Lawrence Block - The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes

The phone woke him from a dream. At first his dream simply incorporated the sound in its narrative, and his dream-hand picked it up and his dream-voice said hello, and there his imagination quit on him, failing to invent a caller on the other end of the line. He said hello again, and the real-world phone went on ringing, and he shook off the dream and got the phone from the bedside table.

Hello?

Doak Miller?

Right, he said. Whos this?

Susie at the Sheriffs Office. Sorry, your voice sounded different.

Thick with sleep.

Oh, did I wake you? Im sorry. Do you want to call us back?

No, its what? Close to nine-thirty, time I was up. What can I do for you?

Um

So long as its not too complicated.

On account of youre still not completely awake?

Hed gotten a smile out of her, could hear it in her voice. He could picture her at her desk, twirling a strand of yellow hair around her finger, happy to let a phone conversation turn a little bit flirty.

Oh, Im awake, he said. Just not at the absolute top of my game.

Well, do you figure youre sharp enough for me to put you through to Sheriff Bill?

He wont be using a lot of big words, will he?

Ill warn him not to, she said. You hold now, hear?

Just the least bit flirty, because it was safe to flirt with him, wasnt it? He was old enough to be her father, old enough to be retired, for Gods sake.

He let that thought go and went back for a look at his dream, but all that was left of it was the ringing telephone with no one on the other end of it. If the phone hadnt rung, hed have awakened with no recollection of having dreamt. He knew he dreamed, knew everyone did, but he never remembered his dreams, or even that his sleep had been anything other than an uninterrupted void.

It was as if he led two lives, a sleeping life and a waking life, and it took the interruption of a phone call to make one life bleed through into the other.

Doak?

Sheriff, he said. How may I serve the good people of Gallatin County?

Now thats what I ask myself every hour of every day. Youll never believe the answer came back to me first thing this morning.

Try me.

Hire a hit man.

So you thought of me.

You know, there must be another fellow with your qualifications between Tampa and Panama City, but I wouldnt know how to get him on the phone. Susie said you were sleeping when she called, but you sound wide awake to me. You want to come by once youve had your breakfast?

Have yall got coffee?

Ill tell her to make a fresh pot, Sheriff William Radburn said. In your honor, sir.

When hed moved to the state three years ago, Doak had put up at first in a motel just across the Taylor County line. A Gujarati family owned it, and the office smelled not unpleasantly of curry. It took him a couple of months to tire of the noise of the other guests and the small-screen TV, and he let a housewife with a real estate license show him some houses. The one he liked was off by itself, with a dock on a creek that flowed into the gulf. You could hitch a boat to that dock, shed pointed out. Or you could fish right off the dock.

He made an offer. When the owner accepted it, the agent delivered the good news in person. Hed had a beer going, and offered her one. She hesitated just long enough to signal that her acceptance was significant.

Well, he said. How are we going to celebrate?

She gave him a look, and that was answer enough, but to underscore the look she twisted the wedding ring off her finger and dropped it in her purse. Then she looked at him again.

Her name was Barb Like a fishhook, shed said and while she wasnt the first woman hed been to bed with since the move south, she was the first to join him in his room at the Gulf Mirage Motel. What better way, really, to celebrate his departure than by nailing the woman whod facilitated it?

And she had a nice enough body, built more for comfort than for speed. Her breasts were nice, her ass was even nicer, and long before shed shown him the house he wound up buying, hed already decided not only that he wanted her but just how he intended to have her.

So when he went down on her he got a finger in her ass, and while she tensed up at first she wound up going with it. Her orgasm was a strong one, and had barely ended when he rolled her over and arranged her on her knees. He moistened himself in her pussy, and she was so warm and wet he had to force himself to leave, but he withdrew and she gave a little gasp at his departure and another when she felt him where his finger had been earlier.

She said, Oh, I dont think

It wasnt much of a protest and he didnt pay any attention to it, forcing himself into her, feeling her resist, feeling her resistance subside, feeling her open for him only to tighten around him. He fucked her gently at first, then more savagely as passion took hold of him, and he cried out as he emptied himself into her.

He went away someplace for a moment, and the next thing he was aware of was lying on his back while she cleansed him with a washcloth. Just a tame little thing now, she said, but it like to split me in two a few minutes ago.

She took him in her mouth, and for an hour or so they found things to do. Then he got two more beers from the mini-fridge and they sat up in bed drinking them.

She said, I hardly ever like that.

Sex?

Silly. No, you know. Butt sex.

You got into it pretty good there.

I almost came. Which is something I never did.

Came that way?

Never even enjoyed it, not really. I wonder if I ever could come that way.

From getting fucked in the ass?

That sounds so dirty. Saying butt sex is bad enough.

With an ass like yours

I saw the way you looked at it. I knew what you wanted to do. She looked at him over the top of the beer can, weighed her words carefully. I knew you wanted to fuck me in my ass.

Your gorgeous ass.

My gorgeous ass. My gorgeous ass which is a little sore, but Im not complaining. I thought, oh, thats what hes gonna want to do, I just know it.

And you hardly ever like it.

And yet, she said, I took my ring off, didnt I? Which reminds me. She got the ring from her purse, put it on her finger. Now Im married again, she said. And Im in desperate need of a shower. Its bad enough Ill be going home smelling of beer. She showered, toweled dry. While she was dressing he went over and put his hands on her, but she said, No, not now. And you can finish my beer for me, because Ive had enough, and what I have to do now is stop at Cozy Coles for my usual end-of-the-day glass of Chardonnay.

So you can smell of wine instead of beer.

Probably a little of both, she said, with a top note of no, never mind. Doak? Were not going to have a romance, are we?

No.

No, were not, which means we can probably do this every now and then without worrying that itll blow up in our faces. But maybe Im getting ahead of myself here. I mean, would you want to do this every now and then? Like maybe a couple of times a month?

Id like that.

Like friends with benefits, I guess they call it, except I dont even know that wed be friends. Friendly, sure, but friends?

Just so we get the benefits.

And Id be interested in finding out if I can come that way.

It turned out she could. They established as much on her first visit to his new house, and it was a few days after that momentous occasion that he paid his first visit to the Gallatin County sheriffs office. It was a courtesy call, and a counterpart to one hed made to the Taylor County sheriff not long after the state of Florida had licensed him as a private investigator. He didnt even know how much use hed get out of the license, he could get by easily enough on his NYPD pension, but it never hurt to be on good terms with the local law, and hed known retired cops back home with P. I. tickets who picked up the occasional piece of work through friends still on the job.