Fletch Reflected Read Online Free PDF

coach?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You’re taking me to a training camp for boxers?”
    “Yeah. I thought we’d try it. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. You wouldn’t mind developing your upper-cut, would you?”
    “What’s an uppercut?”
    “A slash over the eyebrow.”
    “I don’t want any of those.”
    “The head of your bed raises and lowers.”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    He heard the electric motor raise the head of her bed.
    “You can see out the windows. Nice scenery?”
    “Yeah. The back of billboards.”
    “All the fronts say is KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL.”
    “Jeez,” Crystal said. “He wants to turn me into a boxing champion.”
    “Hey, lady,” Fletch said. “In your weight class, you’re a shoo-in.”
    “Fletch? Can we stop so you can get me something to eat?”
    “Sure,” Fletch said. “I’m hungry, too.”
    “If I’m going to take up boxing,” Crystal said, “I’ll need to keep my strength up.”

5
    T he woman in the black bikini who came to swim in the Olympic-sized outdoor pool kept glancing at Jack.
    Dressed only in the white shorts with vertical blue side stripes he had been given and told to wear as a condition of his employment. Jack was cleaning the pool.
    At each end of the pool as she swam laps, she managed to roll her eyes up for another look at him.
    Jack had been told there were many conditions of his employment at Vindemia.
    Arriving in that area of Georgia, he was surprised to learn that the village of Vindemia was on the estate of Vindemia itself, and one needed a pass to visit even the village. The three thousand, five hundred acre estate was entirely surrounded by chain link fence. There was only one entrance, and that was guarded.
    Before he left Virginia, spending some of his earnings from Global Cable News, Jack bought some clothes, and, a used blue Miata convertible. On his way to Georgia he had stopped at Subs Rosa in North Carolina for Eat-in and Take-out.
    The town nearest Vindemia was Ronckton. There he had lunch in a coffee shop. He asked if there were any jobs to be had in the area. The woman behind the counter said, “Only on the estate, really,” and sent him to an accountant’s office down the street.
    “You should just fit the bill,” the estate’s accountant, Clarence Downes, said at first sight of Jack. He had just returned from lunch. “Come in and sit down. Let’s talk.”
    In his office, sitting behind his desk, Downes’ first question was, “Ever been in prison?”
    “No, sir.”
    “We’ll check on it.”
    “Sure.”
    “Any diseases?”
    “I had chicken pox when I was a kid. I’m better now, thank you.”
    “Can you swim?” Smiling with approval, the heavy man had already surveyed Jack’s body.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Sure you can. Play tennis?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Any good?”
    “I’m very big with the racquets.”
    Downes grinned. “What are you, takin’ time
off
from college?”
    “Trying to raise some money, sir.”
    “Sure. I’ve got two kids of my own in college. Good thing I’m a Certified Public Accountant. Damn-all, the bills never stop. I’ve never had to juggle my personal accounts before I had two kids in college at the same time. Where are your folks, John?”
    “My mother has a medical problem, sir. My father has a small farm.”
    “I see. And you’re not much on farm laboring, I expect. It’s dry work, all right. I escaped a farm when I was a kid.” The man slapped the side of his stomach. “I wanted to wear a white shirt and have a gut.” He laughed. “See? I’m a success!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Hmm.” The man frowned a little at Jack’s agreement. “So the job’s on the Vindemia Estate. You know about it? Owned and closely operated by Doctor Chester Radliegh. So big it just about drives the whole economy around here.They need a young man—‘presentable’ is the description I was given—to keep the swimming pools, tennis courts, gymnasium clean, act as lifeguard when necessary, you