The Gumshoe Diaries (25 page)

“I was just thinking about her is all,
sometimes it seems like she’s still around,
you know
,” I
said finally, opting for a partial truth versus a complete lie.
Living in the light
as the preachers also say is something
I’m working on.

Anyway, it seemed to do the trick for now.
Judy smiled with glassy eyes, and Wally waived me off like aircraft
carrier LSO (landing signal officer) as he reached into his igloo
for another cold one. Rebecca Tran smiled at me as well and clinked
her beer bottle with Fat Johnny’s glass of house wine. Iggie
ignored us all, busily re-stacking and re-counting his chips, what
a wiener! We weren’t the same old gang, but we were healing nicely
together, a nice mix of old and new faces. A flash of light
suddenly came through the window from the street causing us all to
get up and investigate. It was a little fender bender between a
Mini-Cooper and bobtail truck that I had noticed cruising the
neighborhood all week. It belonged to a movie production company
that was filming around the corner. Maybe I’d walk over and check
out what they had going on tomorrow? Everybody likes to see how
they do things in
Holly-Weird
, I’m no exception.

“HEY GUYS,
come on
, are we
playing cards or what,” whined Iggie from behind his enormous stack
of chips!

The ragtag gaggle of friends walked back to
the table, giving him the business as they rejoined the game. I
took one more peek out the window and noticed a small crowd of
young people across the street. They were following after a man in
a black windbreaker and a Dodger’s baseball cap. It seemed normal
enough until the fella turned for a moment to say something to one
of the kids behind him. The man was wearing a collar, like a priest
or preacher or something like that. What would a priest be doing
out at this time of night, and in this neighborhood, leading a
crowd of teenagers on a stroll like the Piped freaking Piper of
Hamlin? I made a mental note of everything and tucked it away in my
melon for later.
Once a gumshoe always a gumshoe I
guess…

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