Joe learned all this while sitting on the edge of Votto’s bed, holding McCleary’s gun on him. Joe had killed the guard planted outside of Votto’s house, and then when he got inside he had found Votto asleep. But now he had everything he needed: the name of the man responsible for the execution of his mother and where the girl was—a brothel in Philadelphia. That was the one concession they made to Votto after all the trouble he had caused. The girl wouldn’t work in New York anymore. So Philadelphia would be Joe’s first stop.
He stood up from the bed. “What are you going to do with me?” Votto asked.
Joe put McCleary’s gun away and took out his new hammer. He sunk it deep into Votto’s forehead and left it there. He wanted them to know he was coming.
Also Available from Pushkin Vertigo
“A dark, atmospheric, powerful thriller, the best debut novel I've read in years” Lynda La Plante
“Ferociously noir… If Chandler and Hammett had truly walked on the wild side, it would read like Clinch” Val McDermid
“A gritty, stylish debut from a Swedish history teacher and in Kvist he has created a brutal anti-hero quite unlike any seen in crime fiction before” Express
Copyright
Pushkin Vertigo
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Copyright © The Herring Wonder Inc. 2013
First published in the United States by Byliner Inc. 2013
First published by Pushkin Vertigo in 2016
ISBN 978 1 782272 95 3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Pushkin Press
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You Were Never Really Here Page 6