In the Season of Killing Bolts

Chapter 3

“Chief Townsend! Hey, wait!”

I turned to see Vicki from Blevins Pharmacy rushing up the sidewalk.

“Am I glad to see you!” She paused to catch her breath, the hair whipping and lashing her face—before extending a white bag. “Tell me you’ll deliver this to Wilber Cole—out in Mirabeau Park—like, yesterday, please? Before he eats anything?”

I took the bag and looked at her. “Now you know that when you ask like that I can’t help but to comply.” I peeked inside the sack. “I’m not even going to ask.”

“One in the morning—before breakfast, and one at night, just before dinner.” She jumped as a garbage can toppled and papers cycloned. “Before meals, okay? Don’t forget.”

“It’ll be done—I was going out there anyway. Go on, git.”

She paused, looking suddenly abashed. “Oh, Chief—”

“It’s all right,” I watched as the power lines began to waver—ominously, precariously. “Vicki, don’t make me—”

And she went; as Bennet and I crossed the street to the station and went up to its double doors—where he paused, abruptly. “Look, Archie. Maybe we should—”

“Aw, no. I won’t hear of it. Now you’ve been looking forward to this all week. So just go in there and knock ‘em dead—and I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Aw, Arch, but what if—”

“No, no. Everything out here is gonna to be fine.” I nodded once, twice. “Go on. Make us proud.”

He moved to go in but hesitated. “You don’t even have your service revolver; now when are you going to get back on the horse, anyway? I mean, I’m sorry, Arch, but someone has to say it. It’s time for you to snap out of it.”

I scanned the trees, which were leaning in the wind, and the brownstone buildings, whose screens rattled. “Just a storm. Don’t need a revolver for that.”

“Yeah, well. You’d think better if, say, the Dusty Moths—”

“Who aren’t going to be riding around in a storm; I can guarantee it. Now go on.”

And he went on, shaking his balding head, which shined like his badge, slamming the door behind him—after which I heard a rap on the glass above and looked up; saw Mollie holding a sign against one of the second-story windows, a sign which read, simply: NIGHTCAP AT MIDNIGHT JOE’S?

At which I just smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

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