The Spinoza Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

I’m going to do.”
    Roy placed two extremely large hands on the bar counter. His thick eyebrows were still pressed together like a fat, hairy sausage.
    “This is none of your concern,” he said.
    “ What’s none of my concern?”
    Roy, who had seemed good-natured and willing to laugh at my stupid joke earlier, suddenly seemed not-so-friendly.
    “Veronica’s fine. She’s just...busy.”
    “ Slaying vampires?”
    He squinted at me, and seemed about to shush me, but there was really no one close enough to us to hear. Besides, the thumping techno-music in the background would have drowned out our words.
    “This is none of your concern,” he said again.
    “ I heard you the first time,” I said. “Except I’ve already deposited a check from a very concerned woman who hired me to make it my business.”
    He leaned forward, placing more weight on those big hands. I think the gesture was meant to be intimidating. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, bro. Would be safer for you to return that check.”
    There was a creaking sound from behind me. Maybe one of the caskets was opening. Eager to see a real-live vampire, I turned and looked. Nope, just two goth-looking, pale-faced girls stepping into the bar. They didn’t look happy. They seldom did.
    I looked back at Roy, and as I did so, I grabbed both of his wrists and pulled. He fell forward in a blink, hitting the counter hard, his forehead bouncing off the scarred wood casket lid. A chair scraped behind me.
    I ignored whoever was behind me, but I didn’t ignore Roy, whose face was now just inches from mine. I still held him by his wrists. “You know something about a missing girl, Roy. And that makes you a person of extreme interest to me. Tell me what you fucking know or I’m going to bring some unholy hell down upon you and your fucking weird bar. Bro.”
    “ Okay, man. Okay. Take it easy.”
    “ What the fuck is going on around here, Roy?”
    “ Just let me go and I’ll tell you.”
    I released his wrists slowly and he stood. There was a shiner already forming on his forehead. I glanced around me. Two guys were standing behind me. Thin guys. Dark hair. Pale faces. Both wearing white, untucked, long-sleeved shirts. They looked like Dracula’s minions. Or his house boys.
    “Beat it,” I said to them.
    They didn’t move. From behind the counter, Roy said, “It’s okay, guys, we’re cool.”
    The two dumbasses shuffled off.
    I looked at Roy. His hair was disheveled. So were his bushy eyebrows, which had somehow gotten tweaked when his forehead had done its best impression of a basketball.
    I said to him, “We’re very much not cool until you tell me what the fuck is going on around here.”
    Roy nodded and motioned to one of the whip-thin punks. “Watch the bar, man. I’ll be back in a few.”
    Roy nodded toward me.
    “ Follow me,” he said.
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    We were sitting in a backroom, in an unused part of the bar that might have been used to host parties or wedding receptions or even blood lettings. Roy and I were alone.
    He asked if I wanted a drink and I held up my tonic water. I was fine, although I’d had booze on the mind throughout the day. Booze on my mind was not a good thing.
    Let it go, I thought. And I did. It was, after all, easy to let it go. All I had to do was think of my dead son.
    “ Veronica is not like other girls,” Roy began. His shiner was now more than a shiner. It looked like a science experiment gone bad.
    “ I’m getting that impression,” I said.
    Roy was sitting in a black leather sofa, one arm draped over the camel hump back. His legs were crossed. I noticed red marks around his wrists where I had pinned him down. I think he was making a concertive effort not to rub them in front of me. Probably didn’t think it would look cool to rub them.
    He asked, “How much did the old lady tell you about Veronica’s parents?”
    “ That they had been killed in a car