Deadly Beloved E-Book

Max Allan Collins

• Herausgeber: Hard Case Crime
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 193

Beschreibung

TILL DEATH DO US PART Marcy Addwatter killed her husband - there's no question about that. Shot him dead in the motel room where he was trysting with a blonde hooker. Shot the hooker, too. But where the cops might see an open-and-shut case, private eye Michael Tree - Ms. Michael Tree - sees a conspiracy. For Ms. Tree, digging into it could mean digging her own grave... and digging up her own murdered husband's. Based on the longest-running private-eye comic book series of all time, DEADLY BELOVED brings you an all-new adventure of the legendary Ms. Tree - the groundbreaking female P.I. who put the 'graphic' into graphic novel...

Leseprobe

Raves For the Work of MAX ALLAN COLLINS!

“Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st-century Mickey Spillane and...will please any fan of old-school, hardboiled crime fiction.”

—This Week

“No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.”

—Clive Cussler

“Collins never misses a beat...All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.”

—Booklist

“Collins has an outwardly artless style that conceals a great deal of art.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“A suspenseful, wild night’s ride [from] one of the finest writers of crime fiction that the U.S. has produced.”

—Book Reporter

“This book is about as perfect a page turner as you’ll find.”

—Library Journal

“Bristling with suspense and sexuality, this book is a welcome addition to the Hard Case Crime library.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A total delight...fast, surprising, and well-told.”

—Deadly Pleasures

“Strong and compelling reading.”

—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

“Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.”

—Andrew Vachss

“Collins breaks out a really good one, knocking over the hard-boiled competition (Parker and Leonard for sure, maybe even Puzo) with a one-two punch: a feisty storyline told bittersweet and wry...nice and taut...the book is unputdownable. Never done better.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Rippling with brutal violence and surprisingly sexuality...I savored every turn.”

—Bookgasm

“Masterful.”

—Jeffrey Deaver

“Collins has a gift for creating low-life believable characters...a sharply focused action story that keeps the reader guessing till the slam-bang ending. A consummate thriller from one of the new masters of the genre.”

—Atlanta Journal Constitution

“For fans of the hardboiled crime novel...this is powerful and highly enjoyable reading, fast moving and very, very tough.”

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Entertaining...full of colorful characters...a stirring conclusion.”

—Detroit Free Press

“Collins makes it sound as though it really happened.”

—New York Daily News

“An exceptional storyteller.”

—San Diego Union Tribune

“A gift for intricate plotting and cinematically effective action scenes.”

—Jon L. Breen, Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers

“Nobody does it better than Max Allan Collins.”

—John Lutz

Dominique Muerta sat behind a mahogany desk about the size of a sideways BMW. Impeccable in severe though stylish business attire—gray suit, black silk blouse, by some European designer whose work I could neither recognize nor afford—she was a beautiful woman, no question of it, slender and yet strong and so pretty that the mannish severity of her no-doubt-expensive short hairdo took nothing away. The thin lips were a bright red and the almond-shaped eyes were as richly, deeply mahogany as the desk, softened with a touch of lavender eye shadow.

“Michael Tree,” she said, and smiled as she rose. She came around from behind the desk and met me halfway, extending a graceful hand.

As we shook, she said, “This is a long overdue meeting. We have so much in common.”

She did not offer to take my trenchcoat and I left it on, as well as my gloves, purse on its strap over my shoulder.

Indicating the glass coffee table, she said, “Sit, sit.... Cappuccino? Water?...I can have hot or iced tea or regular coffee or a soft drink—”

“No,” I said, sitting on the nearest couch. “Thank you. This won’t take long.”

Dominique sat on the white leather chair across the glass table. Her thin lips formed a razor-edge smile as she opened her hand to display the bullet in her palm.

“Interesting business card,” she said. An eyebrow arched. “Did you mean to scare me, or just get my attention?”

