“You know, Skeeve, you’re growing up. I think we both forget that more often than we should.” Aahz’s voice was so soft I barely recognized it as his.
“Does this mean you’ll come back?”
“I . . . I’ll have to think about it.” he said, looking away.’ ‘Let me get back to you in a couple of days. Okay?”
“I’d like to, but I can’t,” I grimaced. “I’ve got to leave tonight.”
“I see,” Aahz’s head snapped around. “You could only allow so much time for this little jaunt, huh? Work piling up back at the office?”
An angry, indignant protest rose to my lips, but I fought back. From what he knew, Aahz’s assumption wasn’t only not out of line, it was a logical error.
“That’s not it at all,” I said quietly. “If you must know, the local police have told me to be off-dimension by morning.”
“What!!?? You’ve been tossed off Perv?”
My old partner’s eyes fixed on Pookie with cold fury. “What have you two been up to that could get you tossed off a dimension like this?”
“Don’t look at me, cousin! This is the first I’ve heard of it. The last thing I knew he was heading off-dimension because he couldn’t find you.”
“That was before my last interview with the police,” I supplied. “Really, Aahz, Pookie had nothing to do with it. It’s a little mess I got into on my own over . . . the details aren’t really important right now. The bottom line is that I can’t hang around while you make up your mind.”
“Well some day I want to hear those ‘unimportant details,’ “Aahz growled. “In the meantime, I suppose you can go on ahead and I’ll catch up with you after I’ve thought things out.”