“What the fuck are you doing here?” Her tone was loaded with enough frost to start an ice age.
Trout winced but tried to turn it into a smile. “Hey, is that any way to treat me after—”
Dez got up in his face, her voice low and tight. “Bring up the past, Billy, and I’ll tase you and stomp the shit out of you while you lay pissing in your khakis. Don’t think I’m joking. ”
“Geez, Dez, let’s have a little perspective here. I wasn’t the one who—”
“You’re a dickbag who should have been thrown out with the afterbirth. ”
Trout sighed and placed his hand over his heart. “You wound me, Desdemona. ”
“I’m about to. ”
“Whoa there, officer,” interjected Goat, waving his hand between them. “Let’s dial this down and—”
“Fuck off,” Dez and Trout said at the same time.
“I…”
JT had been a few steps behind Dez and stepped in now to take Goat by the arm and pull him back. “Come on, son, best to stand at a minimum safe distance when those two are in gear. ”
Goat let himself be pulled to the other side of the road, watching as Dez and Trout bent toward each other, almost nose to nose, shouting at the top of their voices.
* * *
“What’s with them?” Goat asked. “They have some bad blood between than or something?”
JT wore a tolerant smile. “You figured that out, did you? Good for you. ”
Goat turned to him, and he wasn’t smiling. “Don’t patronize me. I’m a freaking news cameraman, so how about a little respect?”
JT spread his hands. “Don’t have a stroke, kid. It was a joke. I got you out of there before you got hurt. Even I don’t try to get between Dez and Billy, and I’m armed. ”
Goat was hardly mollified and grunted something in Yiddish. JT chuckled.
* * *
Twenty feet away, Dez and Trout were still going at it.
“I didn’t come here to start a fight, Desdemona,” said Trout.
“Call me that again and I’ll put a baton across your kneecaps. It’s Dez or Officer Fox. Actually, for you it’s only Officer Fox. Now tell me what you’re doing here. ”
Trout bit back something he was going to say, and instead pointed at the crooked line of parked police units. “Chasing a story, Officer Fox. Why else would I be here?”
“There is no story. Thanks for coming. Have a nice day. Fuck off and die. ”
“No story? So why are half the cops in the county here? And … Christ … is that blood all over your shirt?” His guts knotted like a fist. “Damn it, Dez, are you hurt?”
Dez stepped back from him, and Trout could see shutters drop behind her eyes. She cut a look at JT, and when Trout followed the line of her gaze he caught Sergeant Hammond giving a tiny shake of his head.
Dez cleared her throat. “This is an active crime scene,” she said in the uninflected tone cops are taught to use at the academy. “Should the situation require it, a formal statement will be made at the appropriate time. ”
She started to turn and Trout touched her arm. “Come on, Dez, don’t run that shuck on me. I own the patent on bullshit in Stebbins County. There’s something serious going down here and I want in. ”
Dez, in control now, stopped and looked pointedly at the hand and then at his face. “Please remove your hand, sir. ”
“‘Sir’? Oh please … cut the shit, Dez,” said Trout, though he took his hand back. “At least tell me if you’re hurt. ”