Half a Mind (The Kate Teague Mysteries) by Hornsby Wendy

Author:Hornsby, Wendy [Hornsby, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2011-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

15

“What’s the matter, you guys run out of ways to harass the Silver family, you gotta pull me away from my dinner?”

“Just unlock the door, Lou,” Tejeda sighed. He’d listened to Lou Silver grouse for a solid half-hour, nonstop, from the minute he had been served with a search warrant for his butcher shop. Because he was Arty Silver’s uncle, the whole routine was nothing new to Lou. So Tejeda wished he’d just open his shop and shut up about the turkey he had been preparing to carve, and about his widowed mother who had driven all the way from Van Nuys for dinner. No one else was complaining. In fact, Tejeda thought, the judge they’d rousted to sign the warrant would have come along if his in-laws hadn’t shown up early. He’d been damned curious to see where Arty Silver had learned how to use a butcher’s saw.

Once inside, they split up: Lou and Eddie to the tiny office for the locker-rental books while Tejeda went ahead to turn on the lights in the cavernous meat-packing room. The place was frigid. Tejeda pulled the collar of his windbreaker up around his neck, but it didn’t do much good. He plunged his hands into his pockets and wondered how, in that cold, the smell of blood could be so strong.

Lou was close behind him. When he stopped swearing long enough to look around, he nearly sobbed.

“You leave in a hurry last night?” Tejeda asked. Lou only shook his head with dismay. Tejeda felt bad for him. He knew this meat business was Lou’s life, and he was proud about keeping it clean to strict kosher standards. He would never have locked up and left the crusty brown mess that was coagulating on and around the big center butcher block.

“No more,” Lou muttered. He went to the big stainless sinks, turned on the hot water, and picked up a scrub brush.

“You have to leave it, Lou,” Tejeda said, and turned off the spigot. “Don’t touch anything.”

“I know the drill.” Lou slammed the scrub brush against the wall. “Damn kid. Damn fuckin’, stupid kid.”

“What kid?” Eddie held the rental books in one hand and covered his nose with the other. “You know who made this mess, Lou?”

“No, I don’t know who made this mess. But we all know who’s responsible. Damn,” he spat. “I try to do the right thing, give my brother’s kid a job so he can earn money for college. What do I get? A bleeding ulcer and a never-ending bellyful of grief.”

“Why do you blame Arty?” Eddie asked. “He couldn’t have been here. I checked—Arty hasn’t left the lockup.”

Lou sagged against the sink. “Can you lock up the devil?”

Tejeda watched him grieve, feeling helpless. With the first kid he lured to his death, Arty had triggered an epidemic of grief. Every person touched seemed to deal with his affliction differently; some passively taking it as a scourge from God, others demanding retribution as if it were a curative drug.

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