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9780743463096

Mischief

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780743463096

  • ISBN10:

    0743463099

  • Edition: Reprint
  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 2003-07-01
  • Publisher: Pocket Books
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List Price: $7.99

Summary

A punk wielding a spray can is no match for a killer armed with a gun -- and a deadly aim to knock off the city's graffiti artists. One by one, the young scribblers are found murdered, maliciously coated with paint and blood. Detective Steve Carella can't see the writing on the wall -- yet. Meanwhile, the Deaf Man, the 87th Precinct's longtime tormentor, is leading its cops, clue by maddening clue, to uncover a heinous crime that will make the graffiti killer look like an amateur. It's all primed to go down at a raucous rock and rap concert -- but who's going to take the rap?

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Excerpts

Chapter One

The luminous dialof his watch showed ten minutes past two in the morning. The rain had tapered off at about midnight. He would not have come out if it'd still been raining. Thesewritersdidn't work in the rain. Didn't want to get their spray cans all wet. Some writers.Scribblerswas more like it. Each one scribbling right over the one before him. Kept on scribbling and scribbling till all there was left of a clean white wall was a barbed-wire tangle of words and names you couldn't even read.

The wall he'd chosen tonight was a new one.

You could almost smell the fresh cement.

New walls attracted these writers the way honey did bears. Put up a new wall or a new fence, wouldn't be ten minutes before they were out spraying it. Gave them some kind of thrill, he supposed. He'd once read something about burglars defecating in people's shoes while they were in an apartment stealing things. Added insult to injury. Wasn't enough they were in there taking a man's possessions, they had to go and soil his belongings besides, let him know what contempt they had for him. This was the same thing. Person sprayed his paint scribbles on a wall or a fence, he was telling the citizens of this city he wasshittingon them.

He hoped it wouldn't start raining again.

There were lightning flashes in the distance, rumbles of thunder, but he didn't think the rain was moving any closer to where he was standing here waiting for someone to show up.

This was a two-lane street here running under the highway. Your writers never sprayed where their work wouldn't be seen, they always picked a street or a road with traffic on it, so every time you went by you could ooh and aah over the terrific mess they'd made of the wall. There weren't any leaves on the trees yet, no protection that way, nothing to create any kind of shadow, just these naked branches reaching up toward the parkway where every now and again a car's headlights drilled the blackness of the night. Spring was slow coming this year. This was the twenty-third of March, a dreary Monday morning. Even though spring had arrived officially three days earlier, it had been raining on and off ever since. Cold, too. Walking in the cold dank rain, he had worked out his plan.

Tonight would be the first of them.

If anybody showed.

If not, he'd do it tomorrow night.

No rush at all.

Get it done in time enough.

Three of them altogether, one plus one plus one.

He figured these writers had to do their dirty work at night, didn't they, you never saw any of them doing it during the daytime. Probably scouted a new wall or fence during the day, came back at night to mess it up. If anybody showed tonight, he'd wait till they did some messing up before he did a little messing of his own. Catch 'em in the act, bam! The gun in the pocket of his coat was a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson.

Lightning way way off in the distance now.

Low growl of thunder far far away.

On the highway overhead, a car's tires hissed on the still-wet roadway. There was a penetrating chill on the air, made a man wish he was home in his own bed, instead of out here waiting for some jackass who didn't know what he was in for.

Well,come on,he thought. Can't stand out here allnight,can I? Catch pneumonia out here, night like this one. He never had much cared for the month of March, his own time of year was the fall. Something about the fall always reached him. Nothing uncertain about the fall, you knew where you stood. March, April, forget it. Third day of spring, you'd think it was still the dead of winter, chill out here working its way clear into a man's bones. His gloved hand in the pocket of his coat felt warm around the walnut grip of the pistol.

One plus one plus one again.

Then retire.

Thing was, he was beginning to realize this might take longer than he'd figured. No way of telling when or evenif anybodywould show, he could be standing out here all night long and nobody'd come and he'd just have to do it all over again each time out, night after night. Wait in the dark till --

Hold it.

Coming up the street. Hands in his pockets. Kid of seventeen, eighteen, looking this way and that, had to be up to some kind of mischief. He moved deeper into the shadow cast by the highway overhead. Lightning again in the distance. Not even the sound of thunder this time, too far away. Another car sped by overhead, tires hissing, headlights casting fallout into the naked branches of the trees. He pulled still farther back into the shadows.

