Providence Rag: A Liam Mulligan Novel (38 page)

September 2012

The pain in his chest is returning. He presses the red call button for the nurse. Ten minutes later, she still has not come.

He looks at the wall clock and realizes it has been only an hour since his last shot of Demerol. It will be another sixty minutes before the bitch will give him another one.

He picks up the remote and flips through the channels.
Celebrity Apprentice. The Golden Girls. Battlestar Galactica. Hillbilly Handfishin’.
Jesus, what a bunch of crap.

The cop stationed outside his door steps in, glares at him for a moment, then ducks back into the hallway. The cop, or others like him, will remain there, the man knows, until he’s well enough to appear in court for his extradition hearing.

More channel flipping. Finally, he hits on something worth watching.
Jason X,
a slasher movie about Jason Voorhees, one of his favorite characters. He’s never seen this one; it was made while he was in prison.

He slides his right hand, the one that doesn’t have an IV stuck in it, under the coarse hospital sheet and gives himself a tug. His erection rises, then deflates. What the hell?

The drugs, maybe. Yeah. That must be it.

By the time the movie ends, his chest is on fire. He presses the call button maybe fifty times. Finally, the bitch comes in with his silver needle. The pain recedes.

He drifts off.…

He is behind the condo again, peering through the windows. The kitchen is empty. He sits in the wet grass and removes his sneakers. Then he pulls a glass cutter from his little black valise and carves a hole in the window. He reaches through it, unlocks the latch, raises the sash, and crawls inside.

He tiptoes out of the kitchen and pads across the living room rug. Someone is sleeping on the sofa. He slips the combat knife from the sheath on his belt and swings it in an arc, tearing out the sleeper’s throat. There is a gun on the coffee table. A big, heavy pistol. He picks it up, sticks it in his waistband, and wipes his knife blade clean on the leather couch.

Then he turns and stealthily climbs the stairs. Somewhere up there, the girl of his dreams is waiting. He feels himself getting hard.

At long last, he will hear Felicia scream.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In September 2011, Thomas H. Cook, one of the finest writers of my generation, accepted my invitation to lunch at a pub in St. Louis. He welcomed the chance to catch up with an old pal. I had something more in mind. For two hours, the Jedi prose master listened patiently as I droned on about my muddled idea for a third crime novel, prodding me with questions and offering priceless suggestions. A year later, when I completed the first draft, I was pleased with each chapter but not with the way they fit together. Something wasn’t right, but darned if I could figure out what it was. I sheepishly sent the manuscript to Susanna Einstein, who is not only a great agent but the best story doctor I’ve ever known. She promptly identified the problem and offered a solution. As always, my wife, Patricia Smith, one of our finest living poets, edited every line of every page, adding music to my occasionally toneless prose. If not for their brilliance and generosity, this novel might never have been written. Every writer should have such friends.

Forge Books by Bruce DeSilva

Rogue Island

Cliff Walk

Providence Rag

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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 Books’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
.

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.

PROVIDENCE RAG

Copyright © 2014 Bruce DeSilva

All rights reserved.

Cover photograph by Getty Images

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

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

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

DeSilva, Bruce.

    Providence Rag: a Liam Mulligan novel / Bruce DeSilva.

          p. cm.—(A Liam Mulligan novel; 3)

ISBN 978-0-7653-7429-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4668-4142-0 (e-book)

  1.  Journalists—Fiction.   2.  Providence (R.I.)—Fiction.   I.  Title.

   PS3604.E7575P78 2014

   813'.6—dc23

2013025786

e-ISBN 9781466841420

First Edition: March 2014