Royal Flush (The Jake Samson & Rosie Vicente Detective Series Book 6) by Shelley Singer Page B

alone a plan. They’d be killing each other off after about a week.
    I wanted to ask her which of the members had actually been in at the very beginning, but thought that might be pushing it. Maybe the information would just slip out if we kept on talking.
    “I was wondering, I never heard of this
zog
thing Hal mentioned. The evil
zog?
What is that?”
    “The Zionist Occupational Government. The secret Jew government that is ruling our country.”
    Uh-huh. Just my luck. My own relatives were ruling the country and no one was letting me in on it. I looked thoughtful. “Yeah. You know, that makes a lot of sense. More and more of them…” I nodded, scowling.
    “I can see you’d appreciate our newest work of art.” She grabbed my hand and hauled me into the kitchen, to the far wall. There, above the kitchen table, was a framed full-color print of a lamp with the words TURN THE LIGHTS OUT ON WORLD JEWRY printed in black below it. The lampshade was made of sections stitched together. I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be until I saw faint suggestions of human features on a couple of the pieces. I felt the heat flush my face. I clenched my shaking hands together so I wouldn’t reach up and rip the damned thing off the wall and break it over her lunatic head. Fortunately, she was looking at the print, not at me.
    “Of course, that was all a lie, you know.” She was talking again. I struggled to focus on her words. “There were no lampshades made of Jewskin. There was no Holocaust.” She took my hand, unclenching my fist, and led me back out of the kitchen, stopping again just outside the doorway.
    “I can see you’re overcome by what I’ve shown you,” she said.
    I took a few deep breaths. “Yes. I am.” I had to change the subject, quick. “So tell me, are you…” I hesitated, as if with awe. “Inner Circle?”
    “Yes, indeed.”
    I breathed deeply, looking at her nasty little face as if she’d just said she’d won a Nobel Prize.
    Pete Ebner reappeared, heading our way.
    “Having a good time, Jase?”
    “A great time, Pete.”
    “And what are you two talking about?”
    “He wanted to know if Hal and me were Inner Circle.”
    Pete narrowed his eyes.
    “Kind of a personal question.”
    “Just making conversation, Pete, getting my bearings. You know.”
    “I
don’t
know. But I plan to find out.” He smirked, and I decided not to let him get away with what sounded like a threat.
    “What’s that supposed to mean? Find out what? I swear—” I turned to Helen “—this man just keeps on saying things I don’t understand.” I laughed in a good-natured, tolerant, isn’t-he-funny kind of way. Helen shook her head and smiled.
    I could tell Pete wasn’t having any, though, so I tried another approach.
    “I want you to know, Pete, that I’m grateful for the opportunity to come here tonight.”
    He shrugged. “Glad to hear that. Maybe you’ll get a real opportunity one of these days to do something for the Command. I mean, besides cooking dinner.” There was that smirk again. Was I supposed to hit him? Defend my manhood?
    “I’d like that.”
    He studied my face. “Helen, why don’t you explain to the new guy here how far he might have to go to serve the Command?” And he was off across the room again, on some other mission of intimidation.
    Okay, so maybe Pete had gotten me here to impress me with something, something that he thought Helen could tell me. I turned toward her, expectant, trying to get a burning and dedicated look in my eyes while retaining Jason’s basic stupidity.
    “Maybe he doesn’t trust you so much after all, Jason.”
    “What makes you say that?”
    “It just sounded like he was warning you about something.” Her eyes didn’t look quite so flat now. There was something hot in back of them.
    “Well, I guess he feels he has to do that. I don’t mind.”
    “Good.” She relaxed a millimeter. “Sounds like he wants me to talk to you some more, hmm?” She