Day One by Bill Cameron

Author:Bill Cameron
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781935562092
Publisher: Tyrus Books
Published: 2010-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Three Years, Three Months Before

I’m Your Man

Hard to say what surprised Eager more: that the man in the parking lot was a cop, or that he was Eager’s old man. Cop was bad enough. Cops had this habit of going all wiggy when you stole their shit. Anyone’s shit, though Eager had met cops who’d glance left while he ran right so long as some green passed hands. Hell, one graveyard five-o let him make off with the climate control cluster from a Honda CRV for the Jackson in his pocket and half an ounce of pot.

But that asshole hadn’t been his old man.

For the bulk of his thirteen and three-quarters years, he’d been only vaguely aware he even had a father. His mother rarely acknowledged the existence of Big Ed Gillespie, a name she’d mention in the same tone one might use to talk about the little man from under the basement stairs who crept out at night to spirit away naughty children. Eager couldn’t remember ever seeing his father. There were no pictures of him in photo albums or on the computer. After a few wine spritzers, Eager’s mother might admit a past life in southern Oregon—Eager and his sisters were all born at Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls—and would sometimes grumble about a “leathery fuck who ruined her goddamn life over a goddamn prank.” Not Eager’s father, someone else, though it was never clear exactly who the leathery fuck was. The rest of the time the kids may as well have hatched from eggs for all Charm was willing to reveal. If asked direct questions about Big Ed she would only say, “I’ll roll in dog shit sooner’n discuss that asshole.”

But now he was here. First on the porch last night, hollering and banging, and today outside Hawthorne Auto holding the girl up by her neck.

Eager’d seen the girl earlier. First he thought maybe he could work her for some change, but something about her stopped him. A pretty girl, dark-haired and dusky, with deep shadows beneath her eyes and worry compressing her lips. She smiled thinly at him as he skated past in the rain. Rather than stop, toss out a request for spare change, he’d kept rolling. Something about the smile, about the smooth curve of her cheek and the round brown depth of her eyes grabbed hold of him in the pit of his belly. He glanced back once or twice as he rolled up the block, almost wiped out against a No Parking sign. He was pleased when the bus came and went and she was still there.

He skated to the corner, worked on ollies off the curb. It wasn’t a good spot for skating. No real lift from the sidewalk and too much traffic on Hawthorne, but at least he could keep an eye on her. Not that he could say why she’d need looking after. Just seemed like the thing to do. After a bit, some frizzy-haired fat lady came and sat at the bench, then climbed heavily aboard the next bus.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.