Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Cerulean Sins--chapter 36

I have decided that for some reason, my system hates April.

Last year, of course, will live in infamy. The year before that, was when I switched jobs and that was not a good time either. I've done pretty well all month, but it's been a fragile kind of well. Yesterday, getting the proof was kind of fun, but today...

Yeah. I almost relapsed today. I have no idea why, there were no triggering episodes. Just this looming aura of doom and a compulsion to make the bad feeling go away. This is not a happy place. I say this here, because there aren't many other places I can say it. It was not a good day to say the least. I barely managed to get any editing done, and I only managed that by employing my List of Words and Word's "find" function. If one of The Words are there, it usually indicates a problem. Incidentally, I never want to see "Feels" or "seemed" ever, ever again.

But it's like everybody I know has had a shitty April. We've had long-term employees quit without warning or notice, we've had utter fucking disasters at work, my brother is sick enough to need anitbiotics and that is sick, boys and girls, the boy just doesn't stop for anything. I'd say I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop, but I really don't want things getting any worse.

We will make it. I promise. I just can't promise what kind of shape the book will be in.

But sales have been good so far. There is that.

Okay. So. What's Anita doing?

Yeah, the police have her sitting in the waiting room drinking coffee while they talk to the bad guys. Also? They hauled in three of her buddies (Bobby Lee, Claudia and Unnamed Driver) for questioning.

And then the book loses it's fucking mind. 

See, German Blond and American Potty-Mouth were found in a vehicle that did not belong to them, with several illegal weapons and no permit to use them, and German Blond does not technically exist. Second a cop starts talking, they lawyer up, and Anita says they can only hold the guys for seventy two hours.

THEY WERE IN A STOLEN CAR WITH FULL AUTO MACHINE GUNS AND THE COPS IN ST. LOUIS CAN'T HOLD THEM MORE THAN THREE DAYS?

Either working for St. Louis PD sucks, or LKH forgot how Grand Theft Auto works.

And then a detective shows up, a female named O'Brien. I assumed she was one of the "good" cops--read as, someone who agrees with Anita--because she's a graying brunette described as "natural punk", but she reads Anita the riot act very thoroughly, and much as I like her I've got a bad feeling about where this is going. Anita gets huffy when the cop presses for more info about the bad guys, because the only reason Anita pulled that show in the parking lot was she had a bad feeling about being followed, and the cop wants more information. Than a male cop described as a kid comes in and blows the entire fucking interrogation by revealing that German Blond is an international terrorist and super spy wanted by interpol. Anita assures O'Brien that she had no idea who was following her or why, and then assures the detective that she will take no credit at all for the arrest, because of course climbing the ladder is all a female cop is going to care about. At this point O'Brien softens up and shoves a file over at Anita.

Yeah. O'Brien and that kid totally planned that.

The chapter ends with Anita taking the file from the cop.

...this chapter had no reason to exist.

5 comments:

  1. I'm sorry things are so rough right now! T.S. Eliot said April is the cruelest month, and he was right on the money. May's on its way, though, so hopefully things will settle in soon!

    I'm not sure LKH ever had any idea how criminal charges actually work.

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    1. I couldn't believe that when I read it - as you say the place should be swarming with Feds and the cops should be negotiating for interrogation time before their suspects are hauled into a van with sacks over their heads and never seen again.

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    1. That's what the book says.

      "Her hair had been dark brunette, but was so streaked with gray and silver and white that it looked like she’d streaked it on purpose. Natural punk."

      Now, in my universe I call that "I don't give a fuck" brown, but that's my universe.

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  3. Seasonal changes, past events, allergens, calendar reminders... Lots of people have triggers around certain times of the year. I hope this passes for you soon.

    I have nothing to add to the sporking of this chapter. This whole book has just been a sort of constant low-level awful, like background radiation or smog.

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