The kid was wearing jeans and a black leather jacket. High-topped sneakers. Turned to look over his shoulder. Turned back again, looked left and right, looked dead ahead, then stopped under the highway, and took a flashlight from his pocket. Light splashed onto the new cement wall. His face cracked into a grin, as if he were looking at a beautiful naked woman. Stood there with the flashlight playing on the wall, moving the flashlight over the wall, inch by inch, raping the clean empty wall with his eyes and the beam of the light. Then he reached inside his jacket and took out a spray can of paint and stood back from the wall a moment, studying it, the flashlight in his left hand, the spray can in his right, deciding where he should start his masterpiece.

He was spraying red paint onto the wall, spraying anS,and then aP,and then anI,and then aD,when he heard movement behind him, and turned sharply and saw a man wearing a black wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his eyes, a dark coat with the collar pulled up high on his neck, a gun in his hand.

"Here," the man said.

And shot him twice in the face.

The boy lay still and silent on the ground under the highway, his life's blood oozing out of his face, the spray can lying beside him. He shot the boy one more time, in the chest this time, and then he reached down to pick up the can in his gloved hand, and pressed the button on top of the can, and squirted red paint all over the boy's face oozing blood, his chest oozing blood, red paint and red blood mingling while overhead another car pierced the night with its headlights and sped off into the distance where now there was no lightning at all.

the rain had changed to snow; it was that kind of spring. At nine o'clock that morning, it was still snowing.

"I remember, Easter Sunday once, it was snowing," Parker said. "This is nothing unusual."

"March twenty-third, it's unusual to be snowing," Kling said.

"Not if it could snow on Easter," Parker said.

"I remember once," Meyer said, "Passover and Easter Sunday fell on the very same day."

"That happens all the time," Carella said.

"That's because the Jews stole Passover from Easter," Parker said, blithely unaware.

Meyer didn't even bother.

The snow kept falling from the dull gray March sky. Beyond the grilled-mesh windows that protected the squad room from the brickbats of society, the day was blustery and bleak.

Andy Parker was looking over the report the graveyard shift had filed on the dead graffiti writer. The paper told him Baker One had found the kid early this morning, under the River Highway on North Eleventh. Kid's name was Alfredo Herrera, street name Spider. That's what he was probably trying to write on the wall, spider, when somebody pumped two into his face and another in his chest and painted him red for good measure. Served him right, Parker thought, fuckin writer. But didn't say. Meanwhile, the city had to spend time and money trying to find out who done it, when who gave a shit, really?

"We supposed to inform next of kin on this, or what?" he asked no one.

"Unless they already did," Carella said.

"That's what I'm askin," Parker said. "Willis typed this up, did he already call whoever, or what?"

"What does it say there?"

"It doesn't say anything."

"Is a next of kin listed?"

"I don't see any."

"How'd they make I.D.?"

"Driver's license."

"Well, there must've been an address on the license."

"I don't have thelicensehere," Parker said testily, "I only have Willis's report here, where it says theymadehim from the license."

"Better call the Property Clerk's Office," Kling suggested. "See if they've got the license there."

"Why don't I just callWillis,ask him did he notify the parents, or what?"

"He's probably asleep by now," Meyer suggested tactfully.

"So fuck him," Parker said. "He leaves this shit on my desk to follow up, he should've also left a note telling me did he notify next of kin. Who's got his number?"

"Got enough spit?" Kling asked, but looked up the number in his notebook and read it off to Parker, who began dialing immediately.

Willis picked up on the fourth ring. It was obvious he'd been sleeping. Parker plunged ahead regardless. Willis told him the motorized blues had found the body at a little past six this morning, that it had been removed to the morgue, and that no one had had time to notify next of kin before the shift was relieved. Parker asked him if he knew where the kid's driver's license was. Willis was awake now and getting irritable.

"Why do you need the license?" he asked.

"So I can get an address for him."

"His address is on the report," Willis said. "I typed it in from the driver's license."

"Oh," Parker said.

"Right under his name. Do you see where it says address?" he asked testily. "That's where I typed it in."

"Yeah, I see it now," Parker said.

"Why didn't you see it in the first place," Willis said, "wake a man up he just fell asleep."

"Yeah, I should've," Parker said, and looked at the phone receiver when he heard what sounded like an angry click on the other end of the line. Shrugging, he turned to Carella. "The address was right here all along," he said. "You want to see if there's a phone number for him?"

