Midnight Club by James Patterson Read Free Book Online

THEY LEFT Allure later that afternoon, the Bear and Stefanovitch sat out in his van. They watched a bright red sun sinking over New Jersey. They shared a six-pack of Miller from a very pricey bodega on Broadway.
    As they sat and talked, Stefanovitch was reminded of how much he depended on the Bear. If he was the head, the Bear was the body for the two of them. Only the Bear had a head on him, too. The Bear was street-smart, street-smart and a good friend.
    Kupchek finally leaned across the front seat and he pounded Stefanovitch’s arm. It was like being whacked by a ball peen hammer, but Stefanovitch didn’t blink.
    “You are some hump,” Kupchek frowned after delivering the lethal punch. Then he started to laugh. “You like her, don’t you?”
    “I like who?” Stefanovitch asked. There was something about the Bear’s round, homely face. He loved to tease that innocent face. He liked rearranging the parts. The Bear was his own personal Mr. Potato Head.
    “ Who? That fat old lady waiting for the Riverside Drive bus over there… Kay Whitley. That’s who!”
    “Oh, come on. You think I’m having fantasies about some high-priced call girl? Just because she’s one of the most beautiful women in New York. Twenty-five years old. Flawless body.”
    Bear Kupchek proceeded to whack Stefanovitch’s arm again. “She’s a very expensive, fucked-up hooker. She’s one of our two witnesses so far.”
    “No shit, Sherlock. Stop punching my arm. You’ll hurt your hand.”
    “You are pretty hard for a wimp in a wheelchair. I’m almost impressed.”
    “My physical therapist would smile, for maybe three seconds, if she heard you say I was developing a little muscle tone. Her name’s Beth Kelley. She has a flawless body, too.”
    “Another significant other in your life? She pretty? This personal therapist of yours?”
    Stefanovitch started to smile, then he laughed out loud. The Bear loved to gossip about anything.
    “She’s prettier than I am, for sure.”
    “So what’s the problem? You dating her? You seeing anybody, Stef? New York’s most eligible wheelchair bachelor?”
    “Don’t start up. Go home to New Jersey. See JoAnne and the Bear cubs tonight, while you have the chance. Before this St.-Germain mess heats up any more… Hey! Where the hell are you going? We’re right in the middle of a beer! A conversation!”
    “I’m going home to Jersey, to see JoAnne and the kids. You’re absolutely right for once in your life. First time for everything. Good night, Stef.”
    “Good night, Bear,” Stefanovitch called after the hulking figure already moving down Ninety-ninth Street, heading toward a familiar blue station wagon with Great Adventure stickers plastered all over the rear window.
    Stefanovitch sat in his van and slowly finished his Miller… It isn’t going all that good, now that you ask, he was thinking to himself. I’m not seeing anybody, okay. I’m also uptight about this investigation.
    I’ve got to get somebody to talk to, or I’ll blow up one of these days…Yes, I like the way Kay Whitley looks. No, I’m not going to get stupid over it. I don’t think so, anyhow…If you want to know the truth, I don’t have the nerve anymore.
    How’s that for being honest as I can be, Bear?

17
    John Stefanovitch; Coney Island Amusement Park
    FOR THE PAST few months John Stefanovitch had been planning to take the rest of that day off. He wasn’t going to allow anything, not even the St.-Germain murder investigation, to get in the way. At four o’clock, he hurried home to his apartment, across the city on East Eighty-first Street. Tonight was his night.
    After the Long Beach shooting, he’d been forced to find a place in midtown. That experience, more than anything else, had awakened him to the kind of fun times he was going to have in the Chair.
    Stefanovitch had eventually located a modern high rise on the Upper East Side. It was a neighborhood he’d never really liked. His being in a wheelchair