APRIL: THE ARROGANT ANTAGONIST

Chapter Twenty-nine

Wednesday, April 26

I sat in the middle of the back seat pressed between two over-muscled males.  The guy driving was the only person sitting in front.  I call him a person only through extreme benevolence.  He looked more like a gorilla than anything else I could think of.  I assumed he was alone up there because he didn’t need help from anyone else.  He must have weighed over three hundred pounds.

The fellas in the back didn’t need help either.  One of them had a gun and the other had a smile.  I wasn’t sure which looked more dangerous - the gun or the smile.  I thought fleetingly about Ralph Dodge’s smiling visitor and unconsciously clamped my hands over my knees.

“What’s going on?” I asked, not very originally, as my heart thumped out of my chest.

“You been talkin’ to th’ wrong people, Miz McDowell.  We got orders to tell you to stop.”  Smiley did the talking.  The smile never left his lips - not even while he spoke.  How did he do that?

“What do you mean, ‘the wrong people’?  I talk to lots of folks,” I squeaked in a voice that sounded more like a ten year-old than a woman of twenty-seven.  But then, at that moment, I felt more like a ten year-old.

“Our boss don’t like you messin’ in his business.”

“Are you talking about Mr. Leonelle?”

“Him too.  Stay outta this.”

“Stay out of what?  Are you talking about Donner’s killing?”  Why would the Leonelles want me off the case?  Surely they weren’t responsible.  Had I been right the time I suspected the Leonelles of getting rid of Donner in a way his brother wouldn’t suspect?  No way.  These goons wouldn’t have been capable of stuffing Donner into the tub without at least a few bruises.  And it was such a non-hit kind of death - no machine guns, no neat little bullet holes in his upper torso.  Were the Leonelles really that crafty?

Smiley’s sidekick poked his gun into my ribs and grinned a smirk of his own.  I tried not to think of those imaginary bullet holes he might make in my upper torso.  The gun was too strategically placed for comfort.  Anyplace on my body would have been too close for comfort.  I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs which in turn pounded against the gun.  The gun gave a last nudge.

“You been warned, Lady.  That’s all I got to say.”  With that he opened the door, got out, pulled me out behind him, and pushed me off the side of the road.  The car drove away leaving me on the desolate stretch of road that leads to the industrial and business park.

I stood alone on the verge and looked around.  Damn, I muttered.  This was the second time I’d been pushed to the side of this remote stretch of road.  Both times I’d been scared nearly out of my wits. The time before I’d been a little more fortunate after it was over.  I’d had my van.  Now I was on foot in the boonies - no stores, no phones - no nothing.  My cell phone was on the seat of the van back at the shopping center.  At least I hadn’t been filled with small round holes before I was tossed out.  I sighed disgustedly and started walking back toward town.  After about a mile, a car came along, and I flagged it down.

“What you doin’ out here all by your lonesome, Hon?” the gray-haired man asked.  He looked about seventy.  I felt safe enough getting into the car with him, but--.  Well, you never know.  There might be as many horny old men out there waiting to take advantage of hitchhiking women as there are horny young ones.  But even an old guy on viagra couldn’t be as dangerous as the three thugs I’d been with fifteen minutes earlier.  At least there was only one of him.

“I had a fight with my boyfriend and got out of the car.”

“Aw, now.  That’s too bad.  Left you out here by yourself?  You’d best get rid a him.  Sounds like a loser to me.”

“Yeah.  He is.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.”  This was one of my grandmother’s favorite sayings, and my rescuer, who wasn’t much older than she, nodded as if he agreed.

“Name’s Joe Watson, by the way.”