"I thought it was broken."
"Maybe it's fixed? Let's try. I'm not waiting around. I was promised a candy cocktail with actual candy. Although," she said, taking my arm. "I wonder what a cocktail with an actual cock would taste like."
"I hope it's not just a disembodied one," I joked.
"Yeah, that would be fine on, say, Halloween, but for a simple after-work drink, maybe not. Unless it was attached to a good-looking guy," she said as she wrenched open the door to the truck. I opened the passenger side, and paint flaked off the door.
"Think lucky thoughts," Josie said as she cranked up the truck. It clunked, shuddered, then started. "It's our lucky day," Josie said as she put it into gear.
The truck seemed like it had lost all of its shocks sometime back in the seventies. My head almost bumped the ceiling a few times when we jerked over the railroad tracks. The truck was in such poor condition I was afraid my head would go straight through the roof.
"I need a drink after all of that," I muttered after Josie parallel parked the truck, running halfway up the sidewalk and almost hitting a tree. To her credit, she did straighten out after a few tries.
"And I didn't hit anything," she said, slipping her arm in mine as we walked into the bar.
"You weren't joking about the candy drinks," Josie said happily as we sat at the reclaimed-wood table and looked at the menu. "I want to try them all."
When the server came over to take our order, I said, "She wants a Dark and Stormy."
"With candy?"
"Of course!" Josie said. "Extra candy!"
"Do you want that as well?" the server asked me.
"I'll have a whiskey."
"Any apps?" she asked, making a note on her pad.
"All of them," I said. "One of each."
Josie clapped her hands together when the server left. "You know me so well.All the appetizers!" She rubbed her hands together gleefully.
"Of course I know you. You've been living at my house, and I spend more time with you than my own family, it feels like. And," I said, lowering my voice, "I'd like to get to know you even better."
I heard someone clear their throat behind me.
"Can I help you?" I asked, turning around.
"Detective Brown with the Harrogate PD," the man said. Susie was there next to him, a hand on her utility belt. They looked serious. I stood up from the table.
"Mr. Svensson," the detective said. "We were just up at your office. The receptionist said you'd left already."
"What's this about?" I asked.
The officers looked at each other. "Sir, do you know of anyone who would want to kill you or your family?"
33
Josie
Ikicked myself for not coming clean earlier. Why did I always do that? I had to ruin this thing with Mace with my stupidity.
"The fire department looked into it after they had the fire under control," the officer explained to Mace.
"I heard the battery caught on fire," Mace said. He looked furious.
I sank down in my chair.
