After ringing the doorbell and waiting, the front door opened slightly, and a head appeared. A rather nicely Italian head to be sure.
"Yes," he said.
"Marcus?"
"Yes, who are you," he said making NO attempt to open the door any wider which I for one found odd.
"We are friends of Anna Van Der Lagt," Rose told him...and he broke out into a smile.
"Oh," he said...
"And Rick Longworth."
The smile rapidly went away.
He looked as if he might shut the door, so I stuck my foot in it...literally.
"We would like to talk to you, please."
"About what?"
I noticed that his head seemed to be shaking slightly...the way one does when one is either laughing hysterically or cold or nervous or SCARED. I wasn't sure to be honest, but I would have bet it was the latter.
"Honey? My name is Rose."
"Hi," he said, none too confidently I noticed.
"Marcus honey, I'd like to talk to you about Rick. You know he is dead."
"Yeh, I heard. I never knew him very well."
"No, but your brother did."
"Yeh, I guess."
"Please?"
Rose was giving it her best shot, and she always uses some pretty powerful bullets. Marcus stood looking at her for a minute and then opened the door a bit wider. See, I told you.
"Ok, I'll come out. The, uh, house, uh, it's a mess."
"Ok," Rose assured him...and with that he emerged. Now that we could see him, I was surprised how tall he is. Seems to be an Italian thing. LOL. Rico, Antonio, all sky rubbers.
There were some chairs on the front porch and Marcus pointed and Rose and I and he went over and sat while the rest of us stood leaning against the railing.
"Now honey, why don't you come over here and sit right beside me...so I can just look into those gorgeous big blue eyes of yours."
It was right about then I heard the Cell door shut and lock and knew she had him right where she wanted him. I swear, for as many times as I have watched Rose take some dude and just strip him down to a quivering mess of gelatin before he even knew what had hit him...I am still struck at how effortlessly she makes it look. OMG yes.
"Marcus...oh, silly me now WHERE ARE my manners. You must be a mite thirsty. We got some drinks in the Truck. How about a coke?"
"Uh, yeh. Sure,"
and with that and right on cue Kip LAUNCHED, and made a beeline for the truck and the cooler inside. In a flash he was back with a handful of 2 litres. That boy is a walking grenade I swear.
"There, that is better isn't it precious."
OH MY GAWD. I almost had to get up and go for a minute before I disgraced myself. But, I got myself handled and in the nick of time.
"Now, baby, why don't you tell Aunt Rose all about your brother and Rick longworth," and I will be switched if that is not exactly what he did.
DAMN. That woman is better than a shotgun pointed at the temple, and even more deadly. Hah. HOT DAMN.
We listened with ears the size of Montana, and what we heard was...
"My brother, Frankie. His name is Frankie."
"Yes I know, darling."
"Okay, anyway...Frankie and Rick were, uh, kinda, uh..."
"Close, Marcus? REALLY close."
"Yeh yeh. REALLY close, like twins. They did everything together. Movies, swimming, volleyball, music. Just everything. They shared the same interests, yah know. Anyway, they did that all the way through high school."
"Rick came back here going into Junior year?"
"Yeh, so that year and the next. They had known each other before cause Rick and his daddy would visit sometimes. But then Rick had it bad for my brother and I guess he threw a shit fit to be able to move here. I got the impression his daddy wasn't happy about it but...there was no stopping Rick and here he came and then he and Frankie became inseparable. Just never apart."
"How did that affect you, honey?"
"They shut me out pretty much. I was the LITTLE BROTHER yah know, and well, they just closed the circle around themselves. Yah know?"
CHAPTER XXIV: THE BEAT GOES...AND GOES...
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