Post Pattern (Burnside Mystery 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

dorm before they kicked me out. They like
athletes to stay on campus but if you get rowdy enough they decide you can live
in an apartment. Big of ‘em."
    "How did you like LAU?"
    "Fun, fun, fun," he smiled.
    "Till his daddy took his Porsche awaaay!"
broke in a tall, skinny kid with a nose that a hawk might envy. A bottle of Patrón was gripped in one hand and an empty shot glass in the other.
    Robbie jabbed at the guy's ribs. "You gonna drink
that stuff, Lenny? Or just show what a big, tough man you are?"
    Lenny poured out half a glass of tequila unevenly before
Robbie said "gimme that" and grabbed the bottle out of his hand. He
took a gulp in the manner of an old west gunslinger and offered the bottle to
myself and Norman. We politely declined.
    "Wimps," he declared.
    A few years ago I would have considered it a point of
honor to take the bottle and prove him wrong. But the experience of a tequila
hangover taught me that restraint is often the better part of valor. Looking at
his buddy, I decided I was right.
    Lenny took a big gulp of the fiery liquid and his eyes
widened as he gasped a couple of mouthfuls of air. "That was
awesome," he managed.
    "Awesome, huh?" Robbie laughed, as Lenny
struggled to keep his balance. "You wouldn't know awesome if you slipped
in it."
    "Friend?" I asked Norman.
    Norman jerked his thumb at Robbie. "Friend of his .
The name's Lenny Caputo. He played backup flanker."
    "Lenny's always gonna be a backup," Robbie
added. "Strictly minor league."
    Lenny's eyes flared and for a moment I thought there
might be an altercation. Instead he just nodded at Robbie and mumbled,
"Later."
    "Is everyone here a football player?" I
inquired.
    "Damn near. Norman doesn't have any real friends to
invite."
    "C'mon, Rob," Norman whined. "Quit being
such an ass."
    Robbie did a facial mimic of Norman, which caused his
older brother to squirm noticeably. They were a pair, these two. There was
enough about their features to validate bloodlines, but Norman and Robbie
Freeman might otherwise have been culled from entirely different litters.
    "I want to introduce Burnside here to some of the
other guys," Norman said.
    "Enjoy," he remarked, "I think it's time
for another beer, personally."
    He sauntered off and Norman quickly apologized. I told
him not to worry about it. At the age of twenty-four, Norman should have
learned by now not to take himself so seriously. I could hardly wait to meet
the rest of the family.
    As Robbie attested, the typical partygoer was a football
player, either current or former. As it was with most jock gatherings, there
was a preponderance of drinking, yelling, and general horseplay. Over the next
half hour I was introduced to everyone, but they were either too high to give
me any background on Robbie, or just too cautious. A few struck me as having a
suspicious look about them but that may have simply been their nature. Or mine.
As I began to feel the evening would turn out to be completely unproductive,
the life of the party arrived. In duplicate.
    They were both dressed in navy blue policeman's outfits
and each waived a billy club merrily over their heads. Both had piles of hair
tucked underneath their caps and the skin tight uniforms were unlike any I had
seen at the Academy. The girls tossed their police caps in the air and shook
their hair loose. One blonde, one brunette. Variety is the spice of life.
    "I'm Tiffany," the blonde shouted. "And
this is Danielle." Tiffany appeared to be in her mid-twenties and had the
look of one who had grown up on the streets and knew all the hustles. Danielle
was younger, so young that I almost winced. She looked like Judy Atkin. Another
Judy blue eyes. They strutted around the room to the pulsating beat of the
stereo and playfully slapped the bottoms of a few of the lads. In the corner, a
swarthy man wearing a silver suit, dark grey shirt and thick black moustache
watched carefully. When a blond haired guy named Max reached out and grabbed a
handful of