Vengeance (27 page)

Authors: Stuart M. Kaminsky

BOOK: Vengeance

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I tried not to think about it, but trying didn’t help.

SALLY AND I
went to a movie, something at Burns Court, something in French set in the distant past, costumes, horses, palaces, love, tragedy. We ate popcorn. My mind was on a beach.

Both of us ate lightly at the Bangkok Restaurant. I couldn’t finish my pad thai. I always finished pad thai.

“Lew, where are you?” she asked.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m coming back.”

“Remember,” she said. “I told you the kids are away for the weekend.”

“I remember,” I said.

She played with her food for a few seconds and looked at me.

“I’m not ready, Lew,” she said.

“I’m not either.”

The restaurant was Saturday-night crowded. No one was paying any attention to us. Sally had worn a blue dress with a wide belt. Her earrings dangled with blue stones that caught the light. Her dark hair looked different
than it had the day before. It had been cut and brushed back off of her ears.

“Let’s be friends for a while,” she said. “See where it goes. See when we’re ready. I don’t even know if my body remembers how to do it.”

“I’ve heard you never forget.”

“Disappointed?”

“Yes and no. Relieved in a way. You want to talk about your husband?”

“Yes, if you want to listen.”

“I want to listen.”

“You want to talk about your wife?”

“I think so.”

“You want to go first?” she asked.

The waiter brought us more tea and I said,

“Catherine. Her name was Catherine.”

ALSO BY STUART M. KAMINSKY

Toby Peters Mysteries

Bullet for a Star
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road
You Bet Your Life
The Howard Hughes Affair
Never Cross a Vampire
High Midnight
Catch a Falling Clown
He Done Her Wrong
The Fala Factor
Down for the Count
The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance
Smart Moves
Think Fast, Mr. Peters
Buried Caesars
Poor Butterfly
The Melting Clock
The Devil Met a Lady
Tomorrow Is Another Day
Dancing in the Dark
A Fatal Glass of Beer

Abe Lieberman Mysteries

Lieberman’s Folly
Lieberman’s Choice
Lieberman’s Day
Lieberman’s Thief
Lieberman’s Law
The Big Silence

Nonseries Novels

When the Dark Man Calls
Exercise in Terror

Biographies

Don Siegel: Director
Clint Eastwood
John Huston, Maker of Magic
Coop: the Life and Legend of Gary
Cooper

Other Nonfiction

American Film Genres
American Television Genres (with
Jeffrey Mahan)
Basic Filmmaking
(with Dana Hodgdon)
Writing for Television
(with Mark Walker)

Porfiry Rostnikov Novels

Death of a Dissident
Black Knight in Red Square
Red Chameleon
A Cold, Red Sunrise
A Fine Red Rain
Rostnikon’s Vacation
The Man Who Walked Like a Bear
Death of a Russian Priest
Hard Currency
Blood and Rubles
Tarnished Icons
The Dog Who Bit a Policeman

Praise for
Vengeance

“Not content with creating Toby Peters, Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, and Abe Lieberman, Kaminsky launches a new series about Lew Fonesca, a process server who drifted to Sarasota after a car killed his wife in Chicago … . Kaminsky pulls off climactic suspense for each [mystery]. The biggest news, though, is his depressed little Lancelot in Levi’s, who’s worth at least a dozen more installments.”

—
Kirkus Reviews
(pointer review)

“The first episode in a new series by Edgar-winner Kaminsky is a very satisfying, exciting read. Fonesca is a decent, troubled man hoping to recover his emotional focus, in part by forcing himself to care more for his clients than he does for himself. Kaminsky surrounds him with a unique, carefully drawn cast of secondary characters, including a seventy-something former rancher who is handy with guns and lives by the code of the Old West. Readers will be demanding the sequel before they’ve finished the debut.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“The tale spins out nicely, and the book offers a wryly affectionate portrait of Sarasota as well.”

—
St. Petersburg Times

“Depressed, middle-aged, and homely, Lew Fonesca seems an unlikely hero, but his sensitivity, common sense, and keen wit make him a likeable, intriguing character. Kaminsky, an old hand at character development, has created several fascinating people for this new series. Fonesca’s budding romance, as well as the superb mystery angle, insure that this series will be a popular one.”

—
Romantic Times

“Perhaps it is time to declare award-winning Stuart Kaminsky as the reigning monarch of excellent detective series.”

—
Midwest Book Review

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

VENGEANCE

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

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Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781466803077

First eBook Edition : October 2011

First edition: September 1999
First mass market edition: November 2000