Shooting in the Dark

anyway, she was already sharing her bed with a new boyfriend. David Styles, Steiner school teacher, probably the hairiest man on the planet. All she could do was keep JD at arm’s length until someone came forward to claim him.
     
    ‘The first thing is to cover Angeles Falco,’ Sam said. ‘I’ve yet to see her house, but I’m assuming it’s secure, or we can make it secure without much trouble. So we won’t have to watch her at night. But, at least for the first couple of days, I want her under surveillance all the time. That’ll mean two of us doing, say, six-hour shifts.’
    ‘Watching for someone who’s watching her,’ said JD. ‘Yeah. We’ll split that between us. You take the first shift, JD, then I’ll relieve you, and Marie can follow me.’
    ‘What about me?’ said Geordie.
    ‘Thought you was on leave?’
    ‘I am on leave. That doesn’t mean I can’t help out.
    Especially with you having the bad hand. Me and Janet’ve agreed on that. That Echo’s the best thing that ever happened to us, but we’ve gotta be able to get away from her some time. Sam, babies drive you crazy. They ton people into vegetables. What she is, she’s kind of like a machine, and you stuff milk in one end, and before you can say Michael Owen, you’ve got liquid shit spurting out the other end. That’s like twenty-five per cent of the time. Seventy-five per cent of the time she’s in some kind of pain. It’s either she’s got wind from converting the milk into shit, and you have to find exactly where the wind is, and push it out of her; or it’s because you haven’t given her enough milk and cereals and stuff, and she’s stopped digesting for a few minutes. And that gives her so much gyp you think she’ll scream her lungs out. Then there’s the other, say, fifteen per cent of the time when she smiles and laughs and smells like she’s had a bath, probably because she has had a bath, and you love her mostly because of that fifteen per cent. See what I mean? You have to watch yourself or you lose the will to live.’
    ‘That’s a hundred and fifteen per cent!’ said Celia. ‘Impossible.’
    ‘This’s what I’m saying,’ said Geordie. ‘You gotta get away from her some of the time. You lose the power to add up.’
    ‘So, you wanna work?’ said Sam.
    Geordie smiled. ‘Not every day. We can’t plan anything. But when I can, I wanna work. I got this idea I might stay sane if I work for you.’
    ‘I’m assuming that these sisters aren’t crazy,’ Sam said. I wanna proceed on the assumption that they are being watched.’
    ‘Have you talked to the other one yet?’ JD asked. ‘Isabel?’
    ‘Isabel Reeves,’ Sam said. ‘No, Celia’s been trying to get her on the phone, but she’s not available. Her husband says she went out this morning. He doesn’t know where and he’ll give her the message when he sees her.’
    ‘We don’t really have the manpower to cover them both,’ said Marie.
    ‘No. What I’d like is for Isabel to move in with her sister for a while, then it’d be easier to keep tabs on them both.’
    ‘Her husband will appreciate that,’ said JD.
    ‘The word is she’s ready to leave him, anyway.’
    ‘You think maybe someone’s got a grudge against the family?’ asked Marie.
    Sam nodded. ‘Could be. The parents were killed in a road accident. Or it might be something far less insidious. But either way we’re gonna have to find out something about the family. We should interview anyone who knows them, and especially people who are close. Like Isabel’s boyfriend. I want to know if they’ve got enemies. That means talking to neighbours. Maybe start with the people who live around Isabel’s house.’
    JD said, ‘And while we’re doing that we might end up talking to the guy who’s following them. Tip him off that I we’re after him.’
    ‘That’s possible,’ said Sam. ‘We have to take the chance.’
    Geordie snorted and his head fell to one side. Marie and the others looked at him. His eyes were closed and his mouth had fallen open.
    Sam smiled. ‘This is the guy who wants to work,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe he’ll be able to put the odd hour in,’ said Marie.
    ‘I’m listening to all this,’ said Geordie without opening his eyes. ‘I don’t have to have my eyes open to stay awake. And you know something else about babies? This milk, that the mother makes, it’s designed especially for that one baby on that particular day that the baby gets it. It’s