The Ethical Assassin: A Novel by David Liss

Author:David Liss
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Detective and Mystery Stories, Sales Personnel, Marketing, Assassination, Fiction, Psychological, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, Assassins, Mystery fiction, Suspense, Suspense Fiction
ISBN: 9780812974546
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2006-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

EVERY TIME WE WENT OUT on the road, we ended up in a motel near a Waffle House. Maybe Florida law stated that motels had to be built near a Waffle House. Anything, I was coming to understand, might be as true as anything else. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I thought I should eat something, so after I got out of the Gambler’s room I headed over. It was probably where most of the bookmen would be eating—including, I hoped, Chitra, who I had not forgotten seemed to think I might be cute.

The Waffle House sat on the other side of the highway off-ramp, and to get to it you had to cross an empty lot full of sandy dirt and thorny weeds and huge, undulating fire-ant mounds. Fat crickets and toads the size of my thumbnail hopped out of my way as I walked slowly, making certain I didn’t step in anything that would bite me. Litter from the highway punctuated the field, and there were piles of broken green and brown beer bottle glass, and a run-down wooden shack about as long and as wide as three Jiffy Johns placed side by side. I decided to plot a course far around it in case a derelict had set up camp there.

I had nearly reached the Waffle House when I heard footsteps behind me. Ronny Neil and Scott.

They both wore newish 501s and button-downs—Scott’s was a pale, faded yellow of a heavy cotton weave, far too hot for this weather. Ronny Neil’s was white, but with stains the color of Scott’s shirt under his arms. Both wore old pattern ties that had certainly belonged to their fathers, though Ronny Neil’s was wide and short enough that it might have been his grandfather’s.

“Where you going?” Scott said.

“Breakfast,” I told him.

“Is that fucking right?” Ronny Neil asked.

I kept walking.

“Didn’t you hear him?” Scott asked. “He was talking to you.”

“How rude of me,” I said. “Yes, Ronny Neil, it is, in fact, fucking right.”

“You watch your mouth,” Ronny Neil said. “And I’ll tell you something else. You ain’t as smart as you think you are.”

“Look, I’m going to get something to eat,” I said, trying to soften things up a little.

“So are we.” Scott flashed a crooked grin. “Why don’t you buy us some breakfast?”

“You can buy your own breakfast,” I told him.

“You being a cheap Jew?” Scott asked me. “Is that it? Pinching your pennies?”

“I’m not the one asking for a free breakfast.”

Ronny Neil smacked me in the back of the head. It happened so fast that someone looking might not have been sure it had happened at all. But there was no mistaking the sting. Ronny Neil wore a ring on his finger, maybe not turned around, but he knew how to smack ring first. It hit me in the skull with a sharp crack that brought tears to my eyes.

I went stiff with disbelief and anger. I was out of high school. This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen anymore.

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.