Moonlight Falls (A Dick Moonlight PI Series Book 1) by Vincent Zandri

Author:Vincent Zandri
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2015-01-07T23:00:00+00:00

39

Seven God-awful digits I knew by heart. My lawyer, Stanley Rose. His direct office line.

Sometimes I thought Albany should change its name to Smallbany, because it was nearly impossible to strike up a relationship with anyone, professional or otherwise, who didn’t already have some kind of connection to you. Direct or indirect. In keeping with the tradition, Stanley Rose had been Dad’s lawyer too, having handled the occasional lawsuit that might arise from clients who, for one reason or another, were unhappy with his services. You’d be surprised at the people who not only expect their loved ones to look alive in death (like they’re “sleeping”), but who also expected them to rise up, maybe even sing and dance.

“They’re dead for Christ’s sakes, Richard!” the old man would shout aloud during an especially frustrating embalming and wake prep.

Like Phillips and Miner, I’d known Stanley nearly all my life, so naturally I retained him to represent me for my divorce. What I didn’t know at the time, however, is how badly my income would take a hit after my accident and how difficult if not impossible it would be for me to manage my ever-increasing law bills. So to say my relationship with Stanley had become strained over the years was putting it lightly. Our relationship had become nuclear.

I held my breath as he answered.

“You got a lot of nerve calling me, Richard,” he said. “Unless this is about a check.”

I tried to look on the bright side: at least he didn’t hang up on me.

“I’m doing my best to pay you back,” I said, voice cool and calm. “I swear it.” It was the truth.

“For more than a year now I’ve been asking you to take some kind of action on your bill,” he said. “You haven’t responded once.”

I pictured the sixty-something lawyer seated at his wide mahogany desk, horn-rimmed glasses sliding down his straight nose, full head of gray hair groomed to perfection, pale cheeks flushed with anger.

“Listen, Stanley, I’m working on something that will get you paid back in full, plus plenty extra.”

For a beat, there was only his inhaling and exhaling into the receiver.

“What do you need?”

I started from the beginning, not holding anything back, trying not to repeat myself.

After I finished, I asked him if he’d seen anything about the fatal Montana house fire on TV.

“Bits and pieces,” he admitted. I knew he had a flat-screened digital television inside his office. It told me he was holding back.

“Then you already know something about my situation,” I said. “My predicament.”

“A little,” he confirmed. “You mind if I call Miner to get his personal take?”

“You don’t trust your own client?”

“Who said you were still my client?”

“Don’t sweat it, Stan,” I insisted. “Miner will confirm my story. Every last detail.”

“Then we have no problem.”

“Does this mean you’re going to help me?”

Stanley might have been a lawyer, but he was also a businessman. If a black market organ harvesting operation existed inside the A.P.D. and if I were being railroaded by one of its principal operators, then he’d definitely want in on the action.

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