"Don't you know how to look up a phone number?" Carella asked.

"I hate to call some kid's mother, tell her he's dead."

"Yeah, well, learn how to do it," Carella said.

"Thanks a whole fuckinlot," Parker said, and opened his desk drawer and pulled out a worn telephone directory. "Probably be ten thousand people named Herrera, this city," he said to the phone book, and shook his head.

Almost everything Parker said bordered on the thin edge of open bigotry. Everything else he saidwasopen bigotry. It depended on who was in his immediate presence. He knew that someone like Meyer, for example, might possibly take offense if he called him a chiseling kike bastard, so instead he merely mentioned that the Jews had ripped off Easter Sunday. And whereas Carella wasn't Hispanic, he had a name full of vowels and he might get on his high horse if Parker suggested that the city was overrun by spics, so he'd simply addressed his comment to the telephone book instead.

As it turned out, he was mistaken.

There were not ten thousand Herreras in the book, there were only a hundred and forty-six. But that was inthissection of the city alone. There were fourothersections to this bustling metropolis, and just because the dead writer had been found here didn't mean he lived here. All Parker knew was that he was right now looking at a hundred and forty-six fuckin names that would take him all fuckin day to call all of them. For what? To tell some lady who couldn't speak English that her shithead son was dead, which it served him right, anyway?

Sometimes he wished he wasn't so dedicated.

He hit pay dirton the forty-fourth number he tried. He considered this fortunate. This was now close to twelve noon and he wanted to go out to lunch.

The woman's name was Catalina Herrera. When he asked her if she had a son named Alfredo Herrera, she said, "Yes, I have. Who is this calling, please?"

Heavy Spanish accent. Naturally.

"This is Detective Andrew Parker of the Eighty-Seventh Precinct," he said. "Is your son eighteen years old?"

"Eighteen, yes. Is something...?"

"Birth date September fourteenth?"

"Yes? What...?"

"He's dead," Parker said.

He told her where the body was, asked her if she could meet him there later to make positive identification, and then told the other detectives he was heading out for lunch.

"Nice bedside manner you got there," Carella said.

"Thanks," Parker said, and went out smiling.

"There's this ship in the middle of the Pacific," Meyer said. "This is World War II. The loudspeaker goes off and the chief bosun's voice says, 'All hands, fall to on the quarterdeck. All hands, fall to on the quarterdeck.'"

"I think I heard this story," Kling said.

"Seaman Shavorsky?" Meyer asked.

"No."

"Well, all the sailors gather on the quarterdeck, and the bosun says, 'At ease, we just got a radio message from the States. Seaman O'Neill, your mother is dead.' Well, the captain overhears this, and he calls the bosun into his cabin, and he says, 'That's no way to break news of this sort. These men are a long way from home, you've got to be more considerate if anything like this happens again.' The bosun salutes and says, 'Yes, sir, I'm sorry, sir, I certainly will be more careful next time if there is a next time, sir.'"

"Are you sure I didn't hear this?" Kling asked.

"How should I know if you heard it or not? Anyway, a couple of months later, the bosun's voice comes over the speaker again, 'All hands, fall to on the quarterdeck, all hands fall to on the quarterdeck,' and all the sailors gather again, and the bosun says, 'We just got a radio message from the States. All you men whose mothers are still living, take one step forw --notso fast, Seaman Shavorsky!' "

Carella burst out laughing.

"I don't get it," Kling said.

"Maybe cause you heard it already," Meyer said.

"No, I don't think I ever heard it. I just don't get it."

"It has to do with Parker and the dead kid's mother," Meyer said.

"Is that the dead kid's name? Shavorsky?"

"Forget it," Meyer said.

"I thought it was a Latino name."

"Forget it," Meyer said again, and went to answer the telephone ringing on his desk.

"Shavorsky doesn't sound Latino at all," Kling said, and winked at Carella.

"Forget it, forget it," Meyer said, and picked up the receiver. 'Eighty-Seventh Squad, Detective Meyer," he said. He listened, nodded, said, "Just a second, please," and then, "For you, Steve. On four."

Carella hit the four button on his desk extension, and picked up the receiver.

"Detective Carella," he said.

"Good morning," a pleasant voice said. "Or is it afternoon already?"

"Twenty past twelve, sir," Carella answered, glancing up at the wall clock. "How can I help you?"

