Blood Orange
Page 30
The horizon, a smudged line of dark blue chalk, marked the mating of ocean and sky. I shaded my eyes with a hand and turned to look to the east.
Two thousand four hundred miles from here, as the seagull flies, a small city looking westward was ending its workday, the residents shoving their chairs under their desks and heading outdoors. I could almost see the red-tile roofs climbing the steep terra-cotta mountains, and the sparkling blue harbor guarded by a line of ancient islands, a barricade of mythic whales.
At 101 Mission, in a run-down bungalow court, a woman in a hot pink tracksuit at least one size too small was shutting down her computer, rinsing the coffeepot, and turning keys and spinning locks in a secret, intricate ceremony I would never fully comprehend.
“Zave,” I called across the sand. “After that nap in the condo?
“Yeah, baby?”
“It’s time to go home.”
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my talented editor, Kat Brzozowski, for taking a risk and choosing to work with me, and for so generously giving me her discerning assistance.
My agent, Becca Stumpf, is the agent every writer dreams of. She’s whip-smart, warm-hearted, and wise. Thanks for all your help, Becca.
Thanks to each and every member of the extended Reich family, for never once suggesting I get a real job. To yachtsman Tom Reich for telling me how to sabotage a boat, and to Kevin Reich for educating me on the subject of cool cars. To Corey Reich, for inspiring us all.
Muchas gracias to Monica Carrillo and Imelda Irabien, who helped correct my cultural shortsightedness.
To Shelly Lowenkopf, Story Magus, thank you for mentoring me and always prodding me toward the thornier path.
Loving thanks to Casey Dellabarca, who put up with a distracted writer of a parent for many years, yet thrived.
To all of you who have trusted me and shared the stories of your lives, I am grateful.
Most of all, thanks to my partner Salvatore Dellabarca, for his support and love. Thank God Salvi’s not a writer—what stories he could tell!
A portion of the author’s proceeds from this book will be donated to The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism (www.cartercenter.org).
About the Author
KAREN KESKINEN was born in Salinas, California. She has also lived in California’s San Joaquin Valley and in Wellington, New Zealand. She now resides in Santa Barbara, where she is a full-time writer.
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.
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
BLOOD ORANGE. Copyright © 2013 by Karen Keskinen. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: Girl © Shannon Soule; orange grove © Milacroft/Shutterstock.com; oranges © Draw05/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Keskinen, Karen.
Blood orange / Karen Keskinen.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Thomas Dunne book.”
ISBN 978-1-250-01233-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02833-4 (e-book)
1. Women private investigators—Fiction. 2. Teenage girls—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. California—Fiction. 4. Secrets—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3611.E834B58 2013
813'.6—dc23
2013006983
e-ISBN 9781250028334
First Edition: June 2013