Doha 12 by Lance Charnes

Author:Lance Charnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780988690325
Publisher: Wombat Group Media via Indie Author Project
Published: 2013-01-05T08:00:00+00:00

SIXTY-ONE: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 13 December

Jake pulled the back door closed behind him, flipped up his coat collar, and let his eyes adjust to the dying twilight. Scattered snowflake shards burned his face. Snow and low clouds dampened the constant rumble from the city beyond the fence.

Miriam stood in the middle of the yard, face tilted up. Jake had become pretty good at reading her; she’d get a distant look in her eyes and a flatness in her features that told him she was someplace else and wanted to stay there undisturbed. Now her back was to him. Risk it?

The slushy snow squeaked under his feet. He stepped slowly and heavily so Miriam could hear him coming. He didn’t want to know what happened when someone crept up on her.

Snow burrowed into her hair and perched on the lashes of her closed eyes. “Got room here for someone else?” he asked.

Miriam peeked at him. “Yes,” she said, then closed her eyes again.

He stood beside her for a long few moments, judging her mood. Then he said, “You okay? You’ve been awfully quiet this afternoon.”

She took a deep breath. “I don’t know.” She blinked her eyes open and gazed into the falling snow. “I got fired today.”

“Aw, shit. Those bastards. Why?”

“Unauthorized absence. I offered to take vacation, but I guess that wasn’t the point.”

“Are you going to fight it?”

Miriam shrugged. “How? I’m not stupid enough to sue a law firm. I could complain to the state, but on what grounds? I never got Dickinson’s permission to have people try to kill me.”

“Want the PD to help? Gene might be able to get the Commissioner to call your boss.”

“No, thank you. Really.” She pressed her lips into what could have been a grim smile if the corners had turned up. “You sound more upset about this than I am.”

“It’s a shitty way to treat you. Incredibly unfair.”

“Yes it is, not that that means anything anymore.” She stood a little straighter. “I think maybe they did me a favor. I’ve hated the past year there, ever since my last boss retired and they gave me to that prick Dickinson. Maybe this is the push I need to find something new.”

“On top of everything else?”

“I have a choice?” For the first time, she turned her head to look at him full-on. “What about you? You and Gene looked pretty tense just now.”

“You didn’t hear what he said?”

“I don’t listen to your private conversations.”

“Gotta be hard to tune out when Gene’s talking.” Worrying about Miriam’s problems had briefly taken his mind off his own. Now they were back. “The medical examiner’s released Rinnah. I asked Gene whether I could go to her funeral if we had one, and he said no.”

She winced. “I’m sorry. What are you going to do?”

“Not much I can do.” Jake looked away, through the solid planks of the nearby fence. “If a mortician picks her up, we’ll need to have a funeral right away. So I have to leave her there, in a freezer, until this is over.

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