V.I. Warshawski 12 Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky
Author:Sara Paretsky [Paretsky, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9780451218995
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2005-01-01T05:00:00+00:00
25
Bedtime Stories
It was close to eleven when we pulled up in front of the Dorrado apartment on Escanaba. Mr. Contreras was with me, and weâd brought Mitch as well. Who knowsâhis hunting stock might give him a good tracking nose.
My neighbor had been predictably annoyed that I was going out again, but I shut him up by the simple expedient of inviting him to join me. âI know itâs late, and I agree I shouldnât be driving. If you want to ride along and help keep me alert, thatâd be great.â
âSure, doll, sure.â He was touchingly ecstatic.
I went into my bedroom and dressed in jeans and put on a couple of loose knit tops under my navy peacoat. I got my gun out of the wall safe. I wasnât expecting a battle with Billy, if, in fact, he and Josie had run off together. But drive-by shootings were a dreary commonplace in the old âhood, and I didnât want to end up lying on the floor of an abandoned warehouse with some punkâs stray bullet in my back, just because I hadnât come prepared. That was the real reason we were taking Mitch, tooânot too many gangbangers dis a big dog.
Before we left Lakeview, I called Billyâs mother. Her phone was answered by a man who was some kind of butler or secretaryâanyway, a call screener. He was very reluctant to disturb Mrs. William, and when I finally pushed him into bringing her to the phone it was clear why: Annie Lisa was high on something other than life. Whether it was modern and respectable, like Xanax, or old-fashioned and reliable, like Old Overholt, she had a delay, like a satellite echo, in answering anything I said.
I spoke slowly and patiently, as if to a child, reminding her that I was the detective who was looking for Billy. âWhen did you last hear from him, Ms. Bysen?â
âHear from him?â she echoed.
âDid Billy call you today?â
âBilly? Billy isnât here. William, William is angry.â
âAnd why is William angry, maâam?â
âI donât know.â She was puzzled and talked about it at some length. âBilly went to work, he went to the warehouse, thatâs what a good boy does, he works hard for a living, itâs what Daddy Bysen always told us, so why does that make William angry? Unless itâs because Billy is doing what Daddy Bysen says, William always hates for Billy to follow Daddy Bysenâs orders, but William also likes children who work hard. Children who lie around using drugs and getting pregnant, they get sent away, so he should be happy that Billy went to the warehouse again.â
âYes, maâam,â I said. âIâm sure deep down heâs ecstatic, just hiding it from you.â
Irony was a mistake: she thought I was saying William was hiding Billy from her. I cut her questions off and asked for Billyâs sisterâs phone number.
âCandace is in Korea. Sheâs doing mission work, and weâre proud that sheâs turning her life around.â Annie Lisa spoke the sentences like an inexpert news reader looking at a teleprompter.
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