Big F@!king Deal by Lawrence Allan

Author:Lawrence Allan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, private detective, humor, comedy, award winning
Publisher: Lawrence Allan
Published: 2023-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

17

“SO YOU both failed,” said Robert Beverly, the ice in his rocks glass shaking. “Spectacularly.”

It was Friday afternoon, maybe only a couple of hours away from the exchange. Matty and I sat on the leather couch in the Beverlys’ living room. Away from the ocean view, the room had clean, white marble floors with Turkish rugs. More expensive paintings — was that a Monet? — hung on the walls.

Or was this a parlor? Maybe it was a parlor. Do people still have parlors? I was having a hard time focusing.

Matty put up a finger. “I didn’t fail. I just haven’t succeeded yet.”

While I admired his bravado, Robert did not.

He aimed a finger at Matty and said, “Go fuck yourself, Mr. Goodman.” Another rattle of the glass was followed by another gulp of whiskey.

To our right, Eva Beverly sat in an accent chair. “You’ve run out of time,” she snapped.

We had. We had run around the city and turned up nothing. There were lots of people who might have wanted to take Patrick, but we hadn’t gotten anywhere close to finding him. I felt terrible, and the lecture from Scrooge McDuck wasn’t helping.

“That’s not my fault,” replied Matty.

I shook my head. He wasn’t going to get anywhere being defensive. Even if he was right. I gave it a go. “Yeah, we ran out time, and yeah, we didn’t find him. That was always going to be a possibility. Especially with one hand tied behind our backs.” I sighed, realizing this was (a) probably not the most comforting thing to say and (b) it was coming off as an excuse. “It’s still not too late to call the police.”

Eva looked at her husband, who finished off his drink and headed back to the drink cart.

“No,” he uttered. I knew he was under stress, but I wondered if the drinking was going to help. “We’re not calling them,” he said. “We’ll just see this through to the end. We have the money. We have everything they asked for.”

I crossed my arms. Robert Beverly was a stubborn asshole, but he was writing the checks so he ultimately called the shots. The plan was for Matty and me to go and do the exchange. Robert was going to get his money’s worth out of us.

I just hoped Patrick would survive it.

Eva looked unhappy and angry. Unhappy with us, angry with her husband. It had been a couple of days since I had seen either one of them, and they both looked rather worse for wear. I could see the strain this situation was putting on their relationship. They were barely looking at each other.

Having refilled, Robert announced to the room, “Once Patrick is back and safe, we’ll deal with whoever did this.”

Matty shifted on the couch, and I looked at Eva. “Deal?” I asked.

“You mean, like,” Matty whispered, “deal?”

Robert’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not something that you two need to worry about.”

Matty gave me a side-eye. I wondered if this conversation was going to take an awkward and illegal turn.

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