Bodily Harm by Robert Dugoni Read Free Book Online

groceries when I go, things like that.”
    “Is he handicapped?”
    The man seemed to give the question due consideration. “He’s not dumb, if that’s what you’re getting at. He just doesn’t function too well around people.” He nodded to the debris scattered about the floor. “He’s going to be pretty upset about this. This looks just mean-spirited.”
    Not to Sloane. To Sloane it looked like a deliberate act. Somebody had come to Horgan’s apartment to find something.
    • • •
    THE DOOR TO the apartment closed, ending what portion of the conversation he could hear between the building manager and the man who had come to talk to Kyle Horgan.
    He removed the earpiece and watched the entrance from the car, waiting several minutes before a well-built man, perhaps six two with broad shoulders, exited the building carrying a briefcase that undoubtedly held whatever it was Horgan had given him. An attorney. His employer would not be pleased. He contemplated following, but there was no need. The building manager hadn’t guessed the visitor’s occupation out of the blue. He’d been handed a business card.
    The attorney crossed the street and continued north on First Avenue, presumably in search of the toy store to which the manager had made reference. He pushed open the door, waited for a vehicle to pass, and then crossed the street, shuffling up the steps. Inside the building he found the manager’s apartment, considered the hallway in both directions, knocked twice, and held up the folded newspaper to block the view through the peephole.
    The manager pulled open the door. “Yeah?”
    He lowered the paper. “I’m inquiring about the apartment you have listed for rent?”
    “You have the wrong apartment building, mister. We don’t list any vacancies in the paper. Just put it up on the sign outside.”
    He rattled off an address.
    “That’s the building next door, and a lot nicer than this place if you can afford to live there.”
    “My mistake. I’m sorry to have disturbed.” He turned as if to leave.
    As the manager stepped forward to close the door the man swiveled and thrust his right palm hard against the wood. The door sprung inward, crushing the manager’s face and sending himsprawling backward into the apartment.
    He checked the hall in each direction, stepped in, closed the door, and turned the dead bolt. He found the attorney’s business card in the pocket of the manager’s bathrobe.
    BETHESDA, MARYLAND
    ALBERT PAYNE SLAMMED his fist on the table. Plates rattled, his daughter startled and screamed, and his son knocked over the milk carton. Without another word, Payne pushed back his chair and stormed from the room.
    For a moment neither child moved nor uttered a word. Their mother stood holding the frying pan with bacon grease in one hand and the tin can in the other.
    “Is Dad okay?” Michael asked. “Why is he so mad all the time?”
    She put the pan back on the burner. “Beth, cook the eggs. Michael, get a sponge and clean up the mess.”
    Mary Payne found her husband in the den, staring up at the family portrait over the mantel.
    “Albert? What’s going on?”
    He raised a hand without turning around. “Don’t start with me.”
    “Is it work? Is it the report you’re trying to get done for the Senate hearing?”
    “All I wanted was a little peace and quiet,” he said. “I don’t want to hear about her boyfriend or argue about why he can’t go to the mall with his friends when we’re sitting at the breakfast table to eat. Is that too much for a man to ask?”
    “You’re scaring the kids.”
    He turned. “Maybe they need to be scared. Maybe if I blowoff some steam now and then people will realize when I’m goddamn serious.”
    “You don’t need to swear.”
    He shook his head. “No one takes me seriously. No one respects me.”
    “Is it something at work? Is it Maggie Powers?”
    He walked toward the front entry. “It’s not work, okay? Work is fine. Don’t start