“Cash, hmm?” Felix gave the Corinthian porch column beside him a possessive pat. “Who bought it?”
“Don’t know. The name on the documents is a corporation. There isn’t a human name to be found.”
Bowser’s patience wore thin. He sat where instructed, but he fidgeted. I thought Mike was encouraging him to fidget.
“Gotta be foreign,” Felix said. “Chinese or Japanese. They like to pay cash. Did a feng-shui master come through before they made the offer?”
Mike said, “A who?”
“You know, feng-shui.” Felix fiddled with his spit valve. “This guy comes to make sure the house has the right spiritual orientation. Like, if the stairs face the front door all your good luck will just spill right out and the Chinese won’t buy.”
“No feng-shui master,” I said.
Felix blew “Shave and a Haircut” before pronouncing, “It’s Japanese, then.”
Mike frowned. “Does it matter to you?”
“Only academically.” Felix turned and scanned across the front of his restored Italianate house, this time with a more objective eye. “Wonder what I could get.”
Bowser barked, once. I don’t know how, but I know Mike made him do it.
“Bowser says he’s thirsty.” Mike hooked his arm through mine. “See ya’, Felix.”
“The neighborhood won’t be the same without you. I’ll miss you.”
Felix picked up his horn and played us out with a sweet rendition of “Sukiyaki” as we walked into the house for the last time.
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 ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1997 by Wendy Hornsby
cover design by Kathleen Lynch
978-1-4532-2927-9
This edition published in 2011 by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY WENDY HORNSBY
FROM MYSTERIOUSPRESS.COM
AND OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, founded the Mysterious Press in 1975. Penzler quickly became known for his outstanding selection of mystery, crime, and suspense books, both from his imprint and in his store. The imprint was devoted to printing the best books in these genres, using fine paper and top dust-jacket artists, as well as offering many limited, signed editions.
Now the Mysterious Press has gone digital, publishing ebooks through MysteriousPress.com.
MysteriousPress.com offers readers essential noir and suspense fiction, hard-boiled crime novels, and the latest thrillers from both debut authors and mystery masters. Discover classics and new voices, all from one legendary source.
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.MYSTERIOUSPRESS.COM
FOLLOW US:
@emysteries and Facebook.com/MysteriousPressCom
MysteriousPress.com is one of a select group of publishing partners of Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
A Hard Light Page 26
