eBook - ePub
Red House
This is a test
Partager le livre
- 288 pages
- English
- ePUB (adapté aux mobiles)
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
eBook - ePub
Red House
DĂ©tails du livre
Aperçu du livre
Table des matiĂšres
Citations
Ă propos de ce livre
First she was a beat cop, then she was unemployed. Now, Kenneth Wishnia's dynamic Filomena Buscarsela has apprenticed herself to a New York City P.I. firm. Trouble is, she often agrees to take on sticky neighbourhood cases pro bono rather than handle the big-bucks clients her bosses would prefer. When she witnesses a marijuana-possession arrest that nearly turns into a shoot-out with the police, Fil is roped into finding out what went wrong. Trying to balance charity cases like these with bread-and-butter cases, not to mention single motherhood, Fil is quickly in over her head.
Foire aux questions
Comment puis-je résilier mon abonnement ?
Il vous suffit de vous rendre dans la section compte dans paramĂštres et de cliquer sur « RĂ©silier lâabonnement ». Câest aussi simple que cela ! Une fois que vous aurez rĂ©siliĂ© votre abonnement, il restera actif pour le reste de la pĂ©riode pour laquelle vous avez payĂ©. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Puis-je / comment puis-je télécharger des livres ?
Pour le moment, tous nos livres en format ePub adaptĂ©s aux mobiles peuvent ĂȘtre tĂ©lĂ©chargĂ©s via lâapplication. La plupart de nos PDF sont Ă©galement disponibles en tĂ©lĂ©chargement et les autres seront tĂ©lĂ©chargeables trĂšs prochainement. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Quelle est la différence entre les formules tarifaires ?
Les deux abonnements vous donnent un accĂšs complet Ă la bibliothĂšque et Ă toutes les fonctionnalitĂ©s de Perlego. Les seules diffĂ©rences sont les tarifs ainsi que la pĂ©riode dâabonnement : avec lâabonnement annuel, vous Ă©conomiserez environ 30 % par rapport Ă 12 mois dâabonnement mensuel.
Quâest-ce que Perlego ?
Nous sommes un service dâabonnement Ă des ouvrages universitaires en ligne, oĂč vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă toute une bibliothĂšque pour un prix infĂ©rieur Ă celui dâun seul livre par mois. Avec plus dâun million de livres sur plus de 1 000 sujets, nous avons ce quâil vous faut ! DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Prenez-vous en charge la synthÚse vocale ?
Recherchez le symbole Ăcouter sur votre prochain livre pour voir si vous pouvez lâĂ©couter. Lâoutil Ăcouter lit le texte Ă haute voix pour vous, en surlignant le passage qui est en cours de lecture. Vous pouvez le mettre sur pause, lâaccĂ©lĂ©rer ou le ralentir. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Est-ce que Red House est un PDF/ePUB en ligne ?
Oui, vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă Red House par en format PDF et/ou ePUB ainsi quâĂ dâautres livres populaires dans Literature et Crime & Mystery Literature. Nous disposons de plus dâun million dâouvrages Ă dĂ©couvrir dans notre catalogue.
Informations
Sujet
LiteratureSous-sujet
Crime & Mystery LiteratureCHAPTER ONE
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
SOMETIMES I FEEL like my work is never done. Like the two weeks of madness that started when the elder Mrs. MarĂa Muñoz walked into the office one November morning, plunked herself in front of me and said,
âNo sabemos de Pablito.â
âExcuse me, do you have an appointment?â asks Katwona.
âIâll handle this,â I tell her, and switch into Spanish. âÂżQuĂ© estaba diciendo?â
The other trainees look up, because itâs always a sign of something. Trouble, usually, and no money. Somehow, none of the cases with Spanish-speaking clients ever lead to money.
Well, Iâm here to change that.
Supposedly.
âPablito is missing,â says Mrs. Muñoz, her earthy roundness supporting an old, gray cardigan.
