Twisted: The Collected Stories of Jeffery Deaver by Jeffery Deaver

Author:Jeffery Deaver [Deaver, Jeffery]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Detective, Mystery & Detective, Fiction - Mystery, General, Fiction, Short stories, Detective and mystery stories; American, Mystery & Detective - Short Stories
ISBN: 9780743491594
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-10-26T07:00:00+00:00

“Your father needs some time off. You know how hard he works.”

As the creative director of a Madison Avenue ad agency, Alex regularly clocked sixty-and seventy-hour weeks.

Sue continued, “He’s a type-A personality through and through.”

“I thought you had a secretary, Daddy. Doesn’t she do your typing?”

Her parents laughed. “No, honey,” Sue said. “That means somebody who works real hard. Everything he does has to get him closer to his goal or he isn’t interested in it.” She rubbed Alex’s muscular back.

“That’s why his ads are so good.”

“The Cola Koala!” Jessica’s face lit up.

As a surprise for the girl, Alex had just brought home some of the original art cells of the animated cartoon figure he’d created to hawk a product its manufacturer hoped would cut large chunks out of Pepsi’s and Coke’s market shares. The pictures of the cuddly creature hung prominently on her wall next to portraits of Cyclops and Jean Grey, of X-Men fame. Spider-Man too and, of course, the Power Rangers.

“Fishing helps me relax,” Alex repeated, looking up from the sports section.

“Oh.”

Sue packed his lunch and filled a thermos of coffee.

“Daddy?” Moody again, the girl stared at her spoon then let it sink down into the bowl.

“What, Jessie-Bessie?”

“Were you ever in a fight?”

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“A fight? Good grief, no.” He laughed. “Well, in high school I was. But not since then.”

“Did you beat the guy up?”

“In high school? Whupped the tar out of him. Patrick Briscoe. He stole my lunch money. I let him have it. Left jab and a right hook. Technical knockout in three rounds.”

She nodded, swallowed a herd, or school, of Ninja Turtles and set her spoon down again. “Could you beat up somebody now?”

“I don’t believe in fighting. Adults don’t have to fight. They can talk out their disagreements.”

“But what if somebody, like a robber, came after you? Could you knock him out?”

“Look at these muscles. Is this Schwarzenegger, or what?” He pulled up the sleeves of his plaid Abercrombie hunting shirt and flexed. The girl lifted impressed eyebrows. So did Sue.

Alex paid nearly two thousand dollars a year to belong to a midtown health club.

“Honey…” Alex leaned forward and put his hand on the girl’s arm. “You know that the things they show on TV, like that movie you saw, they’re all made up. You can’t think real life is like that. People are basically good.”

“I just wish you weren’t going today.”

“Why today?”

She looked outside. “The sun isn’t shining.”

“Ah, but that’s the best time to go fishing. The fish can’t see me coming. Hey, pumpkin, tell you what…how ’bout if I bring you something?”

Her face brightened. “Really?”

“Yup. What would you like?”

“I don’t know. Wait, yes, I do. Something for our collection. Like last time?”

“You bet, sweetie. You got it.”

Last year Alex had seen a counselor. He’d come close to a breakdown, struggling to juggle his roles as overworked executive, husband of a law school student, father and put-upon son (his own father, often drunk and always unruly, had been placed in an expensive mental hospital Alex could barely afford).

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