Nickel City Storm Warning (Gideon Rimes Book 3) by Gary Ross (100 best novels of all time txt) 📗

I walked to my car, I was relieved Hellman hadn’t reacted to my lies. The attack had not made any TV newscast. The Buffalo News had carried a brief account in the local section the day after, but I figured Jasper wasn’t much of a reader. That he seemed unaware of my loved ones, or of Larry, Corey and the gun, left me reasonably confident he’d had no contact with Joey either. Also, it was unlikely he would go after a dead man in Arizona. But none of that meant he wouldn’t try to send somebody after me again, a different way.

Five miles away from the prison I turned left onto Route 20. The farmland began to look more like spring and the afternoon sky brightened. I told Siri to dial Jimmy’s cell. The sound crackled through my car’s speakers. He picked up on the second ring.

“Hi, G! What’s up?”

“Just thinking about you guys,” I said. “Been awhile since I heard your voices.”

“Well, we have been gone for six weeks.”

“How’s Virginia?”

“Beautiful,” he said. “Spring is everywhere here but it’s not as hot as Florida. I’m sitting outside right now with a whiskey sour in my hand and a plate of snacks.”

I pictured Jimmy in sunglasses and a polo shirt, his biceps stressing the short sleeves, his wheelchair beside a patio table, his gray-blond hair alight from the sun.

“But I miss my pool,” he added. When the insurance, lawsuit, and retirement dust settled after our shootout, Jimmy had included a year-round lap pool among the necessary renovations to his home. Swimming was his main form of exercise. “I got in some pool time in Florida but not enough.”

“Does your hotel have a pool?”

“Yes, but it’s outside and their lift is covered.”

“It’s still too cold!” Peggy Ann called from the background, joining my mental picture, her dreadlocks covered by a straw hat and her muscular brown legs crossed at the ankles on a lounge chair. “Hi, G!”

“All right, I’ll put you on speaker,” Jimmy said.

“Hey, Peggy Ann,” I said. “How’s LJ?”

“Doing fine when we last saw him, a couple of days ago,” she said. “He’s got this weekend off and Yvonne’s coming to see him. We’ll all spend time together then.”

“How’s his training going?”

Jimmy laughed. “Oh, man! He gets his mind blown every day. Smart as he is, he is learning so much more. He hasn’t looked so much like a kid since he was one. He’s not just a computer whiz here, and he loved the Hogan’s Alley tactical training. Hey, you ever been to Quantico?”

“No,” I said. “I toured the Hoover Building a long time ago, in my CID days.”

“Quantico is amazing. All the shit they have makes me want to get back in the game.”

“Okay, Ironside,” Peggy Ann said.

“Still coming home next week?” At Darien Center, I turned right onto Allegheny, the road to Six Flags Darien Lake, which had opened for the season a few weeks earlier.

“Nope,” Jimmy said. “I got a pretty lady with me and a tricked-out van that can just about drive itself. Business has been good enough we can afford to stay closed for another month or two. Hell, who am I kidding? LJ has worked just as hard in my business as me but now he’ll be working for the FBI. We could sell it, Peg. Retire for real. Get an RV.”

“You’d be miserable,” I said as Peggy Ann laughed. “You need something to do.”

“But I also needed this extended vacation. After LJ gets his next training schedule, maybe we’ll go back down to Florida for a couple more weeks. Or out to California, with a stop in Las Vegas. We like the Venetian. I guess we’ll be home around the beginning of July. Unless you need me back to put something together for whatever you’re working on.”

“No, things are quiet. But I have a bodyguard gig in a few weeks. I might need something for that, maybe a micro-cam for the corridor outside the protectee’s hotel room. Maybe a couple earbuds and their power units.”

“Well, you got a key. Next time you check on the house, look in the storage drawers on my worktable. They’re all labeled. You want anything, take it and leave a note.”

“Will do. Thanks.” I glanced to my right as I passed the theme park to see cars rising and falling on the tracks of various roller coasters. With my windows closed and phone engaged I couldn’t hear screams of delight, but I still smiled. “California, huh? What about Arizona?”

“Never cared for it. Dry like Vegas but not as much fun. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. Have a great time, guys. Give LJ a hug for me. And Yvonne.”

“Hang on, G,” Jimmy said. “How’s Bobby?”

Jimmy and Peggy Ann were readers who kept up with local news online. They’d read of my dustup with Joey. But the Temple Beth Zion incident had got much more coverage.

“Finally himself. Playing Ellington and Motown too loud. Going out to his meetings. He’s giving a guest lecture on Richard Wright and James Baldwin next week.”

“Glad to hear it. They ever find who did it?”

“They haven’t, Jimmy, but I’m working on it.”

“What about the guys who attacked you?” Peggy Ann said. “You said two pled out.”

“The last one copped to gun possession. A felon facing his own extended vacation.”

“Good,” Jimmy said. “They ever figure out why those dickwads came after you?”

If I hadn’t been driving, I would have closed my eyes and taken a steadying breath, as I did every time I parked outside Jimmy and Peggy Ann’s house. But I had to keep my eyes on the road, even if my vision blurred a bit. Feeling was indeed the price of living but Phoenix and I, along with Mira and Bobby, had agreed weeks ago that sometimes ignorance was necessary Novocain. Jimmy didn’t need to know who had sicced Joey on me.

“No,” I said after a moment. “Just one of those things. They saw us coming out of the Chophouse and figured we