Big Goodbye, The Read Online Free PDF Page A

up to ensure her hair was still covering her burns.
    Pain and guilt gripped my heart. I hadn’t meant her scars, and I felt sick to know she thought I had.
    “That must be it,” she said, her injured eyes glistening.
    Harry was already chatting up another potential voter and missed most of what was going on between me and his wife.
    “I didn’t mean your—”
    “Forget it,” she said, shaking her head.
    Ray grabbed me by the arm and began ushering me away.
    “It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Lewis,” I said.

Chapter 5
    “Suppose you tell me how you know Harry Lewis,” I said.
    My voice was hard and flat, anger like static sizzling at its edges. I had never spoken to Ray this way before, but even if it got me canned on the spot, I couldn’t stop.
    “He hired me to follow his wife a while back.”
    “ When ?”
    It wasn’t so much a question as a demand. I was out of my precinct, and it’d probably cost me plenty, but I didn’t care—never did when Lauren was involved.
    “Eight months ago, a year, maybe. I’m not sure exactly. Not long after you got shot.”
    We were walking along the marina on St. Andrews Bay out behind the restaurant, the whish of the wind off the water, the metallic clanging of riggings, and the shrieks of gulls in our ears.
    “I knew you’d worked for her before,” he continued, “and I always suspected a personal relationship developed, so . . .”
    Though old enough to be my dad—I was twenty-seven and he had to be nearly double that—Ray was the closest thing to a friend I had. His wisdom and insight had not only made me a better person, but saved me from more than a little self-destructive behavior. It’s why I had kept Lauren from him. I hadn’t wanted to be saved from her.
    “So you took a case for our agency without me knowing,” I said.
    The truth was, it was Ray’s agency. I just worked there. But I couldn’t let a little thing like the truth get in the way of my outrage. I was sore as hell and had my cables all crossed up.
    “I thought I was doing you a favor,” he said. “You couldn’t have worked it anyway, but the truth is, fella, you weren’t in any condition to work anything at the time.”
    He was right. I hadn’t been. It wasn’t just my injuries either, my mind had jumped its rails. And the way I was handling all of this now showed how little that part of my condition had improved.
    The rocking waters of the bay made a slapping sound as they struck the hulls of the boats moored in the marina. It was rhythmic, and provided a beat for our conversation.
    “Why’d Harry want her followed?” I asked.
    “Same as all the others. He thought the little woman was stepping out on him.”
    “Was she?”
    “Why so anxious to dive off the dock for this dame, Jimmy? Maybe she’s as swell as you think she is, maybe she ain’t, but she ain’t worth taking the big plunge for. No girl is.”
    I took in some air. It was acrid, thick with warmth and humidity, the sharp smell of fish and brine penetrating my nostrils.
    “Was she?” I asked again.
    “I don’t know. Pulled me off the case before I had a chance to find out for sure. Said he was an old fool to have ever thought such a horrible thing about his little angel, but the next week he declared his intention to run for mayor, so . . . he gave us plenty of lettuce for our . . . ah, discretion, and you, me, and July haven’t missed a meal since.”
    “You never saw her with anyone?”
    “You gotta get clear of this thing my boy. I hate to see you—”
    “Just keep dealing.”
    “The lady’s careful. I didn’t have time to find who was who and what was what before Harry put the kibosh on the whole operation.”
    I thought about it for a moment.
    “What’d she want this morning?” he asked.
    “To know if I’d been following her.”
    “Have you?”
    “No.”
    “You think Lewis hired someone else?”
    I shrugged. “Could be a jilted lover.”
    “Well, it’s not our concern. You told her you