Yep, California had been a bust and as much as Derek hates to admit defeat, they had been up to and up against the proverbial wall of Chinese bullpucky.
I could tell that Derek felt that there had been more to find but nobody would talk and that was that.
So once again it was waiting while the deputies Grim kept at it, one step at a time.
Police work can be arduous and painfully slow oftentimes as anyone who has done it will tell you. Glamorous it ain't and sure as Hell not in 54 minutes less commercials.
As I said, this waiting is the pits and I for one do not do it well, and Rico is even worse. Course Rose and Derek and Jake are no slouches when it comes to pacing the floor and grousing about how Godawful waiting is.
Which is pretty much what we were doing one morning about two more weeks in...when suddenly a familiar face appeared through the sliding glass french doors that lead out to the main rear deck.
"OH MAH GAWD? HAWNEY? C''MERE YOU RASCAL,"
and Kip got one of those hugs from the creator of hugs that damn near kill yah. LOL.
Rose was next as I saw a hug that literally made Kip's eyes bug out. HAHAHA. Rico was next followed by...the assorted masses yearning to breathe fr... or maybe that was just Kip.
"Hawney? How come you here? Glad as we are to see yah. But how come?"
"Got lonely, Feelie. Jest ain't no fun with all you guys gone."
"Uh uh," Ofelia retorted with a 'spin me another one hotstuff' look in her eye and never let it be said that anyone ever gets one past our lady from N'awlins.
"Besides, I heard you got mischief going on up here and I HATE being left out of mischief."
"That's more like it, hawney...and we sho glad yo' here."
"Everyone of we the dearly assembled seconded that emotion."
"So, tell me. What is going on up here?" and we told him in gory detail, including the GOD IT IS SO AWFUL SITTING AROUND DOING NOTHING WAITING...
OHHHH WOE IS US'....huh huh. Course we didn't have to since Kip knows all of us OH SO well.
Included in the gory details was the fact that the first victim was originally a local. Kip's ears perked up at that one.
"So, what did you find when you went looking for his childhoodum buddies?"
We looked at each other.
"Uh, um, uh."
"You DID check out the people he used to know when he lived here didn't yah?"
"WEEELLLLLLLLLL?" We sorta blushed and jittered our footsies and blushed some more and...
"Well, doncha think we oughtta?"
"YEH YEH," that from Rico and Jake and ok, everybody.
"We'll go first thing in the morning to the school, just like we did up in Kansas." That got Rose's attention REAL quick.
"We better check out the neighborhood he grew up in, see who knew him who might still live here."
We, needless to say, started getting our engines running and I figured the floor pacing was JEST ABOUT tah cum tah an end.
I must say, dinner that night was a real festive event compared to the last couple of weeks.
Rose especially, and Ofelia too, were both getting revved up like I hadn't seen them in a long time. Brenda also got into the act, and Derek managed to de-funk hisself. I don't think too many of us slept all that much that night, and breakfast was a real ho' down. Nobody was all that hungry and the shovels didn't get much of a workout to be sure.
CHAPTER XVI: ANNA VAN DER LAGT
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