Hell and Gone
Page 25
What should have been going through Kendra’s mind at this moment was something along the lines of:
Charlie, where the hell have you been and why have you surfaced now? The last time we spoke it was a stupid and petty conversation about a late credit card bill, and I think the last word I spoke to you before disconnecting was whatever.
Or maybe:
Charlie, why didn’t you call me before tonight? Do you how many late nights I stared at the ceiling, trying to actually physically will you to call me? Not to change anything or explain anything, but to just to tell me what happened? Do you know how hard the not knowing was? How much it consumed me over the years, digging in deep, way past the regret and guilt and into the very core of me?
But instead Kendra thought:
Goddamn you, Charlie.
Goddamn you for doing this to us.
“What’s going to happen next is,” the ice bitch queen continued, “your family’s going to die. And there’s not a fucking thing you can do to stop me.”
If Kendra had any doubts about the voice on the other end of the line belonging to her husband, they vanished when he spoke again. Because his words were infused with a rock-hard defiance that had once been familiar to her, over a decade ago.
Charlie Hardie told the ice bitch queen,
“I can stop you.”
Spectacular Praise for Duane Swierczynski
and the Charlie Hardie Series
“More exciting than whatever you’re reading right now.”
—Ed Brubaker, Harvey and Eisner Award–winning author of Criminal and Incognito
“Duane Swierczynski puts the rest of the crime-writing world on notice. So learn to spell the last name. He’s going to be around for a while.”
—Laura Lippman
“Oh, what style!”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Duane Swierczynski has ideas so brilliant and brutal that one day the rest of us will have to tool up and kill him.”
—Warren Ellis
“So bloody satisfying.”
—Booklist
“Swierczynski has an uncommon gift for the banal lunacy of criminal dialogue, and a delightfully devious eye for character.”
—Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune
“Duane Swierczynski is one of the best thriller writers in America, and probably my favorite.”
—James Frey
“A major new talent.”
—Richard Aleas
“Duane Swierczynski is one of the best new things to happen to crime fiction in a long time. A kick-ass writer with wicked cool skills and the instincts of a seasoned veteran. Keep your eyes on him. He’s going places.”
—Victor Gischler
“Swierczynski seems to get such a kick out of writing about eccentric crooks, it’s almost criminal.”
—J. Kingston Pierce, January Magazine
“Duane Swierczynski is the bomb…the hottest new thing in crime fiction.”
—Joe R. Lansdale
“Swierczynski steps on the gas early in this pulse-pounding contemporary thriller and doesn’t let up…an unforgettable climax.…The sequel’s appearance won’t be too soon for many readers.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Cool, suspenseful, tragic, and funny as hell, Fun and Games is Duane Swierczynski’s best yet. I haven’t had this much fun reading in a long time.”
—Sara Gran, author of Dope and Come Closer
“An audacious, propulsive thrill ride that kidnapped me on page one and didn’t look back.”
—Brian Azzarello, Harvey and Eisner Award–winning author of 100 Bullets and Loveless
“This book could not be more perfect.”
—Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran
“This book has it all.…I declare this book fastest read of the year. I want part two, Hell and Gone, now.”
—Ruth Jordan, Central Crime Zone
“Duane Swierczynski leads an insurgency of new crime writers specializing in fast-paced crime rife with sharp dialogue, caustic humor, and over-the-top violence.”
—Garrett Kenyon, Spinetingler Magazine
“Brilliant…one hell of a roller-coaster read. Mr. Swierczynski writes like Elmore Leonard on adrenaline and speed.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Swierczynski’s style is muscular and very readable, pounding the rhythms of hard-boiled prose like he’s working a heavy bag.”
—Warren Moore, The American Culture
Also by Duane Swierczynski
Secret Dead Men
The Wheelman
The Blonde
Severance Package
Expiration Date
Dark Origins (with Anthony E. Zuiker)
Dark Prophecy (with Anthony E. Zuiker)
Fun and Games
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Dear Julie
1
Sixteen Years Later
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Interlude with a Paranoid Federal Agent (Retired)
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Thanks & Praise
About the Author
A Preview of Point and Shoot
Spectacular Praise for Duane Swierczynski and the Charlie Hardie Series
Also by Duane Swierczynski
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2011 by Duane Swierczynski
Excerpt from Point and Shoot copyright © 2011 by Duane Swierczynski
Cover design by Allison Warner
Cover illustration by Michael Gillette
Cover © 2011 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company
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First e-book Edition: October 2011
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ISBN: 978-0-316-18005-4