Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon pptx

[...]... encouraged by his silence “She’d love to meet you Oh, did I mention? She’s drop-dead gorgeous, early forties but looks about thirty-two And she made it clear that money wasn’t an issue You could pretty much name your price Seriously—two Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 14 5/25/11 8:43 AM SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT 15 hundred dollars an hour would not be a problem Not that you’d be motivated by anything... Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 12 5/25/11 8:43 AM SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT 13 off—back window of the cottage open, no gardener in sight Pretty soon every cop in the county is at the scene In case you didn’t get the message yet, these are very important people Case ends up in our lap at BCI, specifically in my lap Starts out simple—find the crazy gardener Then it starts getting complicated This was not your average gardener The... to the issue at hand “What do you want, Jack?” “You got any actual live chickens on that farm of yours, running around clucking and shitting, or is that ‘up with the chickens’ just some kind of folksy saying?” “What do you want, Jack?” Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 10 5/25/11 8:43 AM SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT 11 “Why the hell would I want anything? Can’t one old buddy just call another old buddy for.. .SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT 9 justify his hostility to the fluffy-tailed rats, but the ringing of the phone intervened—in fact, the ringing of two phones intervened simultaneously, the wired phone in the den and his... detective So I’m laying this golden egg in your lap.” “That’s great, Jack, but I’m not in the PI business.” “For the love of God, Davey, just talk to her That’s all I’m asking you to do Just talk to her She’s lonely, vulnerable, beautiful, with big bucks to burn And deep down inside, Davey boy, deep down Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 15 5/25/11 8:43 AM 16 JOHN VERDON inside there’s something wild in... patience “Okay You’re retired I got it Now give me two minutes to explain the opportunity here.” “Jack, for the love of Christ ” “Two lousy minutes Two You’re so fucking busy massaging your retirement golf balls you can’t spare your old partner two minutes?” The image triggered the tiny tic in Gurney’s eyelid “We were never partners.” “How the hell can you say that?” “We worked on a couple of cases together... other avenues worth exploring It’s possible Hector was not what he appeared to be The whole thing had a funny feel to it.” “So what happened?” Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 13 5/25/11 8:43 AM 14 JOHN VERDON “I told Rodriguez he was full of shit.” “Really?” Gurney smiled for the first time “Yeah, really So I was taken off the case And it was given to Blatt.” “Blatt!?” The name tasted like a mouthful... individually discovered separate halves of the victim’s severed body That sort of serendipity in detection can forge a strong, if bizarre, bond Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 11 5/25/11 8:43 AM 12 JOHN VERDON Hardwick lowered his voice into the sincere-pathetic register “Do I get two minutes or don’t I?” Gurney gave up “Go ahead.” Hardwick jumped back into his characteristic carnival-barkerwith-throat-cancer... seconds, let people know you’re still alive.” “Jack, why the hell are you calling me?” “I’m handing you the case of a lifetime.” “I’m not a cop anymore You’re not making any sense.” “Maybe your hearing is failing in your old age What are you, forty-eight or eighty-eight? Listen up Here’s the meat of the story The daughter of one of the richest neurosurgeons in the world marries a controversial hotshot... grief, he’d discovered, was not an experience you went through once and then “moved on” (as the idiotic popular phrase would have it) The truth was that it came over you in successive waves—waves separated by periods of numbness, periods of forgetfulness, periods of ordinary living “You still there?” Gurney grunted Hardwick went on “I want to do what I can for these people Besides—” “Besides,” Gurney broke . Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Verdon, John. Shut your eyes tight / by John Verdon. —1st ed. p. cm. 1. Detectives—New York (State)—New. name your price. Seriously—two Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 14Verd_9780307717894_4p_01_r1.c.indd 14 5/25/11 8:43 AM5/25/11 8:43 AM SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT 15 hundred