Read A Scourge of Vipers Online
Authors: Bruce DeSilva
A Scourge of Vipers (34 page)
After we signed off, I wandered into McCracken's office.
“I'll have to clear it with Annunzio,” he said.
Ten minutes later, he popped his head into my office and gave the okay. I spent the rest of the day pounding out the story. After I checked it over, I e-mailed it to Mason. Then I leaned back in my chair and allowed myself to dream a little.
After a half hour or so, I bent over the keyboard and searched the real estate listings for Jamestown, the town that occupies the largest island in Narragansett Bay. In a year or so, I'd have enough cash from Joseph to make a down payment. Something cozy and secluded with a view of the water. If Yolanda relented and let me move in, I wouldn't need it, but it could be our place to slip away for romantic weekends. Putting it in my name would be a risk, but Tuukka & Associates Insurance Underwriters of North America could hold the title. Nobody had to know that I was the sole stockholder.
Life after
The Dispatch
was coming into focus now, and I was starting to like the way it looked.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Whenever I visited Rosie at Swan Point Cemetery, it had nearly always been raining, but Saturday morning dawned clear. The sky was alive with Canada geese getting an early start on their annual pilgrimage from Hudson Bay to the Chesapeake.
I opened my gym bag, pawed through my basketball shoes and gym shorts, and found the Manny Ramirez jersey. I draped it over the gravestone, squatted in the grass, and gave Rosie a hug.
“No, I don't think I'm going to miss newspaper work, Rosie.
The Dispatch
isn't worth working for anymore anyway. Besides, wasn't twenty-two years as a reporter enough? It's time for me to start a new chapter. The truth is, I'm not sure how much good I ever did there anyway.⦠Yeah, I know. I exposed a lot of bad people over the years. But most of them were just errand boys. The real corrupters always got clean away.
“Well, look at how things worked out this time, Rosie. Two of the Alfanos ended up dead, but the people who hired them keep getting richer. Cheryl Grandison will do time for bugging Fiona's office, but I never laid a hand on the deep-pocket organizations that tried to buy our state legislature. The state budget is still in the crapper, the best cop I ever knew is behind bars, and
Citizens United
is still the law of the land.
“America is being poisoned by big money, Rosie. Casino money. Oil money. Big Pharma money. Wall Street money. It makes a mockery of our elections. It corrupt our cops and politicians, even some of the ones who entered public service for the right reasons. And somehow, the fat cats and their acolytes have convinced half the population that the avaricious pursuit of wealth is a virtue.
“What's that?⦠What am
I
going to do about it?
“I'm heading to Begley Arena, Rosie. The guys who failed the Vipers' tryouts are gathering for a pickup game, and they need one more to play five-on-five.”
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Whatever is right about this book can be attributed largely to three remarkable women who were with me every step of the way. Susanna Einstein, my agent, is one of the best story doctors in creation. Claire Eddy, my editor at Forge, is both supportive and an exacting taskmaster. And Patricia Smith, one of the finest poets working in English, edited every line, adding musical notes to my sometimes toneless prose. Of the three, only Patricia sleeps with me.
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Bruce DeSilva
's crime fiction has won the Edgar and Macavity Awards, has been listed as a finalist for the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry Awards, and has been published in ten foreign languages. His short stories have appeared in Akashic Press's award-winning noir anthologies, and his book reviews have appeared in
The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Publishers Weekly,
and scores of other publications.
DeSilva
was a journalist for forty years, most recently as worldwide writing coach for the Associated Press, editing stories that won nearly every major journalism prize, including the Pulitzer. He has worked as a consultant for fifty newspapers, taught at the University of Michigan and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and lectured at Harvard University's Nieman Foundation. He and his wife, the poet Patricia Smith, live in New Jersey with two enormous dogs named Brady and Rondo. Find him online at
www.brucedesilva.com
, or sign up for email updates
here
.
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Forge Books by
Bruce DeSilva
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CONTENTS
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A SCOURGE OF VIPERS
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Copyright © 2015 by Bruce DeSilva
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All rights reserved.
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Cover photographs by Getty Images
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A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
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Forge
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is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
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eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected]
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
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ISBN 978-0-7653-7431-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-4143-7 (e-book)
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e-ISBN 9781466841437
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First Edition: April 2015