The only thing that got arrested was the assistant’s chuckle. By a hard glare from Eli.
“You’re Wyatt Congdon,” Eli guessed, keeping his tone pleasant.
“My reputation precedes me, eh?” Congdon smiled faintly.
“Something like that.” Eli didn’t quite smile. Where the hell was Glory? She was never late. And she would definitely never be late for this.
“And you are?” Congdon prompted.
“Deputy Sheriff Eli Barlow.”
It seemed as though, for whatever reason, Francone had coaxed Congdon to Hellcat Canyon. He’d brought the mountain to Muhammad, so to speak, instead of luring Glory to Napa. Which could mean Francone was stepping up his campaign to nail Glory. Or that she had done something, said something to Francone to make this happen.
And Eli had no idea where he stood.
And suddenly he realized it didn’t matter.
All he knew was that Glory wasn’t here. And if she wasn’t here, that meant something was wrong.
And Eli would move a mountain together here, if that’s what it took. No matter what happened. No matter what she decided.
“I’m Justin Chen. Junior vice president of Stellium Records,” the young guy suddenly volunteered.
“Nobody cares, Justin,” Congdon explained patiently.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr.Chen,” Eli said. Pointedly. “If you wouldn’t mind, gentlemen, letting me in on exactly why you happen to be sitting in the Misty Cat before opening time, and why you hoped I was Glory Greenleaf? Seems the alarm was tripped, and I’ll need to put it in my report.”
Congdon sighed. “Certainly, Officer. Our apologies about tripping the alarm, by the way.” Congdon shot a look at Mr.Chen, who was clearly going to be assigned blame. “I’m here as a favor to Franco Francone. His father was my college roommate. He’s my godson. And he knows me well enough not to waste one particle of my time. But he was sufficiently persuasive with regards to MissGreenleaf’s talents to get me to drive two hours to this little...” He waved a manicured hand vaguely, irritably, to indicate the whole of Hellcat Canyon.
Oh, how sweet. Congdon clearly wanted to use a word likebackwaterorbumfuckbut he was being sensitive to Eli’s feelings.
“It would take a nuclear holocaust to keep Glory Greenleaf from a meeting with you,” Eli said, and he was impressed by how natural the words sounded because inwardly his nerves felt pulled back like a slingshot. “I’ve known her all my life and I would swear to that in court. Something must have held her up. A flat tire, maybe. The roads out here can be a little tricky.”
Eli sensed these words were basically a drop trickled into the ocean of Congdon’s indifference.
“I guess that would make this MissGreenleaf’s Hiroshima, then.” Congdon was amused, albeit in a detached and cynical way. Glory was nothing to him.
It was one of the more discordant moments of Eli’s life. It was inconceivable that anyone should experience Glory as nothing, when she was in fact everything.
“Call her cell?” the assistant offered, nervously, placatingly into the chilly silence.
“She doesn’t currently have one,” Eli said.
He shouldn’t have said that.
Or maybe it was exactly the right thing to say.
Because the two men, who had seemed to be restlessly rustling their flight feathers when he’d entered the restaurant, went still. It was clear that whereas Glory was just an irritant before, she’d now become faintly interesting, albeit in a circus-freak way, to these men. Because in their world, not having a cell phone was akin to not having a head.
“I’ll get her here inside of fifteen minutes,” Eli said abruptly.
“How are you going to manage that, Deputy? Are you going to put out an APB?”
He actually didn’t know. All he knew was that he would. Eli’s faint, bland cop smile betrayed absolutely nothing of his turmoil.
“It’s possible, Mr.Congdon, that you watch too many cop shows.”
“Just the one.Blood Brothers.”
