Page 22 of Blood Moon

“Look, this is all new to me, and, fair to say, it’s a little off the wall. Give me a minute here, all right?”

“We don’t have a minute.”

“Yeah, last night I caught the tail end of the weatherman talking about a blood moon. He said we’ll have two sometime this year.”

“Not ‘sometime,’ John. The first one will occur on the night of March thirteenth–fourteenth.”

“The thirteenth and…” She saw when realization struck him. He ran his hand over his mouth “Holy shit.”

“That’s right. Four days from now.”

Chapter 6

Tom Barker came around so quickly, he sloshed freshly brewed coffee over the back of his hand. “He did what?”

The rookie officer who’d had the misfortune of delivering the message gestured toward a nearby desk where one of the lines on the phone was blinking. “The TSA guy is still on the phone if you want to hear it for yourself. I’ll just go…” He took a few steps backward, then turned and quickly retreated.

Tom went over to the desk, shook the hot spill off his hand, picked up the receiver, and pressed the blinking button on the panel. “This is Lieutenant Barker.”

The man identified himself by name and explained that he was the TSA’s supervising agent of the morning shift. For the next several minutes he talked, giving an account of an incident at the New Orleans airport involving John Bowie. Tom listened without comment because his teeth were clenched too tightly to speak. The agent wound downby saying, “To Agent Gorman, he seemed legit at first. But after the crack he made as he was escorting the woman out, Gorman became concerned and reported it to me.

“I spoke with the airport police officer who’d watched his car while he was inside the terminal. Bowie had showed him his ID and explained that he was trying to intercept a material witness who was hotfooting it despite a subpoena. I thought I should call and get your verification.”

Tom wished he had John Bowie in a chokehold. He wished he had Bowie on a rack. He was about to assure the TSA agent that his detective would be harshly dealt with for misrepresenting their department.

But in an instant of lucidity, he realized he shouldn’t react out of anger. He needed to think this through, give himself time to plan how best to work Bowie’s shenanigan to his advantage.

Rather than expressing his outrage, he chuckled. “I tell John all the time, ‘That mouth of yours is going to be your undoing.’ He’s a smart aleck, but what can I say? He’s an asset to my division.” Tom tasted bile when he said that.

“Agent Gorman will be relieved to hear it. She said Mr. Bowie was polite but had an… an edge. He was also sporting a black eye.”

Tom forced another light laugh. “He had a run-in with his closet door. Maybe one margarita too many. We’ve all been there.”

There was a smile behind the agent’s voice. “A time or two. I’m sorry to have bothered you, Lieutenant.”

“No, no. I’m the one to apologize for troubling you and your agent. Thank you for telling me. I’ll speak to John,warn him against crossing a line. Sometimes even the best officers do. You’re a supervisor, you know what I mean.”

The agent agreed on that point. Tom was about to say goodbye when he had another sudden thought. “Did the woman he apprehended go along quietly? Ms. uh…? Oh, gosh, her name has slipped me.”

“Beth Collins.”

“Right, right, Beth Collins. John had told me he was afraid she would get skittish when it came down to testifying in court. Going against an abusive ex-boyfriend. Something like that.”

“That was another thing that struck Agent Gorman. She said Ms. Collins didn’t look like someone the police would be chasing down.”

“She’s a witness, not a suspect. At least not yet.”

They said their goodbyes. Tom went into his private office and sat down at his desk. Using the office phone, he punched in an extension. It rang twice, then, “Hey, boss.”

“Get in here.”

“Sure, soon as I finish up—”

“Now.” Tom hung up.

Less than a minute later, Frank Gray came into the office and pulled the door closed. One of Tom’s most loyal facilitators, Gray could be relied on to do what he was told and to keep his mouth shut about it.

Without being invited to sit down, he wedged himself into the chair facing Tom’s desk. “What’s up?”