Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby 1)

“It’s Dave,” Hooker said. And then he punched Dave in the face.

“Stop that!” Judey said, clutching Brian to his chest. “I was kidding about the beating.” He put his hand over Brian’s eyes. “Don’t look.”

“I owed it to him,” Hooker said.

NASCAR Guy was back in the saddle.

We dragged Dave up to Judey’s condo, locked the door behind us and propped Dave up against a wall.

“We need to know where Maria’s hidden,” I said to Dave.

“Eat shit,” Dave said.

“Can I hit him again?” Hooker asked.

“No!” Judey said. “He’ll bleed on the carpet.”

“This is your last chance,” I said to Dave. “Or else.”

“Or else what?” he asked.

“Or else we’ll turn Brian loose on you,” Judey said.

Brian was running in circles, happy to be home. “Arf, arf, arf, arf.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna worry me,” Dave said.

Judey took a spice cookie out of his pocket and held it out, waist level. Brian rushed over, jumped into the air, and SNAP! The spice cookie was dust.

Hooker was smiling. “Allow me,” he said, unzipping Dave’s slacks. The slacks slid down and pooled at Dave’s feet, leaving Dave standing there in his tighty whities.

Judey scooped Brian up and tiptoed over with Brian under his arm. With his free hand, Judey dropped three spice cookies into the front of Dave’s briefs, crushing them up a little, releasing a lot of spice cookie fragrance, making sure the crumbs settled in the pouch.

“Rawffff!” Brian said, watching the spice cookies disappear from view.

Judey held Brian out so he could better smell the cookies. And Brian started to salivate. Brian’s ears were up and his legs were treading air. He was squirming and running in place, eyes bugged out of his head, and schnauzer spittle was flying everywhere. “Arf, arf, arf, arf!” Brian was in a spice-cookie frenzy.

“Okay, now I’m going to put Brian down,” Judey said.

“Jesus, no!” Dave said. “You people are freaky.”

“So, what about Maria?” I asked him. “Do you know where she is?”

“Yeah,” Dave said. “I know where she is. Get the dog away from me.”

“Where’s Maria?” I asked again.

“Salzar’s got a garage on the Trail. She’s in the garage,” Dave said.

“She’s alive?”

“Yeah. She’s alive.”

When we were done questioning Dave we pulled his pants up and shoved him into the powder room.

“Hey,” he said, “you can’t leave me in here like this with my hands cuffed behind my back and cookies in my drawers. And what if I have to use the facilities?”

Judey smiled at him. “Just give me a holler, big boy, and I’ll be glad to help you.”