Dominique set the bullet on the coffee table, straight up, as if placing a miniature in a collector’s set. It made a little klik on the glass.

“When I want your attention,” I said with my own smile, “it’ll be traveling faster...”

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain

NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin

BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell

LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange

THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block

ROBBIE’S WIFE by Russell Hill

THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN by Gil Brewer

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis

BLACKMAILER by George Axelrod

SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas

FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich

KILL NOW, PAY LATER by Robert Terrall

SLIDE by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane

Deadly BELOVED

byMax Allan Collins

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-038)

First Hard Case Crime edition: December 2007

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

Copyright © 2007 by Max Allan Collins

Cover painting copyright © 2007 by Terry Beatty

MS. TREE is a trademark of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-322-9

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-643-5

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab

Design direction by Max Phillips

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

The name “Hard Case Crime” and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Printed in the United States of America

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

For Ken Levin—

Ms. Tree’s Chicago counsel

“Down these mean streets a woman must go who is not herself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.”

RAYMOND CHANDLER,

“THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER,”

PARAPHRASED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Afterword

ONE

The woman in the skimpy black bikini on the perfect beach on the too-perfect day was me.

I saw her from a God-like distance, the long legs stretched out, shoulders back accentuating the full bust, black hair brushing tan shoulders with help of a whispery breeze, well-carved handsome features that were almost beautiful taking on a serene cast as blue-green eyes studied the blue-green water that rolled gently to a picture-book tan sand shore.

I watched her taking it all in, as she lounged there on no towel, basking in a sun that seemed to turn the world white and yellow and orange, though the sensation was of warmth, not heat. The green of trees was a backdrop, more perceived than seen, the blue-green of the lake glinting with sun sparkle, and—like the black of the bikini—subservient to the solarizing rays.

Then I was within her.

Inside myself, feeling a sense of repose encouraged by the lapping of the waves and the laughter and splashing of a young couple, happy honeymooners perhaps, cavorting in the water. I watched them for a while, but they were indistinct in the shimmer of sunlight.

To the left of me, a digging sound drew my eyes to a boy around ten, in a yellow swimsuit with orange-red seahorses dancing on it, who was working with a shovel, gaining more raw material for the elaborate sand castle he was constructing, turrets and towers and even a carved-out moat.

The sound of splashing drew my attention back to the happy couple coming up out of the water, hand in hand, stumbling onto the sand to fall onto beach towels, dripping, laughing, kissing.

I smiled a little and gave them privacy they hadn’t requested by casting my eyes back out on the gentle rolling water with its diamond-like glimmer.

Then, as if a switch had been thrown, the world turned shades of blue and gray, and a wind began to blow, kicking up choppy waves. My hair started to whip and a sudden, troubling chill enveloped me, encasing me in goose pimples. I looked around for my own towel, but there wasn’t one, and wound up hugging my legs to myself, a shivering oversized fetus.

But when I glanced over at the boy building that sprawling castle, he didn’t seem to notice the wind and cold; even his sand-color hair remained unruffled, though the blue of fast-moving clouds shadowed him.

And that honeymoon couple didn’t seem to notice the rapid weather shift either, stretched on their backs on their towels, eyes closed, sunning under a sunless sky that stained them blue-gray—they might have been corpses laid out on morgue slabs, so oblivious were they.

My teeth chattered and my eyes returned to the rolling, choppy water, where emerged from the unruly waves a man in a black wet suit and full, masked scuba gear, including black flippers.

I studied him, squinting as if the sun were still glaring.

And then I saw it, in sharp focus: in his hands, a spear gun...

...which he raised and aimed at me.

I reared back, as he fired.

Dodging, I felt as much as heard the spear sink into the sand beside me and quiver there like a small tree shaken by the wind. I fumbled at my little pile of possessions—sun tan oil, a paperback, my purse....