"You'll have to speak louder," the voice said. "I'm a little hard of hearing."

Detective-LieutenantPeter Byrnes told the three of them they'dalreadyspent too damn much time on it.

"I don't care if it's the Deaf Man again, or the Deaf Man'sbrother,I don't want another minute wasted on his damn tomfoolery. Man thinks he can call this squadroom anytime he -- what timedidhe call?"

"Around noon," Carella said.

The three detectives were standing in a casual semicircle around Byrnes's desk. The snow had stopped and faint sunlight peeped tentatively through the lieutenant's corner windows, lending a promise of vernal cheer to the little law-enforcement tableau: Detective/Second Grade Steve Carella looking like a ballplayer sans chewing tobacco, tall and rangy, with dark hair and brown eyes somewhat slanted to give him a slightly Oriental appearance; Detective/Second Grade Meyer Meyer, an inch or so taller than Carella, burly and bald and blue-eyed, a look of infinite patience on his round face; Bert Kling, the baby of the squad, with blond hair and hazel eyes and the look of a cornfed bumpkin though he, too, had known his share of the big bad city. All of them thirtysomething, give or take, nobody was counting. All of them thinking the Deaf Man was back and the lieutenant was brushing him off.

"What'd he say?" Byrnes asked.

"He said he missed us," Carella said.

"Missed us," Byrnes repeated blankly, and shook his head. At the age of fiftysomething -- but again, who was counting? -- the lieutenant was beginning to get a bit crotchety. Years ago, he might have welcomed the appearance of the Deaf Man as a lively diversion in an otherwise tiresome and predictable routine. But now...well, the Deaf Man mightstillrepresent challenge and provocation -- if only his infrequent appearances didn't cause the lieutenant's men to behave like a band of bumbling buffoons. Whenever he arrived on the scene, they seemed unable to predict what he was planning even though he gifted them with lavish clues. Fumble-fingered and flat-footed, they stood by foolishly while his latest escapade took place, helpless to stop it no matter how hard they tried. In fact, were it not for the sheerest accidental good fortune, the Deaf Man could have stolen the city from under their noses each and every time, murdering half its population in the bargain.

His very name seemed to render the squad inoperative. Whether he signed himself L.Sordo(for El Sordo, which meant the Deaf Man in Spanish) or Taubman (forDer taube mann,which meant the Deaf Man in German) or Dennis Dove, familiarly known as Den Dove (forden döve,which meant the Deaf Man in Swedish), his very presence turned the men of the Eight-Seven into inept constabularies incapable of functioning as anything more effective than clumsy Keystone Kops.

"What else did he say?" Byrnes asked, suspecting he was beginning to get sucked in despite his best intentions. Sitting behind his desk in a wedge of sunlight, he looked like a man who could beat anyone in a barroom fight, his body small and compact, his face craggy, his hands thick and capable, his hair more white than gray now, his eyes a flinty blue that glistened in the sun, betraying a secret glint of curiosity even though he was trying to convince his men he was not the slightest bit interested in this damn deaf person.

"He said it had been a long time..."

"Mmm," Byrnes said, and nodded sourly.

"...but he knew how much we loved him..."

"Sure."

"...and he knew we would welcome him back with a song in our hearts."

"Oh, no question."

"He also said we wouldn't have to wait too long to make fools of ourselves this time."

"Mmm. What'd the CID show?"

He was referring to the Caller Identification equipment that had been installed on every desk in the squadroom not two weeks ago. Before then, the detectives had seen the instrument only on television, in dramatized commercials where an obscene caller would be informed by his female victim that she alreadyknewhis telephone number and -- lo and behold! -- there itwas,right there on the phone's display panel. Now the equipment was standard in the squadroom. No need to trace a call anymore, you knew the caller's number at a glance.

"Out-of-state number," Meyer said. "We checked it with Information, it's a cellular phone listed to a woman named Mary Callendar."

"Did you try the number? Never mind, I don't want to know."

"I tried it," Carella said. "Got a message saying the mobile customer had left the vehicle and traveled beyond the service area."

"Meaning he'd turned off the power. How about the woman? Marywhat?"

"Callendar. Information gave me a listing for her home phone," Carella said. "When I spoke to her she told me the cellular had been stolen from her car yesterday."

"Naturally. So he's using a stolen phone."

"Used itonce,anyway. He'll probably use a different one next time he calls."

