A Trouble of Fools (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Book 1)
Page 22
He admitted he was fine while gazing at me as though I might detonate my bomb-vest. The door burst open, and the receptionist thrust two bottles of Poland Spring into his outstretched hands.
The water slid down my throat, deliciously icy, while he asked about Marcy, whether she was coming to the meeting. When I told him it would just be me, he said he wasn’t disappointed, au contraire, he was delighted. Trying to be gallant, but I could see how uncomfortable he was. And I thought I could use that to my advantage. You know how good I am at staying quiet. He squirmed, then managed a weak smile and asked what he could do for me.
I didn’t answer.
“I hope you’re not worried about the advance. It’s a heartless business, all right, but nobody’s going to give you any trouble.”
“Jonathan,” I said, “listen to me. You can’t cancel this book.”
The words spoken; the battle joined.
He pushed back his chair, stood, and took three steps to the window, where he fussed with the angle of the blinds. He had a good view; a tiny closet of an office, but a glorious panorama of rooftops.
“I’ll finish the book,” I said. “I know: Teddy’s not here—but I can do it. You can put it out as a Blakemore, or you can use my name alone—whichever works for you.”
He kept his focus on the sky, as though waiting for a fireworks display.“I don’t know that we can go along with that.”
The royal we. The evasive, weaseling we. As if it weren’t Jonathan himself who had stabbed me through the heart. As if he hadn’t cast his vote of no confidence.
He returned to his desk and lowered himself into his chair. “I’m sure when you think things over, you’ll realize it’s for the best. You must be completely overwhelmed. Distraught.” If I hadn’t frozen him with my eyes, he might have leaned over and patted my hand.
“Teddy and I were colleagues,” I said. “Colleagues. Not lovers.”
“I thought—”
“A lot of people thought.” My throat dried up, and I took a hasty swig of Poland Spring.
“Don’t get yourself in a snit about repaying the advance right away. Take your time. We all know that—”
“Time is what I need. Time to finish the book.”
“Em, we’ve been over this—”
“Jonathan, what do you imagine my role was in the partnership?”
“I’m sure you did all—”
“I wrote the last book. Every word in it is mine.”
“Teddy’s reputation sold this project. You know that. Garrett Malcolm could have had anybody. He asked for Teddy.”
“Teddy? Or T. E?”
He glared at me like I was parsing him too closely, nitpicking.
“Jonathan. I’m the E. I’m the Moore.”
“You don’t handle the interviews.”
“I can manage the rest of the interviews,” I said, and the minute I said it, Teddy, I knew I could do it. “There aren’t that many. I have all Teddy’s tapes. He was almost done when…” I swallowed. “I have entire chapters of a finished manuscript. The early years are complete.”
“But—”
“I have a contract.”
Jonathan took some time unscrewing the cap on his bottled water. “The contract is an agreement with the two of you as the single legal entity T. E. Blakemore.”
“You could make it happen, Jonathan.”
“Malcolm can’t delay. He’s got other commitments.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“When you’re Garrett Malcolm, it doesn’t much matter, does it?”
“It’s basically follow-up now. A few meetings.”
“He liked Teddy.”
“Everyone liked Teddy.”
Jonathan wasn’t expecting me to agree with him. It threw off his timing. He fidgeted, then addressed himself to his desk blotter. “Malcolm won’t like working with awoman.”
“Jonathan, that’s exactly why I didn’t bring Marcy in on this. I didn’t want her to threaten you with a discrimination lawsuit.” The thought had truly never entered my head; it was like my tongue was talking without me.
“It’s that he’s had bad luck with… I didn’t mean—” He sputtered to a halt.
I knew I had him worried, that I’d somehow grabbed his attention, made him reconsider. “There would be a great deal of public sympathy for my position.”
“The project can’t be late.”
“Why not? It’s not like Malcolm’s in the news every day. He’s an icon. He’ll still be an icon.”
“You’re serious about this.”
“Completely.”
