Come Get Me by Michael Hunter Page A

looking
like she was taking an inventory of the candy on the shelves.
     
    “Yeah,” Rob said picking up his line of
thought, “there sure are some pretty nice sights to see around
here. You gotta be careful of them though,” he continued with a
wink in Jim’s direction, “they can be pretty dangerous sometimes.
There’s all kinds of curves you gotta watch out for. Some of them
are sharp but some of them are smooth too. They can also be a
little snoopy too sometimes if you know what I mean. Didn’t used to
be a lot of stuff like that in this town, but just recently in the
last couple of years the scenery finally took a turn. I mean, not
that I’ve had a chance to appreciate it too much.”
     
    “Yeah, when I left it pretty much sucked
around here,” Jim said starting up right where Rob left off, “but
from what I’ve seen since I’ve been back it’s changed quite a bit.
For the better if you ask me.”
     
    Jill looked over her shoulder to where they
stood for a minute shook her head and went back to her make believe
inspection. She mumbled something under her breath about men
thinking they were so clever making innuendos that they didn’t
think women understood and something else about how they weren’t as
smart as they thought they were. Glancing back and fixing them with
another slightly disapproving stare she returned to looking busy
again.
     
    “So,” Jim said to Rob after a few more
seconds of watching Jill, “what’s this I’ve been hearing about
Tommy’s death not being as cut and dry as everybody thought.”
Seeing Rob’s reluctant look he quickly added, “Look, I know you
don’t want to talk about it but I really need to know. He was my
friend too. I’m going to miss him but if this was anything other
than a horrible accident I need to know.” He didn’t want Rob
getting into any trouble for telling him specific details about the
case but if there was something fishy going on he thought somebody,
especially somebody as close to the deceased as he’d been, should
know. Unfortunately Rob was the only source he could get that
information from.
     
    “Boy, you don’t hold back do you? Just jump
right on in with both feet without the hip waders don’t you?” Rob
asked shaking his head. When Jim didn’t respond right away he took
that as a sign to continue. “Well, let me start by saying you don’t
know the half of what’s going on. If you’d seen the things I have
you wouldn’t be asking a fella to describe it to you.” Jim watched
him as he spoke. It was as if an invisible veil passed over his
face turning everything somber just thinking about Tommy. Jim
didn’t like forcing Rob like this but if it upset him this much
just thinking about it than obviously something bad was going on.
After stopping for a few seconds to collect himself Rob signaled
his readiness to continue with a slight smile and spoke up in an
official sounding voice, “As you know I’m not supposed to talk
about official police business with civilians but sometimes there
are special cases.” He was trying to cover his pain by joking
around but it didn’t fool anyone. Least of all Jim. He’d known him
too long. Rob was acting like the big tough guy because of who
their audience was. Jill was still near at the register. If she
hadn’t been he’d probably have started blubbering like a little
baby as soon as he started talking.
     
    “Now with that official disclaimer having
been said,” Rob continued in his big boy voice as he glanced over
his shoulder making sure nobody else was in the store he might have
missed, “I might as well tell you everything anyways since I know
I’m going too eventually. Might as well get it over with sooner
rather than later. I could never keep a secret from you, huh?” When
they’d been little he’d never been able to keep secrets. At least
from Jim. Every time Rob tried to keep something from them it had
always been Jim he’d eventually told. Jim never even had to