"I don't want you answering."

"How can we not ans...?"

"Then hang up the minute you know it's him."

"Then we'll never get him, Pete."

"I don'tcareif we get him. I don't want anything to do with him. What else did he say?"

"That's all he said."

"Didn't he tell you his name?" Byrnes asked, thinking he was making a little joke.

"Yes, he did," Carella said.

"He gave you hisname?"

"I said, 'Who's this?' and he..."

"He gave you hisname?" Byrnes said, still astonished.

"He said, 'You can call me Sanson.'"

"Samson?"

"Sanson.With an n. He spelled it out for me. S-A-N-S-O-N."

"Sanson," Byrnes said. "Look it up."

"We did," Kling said.

"All five directories," Meyer said.

"There are twelve Sansons in the..."

"No," Byrnes said. "No, damn it, Iwon'thave you tracking down these people! This is another goddamn game he's playing, only this time we're not falling for it! Get back to whatever the hell you were doing before he called. And if he calls again, hang up!"

"I was just thinking," Carella said.

"I don't want to hear it."

"Okay, Loot."

"What were you thinking?"

"The first of April is only nine days away."

"So?"

"April Fools' Day," Carella said.

The man standingon the bow of the thirty-two-foot Chris-Craft was tall and blond and suntanned and there was a hearing aid in his right ear. He had chartered the boat under the name Harry Gimperde, pronouncing the last syllable of the surname --perde-- to rhyme withmerde,in the French manner. Harry Gimperde.TheGim,on the other hand, was pronounced like the beginning ofgimletor the end ofbegin.Harry Gimperde. Say it over and over again -- Harry Gimperde, Harry Gimperde, Harry Gimperde, Harry Gimperde -- and it became Hearing Impaired.

The woman who'd filled out the papers at Dockside Charters never once suspected that the blond man wearing the hearing aid was creating a little meaningless entertainment for himself, something to lend a touch of humor to the otherwise boring but essential task that lay ahead. The girl accompanying Mr. Gimperde served much the same purpose; she would add a little spice to the outing once the task was completed. The girl thought the Deaf Man's name wasreallyHarry Gimperde. She thought he must be very rich to be able to afford a cellular telephone and to rent a boat this size -- not that she'd been on any boat of any size ever in her life before now. She only wished the weather was nicer. She was beginning to think that the best thing about boats was watching them from the shore. She was also beginning to feel a bit neglected, even though the man she thought was Harry Gimperde had poured her a glass of French champagne and had made her comfortable in the back of the boat -- what he called the stern -- on a bunch of pillows with the bottle sitting in an ice cooler an inch from her elbow, while he went up front to look at the shoreline.

The building the Deaf Man was watching was close to Isola's northern shore, a structure shaped somewhat like a very large Quonset hut constructed of concrete rather than tin. In essence, the building consisted of two parts, a rectangular bottom and an arched top, wedded to create a not-unpleasant whole. Affixed to the top of the rectangle facing the river, just where the base of the arch joined it, were the stainless-steel letters

DEPARTMENT OF SANITATION

The facility had been opened in January; it still looked spanking clean even though smoke was billowing out of two tall chimneys on the side of the building farthest from the river. The currents were strong out here on the water. The boat kept bobbing on the heavy chop, causing the building to move in and out of range on the binoculars. Patiently, the Deaf Man kept watching.

He had begun watching the building on the fifteenth of January, shortly after the facility was officially opened. He had watched it steadily for a solid week, trying to determine if anything but sanitation-department personnel and vehicles would be here on any days but the first Saturday of each month. During all that time he had seen nothing but the spruce-green uniforms of the department's employees and the hulking trucks they used for moving garbage. He had begun his surveillance again on the twenty-eighth of that same month, and had seen only the same employees and the same trucks each and every day until the first Saturday in February, when at last he was rewarded with the sight of police department vehicles and blue police uniforms.

On that first day of February, at ten minutes past twelve in the afternoon -- while the Deaf Man watched from a different chartered boat with a different girl sitting bundled in deck robes and drinking champagne in the stern -- a blue-and-white van with the words POLICE DEPARTMENT lettered on its sides pulled into the parking lot on the river side of the building. Three uniformed policemen got out of the van. Lower-level personnel from the looks of them, silver shields on uniforms sporting neither stripes nor braid. Mere patrolmen. Some five minutes later, an unmarked Lincoln Continental pulled into the parking lot, and three policemen of a higher rank stepped out into the wintry sunshine, the brass on their uniforms catching whatever pale light reflected off the water.

