the detective too.” He brushed sand off himself, then spoke to the detective. “This isn’t over. We will have it out and I’ll—”

“I know” the detective said. “You’ll put your foot in my ass.”

“I was gonna say I’d ‘kick your ass’,” Arnou said, then walked away.

He’s learning, the detective thought, before his attention was drawn elsewhere.

Gabriel had not been kidding about Robertito and his Speedos. If anything he had downplayed just how magnificent the man looked. He had washboard abs and a Hercules girdle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.