by G. M. Ford
The boy squatted in the bushes for the rest of the afternoon, until the evening bugs threatened to eat him alive. Near the end of the bottle, the two men cried together for the longest time. As dark descended and a single shaft of yellow light from the kitchen window crept across the lawn, they said their good-byes. His father was unsteady as he walked the soldier back to the Ford. They hugged again before the soldier got in the car and drove away.
His father stood there until the darkness and the dust had both settled to the ground. Had Mother not come out and taken him into the house, he might be standing there still.
45
H e walked gingerly, like a man recently recovered from an illness. He kept his eyes on his feet as they slipped and slid across the sanded parking lot, only occasionally glancing at his surroundings. The arrival of a FedEx truck forced him to wait on the far side of the driveway. To steady himself, he put a hand on the trunk of the nearest car. The sheet metal was smooth and cold to the touch. With his other hand, he held his jacket closed across his chest. While he waited for the truck to pass, he looked up at the sky and found a blanket of steel wool sliding across the heavens faster than his sluggish eyes could follow.
He waited until the FedEx truck was out of sight and stepped out into the section of driveway running parallel to the back door. He found it difficult to lift his feet, so he shuffled along, his shoes on the sand sounding something like a train. The curb seemed two feet high. He managed one foot, then the other, paused for a moment to collect his wits and made his way toward the back door.
To the right of the door a blue newspaper dispenser offered morning papers for fifty cents. An elderly gentleman dropped two quarters in the slot and removed a paper. Whatever he was looking for was on the back of the paper. The headline blared: Police Coverup. Byline: Carl Letzo. His equilibrium wavered in the morning breeze. He smiled and reached for the door handle, made his way across the floor.
A blast of warm air rolled out of the building. Still clutching his jacket, he crossed the room, got in line, and waited patiently as the people in front of him conducted their business.
“Sir,” she said. “Sir, can I help you?” And he realized he’d been standing there. That it was his turn and that he’d somehow lost track of where he was in the line.
He stepped up to the counter.
“Can I help you?” she said again.
He pulled the note from his coat pocket and slid it through the slot. Her eyes were locked on his face.
“I know you,” she said with a smile. “You’re Frank Corso,” she said. “I just love your books.”
In response, he dropped his hand and allowed his jacket to fall open. Her eyes dropped to his chest and the numbered keypad, then back up to the steel necklace holding it in place, then finally to the block-printed note that lay on the counter before her. Their eyes met.
“Please,” he said.
About the Author
G.M. FORD is the author of five previous, widely praised Frank Corso novels, Fury, Black River, A Blind Eye, Red Tide, and No Man’s Land, as well as six highly acclaimed mysteries featuring Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman. A former creative writing teacher in western Washington, Ford lives in Seattle and is currently working on his next novel.
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Also by
G.M. Ford
THE FRANK CORSO SERIES
No Man’s Land
Fury
Black River
A Blind Eye
Red Tide
THE LEO WATERMAN SERIES
Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca
Cast in Stone
The Bum’s Rush
Slow Burn
Last Ditch
The Deader the Better
Credits
Jacket design by Dan Rembert
Jacket photograph © by William Howard/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLOWN AWAY. Copyright © 2006 by G.M. Ford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Microsoft Reader July 2006 ISBN 0-06-119254-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-087439-1
ISBN-10: 0-06-087439-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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