The Deaf Man kept watching through the binoculars.

In a little while three blue-and-white radio motor patrol cars came down the ramp from the River Highway, and made the right turn into the parking lot. Two patrolmen got out of the first car. A patrolman and a sergeant got out of the second car. A sergeant and a captain got out of the third car. Each of the patrol cars was marked on its side with the blue lettering 87th pct. In the next half hour or so, a television van and several unmarked cars drove into the parking lot. The media and the press. All here to record for posterity this first public spectacle at the spanking-new facility. By five minutes to one on that first day of February, the Deaf Man figured that everyone who was going to be there was already there.

Today was the twenty-third day of March.

Across the choppy waters of the River Harb, the building sat on the edge of the shore, uniformed men walking in and out of it, but none of them wearing police uniforms. These were sanitation engineers, if one wished to be politically correct. To the Deaf Man, they were garbage men. The police would not assemble again for their little monthly ritual until the fourth of April.

In February, the commissioner himself had attended the festive little gathering here on the water's edge. He had not been present at the March seventh meeting. Also present at that first event had been two high-ranking police officers the Deaf Man recognized as Chief of Detectives Louis Fremont and Chief Inspector Curtis Fleet. They were not there in March. Neither were two deputy inspectors whom the Deaf Man had been unable to identify at the February conclave. No one from the media or the press showed up in March. Like everything else in America, only the first time was novelty. Even DesertStorm,that fine miniseries concocted for television, would have become boring if it had lasted a moment longer.Sic transit gloria mundi.The Deaf Man was not expecting much of a crowd on the fourth of April. Just enough policemen to supervise the job and to record the happening.

He took the binoculars from his eyes.

He would check the facility once again next week, to ensure that the routine was, in fact, unchanging. Then, on April fourth, he would be here for the monthly festivities. Until then, there was much to do.

Smiling, he went to the stern of the boat, where the girl was pouring herself another glass of champagne.

"Here, let me do that," he said.

"Thank you," she said. "Are you all finished with whatever it was you were doing?"

"The coastal survey, yes," he said.

She had a tiny breathless Marilyn Monroe voice and eyes the color of emeralds. He had advised her to wear rubber-soled shoes and to dress for what might turn out to be inclement weather. She had taken this to mean white sneakers without socks, short white shorts and a white T-shirt, a yellow rain slicker, and a yellow nor'wester pulled down over her long blond hair. She sat now with the coat open and the champagne glass in one hand, her long legs crossed, watching him as he poured. He guessed she was twenty-three years old, twenty-four at most.

"There we are," he said, topping off her glass, and then pouring one for himself.

"Thank you, Harry," she said. She had never liked the name Harry, but on him it was kind of cute. On him,anyname would be kind of cute.

He lifted his glass in a toast.

"To you," he said.

"Thank you," she said.

"And to me," he said.

"Okay," she said, and smiled.

"And to the beautiful music we'll make together."

She nodded, but said nothing. No need to make him feel too confident. They clinked glasses. They sipped champagne as the boat bobbed on the water and a raw wind blew in off the river, tearing the clouds to tatters, allowing the sunshine to break through at last.

"There's a CD player below," he said.

"Is there?"

Emerald eyes wide in interest.

"Do you think you might like to go down there?"

"Whatelseis down there?"

Champagne glass poised near her generous mouth. Lips slightly parted. One sneakered foot jiggling.

"A double bed..."

"Oh my."

"And more champagne."

"Mmm."

"And me," he said, and leaned over to kiss her.

She felt suddenly dizzy, and wondered if he'd put something in the champagne. And then she realized it was only the way he was kissing her that made her so dizzy, and she thought Oh boy am I in trouble. He lifted her from the banquette. Carried her across the bobbing deck to where there was an open doorway leading downstairs. Carried her down the stairway, a ladder she guessed you called it, into what looked like a small kitchen, a galley she guessed you called it, carried her up front, upforward,to where there was a double bed -- which was the only possible thing youcouldcall it.

As he lowered her gently to the bed, he said, "I'm going to fuck you senseless, Gail."

Which was her name.

And which she guessed he just might.

Copyright © 1993 by Hui Corp


Excerpted from Mischief by Ed McBain
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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