At End of Day by Higgins George V

Author:Higgins, George V. [Higgins, George V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Mystery
ISBN: 9780345804686
Amazon: 0345804686
Goodreads: 15998214
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Published: 2000-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

13

NARROW BLOCKS OF PALE ORANGE setting sun remained near the front of the smoke-stained acoustic tile ceiling of the big office at the front of the second floor of Flynn’s Spa when Rascob in his red-striped shirt-sleeves, his narrow dark blue tie pulled down from his collar and his dark grey suit jacket draped over the back of the orange plastic chair, finished toting up the work. The big office was rectangular, about thirty by twenty; he sat at the center of the eight-foot plastic laminated banquet table that occupied the middle. Overhead, translucent ceiling panels concealed tubular flourescent bulbs that hissed and crackled, flickering every so often.

Over the years he had learned to ignore that distraction and all the others disturbing concentration in the big office. In the winter the room was always chilly, despite the excessive dry heat intermittently blown out by the two-burner Universal gas stove in the northeast corner, a squat four-foot brown steel cube on six-inch legs. It whooshed softly every five or six minutes; its thermostat, fastened too near it on the northerly wall six feet away, fired up the propane burner behind the heatproof glass door when the temperature in that corner had dropped below 75 degrees—the low 60s elsewhere in the room—sighing off again when the thermostat had risen back to 75. In the summer the 14,000-BTU Fedders air-conditioning unit mounted in the front wall under the windows groaned mightily to maintain the office temperature below 80. When summer came again Rascob would shift to short-sleeved shirts, leave his tie and coat at home and ignore the heat and noise as he ignored the terms of winter.

McKeach and four other unskilled workmen had built the room in two days after Brian G. acquired the spa from John Flynn as a favor, enabling Flynn to retire to Florida.

McKeach resented disparaging remarks about his carpentry. “Brian G. bought this place, wasn’t ’cause he wanted it. John’d had a heart attack. Doctor said next one’d kill him. He needed to retire and this business was all he had, keep a roof over his head. All Brian said he was doing was ‘making it so John and Bridey could enjoy the fruits of their hard work.’ He had in mind to sell it.

“I thought we should keep it. That’s why I did the work. We needed someplace private. Get something better? We move. The stove came from some rooming house on K Street, guy’s convertin’ to apartments. Saw it sittin’ on the sidewalk same night he put it out. Air conditioner fell off a truck one night, old Jordan Marsh warehouse over Squantum—thirty, forty fell off that night, Bobby Gleason and his brothers workin’ there, temporary loading-dock hands? They found ’em. Brought one here. ’fore that all we did was sweat our balls off up here, April ’til November. I tell you it was fuckin’ awful, underneath that flat black roof, bakin’ inna sun all day. All you could do to even come up here, got to be July and August.

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