Promised Land by Robert B. Parker Read Free Book Online Page A

her?”
    “Her husband hired me to find her.”
    “And what were you to do when you did?”
    “He didn’t say. But he wants her back.”
    “And you intend to take her?”
    “No, I intend to talk with her. Establish that she’s well and under no duress, explain to her how her husband feels and see if she’d like to return.”
    “And if she would not like to return?”
    “I won’t force her.”
    Jane said, “That’s for sure,” and glared at me.
    “Does her husband know she’s here?” Rose Alexander asked.
    “No.”
    “Because you’ve not told him?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to see what was happening in the china shop before I brought in the bull.”
    “I don’t trust you,” Rose Alexander said. “What do you think, Jane?”
    Jane shook her head.
    “I’m not here with her husband, am I?”
    “But we don’t know how close he is,” Rose Alexander said.
    “Or who’s with him,” Jane said.
    “Who’s with him?” I was getting confused.
    Rose said, “You wouldn’t be the first man to take a woman by force and never doubt your right.”
    “Oh,” I said.
    “We back down from you now,” Jane said, “and it will be easier next time. So we’ll draw the line here, up front, first time.”
    “But if you do,” I said, “you’ll make me use force. Not to take anyone, but to see that she’s in fact okay.”
    “You saw that yesterday,” Jane said. The color was higher on her cheekbones now, and more intense. “You told me you saw Pam and Rose go shopping together.
    ”I don’t think you’ve got her chained in the attic,“ I said. ”But duress includes managing the truth. If she has no chance to hear me and reject me for herself she’s not free, she’s under a kind of duress.“
    ”Don’t you try to force your way in,“ Jane said. ”You’ll regret it, I promise you.“ She had stepped back away from me and shifted into a martial arts stance, her feet balanced at right angles to each other in a kind of T stance, her open hands held in front of her in another kind of T, the left hand vertical, the right horizontal above it. She looked like she was calling for time out. Her lips were pulled back and her breath made a hissing sound as it squeezed out between her teeth.
    ”You had lessons?“ I asked.
    Rose Alexander said, ”Jane is very advanced in karate. Do not treat her lightly. I don’t wish to hurt you, but you must leave.“ Her black eyes were quite wide and bright as she spoke. Her round pleasant face was flushed. I didn’t believe the part about not wishing to hurt me.
    ”Well, I’m between a rock and a hard place right now. I don’t want you to hurt me either, and I don’t take Jane lightly. On the other hand the more you don’t want me to see Pam Shepard, the more I think I ought to. I could probably go for the cops, but by the time we got back, Pam Shepard would be gone. I guess I’m going to have to insist.“
    Jane kicked me in the balls. Groin just doesn’t say it. I’d never fought with a woman before and I wasn’t ready. If felt like it always does: nausea, weakness, pain and an irresistible compulsion to double over. I did double over. Jane chopped down on the back of my neck. I twisted away and the blow landed on the big trapezious muscles without doing any serious damage. I straightened up. It hurt but not as much as it was going to if I didn’t make a comeback. Jane aimed the heel of her hand at the tip of my nose. I banged her hand aside with my right forearm and hit her as hard a left hook as I’ve used lately, on the side of her face, near the hinge of her jaw. She went over backward and lay on the floor without motion. I’d never hit a woman before and it scared me a little. Had I hit her too hard? She was a big woman but I must have outweighed her by forty pounds. Rose Alexander dropped to her knees beside Jane, and having got there didn’t know what to do. I got down too, painfully, and felt