Read Online Interesting Times (Interesting Times #1) by Matthew Storm - Free Book Online Page B

correctly. This place seemed pretty far
out of his regular territory.
    The man spotted Tyler and began
shambling over to their table. “No, no!” the waitress tried to intercept him.
“You leave!  Bad smell!”
    “It’s okay, Li-Jen,” Tyler called,
waving her off. “He’s with us. Hey, Oscar,” he greeted the man.  “You want to
sit?”
    Oscar stopped at their table but didn’t
sit. “This the guy?” he asked, looking Oliver up and down.
    “Yeah.”
    “I know you,” Oscar said.
    “I work downtown,” Oliver explained, a
bit embarrassed. “Sometimes I give you…”
    “You wear that awful tie sometimes,” the
man interrupted.
    “What?”
    “That green tie with the stripes,” Oscar
said, running his hand horizontally across his chest where a tie would have
lain.
    Oliver knew the one he meant. “That was
my father’s tie!” he objected.
    “Let’s leave it,” Tyler said. “What do
you have for us?”
    Oscar looked back to Tyler. “Word on the
street is it was a mistake,” he said. “Wrong guy.”
    Oliver sighed. “I knew it.” Of course it
had been a mistake.
    “How do you mean?” Tyler pressed.  “Who
had the contract out?”
    “The lizards.”
    Tyler’s eyes widened.  “Holy shit,
really?”
    “Who are the lizards?” Oliver asked.  It
sounded like a gang name from the 1950’s, or the worst high school mascot ever.
    “Never mind,” Tyler told him. “What
happened?” he asked Oscar.
    “They had a prophecy,” Oscar explained.
“You know how the lizards get with that shit. I guess they figured out it
wasn’t this guy they wanted, because they just snatched some other dude
off the street at Noriega and 35 th . Cut his heart out and dumped
him.”
    Oliver knew that intersection. It was
only a few blocks away from his house. And someone had been killed there?
    “So it’s all off?” Tyler asked.
    “They aren’t out looking for him,” Oscar
said. “If they had people on the street we’d know about it.”
    “What about Mr. Teasdale?” Oliver asked.
    “No word on him,” Oscar said. He looked
at Tyler questioningly. “Rocky’s shop? He dead?”
    “Yeah. We figure Teasdale went after him
when the contract went bad.”
    “And the fire?”
    “That was Sally.”
    “Oh. Figures. Well, that’s all I’ve got
for you. Your boy here’s in the clear.”
    “Okay, thanks,” Tyler said. “Hey,
Oliver, give me a twenty?”
    Oliver knew the drill this time. He went
into this wallet and handed Tyler a twenty-dollar bill. Tyler handed it to
Oscar.
    “You could have just given it to me
yourself,” Oscar said to Oliver.
    “Yeah. I guess I could have,” Oliver
said.
    “You want some kung pao to take
with you?” Tyler asked.
    “No, I ate already.” He looked back to
Oliver. “Don’t wear that tie anymore. You want to wear solid colors.”
    “Oh,” Oliver said.  “Okay.”
    Oscar shambled to the door and was gone
a moment later. Oliver looked back to Tyler. “So what now?” he asked.
    “Now? I guess I take you home,” Tyler
said. “Looks like we’re done.”
    “Who are the lizards?” Oliver wanted to
know.
    “It doesn’t matter now,” Tyler said.
“The less you know about any of this the better, really.” He leaned forward and
waved his hands in an elaborate dance in front of Oliver’s face. “This has all
been a dream!” he intoned.
    Oliver stared at him blankly. “I don’t
dream.”
    “Ah, it was worth a try,” Tyler said.
“Eat something. I’m going to report to Artemis and then I’ll drive you back to
your place.”
    Oliver looked at the empty plates that
covered the table. Now he was feeling hungry, but the food was gone.
“You ate everything already.”
    “Oh, well, that’s easy to fix.” He
raised a hand to get the attention of the waitress. “Can we get some menus?” he
called.
    Oliver raised his eyebrows.  “Menus?
You’re going to eat more?” The man had already put away enough food to feed a
small family.
    “I’d hate for