Shadow Of Misgivings, Nora Kane [great novels .txt] 📗

don’t have anything to tell other than I’ve heard it before.”

“Probably won’t be hearing it again. From what I hear, some chick beat him unconscious with a shovel and then shot him like nine times. Funny part is no one found a body.”

Margot didn’t say anything and Manny smiled again.

The guy in the corner was no longer leaning on the wall. In his hand was some kind of semi-automatic pistol with a long noise suppressor screwed into the barrel.

“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Margot,” Manny asked her.

Margot shot a glance toward Marv. She’d never told Manny her name and the look Marv gave her said he hadn’t either.

“Actually,” Margot replied, “I know all about that shit.”

“I know you do,” Manny told her. He looked over at Marv and said, “What the hell are you doing bringing a cop into my place?”

“She hasn’t been a cop in a long time and if she was a friend of my brother, she never was an honest one.”

Margot wanted to tell Marv off for that statement. Whatever Mal did or didn’t do, Margot had never been on the take. However, right now, it might be better to have Manny think she was.

“You could have been upfront about that though. I feel like you two were trying to pull a fast one on me. You should have known before I even considered hooking Mal up with my connections that I’d do my due diligence on that motherfucker.”

“I figured you would. That’s why I thought you knew.”

Manny looked at Margot who said, “In your due diligence you should have seen Mal and I were a couple. When I said I was his girlfriend, who were you expecting?”

Manny thought this over for a second while Margot hoped Manny’s sources on Mal’s personal life weren’t completely up to date.

Manny nodded and then looked at Marv. “I suppose you might have a point, but I still don’t like a cop coming in here.”

“She’s private and we both know they can be crooked. Besides, given the way my brother left the cops, you and I have more friends in the police than she does.”

Manny laughed at that and looked back to Margot.

“It’s been nice talking to you. Good luck finding your boy.”

“Was all that about the cowboy and Brantley true or were you just messing with me?”

“You’re going to have to figure that one out without me.”

“Thanks for your help. If you learn anything could you call me?”

“If I call you, it won’t be to pass on knowledge unless it’s what they call carnal knowledge.”

“In that case, don’t call,” Margot said as she stood up.

“Like I said before, your loss.”

“I’ll get over it,” Margot remarked before she turned and walked out.

She kept her hand on the purse swung over her shoulder and subtly unzipped it as she and Marv walked out.

They were almost to his bike when Clive stepped back outside.

“Why don’t you go ahead, Marv? One of us will take her back when we’re done with her.”

Margot drew her gun as she spun around. Clive was reaching for the pistol in his belt but she already had the barrel lined up with his chest before he got close. He grabbed the grip but froze when he saw she was already aiming at him.

“Move your hand Clive,” Margot told him.

“You pull that trigger and they’ll cut you down.”

“Okay, but you’ll still be dead and that’s good enough for me.”

Clive stayed still. He looked over to Marv as if he expected his fellow club member to help him out.

“Sorry Clive, but you’re on your own on this one,” Marv told him.

“You picking her over the club?”

“Is that the way you see it? Sorry Clive, but I see it differently.”

“You want to find out if that story about what I did to the cowboy is true?” Margot said before Clive could reply. “You want to find out if I’m the kind of girl who’d pump five slugs into a man already on the ground?”

Clive moved his hand away from the gun.

“Go back inside, Clive.”

Clive was slow about it, but he turned around and went back into the trailer.

Once he was gone, Marv said, “That went about as well as it could’ve.”

“You mean just now or the whole thing?”

“Both. Get on before someone tougher than Clive decides to give you a try.”

Chapter 6

Marv stopped his bike at Margot’s car.

After she dismounted, he said, “Maybe you need to be done with this.”

“Are you firing me?”

“I guess I am.”

“I don’t usually give refunds unless I solve the case early.”

“I’m not asking for any money.”

“You sure you want to do this?”

“I am. If Mal is going to get one of us killed over this, it ought to be me.”

“What is this?”

Marv shook his head. “I don’t honestly know. I don’t even have a good guess. How about you?”

“I’ve got a few guesses, none of them good.”

“Was Manny telling the truth about you and the cowboy?”

“I only shot him five times. I should have emptied the mag. That way, I wouldn’t be worrying that he somehow walked away.”

“You beat him up with a shovel too?”

“Yeah, trust me, he had it coming.”

“You think Manny was just messing with you, or do you think this guy was really who Mal was supposed to meet?”

“If I were to bet on it? I’d say he’s blowing smoke. Mal might have asked about somebody called the cowboy though. The guy Manny was talking about certainly dressed the part so it could have been him, but my gut feeling is ‘the cowboy’ is more management and Deputy Brantley was more hired help.”

“Deputy?”

“I didn’t mention he was in