The Paladin Curse by Erika Holzer

Author:Erika Holzer [Holzer, Erika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786463343
Publisher: Madison Press
Published: 2020-09-17T22:00:00+00:00

On the way to the hospital, Andrea began to analyze what had just happened and consider other facts that might shed some light on it.

She had not seen or talked to her father since their ill-fated lunch a few days earlier concerning the Dave Marsicano murder.

Because of her work as an ADA, she knew that Long Island Jewish Hospital serviced primarily some of the Island, but mostly Queens and Brooklyn.

Ever since she was a child, she was aware that her father had a private physician named Dr. Lewis Gotko, one of the most prominent internists in Manhattan. There were no specialists in Nick’s life because he was in such good shape from exercising, eating right, neither smoking nor drinking excessively. And having rather good genes. Still, her father was in the intensive care unit at Long Island Jewish Hospital in Queens.

What did she know about Queens and Brooklyn? Little about Queens. Much about Brooklyn, because of her job as an Assistant District Attorney and her ambiguous relationship with her boss, Mike Quade. And Brooklyn was where her dear friend Anne lived. And Anne’s husband, Jimmy Valente.

Her mind raced. Nick is in a Brooklyn hospital, so it’s likely because of something that happened in that borough. It could have been something physical, like a stroke or heart attack, but that was very unlikely and would not explain why he was in Brooklyn in the first place. Also, Nick would have called Dr. Gotko, not a criminal defense lawyer.

But the call had come from Horace, who sounded like a low-level employee at the hospital, not a physician, nurse, or administrator. Nor was the caller Nick’s driver or bodyguard.

No, Nick’s presence in Brooklyn and at a hospital there had to do with Anne or Jimmy Valente, or both. And, tangentially, maybe Quade. Andrea’s brain snapped fully awake: No one was supposed to know Nick was there.

Quade had told her Nick Vardas was a criminal, and the DA was trying to prove it.

Either because of that or something else, Nick had a relationship with Jon Willard. After all, her father had invited the lawyer to her twenty-first birthday party. And Nick’s message from the hospital was for Andrea to call Willard.

As they neared the hospital, she distilled what she knew into a hypothesis. Her father was in Brooklyn for something to do with Valente. No one was supposed to know he was there. He was now in intensive care, could not call her personally, and he needed a lawyer. Which likely could mean that Quade is involved.

This does not look good, and it’s probably much worse than my father’s being in intensive care.

As they neared the hospital, Andrea peeled off a twenty-dollar bill.

“Next block, on the right,” the cabbie announced. “Want me to wait?”

“No, thanks. Don’t know how long I’ll be,” Andrea said as she pushed a twenty into the drawer separating passenger from driver. It was, after all, New York City. And the wee hours.

As the cab pulled up to the emergency entrance, she spotted a tall black man with dreadlocks.

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.