IN THE BEHEMOTH'S MOUTH
It felt like walking into the open mouth of a dragon. Police van idling behind them, chained at the wrists and ankles, Kavi, Harris and Arthur walked through the prison's stone arch into a pool of impenetrable darkness. Night whipped around them. They stopped in a dirt courtyard, a lone yellow light sputtering dangerous shadows over the ground.
"Huh." Ahead, the two guards escorting the Irregulars to intake stopped.
"Whatsat?"
The skinny one nodded back to Kavi. "She's a girl."
The fat one turned his egg body, looked Kavi up and down. "A girl?"
"A woman."
"Should I arrange a dinner date?"
"No," the skinny one said, "we need Gracie."
"Gracie."
"We can't intake to the women's wing."
The fat one nodded. "Ah. Gracie. Yeah."
They paused, each staring at the other. Egg guard took off his hat and slapped at the skinny guard. "Well go get Gracie, you shit."
The skinny guard skidded left toward the women's wing. No sooner had his ass left the courtyard, than the fat one retreated to a nearby doorway.
"No funny shit, you." He pulled a cigarette and lighter from his butt pocket and clicked the smoke to life. "It's colder than a witches cooter out here so I'm gonna wait just inside the intake door. You so much as fart and I pump you full of lead."
He waddled to a glass door ahead and darted quickly inside. Sucking red on his dart, he stared at the Irregulars, hand stroking the metal of his sidearm.
The quiet and dark tortured Kavi. She couldn't close her eyes without seeing Miss Leslie. She saw the twisting red around Leslie's neck.
"This might be our last chance so I need to say something." Arthur spoke, barely moving his lips, voice low.
"Shut your mouth." Harris said. "We're not in some grand play or a fucking dream or any dumbass bullshit! We're in prison! Because of you."
"Don't yell at me, it was Kavi's stupid idea for us to go to Miss Leslie's. Blame her."
"Kavi didn't let the killer go. Kavi didn't shout the bastard's name. Kavi didn't hand over the only bit of evidence that could have cleared our names."
"I'm sorry." Arthur kicked at the ground beneath them. "I know it doesn't mean much but you have to believe me when I say I know who attacked Miss Leslie."
"Yeah," Harris spun around, "it was you, you shit! You've been lying to us from the very first! You were late to our meeting that afternoon. And the day after? I followed you. You didn't go home. And now you just step aside, let a murder run free into the night!"
A gunshot cut through the stillness. The echo draped around the Irregulars, a heavy thing pushing them down. Harris jumped face forward just in time to see the fat guard crack open the intake door. "I said not a move you fucks! The next bullet is yours, fatty. Clear?"
He retreated inside, gun ready in his hand.
"I've been used worst of all," Arthur said. His spine, usually perfect straight, seemed to melt toward the dirt. His hair resembled plucked feathers. "Bernard Smith…" his voice trailed off, air choked from his throat.
Harris gritted his teeth. "Yes?"
"…He's my boyfriend."
A pin dropping an even smaller pin would have sounded like an explosion. Harris forgot to breathe. Only the compressive force of bone on bone kept Kavi from falling slack.
"Or he was, anyway. I met Bernard about two weeks ago. You asked why we met the other day at Rainbow Lanes, why anyone would go there when Family Bowl is just up the street…"
Harris' mouth fell. "No."
"Rainbow Lanes can be a decent place to meet a decent guy, if you're so inclined. Bernard bought me a drink and we hit it off. I don't know if you'd call it proper, 'dating' but I enjoyed his company and he seemed to enjoy mine.
"Bernard's only demand—and I should say, in this part of the country, it's not an unreasonable request—was I keep us a secret. Bernard hadn't come out. Hell," Arthur toed the dirt, "before just now, I don't think I'd explicitly told you, either."
"I figured." Kavi nodded.
"You did?" Harris said. "How's that?"
"Just a feeling, I guess. Maybe a woman just knows?"
"Not that it matters," Arthur said. "Bernard said he'd get fired if his boss found out he was gay. So I kept my word and said nothing."
"That was your alibi," Kavi's whisper drifted like a ghost on the wind. "You were at Rainbow Lanes with this Bernard on Tuesday afternoon."
"Oh don't tell me," Harris said. "He made some excuse and left you for about an hour?"
Arthur pursed his lips. "'Sales call.'"
Kavi could only shake her head. "You gave him a key to your apartment. He took your gun."
"I'm sorry," Arthur shook his head. "But the heart wants what the heart wants. Strange as it is to say, he's a good guy. Or at least he was."
"So let me get this straight," Harris said. "You've got panty-dropping charm. You can sweet talk your way between any woman's thighs. You have the potential to be the most prolific cocksman in the bicentennial history of the Tri-Cities… And you're batting for the other team?"
"More or less."
Harris could only wring his hands. To their left, the skinny guard returned, a brick wall of woman trailing behind. "Waste of talent, man. You must really like dudes."
"Some more than others."
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