The masked man in the skin of black rubber advanced, a terrible grin on the piece of his face beneath the mask, the flippers no impediment to his progress, his spear gun reloaded somehow, and he fired again.

As another spear thunked into nearby sand, I whipped the nine millimeter automatic from my purse and fired, three times, three small explosions that provided the dark sky with the thunder it called for.

All three shots hit him in the torso, tearing the rubber suit and making little red blossoms, one over his heart, shaking him like a naughty child...

...and yet he still kept coming.

And that damn spear gun was poised to shoot again.

Scrambling to my feet, I let go with four more rounds, four more thunder-cracks that tore holes in the afternoon and that rubber suit, and blood spurted in shimmering scarlet ribbons and yet still he came, the goddamn black-rubber Frankenstein monster, and I was moving backward, all but stumbling, still shooting, but soon the gun’s thunder-cracks had been replaced by the clicks on an empty chamber, and the sand made my retreat impossibly slow, and I felt hysteria come over me in a wave but I would be damned if I’d scream, and I was raising the empty weapon to club the son of a bitch when finally he tottered and collapsed in a pile of flesh and blood and rubber at my bare feet.

I looked down at him for the longest time before kneeling and taking in the bloody exit wounds of my multiple shots, any one of which should have dropped him, and I unceremoniously flipped the body over.

Reaching for the mask, my hand began to tremble. For some reason, I hesitated.

Then I sneered at the corpse, and ripped the damn thing off.

And the face under the mask was as handsome in its battered way as it was familiar, because it was my husband’s face, Mike Tree’s face....

“What the hell do you make of that, Doc?” I asked.

The psychiatrist’s office was dim, curtains in the anonymously male dark-wood-paneled office shutting out the late afternoon sun. Trimly bearded, balding, fifty-something, Dr. Cassel wore an impeccably tailored gray suit with a darker gray tie as he sat in a comfortable black leather chair beside his desk.

“Sometimes, Ms. Tree,” he said gently, “a spear is just a spear.”

I was nearby on a reclining chair, with him at my side. The chair was leaned so far back I might have been at a dentist, not a shrink. Of course this was almost the clichéd couch that most head doctors have long since abandoned, though mine—whom I’d been seeing for over a year, since my husband’s death—was Old School enough to keep me comfortable and looking not into his eyes but into my memories and my troubles.

And I had plenty of both.

I was in brown slacks and a tan short-sleeved cashmere sweater—outside this office, a very crisp autumn in Chicago was in full sway. I’m five ten and one hundred forty-five pounds (I’d been ten pounds lighter in my dream) but have had few complaints about their distribution.

The doctor, by the way, was taking notes in a spiral pad—though he recorded the sessions, he was Old School about that, too, and the scratch of pen against paper provided a soft if percussive accompaniment.

“Why,” I asked, “would I dream I was attacked by my own husband?”

“Late husband.”

I gave up half a smile. “That hasn’t slipped my mind, Doctor....And why would I kill him?”

“He was a threat in the context of the dream.”

I shook my head. “No, a spear gun was the threat. Mike was the punchline.”

I could hear him shift in the leather chair. “Let’s start with the other elements—the child on the beach.”

“The kid Mike and I never had. Next.”

“The happy couple on the beach might well represent—”

“The happiness that was denied me. Denied us. Fine. But goddamn it, Doc, killing the guy I love...”

“Note the present tense.”

“You can still love dead people.”

“You can also resent them. ‘Killing’ your husband in your imagination is not an atypical response, Ms. Tree—feelings of abandonment experienced by those who lose a loved one—”

“Yeah, yeah, but why would Mike attack me? Even in my imagination?”

“...Perhaps you were attacking yourself.”

“Myself?”

He shifted in the chair again. “There’s that odd coincidence that you and your late husband shared not just a last name, but a first one—both named ‘Michael.’ Two Michael Trees.”

“Two Michael Trees is right....”

