Lucky Leonardo Read Online Free PDF

the calamity, except for General Counsel Casey who offered counterpoint: “What the fuck is he doing spooking the nut? Let’s find another shrink.”
    â€œThey’re sitting down,” Ben Grevere reported through the speakerphone in his golf commentator tones. “I have a good view of the doc, not a very good view of Eugene. His head is blocked by the computers. The doc’s talking. The doc’s nodding. Now he’s talking again. Now he’s nodding. I can see Eugene’s hand. Eugene has put down the mouse. Repeat: I can see Eugene’s hand. He has put down the mouse.”
    Mulverne turned to Johnny Angelo, and flashed hand signals like Mulverne was third base coach and Johnny was pinch hitting with the winning run in scoring position.
    â€œStay on it, Ben,” Mulverne said into the speakerphone.

Chapter 6
    â€œWhy did she leave?” Leonardo asked.
    â€œMoney. She wanted more money. She loves money.”
    â€œThey don’t pay you here?”
    â€œThey’re cheap on salary. They lured me with stock options.” Eugene was jittery, but seated and talking. His mouse rested quietly on the floor.
    â€œStock options are good, Eugene. I hear Code B might push the stock through the roof….”
    â€œI hocked my options…”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI hocked my options last year, to buy her a new car.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œToyota Land Cruiser.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œDeluxe interior.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œCode B, which I invented, will make everybody rich but me…” Eugene put his hands over his eyes, and rocked up and down. “I’m a fool…”
    â€œNo. No. Your wife must be pleased that you bought her such a lovely car.”
    â€œShe hates me. She hates the car.”
    â€œNo. No. I’m sure that’s not the case.”
    â€œI asked Mulverne for a Code B bonus.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œHe laughed at me. He told me I should negotiate my deals before and not after. ‘That’s the American way’ he told me. Hah, hah, hah, hah. The fucking American way. Hah, hah, hah, hah.” Eugene laughed a rattling, wheezy, unhealthy laugh, which went on and on until he lost control of it and started shooting snot out of his mouth and his nose, and large tears dripped from his eyes. “I think I must kill myself…,” he said.
    Johnny Angelo, who had jimmied the lock on the door, and slipped inside Eugene’s office, and silently crept across the debris-strewn floor to within striking range, and crouched there in the dim light as still as a cat on the hunt, took advantage of Eugene’s despairing moment and pounced on the unattended mouse. Eugene made a grab to get it back, but he was no match for Johnny’s strength. Johnny swatted him away. The mouse was gone.
    Eugene looked at Leonardo. He looked at Johnny. Then he uttered a scream of deep pain and launched himself into the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, and crashed through it.

Chapter 7
    The next day was Saturday. Leonardo was scheduled to have his son Harvey from Saturday noon until Sunday at 7:00 pm. He arrived outside Barbara and Stan’s house at exactly noon. He parked. He walked to the front porch. He rang the doorbell. It was a lovely October day, brisk air, crystalline sky, trees in flame with color.
    Of course, each time he stood at this unholy spot he vividly recalled the Big Bang, when in a moment’s span civilization as he knew it collapsed around him. Barbara curled in the arms of Stan. Barbara flagrant and defiant. Barbara announcing her new home.
    Like, what just happened to my life?
    Barbara appeared in person at the door. She had red hair, redder now than it used to be, curling down her lovely neck, and green eyes verging on the exotic, and bright white skin taut where it had been tucked. She wore a loose linen shirt over dark matador pants, like a non-homebody might wear around the home. And she