Every Brilliant Eye (29 page)

“You know Sunburn’s dead. Grice killed him.”

“I know. It was in Jed’s piece. I guess I’m responsible for that too. I didn’t have Grice down as the type to go over the edge. I came into this one a half-beat off and never did catch up to the melody.”

“He was over there, Sunburn was. He must’ve known his chances.”

“I never liked him much. He was just a little too arrogant about having given up the use of his legs for his country. But he could be counted on not to talk. See, that’s the thing. You’ve been tested in that area, but not the way he was.”

“You don’t have to explain, Barry. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Like hell.”

“It’s not a thing I want on a paying basis.”

I’d spoken sharply. The words hung in the air for a moment. We watched each other. Then he glanced at his wristwatch. “Buy you a drink?”

“You bought the last one.” I lifted the bottle and two pony glasses out of the bottom drawer of the desk, got up and splashed water into the glasses in the little washroom. Back at the desk I filled them the rest of the way from the bottle. Barry picked up one.

“Cold steel.”

I shook my head and lifted mine. “The death of friends.”

He hesitated the barest instant, looking at me, before drinking his down.

The telephone rang and I answered it the usual way.

After he left I locked up and started for home. On the way I stopped in a corner bar, ordered two double Scotches, and drank them back to back. They didn’t work any magic so I went out. I buttoned my coat. The air was metal cold and the skyline to the east had a smoky look of coming rain. Westward the sun had gone down under a violet sky. I didn’t look at it long. The color reminded me of Louise Starr’s eyes, and I never saw them again.

Loren D. Estleman (b. 1952) is the award-winning author of over sixty-five novels, including mysteries and westerns.

Raised in a Michigan farmhouse constructed in 1867, Estleman submitted his first story for publication at the age of fifteen and accumulated 160 rejection letters over the next eight years. Once
The Oklahoma Punk
was published in 1976, success came quickly, allowing him to quit his day job in 1980 and become a fulltime writer.

Estleman’s most enduring character, Amos Walker, made his first appearance in 1980’s
Motor City Blue
, and the hardboiled Detroit private eye has been featured in twenty novels since. The fifth Amos Walker novel,
Sugartown
, won the Private Eye Writers of America’s Shamus Award for best hardcover novel of 1985. Estleman’s most recent Walker novel is
Infernal Angels
.

Estleman has also won praise for his adventure novels set in the Old West. In 1980,
The High Rocks
was nominated for a National Book Award, and since then Estleman has featured its hero, Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock, in seven more novels, most recently 2010’s
The Book of Murdock
. Estleman has received awards for many of his standalone westerns, receiving recognition for both his attention to historical detail and the elements of suspense that follow from his background as a mystery author.
Journey of the Dead
, a story of the man who murdered Billy the Kid, won a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, and a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

In 1993 Estleman married Deborah Morgan, a fellow mystery author. He lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Loren D. Estleman in a Davy Crockett ensemble at age three aboard the Straits of Mackinac ferry with his brother, Charles, and father, Leauvett.

Estleman at age five in his kindergarten photograph. He grew up in Dexter, Michigan.

Estleman in his study in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, in the 1980s. The author wrote more than forty books on the manual typewriter he is working on in this image.

Estleman and his family. From left to right: older brother, Charles; mother, Louise; father, Leauvett; and Loren.

Estleman and Deborah Morgan at their wedding in Springdale, Arkansas, on June 19, 1993.

Estleman with actor Barry Corbin at the Western Heritage Awards in Oklahoma City in 1998. The author won Outstanding Western Novel for his book
Journey of the Dead
.

Loren signing books at Eyecon in St. Louis in 1999. He was the guest of honor.

Estleman and his fellow panelists at Bouchercon in 2000. From left to right: Harper Barnes, John Lutz, Loren D. Estleman, Max Allan Collins, and Stuart M. Kaminsky.

Estleman and his wife, Deborah, signing together while on a tour through Colorado in 2003.