“Oh, yeah. He had a mustache.”
“Nice of you to mention it.”
“I didn’t think it was important. I mean, he probably shaved it off by now, don’t you think?”
She shrugged. “Anything else come to mind?”
He shook his head.
“You sure?”
“Not that I remember.”
“Okay, well, this is a good start. I’m going to talk to some of the other people seated nearby at the concert. Maybe they also bought their tickets from Habib.”
She gave him a card with her name and phone number on it and told him to call her if he remembered anything else.
He shook her hand. It felt cool and soft.
As he watched her drive away, he felt bad about having to lie to her. She was nice. She had a sweet smile. It was hard to imagine her out in the world, fighting criminals. He worried she might get hurt.
21
X-Ray paced back and forth by his car, which was parked in front of Armpit’s house. “We got nothing to worry about,” he said. “Nothing to worry about. The police have better things to do than to launch a big investigation over a couple of phony tickets.”
Armpit had told him everything, including how he had met Kaira.
“Man, I wish you had talked to me first,” X-Ray said. “I could have come up with something believable.”
“I think she believed me,” said Armpit.
“Habib?” X-Ray shook his head. “And you never should have mentioned the H-E-B.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Well, that’s obvious. Look, if she interrogates you again, just remember one word: ‘kiss.’ K-I-S-S. Keep It Simple, Stupid!”
“I think she believed me.”
“You know we’re in this together. We split the money, fifty-fifty.”
Yes, he realized that.
“Not to worry,” X-Ray said. “The cops have better things to do. Man, it’s just my luck the mayor was at the concert! What kind of mayor goes to rock concerts?”
“You’re lucky she was there,” Armpit pointed out.
“Oh, yeah? How’s that?”
“If the mayor wasn’t there, I woulda been sent to jail, Ginny woulda been taken to a hospital and had her stomach pumped, and you’d be dead.”
X-Ray laughed. “You’re such a joker.”
At school on Monday, Tatiana wanted to know all about the concert. “You still went, didn’t you?”
“Oh, I had a great time. Too bad you missed it.”
“Were you able to find someone to go with you?”