Chapter 104

word count 1392

Buzz got home from The Pink Lady feeling tawdry and used. The way those men looked at him, it was disconcerting at best. They gawked. They touched. It sent shivers up his spine. He hoped he never had to do anything like it again. It made him miss Trudy.

Even with her brainless chattering, she was still a jewel always fawning over him and loving him up. The thought gave him pause. This was the first time since Jeannie died he had given serious thought to another woman. He was moving on.

Oddly enough, he could tell that Hank was still suffering the loss, as if that guy had any business missing another man's wife. The way he looked at Buzz, whom he blamed for her demise, was annoying, what with his eyes like sharpened daggers. It made Buzz uncomfortable to be around him. But they had to work together, so what could he do? And then there was Gil who had been involved with Trudy...was he over her? The son of a bitch scooped her up while Buzz was laid up in the hospital.

Buzz ambled, resting on his cane, across the room and plopped onto his favorite chair. Look at him, needing this cane. Was he getting old?

"Detective Miller, I didn't know you were home!" Mrs. Dunn breezed into the room with her usual vigor. She clutched a feather duster in one hand.

"Hi, Mrs. Dunn! What's for dinner?"

"Your favorite, spaghetti and meat balls...oh, and peach pie for dessert! Peaches are in season, you know!"

Buzz snuggled back in the chair and grabbed the remote. He'd think about Trudy later. Right now he wanted to relax. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

***

Once Gil, Hank, and Mick decided to go have a drink after their session at the gay bar, they said their good-byes to Buzz, then headed for the local watering hole. They couldn't have been more happy to set their derrieres on stools in a regular bar, a dark, dirty, man cave with beer sloshed around and ESPN on the TV.

"Whew, I never want to go through THAT again, going to a gay bar." Gil mumbled while he raised a mug to his thirty lips.

"Take it easy! Buzz was the one they really found attractive." Hank chuckled.

"Here's to Buzz in all his beauty!" Gil raised his glass and the others joined him.

A cell went off and Mick reached into his shirt pocket. He lost his grip and dropped the phone, then fumbled to pick it up. He read a text and looked to the others, his lip revealing a nervous twitch. "Look guys, I gotta take off. Enjoy your drinks."

He darted for the door right away, bumping into chairs and tables along the way. Hank and Gil watched him. When he was out of sight, they roared with laughter.

"I can't believe how weird that guy is!" Gil said, swallowing down a generous gulp of beer.

"I know, he's so out of touch. And he drops things constantly. What a character!" Hank took a swig, then sat in quiet thought for a moment. "He's got some connections in high places though. The guy just makes a call and problems get solved. I never saw anything like it."

"Looks like Mick is a guy of mystery," Gil commented. "Gawd only knows who he knows or what he's done."

"Amen to that!" Hank said.

***
The three boys, Erik, Elliot, and Adam were melding together as a family at only a snail's pace. It wasn't Elly and Adam having a problem. They were already best friends. It was adding in Erik that presented a dilemma. He couldn't be less like the other two. While Elliot and Adam were smart boys, inquisitive characters who enjoyed adventure, Erik was totally opposite. He much preferred to stick to the safety of home, looking at TV or reading comic books. He wasn't bright like the other two, and thus his limited perspectives held him back from understanding the philandering ways of Elly and Adam. Their mom, Lisa, in an effort to build a strong family, insisted Elliot and Adam take Erik with them wherever they went. She hoped to build a brotherly bond among the three boys through constant association.

So far, it wasn't working. They took Erik along, but he failed to join in the spirit of things, always dragging the other two down with his constant resistance. Things evolved to  where the boys dared him to do things when he wouldn't actively volunteer, putting him on the spot. If he failed to or refused, they laughed at him.

On this particular summer day, they went to a junk yard, an area at the edge of town where everyone dropped their unwanted household items. As he stood along the edge, Erik wondered what foolishness they would expect him to do next. He would rather be home looking at a cartoons. With a sigh, he surveyed a sea of old washing machines, TV's, tools, engines, and junked cars.

"This place is so neat. I bet you could find anything in here you wanted," Elliot said. He stood next to Adam, fidgeting and anxious to start.

"There's got to be something valuable in here, something we could sell. Then we'll have the money to buy that used bike Mr. Stevens has."

"I don't get it. Why don't you just ask Dad for the money?" It perplexed Erik. That was what he always did. Not concoct some grand scheme to get the money on his own.

"Yeah, but Mom doesn't want us to have a bike. She says we're too young. So you stupid idiot, we have to get it and hide it from her and ride it where she can't see us."

"You'll probably get in trouble. You always do." Erik shot the other two one of his best smart aleck grins.

"Well, you're here. And you're gonna search with us, so you're gonna get in trouble, too."

"Well, let's get to work. Look for anything shiny or new." Adam was the first to take off running with Elliot close behind. Erik brought up the rear in lazy, hesitant steps.

He walked on his toes to avoid stepping on bits of pipe or plastic. There was nowhere to tread in terms of a path. But rather, he had to scale his way on top of junk to get around in the endless heap. Then he slipped on something flat and smooth with his legs flying out from under him. He landed with a clatter on stacks of pot and pans. He could hear the other boys snickering at his fate.

"Find anything yet, dufus?" Elliot called.

That was when Eric saw something shiny. He crawled on all fours, upward on the mountain of junk. If he found a real treasure, maybe those idiots would treat him nicer. He pulled himself closer and closer until he could see what was glinting in the sun...a ring. A shiny gold ring with a stone that looked like a diamond. It was big and bulky, something a man would wear.

Securing his position, he leaned forward and stretched. He couldn't quite reach it. He took a deep breath and stretched again, pushing, stretching. He stretched so far, his hand looked dismembered from the rest of him. Reaching...stretching...he got close and cupped his fingers around it and got a good grip. He tugged, but he couldn't pull it out. That was when he realized the ring was on a finger, a human finger, and that finger looked like it might be attached to a lot more.

Later, Homicide arrived in the persons of Gil and Hank along with the Medical Examiner and Forensics and a slew of squad cars. The place was alive with activity, like an ant hill in the afternoon sun.

"This body hasn't been here long," one of the team shouted down from up on top where the cadaver was buried. They all waited patiently while it was extracted and eased down the mountain of junk on a stretcher to rest on flat ground. Gil and Hank rushed to see it first.

"Oh, my Gawd! Hank, do you see that?"

"Geez, it's Mick! Oh Mick, what did you do, man?"