Abracadaver (Esther Diamond Novel) Read Online Free PDF

two well-established funeral parlors, you’d never guess they were one business.
    One entrance was for Chen’s. The other entrance, around the corner, was for Antonelli’s Funeral Home. The distinctive, old-fashioned exteriors respectively looked Chinese and Italian. Antonelli’s entrance was decorated with thick marble pillars, carved vines and flowers, plump angels, and trumpeting cherubim. Chen’s was austere black and gold, with Chinese characters over the door. Lucky’s uncle and John’s grandfather had run one business with two separate clienteles for some forty years, processing the bodies for both funeral parlors in the middle, at the junction of the L-shaped building.
    Decades after the founding of that successful partnership, the Chens ran both halves of the business now, and there were many Chinese funerals in Antonelli’s, as well as in Chen’s. The Chen family continued to use the European name and décor of the Antonelli section, though, since they also served a non-Chinese clientele. Lucky, who had inherited his share of the company from his uncle, was a silent partner who kept his name and his nose out of the Chens’ reputable business. But given the high mortality rate in Lucky’s own line of work, I assumed he referred plenty of customers to Antonelli’s Funeral Home.
    The Chinese side of the building, through which we entered the funeral home now, was decorated in elegantly somber shades of gold and red. There were several tapestries hanging on the walls, as well as some banners that displayed graceful Chinese calligraphy. During visitations, several tables here were typically draped in white linen and covered with traditional offerings of food, liquor, and brightly colored paper replicas of things the deceased had enjoyed in life and hoped to continue enjoying in death: cars, money, a boat, a house, and so on.
    I had been here a number of times by now, so the setting was familiar to me. I could see that the Chens were starting to prepare for a wake, which wasn’t surprising. They ran a successful, well-established business, and their facilities were in frequent use.
    Besides, John had already told me there was a dead person in a coffin here today. Or, rather, a dead person who was
no longer
in his coffin . . .
    “Alberto!” John’s father, Nathan Chen, greeted Lucky with obvious relief. “John said you were all right, but I’ve been worried. He didn’t know where you went after Susan was arrested—and I couldn’t call you, because you left your phone here.”
    “Figures. I rushed out of here pretty fast after Esther warned me about Susan.” Lucky added, “And we’ve been so busy since then, I didn’t even notice it was missing.”
    Looking stunned by the day’s events, Nathan said, “I always had a feeling something would go wrong with the Yee girl. So tense, so judgmental and bad-tempered. But trying to
kill John?
” He shook his head. “No, I never once imagined that. And I can’t thank all of you enough for risking your lives to protect John today! He never suspected Susan had anything against him, so he’d have been an easy target if not for your bravery.”
    We assured him it was our pleasure, he thanked us several more times, and then we accepted the hot tea he offered us.
    Nelli, who had spent time here with Lucky lately, greeted Nathan affectionately. He withstood this patiently, though he obviously wasn’t a dog person.
    Nathan Chen was not as tall as his sons, John and Sam (Sam was the elder brother, a full-time mortician who would one day take over the business), but he had the same trim build, good posture, and attractive features. He was a widower in his early sixties, with a pleasantly lined face and gray hair, and he had the gentle manners of someone accustomed to dealing sensitively with bereaved families.
    There were many obvious differences between Lucky and Nathan, who was a law-abiding Chinese-American businessman and respected member of the community.