My policeman father had wanted a boy and got me instead. And Michelle wasn’t good enough for him: Michael it was. Pop had justified it by saying Michael was the first name of the lead actress on The Waltons, wasn’t it? But I knew better. We weren’t the Waltons.

“Ms. Tree?”

“It’s a possibility,” I granted.

“Do you feel in any way ‘attacked’ by your husband? Abandonment issues aside, did he keep...secrets, perhaps, that you learned only after his death?”

I gave him a sideways glance. “You’re good, Doc—haven’t even got to that yet. So much to tell you, since our last session....”

The smile in the trim beard was forgiving, as were the soft gray eyes in the angularly handsome face. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “After all, you’ve missed the last two.”

“I know, I know.”

He shrugged. “Well, you’re my last scheduled appointment this afternoon. We can go over. No problem.”

Right. But we wouldn’t go off the clock, would we?

I turned away from him and into my memories. “There’s a lot to tell, Doc. Things I didn’t witness—things I learned later.”

“That’s all right. Tell it all.”

“Even if I wasn’t there for it?”

“Even then....You live an eventful life, Ms. Tree. But I hope you’ve managed to stay well-grounded. In the year since your husband’s death—”

“Murder.”

“...Murder. In that time, we’ve accomplished so much.”

“ ‘Examine the past, understand it, then leave it behind...and move on.’ Great advice, Doctor. But as a detective I spend at least as much time in the past as in the present.”

“The nature of your business.”

“And yours.”

“And mine. Go ahead, Ms. Tree. Start wherever you like.”

“We’ll make it last week. That’s not really the beginning, Doc...more like the middle.” I glanced sideways at him. “I’m going to be jumping around some. Think you can keep up?”

“I think so.”

“Didn’t mean to patronize you, Doc. It’s just—you may have heard your share of wild things in this office in your time. But I’ll bet you double or nothing your bill that this is going to top ‘em all.”

“Ms. Tree, I believe you.”

“No bet?”

“No bet. Please. Begin.”

TWO

A year ago or so—about a month before his death—my husband Mike had moved the Tree Agency into new, nice, modern digs in a venerable, recently remodeled high-rise on Michigan Avenue that meant even our relatively modest space required a monthly king’s ransom.

This was probably what had my young partner, Dan Green, upset with me.

End of the workday, almost six, we both stepped out of our respective offices, which were side by side. He tagged along as I headed out, moving down the aisle between vacant cubicles, four on either side. Their inhabitants hadn’t gone home for the day—they didn’t have inhabitants.

Dan was edging up on thirty, blond and boyish with a wispy mustache that he thought made him look older (it didn’t) but only served to suggest he was gay (he wasn’t). He wore a brown-and-white pinstripe shirt, tan khakis, brown Italian loafers, and a look of consternation. I was in a gray wool Ralph Lauren blazer, cream-color silk blouse and black slacks and ankle boots, pretending not to notice how worked up he was.

“Look, Ms. Tree,” he was saying in his earnest second tenor, “we gotta make some changes. We’re stuck in the mud here and our wheels aren’t even turnin’.”

“Nicely put,” I said, making him work to keep up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but nicely put.”

He gestured to a nearby empty cubicle. “Look at these chairs with no asses in ‘em! You know what the boss had in mind—expansion! And what have you done about it? Nothing!”

I stopped abruptly, which threw Dan a little, as he kept going for a second, before backing up to face me and regain his composure.

My arms were folded, my head tilted, just a little, my eyes not blinking. “Current caseload is easily covered by our staff of three. If anything, we should be seeking smaller quarters...and I’m the boss.”

He huffed a sigh. “Our ‘staff of three’ includes Bea, who’s just a glorified goddamn receptionist!...No offense, Bea.”

Bea, up at her reception desk, a sexy sentry in a V-neck blue-and-white polka-dot dress, glanced back at us with a blank expression that spoke volumes. “None taken.”

