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He said, "Hang on a sec" He clicked off, was gone briefly, and then clicked on again "Sorry to cut it short, but I got a call co in Let me knohat you decide"
"I’ll do that," I said "And thanks Keep safe"
"You, too," he said and he was gone
I set the receiver down, still staring at the phone A murder contract? How many times had someone tried to kill ht defensively, but this was so new Nobody (that I knew of) had ever put out a contract onup the subject with a hit , it was hard to i that way Was the work seasonal? Were there any fringe benefits? Was the price discounted since there were four of us to whack? I had to agree with Galishoff-fifteen hundred bucks was bullshit In the movies, hit men are paid fifty to a hundred thou, possibly because an audience wants to believe human life is worth that I suppose I should have been flattered I was included in the deal A public defender, a DA, and a judge? Distinguished company for a smalltown private eye likemyself to call Maybe the crisis would pass before I had to take any steps to protect myself The real question ould I mention this to Henry Pitts? Naaah It would just upset him and as the point?
When the knock at the door came, I jumped like I’d been shot I didn’t exactly flatten ainst the wall, but I exercised a bit of caution when I peered out to see as there It was Rosie, ns the tavern in arian, with a last name I don’t pronounce and couldn’t spell on a dare I suppose she’s abrowbeaten by aone of her reen, printed with islands, palm trees, and parrots in hot pink and chartreuse She was holding a plate covered with a paper napkin
When I opened the door, she pushed it toward me without preamble, which has always been her style Soht you some strudel for your birthday," she said "Not apple It’s nut The best I ever onna wish you had more"
"Well, Rosie, how nice!" I lifted a corner of the napkin The strudel had a nibbled look, but she hadn’t snitched very much
"It looks wonderful," I said
"It was Klotilde’s idea," she said in a fit of candor Rosie’s in her sixties, short, top-heavy, her hair dyed the utterly faux orange-red of new bricks I’m not certain what product she uses to achieve the effect (probably soles in from Budapest on her biannual trips ho the part She had pulled the sides back today and affixed them with barrettes, a style much favored in the five-year-old set I’d spent the last teeks helping her find a board-and-care facility for her sister Klotilde, who’d recently h, where the winters were getting to be too much for her Rosie doesn’t drive and since my apartment is just down the street from her little restaurant, it seemed expedient for me to help her find a place for Klotilde to live Like Rosie, Klotilde was short and heavyset with an addiction to the same hair dye that tinted Rosie’s scalp pink and turned her tresses such a peculiar shade of red Klotilde was in a wheelchair, suffering froenerative disease that left her cranky and ih Rosie swore she’d always been that way Theirs was a bickering relationship and after an afternoon in their presence, I was cranky and i out fifteen or sixteen possibilities, we’d finally found a place that seeround-floor roo on the east side of town, so I was now off the hook
"You want to come in?" I held the door open while Rosie considered the invitation
She seehtly on her feet She becomes coquettish at times, usually when she’s suddenly unsure of herself On her own turf, she’s as aggressive as a Canada goose "Youher eyes
"Oh, come on," I said "I’d love the coreat job"
She wiggled once and then sidestepped her way into the living room She seemed to survey the room out of the corner of her eye "Oh Very nice"
"I love it You should see the loft," I said I set the strudel on the counter and quickly put soh the place, up the spiral steps and down, showing her the trundle bed, the cubbyholes, the pegs for hanging clothes Sheerness of et a beau unless I have more than one dress