The Lonely Witness
Page 24
She picks up the coffee can and walks out to the fence. The tide is low. The water is kicking up around the rocks. She sees a rat and slimy green moss spreading out, plus a few lost tennis balls and six-pack rings floating in the scum. The Belt Parkway thrums behind her. She’ll be part of that sound soon. She pries the plastic lid off the can and dumps her father onto the rocks. “I guess everyone just needs a place to sleep,” she says. “I guess you deserve that much, Fred.” The ashes turn dark on the rocks and then the water sloshes over them and they’re gone. Amy doesn’t think to say a prayer. She throws the coffee can out in a black plastic garbage bag hanging from the fence.
Back in the car, she settles under the wheel and starts the engine and pops in a cassette. L7’s Bricks Are Heavy. Her phone is dead. She doesn’t want a phone anymore. She wants to be alone on the roads between here and wherever, just her and the music. She wants to arrive in the arms of a new city like someone would’ve arrived somewhere a long time ago: tired, out of touch, desperate for contact. Maybe she’ll feel new for a while, this most recent wreck a movie she never wants to watch again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generosity, support, and encouragement of:
Nat Sobel; Judith Weber; Siobhan McBride; Sara Henry; Kristen Pini; Adia Wright; Katie McGuire; Claiborne Hancock; François Guérif; Simon Baril; Oliver Gallmeister; Marie Moscoso; Jeanne Guyon; Sebastien Bonifay; all the wonderful booksellers and readers in France; Alex Andriesse; Jimmy Cajoleas; Megan Abbott; Ace and Angela Atkins; Jack Pendarvis and Theresa Starkey; Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly; Chris Offutt and Melissa Ginsburg; Lee Durkee; Tyler Keith; Burke Nixon; Abby Greenbaum; Anya Groner; Kevin Fitchett and Rachel Smith; David Swider and the End of All Music; David Shirley; Gary Short; John and Heather Brandon; Willy Vlautin; J. David Osborne; Dave Newman and Lori Jakiela; Micah Adler; Richard and Lisa Howorth, Cody Morrison, Lyn Roberts, Bill Cusumano, Slade Lewis, Katelyn O’Brien, and everyone at Square Books; and, particularly, Katie Farrell Boyle, Eamon Boyle, Connolly Jean Boyle, Geraldine Giannini, and Rosemary Giannini.
COMING FROM PEGASUS BOOKS IN SEPTEMBER 2018
“A taut exploration of the ways we hurt and save (or try to save) one another. With unforgettable characters, a fist for a plot and a deeply evocative setting, Boyle navigates alleys and streets with the best of them, Lehane, Price, and Pelecanos.” —Tom Franklin, author of Poachers
It’s been sixteen years since “Ray Boy” Calabrese’s actions led to the death of a young man. The victim’s brother, Conway D’Innocenzio, is now a 29-year-old Brooklynite wasting away at a local Rite Aid, stuck in the past and drawn into a darker side of himself when he hears that Ray Boy’s has been released. But even with the perfect plan in place, Conway can’t bring himself to take the ultimate revenge.
Meanwhile, failed actress Alessandra returns to her native Gravesend after the death of her mother, torn between a desperate need to escape immediately back to LA and the ease with which she sinks back into neighborhood life. Alessandra and Conway are walking eerily similar paths—staring down the rest of their lives, caring for their aging fathers, lost in the youths they squandered—and each must decide what comes next.
In the tradition of American noir authors like Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy, William Boyle’s Gravesend brings the titular neighborhood to life in this story of revenge, desperation, and escape.
“With echoes of Lehane and Pelecanos but with a rhythm and poignancy all its own, it’s a gripping tale of family, revenge, the strains of the past and the losses that never leave us.” —Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
“Gravesend kicks ass! An irresistible combo of an insider’s tour of Brooklyn and true and authentic 21st Century Noir. Boyle is one to watch.”
—Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Fallen
“A book that hits you in the guts the same way David Goodis or Charles Willeford’s books do. Boyle’s mining that dark edge of America where no one is safe, not even from themselves.” —Willy Vlautin, author of The Free
“Peopled by ex-cons and ex-cops, teenage gangsters and Russian mobsters, Gravesend creates a claustrophobic intimacy as it moves swiftly to its shocking end. I finished the book grateful for release from its relentless grip, and admiring the guts it took to write such a brutal story.”
—Chris Offutt, author of Kentucky Straight
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THE LONELY WITNESS
Pegasus Books, Ltd.
148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2018 by William Boyle
First Pegasus Books hardcover edition May 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-68177-795-5
ISBN: 978-1-68177-815-0 (e-book)
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.