Midnight Rain: A Detective Jack Dunning Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

shoots down the sciatic nerve into my big toe. Angel fluffs his pillow and gently tucks the blankets around him.
    “Are you comfortable now, Mr. Barker?” she asks.
    “Do I look comfortable, Missy?” Angel turns her head and bites her lip to keep from smiling.
    “Where is Lulu?” I ask. “Angel found Bo in the rain.”
    “Oh, you mean the crazy woman I live with? She took off during the night. I tried to stop her and look where I ended up. She’s not herself anymore. Yesterday she looks at me and says, ‘Don’t I know you from someplace?’ How do I respond to something like that?”
    “Any idea where she’s gone?”
    “The all night café. Maybe the park. She forgot her purse so at least she’s not out there blowing my money.”
    “We certainly can’t have that,” I say. I turn to Jake. “I’m going to drive around the neighborhood. If I don’t find her in thirty minutes or so, I’m filing a missing persons.” I turn back to Roland. “What is she wearing?”
    “My raccoon coat, bobby socks and tennis shoes with holes in the toes.”
    Albie appears in the doorway with Bo wrapped in a towel. He wiggles free and runs to the bedside, whining and prancing and waiting to be lifted onto the bed.
    “Get him away from me!” says Roland. “Nothing smells worse than a damp dog. Lock him in the bathroom.”
    “I’ll hold him,” says Albie, picking him up.
    “Hold him? You can keep him.”
    “Can I really, Mr. Roland?”
    “French bulldogs are the most useless creatures on earth. That’s why Lulu’s sister gave him to us. They can’t hunt nor herd. They can’t breed without assistance or give birth without veterinary intervention. If they try to swim their big heads pull them right to the bottom faster than the Titanic.”
    Albie walks to the window overlooking the back alley, Bo nibbling affectionately at his chin. “I think you’re cute,” he says, and gives him a squeeze. Beyond the window the rain falls steadily, the power lines whipping between the poles. “Where’s your car, Mr. Roland?”
    “Where it always is, parked next to the garbage cans.”
    “Ain’t there now.”
    “You blind? It’s the green, Chevy sedan.”
    Green sedan. That gets my antennae quivering.
    “Like I say, it just ain’t there,” says the boy.
    “Where do you keep the keys, Mr. Barker?” I ask.
    “In the ash tray by the phone.” I walk over and take a look.
    “They’re gone.”
    “Since when has Lulu started driving?” asks Jake.
    “She doesn’t drive,” says Roland. “I gave her lessons once, but it was like teaching a monkey to balance a check book. She couldn’t tell the difference between the gas and the brake no matter how many times I explained it. You need to get cracking, Jack. I want my car back in one piece.”
    Jake turns to Albie. “Go get Agnes Peel. She’ll be cleaning on the second floor. Tell her to bring Mr. Barker some soup. Then I’m calling his doctor.”
    “And tell her not to forget the crackers.” says Roland. “I can’t eat soup without crackers. Not the big ones, either. Those little round ones.”
    I can only take Roland Barker in small doses.
    “I have to go,” I say.
    “I’ll ride down with you,” says Angel. “Hank is holding my new book at the desk.” As we ride the elevator to the lobby I notice how pale she is. “Mr. Barker is the most ungrateful man I’ve ever met,” she says. “I don’t know how Lulu tolerates him.”
    “By getting dementia.”
    “Oh Jack, you’re terrible.”
    “I know I am. Did you know there’s a button missing from your coat?”
    Angel looks down. “So there is. It’s probably somewhere in the room.”
    “Are you alright? You’re not coming down with something are you?”
    “I got cold coming back from the book store. I didn’t think the light would ever change.”
    The elevator bounces to a stop in the lobby and we get out. Hank retrieves her book from behind the desk and she thanks him. I peel a few bucks from my