The Storm Murders Read Online Free Page B

The Storm Murders
Book: The Storm Murders Read Online Free
Author: John Farrow
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, International Mystery & Crime
Pages:
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out for you.” She turned back to the kitchen.
    “Ah.” Cinq-Mars started to say something, then stopped.
    Sandra also stopped, and faced him again. “What now?”
    “He’s not coming alone. Another man will be with him.”
    “Who?” she asked.
    “No one I know.”
    “Who?” she asked again.
    Cinq-Mars pursed his lips. “Sandra, it’s only a consultation.”
    “Who, É mile?” she insisted.
    He sighed. “Some FBI agent, apparently. I don’t know what’s going on.”
    Sandra seemed to receive the news as if she expected it. “Lovely,” she said.
    “Sandra—”
    “ É mile.”
    “It’s a consultation!”
    “It’s fine. I’ll put something out for the three of you. Unless the FBI is bringing in the marines?”
    She returned to the kitchen, and Cinq-Mars, eventually, to the crossword. He didn’t know how people got through these things. He was smart, he was well-read, adept at the language even though he was working in English and not his mother tongue. How did people get their heads around these infernal things? He was stumped by the next word and put his pencil down. What’s a five-letter word for nincompoop , he wanted to ask, but he was really thinking that whatever it was that Bill wanted, he was going to have to turn him down flat.
    Anyway, Sandra would probably suggest an answer: É mile .

 
    THREE
    The former Montreal city detective weighed more than his wife’s concerns about his imminent and violent death before choosing to retire. He sharpened a pencil and composed a pair of lists. A “Why Not Stay On Forever?” list and a “Get Out of Dodge While You Can!” list. On the latter he wrote:
    1. Most of the time, Sandra wants me more alive than dead.
    É mile Cinq-Mars put a star beside his first selection, which remained his singular choice for quite a few days before he got into the swing of things and added further items. In time, he erased the star. He also decided that a numerical system was not indicative of the order of importance, only the order in which his thoughts occurred to him, for although his first choice was probably the most important reason to quit, he failed to differentiate among the other entries as to which ones were more, or less, vital than the next.
    2. The long commute.
    He considered adding subcategories, such as the long commute in winter, but realized that hot summer days, the traffic made worse by highway, overpass, and bridge construction, were more tedious and no less dangerous, and the drives in winter were sometimes so magical he wanted those trips to never end.
    3. The new idiots at the top.
    Dwelling on that one, he thought it might become his most emphatic and irrefutable motivation to retire, except that it soon got into a toss-up with another competing issue regarding police personnel.
    4. The new idiots at the bottom.
    New recruits were not necessarily dumber than they used to be, and in fact they seemed generally brighter, but they also carried a greater sense of entitlement and were far less malleable. They were less willing to be taught a damn thing, and he no longer possessed the patience to come up against that hurdle when dealing with them.
    5. I no longer have the patience.
    6. I can spend more time with the horses.
    7. I can spend more time with Sandra.
    This is when he decided that the numerical order was merely random and he erased the star from Item 1 and made a mental note to himself not to show the list to his wife in its current state.
    8. Quit now and avoid a possible promotion.
    9. Quit now and avoid a possible demotion.
    10. If my brain or my eyesight don’t fail me first, my back might.
    A compelling argument. His brain and his eyesight were fine, and even his long-standing arthritis wasn’t so bad, but his back was becoming a chronic, growing and cantankerous issue. During any flare-up on the job he was incapacitated, and he hated that. Which is why, when Sergeant-Detective William “Bill” Mathers arrived on his doorstep in

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