âFor how long?â
âThree days.â
I close the file I was reading and open a pale green steno pad to a clean sheet.
âWhereâd you last see him?â
âHe was working in West Cove, on Long Island? Thereâs a train station near thereââ
âI know where it is.â
Thereâs a faint tremor below her blotchy skin as Mrs. Muñoz reacts to the slight harshness in my voice.
I donât want to go out to LI. It costs too much, and itâs a pain in the ass. And I hate how working for money forces you to be ruthless.
âSorry,â I say. Wednesday of a rough week. Dead-end cases dragging me down into the cold, black heart of next Mondayâs performance review.
âBut you know that I donât have the time or the authority to do it for free, and I doubt that you have the money to pay us,â I explain in Spanish, as politely as possible. âDid you try calling the police?â
âNo police,â she says. âHe doesnât have papers.â
Of course not. So sheâs scared to call the police. Scared the Suffolk County cops will kick his ass instead of asking if heâs getting enough hot meals. Scared the money will dry up and there wonât be enough blankets to get through the long winterâgray, endless, and cruel to a family that once embraced the rich girdle of sunny, volcanic soil that carries the Saviorâs name. Scared the unforgiving, icy Nordic sky will fall on her head. And that the West Cove cops donât have the manpower to investigate a simple disappearance without evidence of a crimeâlike, say, a body.
âIâm not my own boss,â I say. âI canât get to it for a couple of days, and I canât do it for free.â
Eventually she accepts. âHow much?â
Try seventy-five dollars an hour.
âA hundred dollars a day,â I say. âTwo days for a hundred and fifty.â
âOh. So much.â
âItâs the best I can do.â
And the bossâll skin me for cutting his price by ninety percent.
I get the details, sign the contracts and lead Señora MarĂa Muñoz to the door. She grips my arms, confirming the bond between my flesh and hers, and thanks me for my offer of help, to which I am now committed. Now Iâve got to tell the man in the corner office.
âDavis and Brown, please hold,â says Katwona three times in rapid succession, patching each caller in with quick flicks of her two-inch, bright green nails dancing with abstract black squiggles that, when observed closely from the correct angle, represent ten different sexual positions.
âMs. Brown is on another line, would you like to leave a message with her voicemail?â
Flick.
âYes, sir. We are located at 147-02 Hillside Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica. Our office hours are 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., Mondays through Fridays, and 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. on Saturdays. No, you donât need an appointment, but it would probably go quicker if you made one.â To me: âWhat precinct are we?â
âOne-oh-seven,â I say.
Katwona relays the info.
Flick.
âThis is Miss Williams. One moment, Iâll see if heâs available.â Flick. âChip, Bobby Kane on line one.â
âPut him through,â says the boss.
Flick.
âWeâre on the dividing line between the One-oh-three to the south and the One-oh-seven to the north,â I tell Katwona.
ââKay.â Flick. âDavis and Brown Investigations. One moment, please.â No intercom this time: âKaren, got a Mrs. DiNapoli asking for you.â
âSend it over,â says Karen.
âPlease hold while I transfer you to Ms. Ricci.â
Len Hrabowski looks up from his screen. âWhat? No phone calls for me or Filomena?â
He says it with a long âe.â Fil-o-meen-a. Wrong.
âHey, I get your name right, Mr. Hrabowski. Itâs Fil-o-men-a. Men. Got it? Tell me whatâs so hard about âmenâ?â
I regret that as soon as itâs out.
âWell, let me tell youââ He begins half-rising out of his seat like heâs about to strip down and strut around with the big hand on his Viagra-fueled clock pointing to 11:35. Possibly 11:40.
âItâs a short âe,â like in demented,â I say directly into his leering eyes.
âOh, I get it. Filomena. Short âe,â like in semen.â
âRight, Len. Like in semen.â
âSo what was all that Spanish about?â
I look over to see if Chip Davis is off the phone yet. Len gets the hintâanother charity caseâand sits back down, shaking his head, and continues cruising the infobanks.
