Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi

Author:Ronald Malfi
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Medallion Press
Published: 2011-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Honest writing, much like honest people, comes without wanting anything in return. I found myself on an exploration of characters—characters that begot story; story that begot emotion—traversing through Edenic pastures and Elysian fields where dead boys frolicked in barefooted bliss on the dew-showered plains, and terminal skies reflected the roiling slate seas instead of the other way around.

I was out back chopping firewood when Adam came over. I heard his boots crunching through the crust of snow before I actually saw him emerge from the trees.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.” I went on chopping. The goddamn furnace was still uncooperative, so Jodie and I were going through several logs a day in the fireplace. It hadn’t snowed for days, but it was still deathly cold.

“Haven’t seen you in a couple days. I popped in yesterday, but Jodie said you’d gone out somewhere. Some book research or something.”

“Yeah.”

“You ever take any of that stuff to Veronica Dentman? I never heard how it went.”

“I did,” I said, splitting another log.

“And . . . ?”

I rested the axe head in the snow and leaned on the handle. I was out of breath and sweating despite the cold. “I brought her a box. She was . . . standoffish.”

“Understandable. You probably gave her one hell of a shock showing up like that.”

“Then David came home, and he gave me one hell of a shock. He thought I was a cop.”

Adam chewed his lower lip. “Nothing happened, did it?”

“What would happen?”

“Never mind.”

“Did you guys know he has a criminal record?”

Adam looked away from me. His nose was red and one nostril glistened. “Don’t tell me that just came up in conversation with him.”

“No. I found that out on my own.”

“How?”

“That’s not important,” I said, not wanting to get Earl and his elusive sources mixed up in all this. “Did you know?”

“About David’s past? If you’re questioning the PD’s investigative techniques, that’s really none of your business.”

“It’s just a simple question.”

“Of course we knew. We ran a background on him. What do you think, we’re a bunch of Barney Fifes out here, tripping over our shoelaces and shooting ourselves in the foot?”

“Okay,” I said. “That’s all I wanted to know.”

“To know for what?”

“Forget it.” I hefted the axe over my shoulder.

“I happened to talk with Ira Stein yesterday. It’s the reason I came over yesterday looking for you.”

Fuck, I thought, dropping the axe in the snow. I glared at him. “What are you doing, trying to set me up or something? Catch me in a lie? Yeah, I spoke with Ira.”

“He said you’re writing a book about what happened to the Dentmans.”

“That’s not what I told him. He was drunk by the time I left and he’d misunderstood.”

“He said you asked a lot of questions about them. You upset his wife at one point, too.”

“Jesus Christ, she got upset when her husband started talking about her dead dog. I told them I was interested in the history of Westlake. We got sidetracked and started talking about the Dentmans.

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.