The Guardian of Detritus

Chuck Snearly

Description

The Guardian of Detritus is about a failed rock musician and disgraced reporter working in pubic relations in Detroit. On the far side of middle age and the brink of divorce, Will Harkanen sees an obituary for an old friend and decides to quit his job and pursue the dreams of his youth. Hustling between the icons of Detroit's glorious past and the wreckage of its gritty present, Will begins unraveling a mess of blackmail and corruption that may have led to his friend's death. As he chases his dreams, he realizes too late that his dreams are chasing him.

Sujets

• Detective
• Mystery
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 30 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456625252
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GUARDIAN OF DETRITUS
A Motor City Mystery
 
 
Assembled in Detroit
by Chuck Snearly

 
Copyright © 2015, Chuck Snearly
First Edition
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
Published by Aventine Press
55 East Emerson St.
Chula Vista CA 91911
www.aventinepress.com
ISBN: 978-1-59330-881-0
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN: 978-1-4566-2525-2
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
For Adam
 
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
—George Eliot
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.
(Speramus meliora; resurget cinerbu)
—Motto given to Detroit by Father Gabriel Richard after the city burned down in 1805
The City of Trees
—Early nickname for Detroit
All hail Detritus! What was, what is, what will be...whatever.
—The Guardian of Detritus
Contents
Prologue
Murphy in the Bushes
Chapter One
Larry in Accounting
Chapter Two
Sucker Punch
Chapter Three
Motion Pictures
Chapter Four
Corporate Retreat
Chapter Five
The Bottom Line
Chapter Six
Funeral for a Friend
Chapter Seven
A Clean, Well-Lighted, Creepy Place
Chapter Eight
Meet the Killer
Chapter Nine
The Loud Assholes
Chapter Ten
Dazed And Confused
Chapter Eleven
Guardian Angel
Chapter Twelve
Adult Language and Brief Nudity
Chapter Thirteen
Motown Motel
Chapter Fourteen
Reporting an Incident
Chapter Fifteen
Phony Excuses
Chapter Sixteen
The Office
Chapter Seventeen
Renaissance Man
Chapter Eighteen
Henry Ford
Chapter Nineteen
Hitsville, USA
Chapter Twenty
Techno Google
Chapter Twenty-one
It’s the Same Old Song
Chapter Twenty-two
Legal Matters
Chapter Twenty-three
Crossing the Line
Chapter Twenty-four
Post-Apocalyptic Pre-Meeting
Chapter Twenty-five
A Few Bad Eggs
Chapter Twenty-six
Shots and Kisses
Chapter Twenty-seven
More Shots And Kisses
Chapter Twenty-eight
Ménage de Troit
Chapter Twenty-nine
Montage de Troit
Chapter Thirty
The Conversation
Chapter Thirty-one
It’s Up to You and Down to Me
Chapter Thirty-two
TIC Bites
Chapter Thirty-three
He Said, She Said
Chapter Thirty-four
Forget the Past
Chapter Thirty-five
Or Else
Chapter Thirty-six
Rendezvous With Slivovitz
Chapter Thirty-seven
Gut Check
Chapter Thirty-eight
Oh Shit
Chapter Thirty-nine
TIC Talk
Chapter Forty
Six Cups of Crazy
Chapter Forty-one
Rendezvous in Old Miami
Chapter Forty-two
The Battle of Detritus
Chapter Forty-three
Brown from the Sun
Chapter Forty-four
Jacqueline
Chapter Forty-five
At Least We Didn’t Die
Chapter Forty-six
Roxanne
Chapter Forty-seven
Last Call
Chapter Forty-eight
The Final Shot
Chapter Forty-nine
The Deal
Chapter Fifty
The Battle of Detroit
Chapter Fifty-one
The Good, the Bad, and the Baddest
Chapter Fifty-two
What’s Going On?
Chapter Fifty-three
My Girl
Chapter Fifty-four
Turn the Page
 
