introduced in One Foot on the Edge and still having plenty to say in Two Feet Below by C.K. Crigger
Sgt. Lars Hansen has a lot of seniority in the Spokane Police Department. He’s as rough and tough as the wide open town allows, and is in close contact with the seedier types that populate Spokane’s tenderloin district. Word is he’s always interested in a pretty woman, and if she happens to be acquainted with his nemesis, P.I. Gratton Doyle, so much the better.
Tell us about this case, Sgt. Hansen.
The first I knew there even was a case is when China Bohannon slipped up and told me a feller named Jett Etter had backed her into a corner.
Jett Etter?
He’s a no-good outta Missoula and not somebody a lady like China wants to meet--ever. See, thats what comes of her working for Doyle & Howe Investigations. I don’t like it. I don’t like Gratton Doyle, either, butting his nose in whenever I try to talk to China. I know he’s told her things about me...
What kind of things?
Things like that little set-to regarding the working girls at Mama Jane’s Pleasure Palace, but let's don't talk about that right now.
So what happened?
When I heard China had been tossed over the side of the steamboat “Georgie Oakes” into Coeur d’Alene Lake, it got my dander up. I mean, what man in his right mind would go after a little lady like her, though she does have a tendency to pry into affairs that’re none of her concern. I’ve warned her, but she doesn’t listen.
Did you find this case hard to solve?
Well, I had nothing to do with solving this case, a murder nobody told me about. It all added up to China Bohannon and the Doyle & Howe Investigations boys. About all I got to do this time is keep my eyes and ears open for Etter and his pal, McNally. When China says McNally took a shot at her, I got no reason to doubt her word. Anyways, he’s from Idaho. Idaho men don’t come into my town and threaten my folks without asking permission. I don’t care who they are.
Has this case affected your personal life in any way?
I don’t want this nosed around, but China caught me coming out of Levi Krau’s grocery store (yeah,all right, so there’s a “rooming house” on the second floor) and I could see she thought something was going on in there. Doyle’s fault. He’s told her too much. Looks like I got my work cut out, getting back on her good side. I’ll have to do her a “favor” one
of these days. The trouble she gets into, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Thank you, Sgt. Hansen for being with us today. I wish you luck in getting back on China's good side.
C.K. Crigger is the author of eleven published books with more on the way. Several of her short stories have been included in various anthologies. She lives with her husband and three feisty little dogs in beautiful eastern Washington, and manages to include the area in her books. Two Feet Below, the second book of the China Bohannon series, was released in March and is available for order through any bookstore ormost online booksellers. Send her an email at ckcww@aol.com, explore her website at www.ckcrigger.com and discover more about China Bohannon and the 1890s at http://twofeetbelow.blogspot.com.
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