I knew time was slipping away, and I knew I had to leave, but it was like I was frozen to the shiny clean floor. I wanted her to stir. I wanted her eyes to flicker open. I wanted her to yank out the ventilator tube and look to me and say, “Lewis, what the hell is going on here?”
Nothing happened.
The machinery clicked and whirred. Her chest rose up and down.
I squeezed her hand, kissed her where I could, and then left.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
In the parking lot of the hospital, I rejoined Felix and wiped at my eyes. “Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it.”
“No problem.”
He drove us out of the parking lot, and I said, “No, Felix. I mean ⦠this is taking you away from your paying union gig and who knows what else.”
Felix laughed. “I was getting tired of that union job, to tell you the truth. Too much skulking around, too many times I had to sit still and hear about the problems of the working class while Joe Manzi had plans on expanding his Aruba condo stuck in his briefcase. Besides, this sounds like it's going to be ⦠interesting, and I've been bored lately.”
“Glad I could help you out.”
In a few minutes we were out of Exonia and were briefly back in Tyler as we took I-95 south to Boston. Felix said, “All right, all I ask is two things. Okay?”
“What's that?”
“First is, my assistance here is never acknowledged publicly or privately to anyone else. Word gets around that I'm helping you in connection with a police detective, even one as fair as Diane Woods, who's arrested me at least three times, well, it would look bad.”
“Fine, that's easy,” I said. “What's the other demand?”
Even in the flowing traffic, he looked right at me. “That there's no bullshit here, okay? We're off on a trip here that's going to have some serious consequences, so I need to know, in what way am I helping you? Okay? You've got me here, and this is a job, but I need to know up front what you have planned.”
Inside the Cadillac, it was warm, and safe, and so very comfortable.
“Fair enough,” I said. “Felix, I want to find out who this Curt Chesak is, and I want to track him down.”
“All right, and what happens after that?”
“Felix,” I said, the dark words coming out but sounding so very right, “after I find him, I'm going to talk to him so he knows who I am and why I'm there.”
A slight pause. Felix asked, “Then what?”
“Then I'm going to kill him,” I said as we made our way south.
Â
OTHER LEWIS COLE MYSTERIES BY BRENDAN DuBOIS
Primary Storm
Buried Dreams
Killer Waves
Shattered Shell
Black Tide
Dead Sand
ALSO BY BRENDAN DuBOIS
Twilight
Betrayed
Resurrection Day
6 Days
Final Winter
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.
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group.
DEADLY COVE
. Copyright © 2011 by Brendan DuBois. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DuBois, Brendan.
Deadly cove : a Lewis Cole mystery / Brendan DuBois. â 1st hardcover ed.
        p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-56634-0
1. Cole, Lewis (Fictitious character)âFiction.  2. JournalistsâFiction.  3. New HampshireâFiction.  I. Title.
PS3554.U2564D44 2011
813'.54âdc22
2011007074
First Edition: July 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8323-5
First Minotaur Books eBook Edition: July 2011