Game of Death by David Hosp Read Free Book Online Page B

with.
    ‘Nick,’ he says as he slides into the booth across from me. He nods at the bartender, who watched him enter. It seems they know each other. ‘Scotch,’ he says. The
bartender moves quickly. Paul turns back to me.
    ‘You on duty?’ I ask, looking at the bartender as he pours the drink.
    ‘You gonna report me?’ He smiles, and it occurs to me that, friend or not, Killkenny would be a bad person to be on the wrong side of. ‘How’s it goin’,
Nick?’
    I shrug. ‘Can’t complain. Business is good.’
    ‘So I’ve seen.’ I look at him with a raised eyebrow. ‘I read the financial pages,’ he says with a laugh. ‘It’s the new BPD. You can’t just follow
the Sox if you want to get ahead; you’ve got to be able to talk business and politics and art and shit.’
    ‘Brave new world,’ I say.
    ‘Well, new, anyways.’
    ‘You get back to the old neighborhood at all?’
    He shakes his head. ‘Not recently. I stopped by my folks’ place back around Christmas, but you know my dad. He wasn’t all that thrilled to see me, so I didn’t stay
long.’
    ‘He always was a pisser.’
    ‘Yeah. Still is.’ Killkenny spits out a bitter laugh. ‘He pulled a gun on me. You believe that shit?’
    ‘Pulled a gun?’
    ‘Yeah. He said he didn’t want any cops in his house. I told him I was just going in to wish Ma a merry Christmas. He stood on that porch and pulled his piece out. Told me to get off
his property.’ He laughs again. ‘I swear to God, I almost shot the old fucker. Hand to Christ.’
    I laugh with him. ‘Shit! What happened?’
    ‘Ma came out screaming. He’s waving his gun around, probably ten Jamesons into the evening; I’m reaching into my jacket for my piece, just to show I’m not afraid of him,
like I was when I was a kid; neighbors are starting to come out to watch. It almost turned into an ugly scene.’
    ‘Almost,’ I say without irony.
    ‘Ma starts beating on him, asking what the fuck he’s doing, until he finally goes out the back, gets into his car to drive to O’Malley’s.’
    ‘Close call.’
    ‘You don’t know the half of it. I almost got into my car to pull him over for drunk driving, just to fuck with him. I was so pissed.’ He smiles and sips the drink the bartender
has placed in front of him. ‘It was good to see Ma again, though. It’d been a while. And Theresa Pesci poked her head out on her porch to watch the whole scene. I got a smile from
her.’
    ‘Oh, yeah,’ I say, closing my eyes. ‘Theresa Pesci. God, she was hot back in the day. How’s she looking now?’
    ‘Not bad. She’s got two kids, but I’d still throw a shot into her if I had the chance. She’s still got those tits.’ He takes another sip of his drink. ‘So,
how’s your ma?’
    I shake my head. ‘She’s not good.’
    He’s silent for a moment. ‘Life’s a cold bitch. You got a sense of timing?’
    I shake my head. ‘She’s a tough old broad.’
    ‘She is that,’ Killkenny agrees. ‘If anyone’s gonna tangle with death and come out on top, my money’s on her. If there’s anything I can do . . . ’
    ‘Thanks, we’re good.’
    ‘So what’s this all about?’ he asks directly. ‘You didn’t ask to meet me to reminisce about our childhood. You got another security gig for me?’
    I shake my head. ‘Nothing in the immediate future, but I’ve got you on the list if anything comes up.’
    ‘Do that,’ he says. ‘That party you put me in charge of last year got me the down-payment on my car. Dealing with that prick Net-Minder, or whatever-the-fuck his name is, was a
pain in the ass, but it’s hard to turn down that kind of money.’
    ‘NetMaster,’ I say.
    ‘Right, him. A real asshole, he is. But like I say, money’s money. So what’s this about, then?’
    I decide to put my toe in the water. ‘You know that murder that happened the other day in West Roxbury?’ I ask. He frowns as he looks at me. ‘The one with the girl tied to the
chair with the