âDonât undersell, Filomena! It pisses off the competition,â Chip admonishes me, hanging up the phone.
âWhat competition? Thereâs only a dozen Spanish-speaking PIs in the whole borough.â
âThatâs because the latino cases donât make any money.â
âThey will. Cases like this buy a lot of good will.â
âYou ever try to put âgood willâ between two slices of bread? It tastes like bread.â
âIâm building rapport with the community,â I say. âGive me the rest of today and tomorrow afternoon off. Iâll hit the biggest latino businesses in the area and give âem my best pitch. If I donât bring back a solid-gold case within two weeks you can go ahead and can me.â
That changes the energy. Chip leans back in his high-backed leather chair, glides his thumbs under his suspenders and stretches them into a nice pair of Vs away from his chest. I think this actually increases the blood flow to his brain.
âLook, Fil, you know I ainât gonna can you. You were collaring mopes before Morgan Stanley had their own Web site.â
âThanks for reminding me.â
âI mean youâve got street smarts,â he says, pointing a finger at me while his thumbs stay hooked under the suspender straps. âYouâve hunted âem down the old-fashioned way, plus you know your way around a database.â
He snaps the straps back and sits up facing me. âBut weâre supposed to be charging six hundred dollars a day, not fifteen dollars an hour.â
âThe last defense attorney you tossed at me only paid twenty an hour.â
âWeâll get more next time. Lawyers have money. And big mouths. That means repeat business, Fil, with clients who actually pay money.â
I glance past his shoulder out the window at the dirty, light-blue diesels and the gleaming metal elevated trains pulling into Jamaica station above the block-long piss-filled underpass. Two worlds of darkness and light, of crime and money, with a dreary stairway running between them. Itâs my job to know the face of every janitor who sweeps those stairs.
âI need time away from this case, anyway,â I say.
âWhat case? Itâs just a background check.â
âYeah, but the guyâs coming up clean, and Iâve got a feeling heâs dirty.â
âA feeling? How the fuck do we bill the client for a feeling?â
I lean in closer. âYou better learn to start trusting my instincts.â
Not the way a first-year trainee usually talks to the top half of Davis & Brown, Private Investigations, but Iâve got fifteen years of back street bloodhounding to his three under a civil investigator at a white shoe and powder-puff law firm.
âIâve reread the reports several times, and I need to come at them from a fresh angle.â
âOkay,â he says, checking his watch. âGive me an hour of courthouse duty and Iâll think about it. Fair?â
âFair enough.â
Ms. Abigail Brown calls to me as I walk past her door. âFilomena? Are you going to the courthouse?â
âYes.â
I lean in. Abbyâs a trained professional with two decades of experience as a black woman who has to dress sharply at all times or else sheâll be followed by store security on suspicion of shoplifting. Abby does forensic accounting and sheâs good on the phone, and she doesnât know the street stuff from a tub of Shinola.
âCould you take this over to Tim Gallagher for me?â she says, holding up a thick manila envelope.
âSure. Tell him to meet me on the steps.â
She looks at me a moment, then acknowledges my request.
When going to the courthouse to troll for business, one tries to look professional. I pull one of the in-house trench coats off the hook, so I wonât get followed by security.
Karen stops me with her arm. âFil, my client has some underwear that she wants tested for DNA and, uh, I guess youâd call it âsubstance ID.ââ
Len makes a face and says, âEeeww.â
âSo send it to a freaking lab. How much does she want to spend?â
âOh. Iâll check.â
âYou do that.â
âI knew that dame was trouble the minute she walked in,â says Len, giving his tight-lipped imitation of a doomed B-movie detective.
Enough of this. I step out too soon into the cool, bright air of a brisk November day and cross the street while buttoning up the trench coat. Halloween came and went, but I really didnât have much stomach...