The Jealous Kind: A Novel by James Lee Burke

Author:James Lee Burke [Burke, James Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
ISBN: 9781501107207
Google: bs3kDAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B01BCEPOYY
Goodreads: 28813343
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2016-08-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter

19

THE FLAME BURNED down to his fingertips and died in his hand. He dropped the remnants of the matchbook and stepped back from Valerie’s car. A big Buick with a grille that resembled chromed teeth roared down the street and came to a lurching stop two feet from Valerie’s fender. The driver’s door flew open, and Vick Atlas was in the street, his suit coat unbuttoned, a pearl-handled pistol pushed down in his belt. He was wearing his eyepatch. “What do you guys think you’re doing?”

“Mr. Atlas?” the driver of the Ford said.

“Get away from her car,” Atlas said.

“Yes, sir,” the driver said. He brushed the soot from the dead matches off his fingers and held up his hands to show they were empty.

“You with the can,” Atlas said. “Set it on the ground.”

“You got it,” the man said.

Atlas walked closer so he could see inside Valerie’s car. “Get those handcuffs off her.”

The driver reached inside with a tiny key and inserted it in each lock. His overbite and the vacuity in his eyes made her think of a barracuda swimming along the glass wall of an aquarium. He removed the handcuffs and dropped them into his pocket, never looking at her.

“I’ll get you for this, buster,” she said.

He didn’t answer. His attention was concentrated on Vick Atlas. “We were going to scare her.”

“Who you working for?” Atlas said.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re telling me you don’t know who you work for? You think I’m dumb? That’s what you’re saying? You insult me to my face?”

“We get a phone call. We do the job,” the driver said.

“I know who you are,” Atlas said. “I’ll be dialing you up, know what I mean?”

“We’re gone, Mr. Atlas,” the driver said, stepping back toward his car, his hands raised.

“You’re gone, all right,” Atlas said. “You got till three.”

Both men got into their Ford. The man with the overbite started the engine and backed straight to the next intersection, then turned on his lights and headed down a side street. Atlas reached into Valerie’s car and offered his hand. “I’ll take you home, Miss Valerie. I’ll be dealing with those guys tomorrow. You’ll never see them again.”

She didn’t move.

“You don’t trust me?” he asked.

“How do you know my car won’t start?”

“If you could start it, you would have driven away from those bums. That’s what they are. Bums. They’re going to pay a price.”

“They were dressed like police officers. They could have pulled me over. I might have a tank full of gas. There’s no way you could know that someone punched a hole in my tank or damaged my fuel line.”

He smiled. “I’m getting confused here. I offered to take you home because I figured you were a little shaken up and didn’t want to be driving. I’m getting wet. You want a ride or not?”

“How did you know where I was?”

“Because I was coming to your house,” he said. “Because I wanted to tell you I heard somebody was going to do something bad to you.

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