Miami Burn (Titus Book 1) by John D. Patten

Author:John D. Patten [Patten, John D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

I PULLED LUTHER’S TRUCK INTO THE LEUCADENDRA Country Club. The large circular driveway was paved with Italian flagstone. There were several expensive cars, each with a driver waiting for various lords and ladies to finish an afternoon of the sport of kings. A couple of drivers stood and chatted while smoking. Other cars had the engines running, I assumed with their drivers cooling themselves in the air conditioning.

I saw a gray Mercedes parked on the other side of the circle. I made a bet with myself that Chester would be behind the wheel and he’d be wearing a gray suit.

I pulled up alongside. Chester rolled down the window and sneered at me. His lapels were gray. I win.

“What are you doing here?” he said with just the right amount of indignant outrage.

“Looking for Mrs. Hayes,” I said.

“I thought Mr. Hayes told you your assignment was complete.”

“Wow, they keep you in the loop. Good for you, Chet. Thing is, Mr. Hayes didn’t hire me. And I found Allie. Well, sort of. I know where she can be found at least one night of the week and I need to get this information to Mrs. Hayes.”

“You can give it to me. I’ll pass it along.”

I laughed. “See, Chet, you’re not Mrs. Hayes either, so that’s not going to work. Why the sudden cold shoulder? Doesn’t she want me to do the very thing she so gratuitously paid me to do? By the way, are you impressed? I bet you didn’t think I could use the word gratuitously in a sentence, did you? It was a lot of money, Chet, a whole lot. You should know. You handed it to me. You must be bringing home the bacon yourself with a boss who can make it rain like that, huh? But seriously, how would you feel if you were just shut out for no reason? No explanation. Just like that, boom, done. I mean, picture it. Mrs. Hayes tells you to drive to—I don’t know, Bal Harbour shopping mall—that’s a place she might want to go, right? Halfway there, Mr. Hayes calls and says ‘Chester, I want you to pull over, get out of the car, and walk away from it,’ leaving Mrs. Hayes right in the middle of the highway. No explanation, no nothing. Just hasta la vista, Chester, don’t call us, we’ll call you. Wouldn’t you be mad? I mean, just a little? Wouldn’t you want to know why you were dumped mid-stream like that? Wouldn’t you feel at least a tiny obligation to get Mrs. Hayes to the destination you were paid to take her to?”

“You are an annoying man,” he said. “I’m calling the police.” The window rolled up.

That did it. The crazy was on. I’m getting really sick of these people.

I drove up two car lengths, pulled into an empty spot past a silver Audi A5, and got out. Sitting on a white Victorian wrought-iron bench in the shade of a white rose trellis was a short taut man with a scraggly tousle of salt-and-pepper hair over a wrinkly face.

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.