About twenty-six, Asian, and as cute as a box of kittens, Bea Vang had formerly been on the Chicago PD, four years, and was now a licensed private investigator herself.

Dan gave Bea a strained smile, then returned his gaze to me, frowning. “When you took over after Mike’s murder? No P.I. in this town ever got better media than you did. No P.I. anywhere ever did. And the agency got a boost.”

“Yeah,” I said dryly. “Great career move on my husband’s part.”

“All I’m saying is, we need to step up our staff. We haven’t even replaced Roger yet.”

“Haven’t needed to.”

“No, because we haven’t done what Mike intended, maximize what we’re up to. But all you wanna take on are lost causes and unsolved murder cases.”

I shrugged. “Media loves it.”

“Well, I don’t. Particularly since we aren’t taking advantage of any of this good publicity. We need paying cases, Ms. Tree, and more of ‘em. Domestics are the bread and butter of any—”

I shook my head. “No divorce work. It’s undignified.”

“So is standing in the government cheese line!... You know how we ought to fill Roger Freemont’s old office?”

“No. How.”

“With Roger Freemont. You need to call him.”

“That prick?” I started walking again. “Not in this lifetime.”

He tagged along. “He was Mike’s partner, too.”

“The bastard quit. When we needed him most.”

Dan’s hand found my arm—not roughly, but enough to stop me. I gave him a look, which should have withered him, but didn’t.

“Kiss and make up with him, boss.” He let go of my arm but his eyes held onto mine. “We can use Roger—he has smarts and contacts and can generate business.”

I drew in a breath. I let it out.

Dan sighed. “Just think about it, okay?...Anything else for me today?”

“No.”

“Okay then. See you tomorrow.”

He stopped by the door to get his dark-brown leather jacket from the closet, slipped it on and took one last look back my way and repeated, “Just think about it,” and went out.

I was next to Bea at her reception desk now. “What do you think? Is he right?”

Her big brown eyes gazed up at me. “Yeah, he is.”

“Really?”

“I am pretty much a glorified receptionist....Why do I have a license-to-carry again?”

I didn’t answer her, thoughts generated by Dan’s complaints leaving no room for hers.

So she gave it up, asking, “You want your messages? A couple of people have been trying pretty hard to get you.”

“They’ll keep till tomorrow. Night, Bea.”

“Good night, Ms. Tree.”

I took my dark blue trenchcoat from the closet and, juggling with my purse, slipped it on and slipped on out.

I’d barely exited when I all but bumped into Bernie Levine, our attorney, a dark-haired, sharp-eyed little man in a tailored black suit and a silver silk tie, a combo that hadn’t cost him any more than our monthly office rent.

“Ms. Tree! Thank God I caught you.”

Normally Bernie is so low-key and self-composed as to be invisible. But right now he was on edge—that was plain in his expression of wild-eyed relief.

“Well, I’m flattered, Bernie. But haven’t you heard of cell phones? Big breakthrough.”

“I’ve been trying yours. And I left half a dozen messages with your receptionist.”

“Damn. Sorry. Turned off my cell during a meeting, forgot to turn it back on, and I’m afraid I just blew my messages off—do we need to step back inside?”

“No, no time for that. You come with me and I’ll explain.”

I shrugged, gave myself over to Bernie’s urgency.

Bernard A. Levine was a man I rarely said no to—as the town’s preeminent criminal attorney, he provided the Tree Agency a good share of its clients and, on occasion, defended our actions, in his service and our own.

Soon I was in the rider’s seat of Bernie’s silver Mercedes, watching my lawyer friend sit forward as if he’d woken up to find himself in the midst of a NASCAR race, not in paralyzed rush hour traffic in the Loop. This time of year, darkness descended around four-thirty and it might well have been mid-night—which, as long and hard as my day had been, was exactly what it felt like.

“Ms. Tree,” Bernie said, gripping the wheel tight, “my client is an innocent woman.”