He gave me a careful once-over; I tried to look like a woman who’d never fainted in her life.
“What about the other interviews?” he asked. “Not the sessions with Malcolm. The prepublication interviews, the media, the talk shows?”
I gave him my best smile. “What Teddy used to say: ‘We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.’”
He tapped his fingers on his desk, swiveled his chair, sipped his drink. “Malcolm won’t like it.”
“But he’ll agree to it. He’ll agree if you tell him it will be fine, that the book will be everything it would have been if Teddy were still here. He trusts you, Jonathan.”
He stared at his hands. “I don’t know.”
“I need this book, Jonathan. That’s my bottom line. If you go after the advance, I’ll fight you every step of the way.”
“Em, I have to say I’m surprised.” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me as though he were seeing me for the first time.
“I’ll fight. I want you to be clear on that.” My heart was racing, pounding like it was trying to jump out of my chest.
His tongue edged between his teeth. “I’ll have to talk to some people.”
“You do that.”
“And Malcolm will have to agree to give you access.”
“I’m sure you can manage that, Jonathan. He signed the contract, too.”
I watched as Jonathan carefully balanced the pluses and minuses, the possibility of another best seller, the threat of a lawsuit, the difficulty of dealing with a woman who might faint.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said finally.
“I won’t keep you then.” Terrified my knees would buckle at each rapid step, I made it down the corridor, onto the turtle-slow elevator, all the way outside and around the corner before I collapsed on a concrete planter, drawing deep heaving breaths.
It hadn’t gone that bad; it hadn’t gone terribly wrong. He hadn’t outright refused me. I clasped my frigid hands to my cheeks. A passing jogger smiled, and I raised my face to the sun.
Also by Linda Barnes
THE BIG DIG
THE SNAKE TATTOO
DEEP POCKETS
COYOTE
STEEL GUITAR
SNAPSHOT
Available from St. Martin’s/Minotaur Paperbacks
OUTSTANDING PRAISE FOR LINDA BARNES AND HER MYSTERIES
A TROUBLE OF FOOLS
“Carlotta [is] pure gold.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Beautifully plotted, exciting, moving, and leavened with wit.”
—Robert B. Parker
“Carlotta Carlyle is one of the most refreshing private eyes to come along. [She] is the spunky sort of gal you’d like to have for a sister or best friend. She’s loyal, warm, persistent, intelligent, savvy—all the right stuff … [A] challenging and inventive plot.”
—Indianapolis News
“Carlotta bristles with vitality and a slightly sardonic view of herself and the world. She’s smart but not smart-alecky; the plot is bizarre but never beyond reason. Engaging and engrossing all the way.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“You will be caught up in Carlotta’s adventures. For she is one of the most sparkling, most irresistible heroines ever to grace the pages of a whodunit … It’s top-drawer all the way.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Even in the detective-glut
ted Boston area, it’s hard to miss Carlotta Carlyle … [Barnes] is an author who’s nobody’s fool when it comes to writing a slick lively story that’s all in good fun.”
—St. Petersburg Times
SNAPSHOT
“Barnes’s best work yet … some of the best detective fiction you’ll read.”
—Detroit Free Press
“A stunner!”
—Denver Post
“Irresistible!”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Barnes scored a direct hit with Steel Guitar, and her PI is in top form here.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Snapshot is destined to secure Barnes’s position in the hotshot ranks of detective fiction.”
—Arizona Republic
COLD CASE
“[A] vivid puzzler and a walloping good read … Lay in the supply of midnight oil before you pick up this book.”
—Albuquerque Journal
“A satisfyingly complex tale!”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A must for every mystery fan. Barnes is a master storyteller, and her latest—in a series that just keeps getting better—is a riveting read that is at once poignant, funny, sad, suspenseful, and hopeful.”
—Booklist
“Barnes continues to write some of the best female detective mysteries on the market today. Readers will dive into the action from start to finish. Carlotta is a great female sleuth and the supporting cast adds dichotomous local color to the tale.”
