Read Gone in a Flash for Free Online

middle eastern. Not Indian – native or the other. Maybe Italian. The other one was taller, well over six foot,
very
well built, serious blue eyes, also dark hair.’
    ‘Jeez. He sounds cute,’ Megan said. ‘Maybe he was my blind date!’
    I glared at my big-mouthed daughter. Yep, a chip off the old block. Me being the block, of course. ‘OK, Luna, thanks—’ I started.
    ‘So what have you done now, Pugh?’
    ‘Nothing!’ I turned to my husband. ‘Tell her!’
    He gave me a look, then said into the phone, ‘To my knowledge she has not gotten herself into anything. Yet.’
    ‘Jeez, Willis!’ I said, while the girls punched each other and giggled. ‘I have done nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’ve thought about doing terrible things to Collette Newberry—’
    ‘Jason’s mom?’ Alicia said, and all three girls burst into another fit of giggles.
    ‘But I have as yet done nothing more than piss her off,’ I finished.
    ‘Well, make sure you keep it that way. If anything happens to Mrs Newberry, I’ll know where to look,’ Luna said and hung up.
    To the room in general, I said, ‘Try being on a committee with her. She’d turn Mother Teresa surly.’
    Mr Smith and Mr Jones turned in the dark blue Ford Taurus, walked to a nearby convenience store and used a pay phone to call a taxi.
    ‘Why are we doing this?’ Mr Jones asked. ‘Why didn’t we just rent another car at Codderville, for pity’s sake? My dogs are barking,’ he said, sitting down on the curb and rubbing his feet.
    Mr Smith tried not to lose his temper, but did anyway. He’d done some pretty bad things in his time, but couldn’t think of anything so bad that he deserved to be stuck with this dumbass. ‘The cop saw the car, right? She knows it’s a rental. She probably called the rental agency, right? So we rent another car there, the guy’d just tell her what it was, idiot! So, we take a cab, we go here,’ he said, looking at a map, ‘place called La Grange, and rent a car there.’ He paused for breath, hoping Mr Jones would sprout a brain cell while he did so.
    ‘So what if she calls the cab company?’ Mr Jones asked.
    ‘Why the fuck would she call the cab company?’ Mr Smith demanded.
    ‘I dunno. ’Cause how else we gonna get around, huh? Answer me that!’
    ‘Shut the fuck up!’ Mr Smith said.
    He took off, walking around the outside of the convenience store, circling the building before coming back to stand over Mr Jones where he still sat on the curb, rubbing his feet.
    ‘What’s wrong with your feet?’ Mr Smith asked.
    ‘Ah, they’re all fucked up. Corns, bunions, you name it,’ Mr Jones said.
    Mr Smith picked the map up yet again. ‘OK, so we take a taxi to here,’ he said, pointing at a speck on the map. ‘Merleville. They may have a cab company, but even if they don’t, I’m sure we can get a ride to La Grange where we can rent another car. That way, if the cop does call the cab company here, all she’ll know is we were headed for Merleville, which is on the way to Houston, so she might think we went there.’
    Mr Jones looked up at Mr Smith and smiled. ‘That’s a good one!’
    Mr Smith tried not to beam at the compliment, but he
was
pleased.
VERA’S STORY
MONDAY
    Since we were two hours late leaving the church, we only made it as far as Little Rock, Arkansas, before we had to stop for the night. Following the itinerary set up by Sister Edith before she left, we should have been as far as Memphis, but that surely didn’t happen. We had reservations at the Motel 6 in Memphis, so our driver, an excellent baritone, figured we’d try a Motel 6 in Little Rock. No such luck. Seems there was a jazz festival going on in Little Rock, and there wasn’t a motel room to be had in the entire city. So we kept driving, until Brother Joe, who proved to be about as worthless as tits on a boar hog, said to pull over in the parking lot of an all-night Wal-Mart.
    ‘Y’all go on in and use the facilities,’ he said,