Chapter 43 - RUNABOUT

Nicky and Sidearm were running east along the shore in the winkle-wagon they'd borrowed from Kellaher's last night. The wharves and docks and ledges were lined with holiday makers, fog or no fog. It was fun to watch the races, but it was just as entertaining to sit out in the fog with all your family and friends and have barbecues, drink beer, and throw fireworks at one another. Most clusters of celebrants had CB radios hooked to batteries, or connected to extension cords, so they could listen to the race announcements, and cheer the winners.

Sidearm had barely made it back to Nicky's driveway before Main Street was closed for the parade. His cousin was just coming out the door as he pulled up.

Nicky shouted back through the screen door, "OK, OK, you can go over to Numbnuts', but if I catch you drinkin I'll dress your hide. And you keep outta his bed, you little slut."

"Yeah, yeah, ma," came a surly teen's voice through the screen.

"I see the offal offspring is back," Sidearm observed. Nicky's kids had stayed at their grandmother's the night before, to keep out of harm's way, and now they were scattering around town for the Fourth. Elsie, the eldest, had just convinced Nicky to let her spend the day with her boyfriend, and she was on her best behavior, for fear of getting shot down at the last moment.

Elsie came out the door, a big girl in a halter-top and a pair of short-shorts which looked painted on. She wore open-toed sandals, her toenails painted bright red, as were her fingernails and her lips, and she appeared to have about five pounds of mascara on her lashes, which she batted at Sidearm. Elsie sniffed at Nicky as she went by, then looked over her shoulder and wiggled her ass at Sidearm as she sashayed up the drive.

"She's ripe for it," Sidearm observed.

"Keep it in your pants, Slimeball," Nicky retorted.

What the hell could you do with teenagers, anyhow? At least Elsie could take care of herself, and had a tongue like barbed wire. When one of her classmates in shop class had exposed himself to her behind the wood lathe, she'd looked at his offering, then stared him in the eye and said, "That's the most pathetic little thing I've ever seen."

"You get my hail?" Nicky asked Sidearm. They were walking down to her dock.

"Nah. I was followin a cop," Sidearm answered. "What's up?"

"Sum called. Your goony friends got Dunk and the girl cousin and Sum's kid in a boat, and headed east."

"Sum followin?"

"Nope. Boat stuck, or somethin," Nicky replied. "He's gone up to his house to check on the Riz. Sposed to meet us back to Sawyer's."

"Kinda fucked it, dint he?"

Nicky shrugged. "You did a good job staking out the road, too," she observed.

"I was snoopin after a snoop, like I tole ya," he came back. "Seen an unmarked go out to Sum's and come back quick, so I tagged along. They's a fleet of snoopers down to the station, and a chopper on the pad. I think Sonny and them've kicked ovah a hahnets nest."

"So why are we nosing after?" Nicky asked.

"Cause I don't like gettin fuckin punched out. Cause Sum don't deserve this shit. Cause some loose money might rub off. And cause you know goddam well I love runnin round in the fog with you cause your tits get all wet. Is why." Sidearm cataloged.

"Aaagh," Nicky replied. "If you dint have that stupid dick to folly aroun you'd be completely lost."

"Here. Just grab aholt and see how stupid it is," Sidearm thrust his pelvis forward.

"O, stick it where the sun don't shine," Nicky said. But she was smiling. Spitball was in rare form this morning, after a sleepless night. "Must be poppin those lil white pills," she thought.

They separated to go down the plank to her float one at a time, then quickly got aboard, started Wild Bill's outboard, cast of, and motored along the shore. When they got to Sawyer's landing, nobody was to be seen. Sidearm took Monk's gun out of his jacket pocket, and set off across the meadow toward Sum's house. Nicky climbed over the ledges until she saw her boat down in the crevasse. She picked up the anchor, slipped down the boulders to the runabout, which was now afloat again. She got in, and motored around to Sawyer's. By the time she got there Sidearm was running back down to the dock.

"No Sum, and the fuckin Lincoln's gone," he reported. "Maybe we should head east.' He stuffed the revolver back in his pocket.

"Like where to?" Nicky asked. "We looked all to hell and gone last night."

"Not to Rogue, we never," Sidearm replied.

"Wait a minute. Summy said Dunk and that girl. Wasn't she doin somethin to Rogue?"

"To them shell heaps," Sidearm said, untying the runabout.

"And they's talk Dunk's sniffin round the girl cousin.."

"Is why mebbe he's in the soup," Sidearm finished for her. Nicky had already gunned the runabout up onto the plane, and they were flying east into the fog.

"Turn on that CB," Sidearm said.