—Harriet Klausner, Painted Rock Reviews
“Engrossing … The pages keep turning.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Compelling.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Absorbing … Barnes keeps readers flipping pages … The quickly paced tale neatly balances thought and action, past events and present consequences.”
—Orlando Sentinel
“Cold Case is as good as it gets! Linda Barnes is one of today’s best authors, mystery or not. Each new book gives us the best in writing, plot and character development.”
—Kate’s Mystery Books
HARDWARE
“Ms. Barnes makes a fist and puts some muscle in this strong plot about an extortionist scheme to corner the market in the taxi medallions.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Warning, this is a difficult book to put down!”
—Kansas Ledger
“Barnes’s knack for crisp, snappy dialogue and devising a mystery that has both timeless and contemporary appeal is a winner.”
—Boston Herald
“More than Grafton and far more than Paretsky—Barnes manages to overcome the too tough tendencies of her detective with salvos of self-deprecating wit…”
—Booklist
COYOTE
“Like the best of the new detectives … [Carlotta Carlyle] is a woman of wit and gravity, compassion and toughness, a heroine worth spending time with … [Those of us] who yearn for whodunits with character as well wrought as plot, can only thank Linda Barnes.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Linda Barnes is once again brilliant. Coyote is damned good.”
—Robert B. Parker
“Carlotta Carlyle is better than ever, and Coyote is the perfect vehicle.”
—Sue Grafton
“Linda Barnes has another winner in Coyote … A great, only-in-Boston climax.”
—Jeremiah Healy
“The most refreshing, creative female character to hit mystery fiction since Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone … The other first ladies of crime better watch their backs.”
—People
“Her first-person prose is well-honed, and her touch is sure enough to float her fast-paced narrative while still allowing for sharp development of an intriguing cast of characters … Best of all, Barnes can turn a phrase well enough to make even Paretsky and Grafton jealous.”
—Houston Chronicle
DEEP POCKETS
“[There’s] plenty to keep a reader chasing after the delightful Carlyle while she chases after the bad guys.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Barnes weaves an intricate web with a pleasingly poisonous spider at its center … Barnes makes superb use of the town-grown tensions … The twists and turns in this nail-biter are at once startling without ever becoming absurd.”
—Publishers Weekly
“With Deep Pockets, Barnes locks in her position as one of the foremost practitioners of middle-of-the-road, character-based mystery … I suppose I could have put it down. But I didn’t want to.”
—Orson Scott Card
THE BIG DIG
“Pure pleasure.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A true page-turner … Nobody knows Boston like Linda Barnes’s red-haired private investigator Carlotta Carlyle … Barnes’s knack for crisp, snappy dialogue, and devising a mystery that has both timeless and contemporary appeal is a winner.”
—Boston Herald
“Barnes grabs the detective genre by the throat but rarely lets style overtake substance. The plot is thick and original and sure to surprise.”
—Washington Times
“Carlotta Carlyle combines the sensitivity of Robert Parker’s Spenser with the stubbornness of Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski and she’s rapidly carving out a place of her own.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A shrewd piece of writing, well researched and smartly told.”
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“Carlotta is an engaging narrator with a brisk, easygoing style … a worthy competitor in the private-eye business.”
—The Washington Post
THE SNAKE TATTOO
“A rivetingly well-told story.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Barnes’s crisp writing and winsome cab-driving detective make this a smooth ride from start to stop … Carlyle earns rave reviews and a plea for encores.”
—Cincinnati Post
“Move over, Spenser, make permanent room on the streets of Boston for another sleuth who’s big (six feet one), strong and tough as nails but soft at the core.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“It’s always a pleasure to spend time with this zesty detective … Carlotta has class and spirit to spare.”
—Baltimore Sun
A TROUBLE OF FOOLS
Copyright © 1987 by Linda Appelblatt Barnes.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-35943-8
EAN: 80312-35943-0
St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition published 1987
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / July 2006
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN 9781466835818
First eBook edition: December 2012