Prologue
Murphy in the Bushes
Running was not Murphy’s strong suit.
He did much better when he left the road, scrambled down a hill, and began creeping through the bushes in the dark, gliding silently through the shadows. Still, by the time he got to the motel, he was dirty, wet, and gasping for air. Worst of all, his targets were already inside.
“Choi!”
Murphy cringed when his vulgar assessment of the situation drifted across the parking lot in front of him, bounced off the white cinderblock building on the other side, and returned to where he stood crouching behind a bush. His reaction to this breach of professionalism was immediate and regrettable.
“Ikuh!”
With the echo of his second ill-advised expletive still ringing in his ears, he squatted down to figure out what to do next.
His plan had worked well up until now. He had followed the target couple at a discreet distance as they drove away from the city. When they turned off a rural two-lane highway into the parking lot of a dimly lit motel, he kept driving, not pulling over until he was a hundred yards down the road.
That was when the plan began to unravel.
He parked on the road so he wouldn’t be spotted, knowing he would be most likely to get a good, clean shot while they were still outside and confident that he could make it back to the motel before they made it to their room. But it had been many years filled with cigarettes and beers since he had humped it through the back country in ’Nam, and his Ranger training hadn’t included how to avoid getting old and fat. Even with his cross-country shortcut, by the time he got there, they were already in their room.
He could see directly into the motel office across from him, where a clerk sat alone behind the counter watching television. From the front of the office, a sidewalk traveled the length of the building, past double windows and doors that opened directly onto the parking lot. He could see their car parked halfway down the row. They could be in any of the rooms, behind any of the curtains rimmed in light.
They definitely wouldn’t be coming out to the car to get any luggage.
Murphy briefly considered uttering another one of the curses the Cambodian monk had taught him, but instead he set down the gear he was carrying and started working on Plan B. He had to figure out a way to get them into the open.
He thought about going to the office and asking to see the couple who had just checked in. But he knew from painful experience that clerks in cheap roadside motels guarded the privacy of their clients like pit bulls in a party store. Persuading them to change their minds was always expensive or dangerous. Besides, it would create a witness who could identify him. In his business that wasn’t a deal-breaker, but it also wasn’t a good idea—it left a loose end that could come back to haunt you.
He briefly considered setting off a car alarm to get everyone to look out their windows, but that would be messy and risky, and increase the chances of being seen.
Another alternative began forming in his mind. He peered over the bushes to read the name on the pale-blue neon sign at the front of the motel and discovered he was standing in the bushes of the Time Out Inn. He pulled out his iPhone and Googled that name to get a phone number. If he called the office and asked to be connected to the couple who had just arrived, he would be able to hear the phone ringing and figure out which room they were in. A quick knock on the door and his work would be done.
But the flaws in this plan were apparent to Murphy almost as soon as he thought of it. Someone might trace the call to his cell phone. A phone in another room might ring at random. Most importantly, he preferred to do his job from a distance to avoid the chance of a physical confrontation. His Ranger training still served him well in a fight, but why risk it?
The least desirable option was quickly becoming the only one left to him. He would hike back to his car, park it at the end of the lot, and wait for the happy couple to emerge from their room. They certainly wouldn’t be staying all night, and if he rummaged through the leftover fast food bags scattered throughout his car, he might even be able to find something to eat. There also was a half-full bottle of Jack Daniel’s under the seat to help take the chill out of the night air.
The more he thought about it, the more desirable this option became.
He grabbed his gear and began to move out, but after a few steps, he was stopped in his tracks by his first lucky break of the evening. At the far end of the parking lot, in the last room in the row, a woman threw open the curtains and stood staring out at the line of pine trees in the distance.
It was her.
Murphy ducked down and began moving quickly and quietly toward her behind the cover of the bushes. If she kept the curtains open for just a minute, he would have a perfect spot to shoot from, behind a bush directly across from their room. He was gliding through the underbrush in total silence and seemingly without effort, happy that this skill hadn’t deserted him and confident he could finish the mission.
Then the light in the room went out.
He stifled the urge to curse again by reminding himself that he was equipped to do the job in dark. As long as they didn’t pull the curtains closed, he was still in business.
When he reached the spot directly opposite their window and looked out through the night vision, Murphy saw that the man had joined the woman at the window. He watched as they embraced and kissed in an eerie world of green-shaded twilight. Suddenly they turned away from the window, and he cursed himself silently for not acting faster. Then he realized his good luck hadn’t deserted him; in their haste to continue, they had left the curtains open behind them.
He had all the time in the world.
For a few moments he indulged himself, looking on as they undressed and stood beside the bed. Even in a sickly shade of green, she was a real looker, with a pretty face and a firm, well-rounded body. A lot of times his job sucked, but sometimes it was pretty cool.
When they embraced again, Murphy started shooting.
Chapter One
Larry in Accounting
W ill waited for the call that would change his life in an office with no door.
Nothing to hold out the sights, sounds, and smells of his co-workers.
Nothing to get in his way if he wanted to leave.
Nothing to prevent senior executives from sticking their heads in and annoying him.
“Harkanen, you’re coming to the meeting this morning, right? It starts in ten minutes.”
Will looked up to see Larry in Accounting standing in the open doorway, looking like he’d just stepp