Shadow Of Pretense (Margot Harris 2)

“Short for the big man and I’m big everywhere.”

“Is Mick home right now?”

“Only way to find out is to step inside, but you gotta know we’re going by my room first.”

“To get your freak on?”

“Damn right.”

“Give me a second,” Margot said as she reached into her purse and pulled out the bottle of mace.

“Aw, come on now, you think the ‘B’ man is going to let a little pepper spray…”

Margot gave him a face full.

The ‘B’ man dropped to his knees and started clawing at his face, saying, “What the fuck did you do that for?”

“Margot gets her freak on a little differently,” she told him as she put the mace away and left the ‘B’ man crying on the sidewalk.

She stepped inside and could hear the sounds of video games and the smell of marijuana in the next room. A pit bull with gray fur and no collar walked in and looked her over. Margot was reached for the mace when she noticed it shaking his tail. He trotted over and sat by her feet, looking up like he expected something from her. She rubbed his chin and that seemed to satisfy his expectation.

“Hey Mick,” she called out while she pet the dog.

“Yeah,” someone shouted back, “What’s up?”

Margot stepped in the next room and the dog followed. She found two twenty-somethings playing some kind of first person shooter video game. Both were wearing headsets. Neither one looked up at her.

“Which one of you is Mick?”

The one with the beard motioned with his controller to the one without.

“Where’s B-man?” Mick asked, keeping his attention on the television.

“He’s outside. Could you turn that off for a second?”

“Sorry, we’re in like a tournament,” the bearded guy said. “Are you the person who parked in the driveway?”

“Yeah, but that’s not important right now.”

“If Tommy comes back and sees you parked in his spot it will be.”

“Then the sooner you turn that off and talk to me, the sooner I can get out of here.”

“We can play and talk,” Mick told her.

“I’m looking for Chrissie.”

“Who?” Mick said.

“The high school kid you’ve been dating.”

“Oh, that Chrissie. Look, once I found out she was only fifteen, I broke that shit off.”

“Yeah? I was under the impression you two had been seeing each other a while.”

“Shit,” the bearded guy said, “it was like a year.”

“It took you a year to figure out she was in high school?”