The Devil's Copper by Jamie Crothall (ink ebook reader .txt) 📕

were looking.  “Don’t go challenging my friendship.  You have no idea what kind of history we have, and I don’t need you going and getting all jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Yeah, jealous.  Why else would you have such an issue with me?”

“Are you serious?”

“You want to talk about trust issues?  Why should I trust you?  This never happened before, but the moment he starts associating with the likes of you, then boom, his door comes down in the middle of the night?”

“That is hardly fair.”

“Then you see my point.”

“What do you mean?” I exclaimed.  “You have no point!”

“Look, I want to trust you,” he said. “But I’m going to need a little reassurance.”

“This is absurd!”

“I think we both need to trust each other, and I know how you can put my mind at ease.  You do that for me, and I’ll do whatever you need to trust me.  And then maybe if we both trust each other, we can find out where they took him.”

I threw my hands up in frustration.  “Sure.  Whatever.  What do I need to do?  Buy you breakfast?  Oh wait, you did that already.”

“You took too long.  What time is it now?”

“I don’t know.  Like, two?”

“Jesus, really?  Well then you can buy me lunch.”

“Is that what you need me to do in order to trust me?”

He shook his head.  “No no, I need you to do one thing.”  He paused as though for dramatic effect.  “Pick a number between one and ten.”

“What?

“Pick a number between one and ten.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”  Then, quietly, “…one…two…”

“I don’t see a point.”

“Oh my god you never get to the point.  Pick one, now.  One…two…”

I shrugged.  “I don’t know, seven?”

He paused, then tilted his head to the side and gave a “huh”.

“What?”

“Okay then,” he said.  “I trust you.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah.  Just like that.”

“Are you high?”

“What do you need me to do in order for you to trust me?”

“Tell me how you know so much without me having told you anything.”

“I told you, I’m good at reading body language.”

“Well that’s not good enough for me.”

He shrugged then proceeded to stand.  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you then, princess.  Now I’m going to go get that burger you’re going to buy me, then we’re going to go back to your place so we can look for clues.”  He stopped and looked at me.  “You coming?  Cos’ I kind of need you to pay.”

I huffed as I stood, realizing I had my arms crossed like an angry child.

“What are we going to look for?” I asked.

“Something with extra fries.”

“At our place.”

“Oh, I don’t know.  I’m sure something will jump out.  I’ll take a number four.”

I ordered the burger combo at the kiosk.  I had no idea how he was going to eat it after just finishing a full breakfast, but I could hardly care at that point.  I used my debit card to pay, but got that alarming buzzing sound, notifying everyone around us it was declined.

“Shit!  Sorry.  Here, try this.”

I pulled my credit card out of my purse.  The kid swiped my card.  It gave the same noise.  He handed it back with an expression that said ‘sorry about your embarrassment’.

“Problem?” Walter asked.

“Nothing works.”

“Ma’am, there’s a line.  Do you have a way to pay for this?” the kid asked.

Walter sighed.  “Here,” he muttered, placing down a ten dollar bill.  “I guess I’ll get this too.”

I shook my head in confusion as he swooped in to collect his food and change.  “I don’t know what’s happened,” I offered.

“I’m sure you can guess.”

“I’ll try at a bank machine.”

“I doubt it will work.”

“Let’s just go then.”

I started in the direction of the door I arrived through, but he started walking in the opposite direction.

“Hold on,” he said.  “I need to recoup some expenses.”

I followed him to a lotto booth where he produced a few coins and requested a Nevada ticket.  The attendant opened the clear box and allowed him to reach in.  He lingered a moment, then began to count as he rifled through them and withdrew one.

“One…two…three…four…”  He continued as he pulled back all the tabs.  “At last!” he exclaimed.  “About time!”  He turned back to the attendant and handed over the ticket.  “Hundred bucks, man.”

“Congratulations,” the attendant said warmly, though thoroughly rehearsed.

“Yeah you’ll hate me in a few weeks,” he muttered.  He then waited until he was paid in twenty dollar bills.

“Can we go now?” I asked coldly.

“I told you that you were the jealous type, princess.”

“Would you…listen, speaking of gambling…Jack once told me that his only vice was…”

“Jack hasn’t played cards for years.  I don’t see him getting into that ever again.  He likes making legit money too much.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.  He’s boring as hell now.  Are we going to your place or what?”

***

Fighting off hundreds of doubts, I led Walter to my car.  No point in hiding; he knew where I lived anyway.  And it’s not like I could lock him out just yet, and I certainly couldn’t hire a locksmith to fix the door until I found out why my cards weren’t working.  We went to the car and began the short drive to our place.

“Who do you think would have the ability to…”

I turned to Walter but he was already asleep in the passenger seat.  For all I knew, he had been sleeping all morning, and was up all of an hour, and already he was fast asleep in my car cradling a bag of burgers and fries.  This man was not right.  I gently woke him up when I pulled into our driveway by slamming my door as hard as I could.