All In - Softcover

Gardner, Lily

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1635763819 ISBN 13: 9781635763812

Verlag: Diversion Books, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

The third noir mystery featuring P.I. Lennox Cooper, a smart detective, a smart poker player, and one of today's boldest heroines in the sorority of lonesome gumshoes.

"Gardner has created a modern P.I. in time honored tradition, and the result is both fresh and grounded. Lennox Cooper, her protagonist, is crafty, intelligent, resourceful, bold and tenacious. . . . The locale and ambiance are detailed to perfection." ―Carolyn Lane, Murder by the Book

Flinty ex-cop, poker-playing, private detective, Lennox Cooper stands alone in championing Tomek Jagoda, darling son of a Portland crime family, accused of murdering his high-living girlfriend.

The cops have proof that will send Tomek to prison for life, and prosecuting the case is a Viking goddess of a woman, as smart as she is stunning, who draws everyone's adoration. Next to her, Lennox feels like a garden gnome. Even August Kline, Lennox's boss and Tomek's defense attorney, is ready to throw Tomek under the bus in a plea deal that carries a ten-year sentence just to court the prosecutor.

What is it about Tomek-big as a tool shed and twice as dumb-that convinces Lennox of his innocence?

As Lennox unwinds all the lies surrounding the case, she sees deeper into Tomek's humanity and into her own. She realizes that she's in love with the defense attorney who's in lust with the prosecutor. Lennox bets her job, her love, and her own safety to find the killer.

She's all in.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lily Gardner lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two corgis and several thousand books. Lily’s first two noir mysteries set on the rainy streets of Portland, Oregon, and featuring private investigator Lennox Cooper were A Bitch Called Hope and Betting Blind. Visit her at www.lilygardner.net.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 39

“You realize, we need to have Kline to witness whatever goes down,” Lennox said in the elevator.
Idzi nodded. In her ballistics vest, the old lady looked like a little turtle with a shell too big for her.
“Still. We have to defend ourselves.” Lennox said.
Idzi half-smiled. “I get it.”
They left the lobby and crossed the street to the parking garage.
They quietly took the three flights of stairs to P-3. Lennox stopped a couple times to wait for Idzi, but the old lady waved away Lennox’s concern. Idzi had the person responsible for his son’s suffering in her sights.
Lennox thumbed off the safety on Old Ugly, Idzi racked her pistol. The sound filled the stairwell. They looked at each other. Waited the sound of footsteps. For a gunshot. The only sound was traffic splashing through the puddled street three floor below. They stood to the side of the stair opening and as far back as possible. Lennox pointed Ugly up and against her face and edged around the corner until she could see the third floor of the parking garage. Her eyes and ears straining for any movement, any sound. The elevator was catty corner to the stairwell, Kline’s BMW parked two spaces from the elevator in an area marked “reserved”. Two Priuses were parked against the half wall, a Volkswagen next to Kline’s BMW, a Suburu parked by a support pillar facing the stairwell.
“Head to the Suburu, then get behind the support pillar. I’ll cover you,” she whispered to Idzi. The old lady moved stiffly but rapidly. Once Idzi stood safely behind the cement pillar on the far side of the Suburu, Lennox edged along the garage wall, ducking behind the parked cars until she stood behind the pillar on the far side of the garage from Idzi.
8:35. Fog seeped over the concrete half-walls. The garage was cold and smelled of cement dust. Lennox kept her eyes peeled, her teeth clenched to keep them from chattering. She checked her sight lines, figuring Jill would hide behind the support pillar closest to the elevator, an unobstructed shot for Lennox. Alternatively, Jill could take cover behind the VW. Lennox would have to step from behind cover, but she could manage, with luck.
Lennox was trembling from the cold, her fingers growing stiff. She changed Ugly from hand to hand edging around the pillar, taking aim from one hiding spot, then to the next. Watching the stairwell, the elevator. Listening for any sound. Time crawled. She quick glanced at her watch. 8:50.
Jill entered the garage slowly from the stairwell, silent as a cat, wearing the same knit cap she wore when she was posing as Terry. Jill looked over the parked cars, pulled a .22 rifle from her open coat and racked the bolt action. Then Jill crouched on the floor and looked under the Priuses.
Lennox hid behind the column, held her breath. Hoped that Idzi saw Jill in time to move out of Jill’s sight-line. Lennox was freezing, she was sweating.
Jill made her way to the VW. Crouched behind it and took aim at the elevator doors. Then she stood up and trotted to the cement pillar closest to the elevator. Took aim once more at the elevator door, then remained still.
Five minutes crawled by. Jill remained silent and hidden.
Another five minutes. The whir of the elevator hydraulics. Show time.
The elevator door opened.
“Watch out.” Lennox shouted to Kline.
Jill turned and fired at Lennox. The explosion of the .22 amplified off the cement floor and ceiling. The bullet hit the corner of the cement support. Lennox gazed by something sharp. Blood trickled down her face. The VW’s car alarm went off. Gunpowder smoke mixed with the dust.
The elevator door closed, then opened again. Lennox waited until Jill lifted from cover, then took her shot. The bullet ricocheted off one of the Priuses.
Jill crouched and pulled the bolt action. Stood. Then Idzi came out from the Suburu and shot. Jill fell to the floor.
More car alarms, sirens screaming.
Kline came out of the elevator holding the Glock in both hands. “Cooper,” he yelled. “Where are you?”
Lennox told him to hold back. She kept her gun trained on Jill and walked closer. Jill was curled in a fetal position, gasping in pain. Lennox kicked the rifle out of reach.
It was over. They heard the sirens a block away.
Idzi and Kline walked over to Jill. Blood seeped from her wound and onto the cement floor. A look of intense satisfaction played across Idzi’s face when she saw that Jill was gut shot. Kline looked from Jill’s crumpled body to Idzi, to Lennox. Everything Lennox had been telling him sinking in as he watched Jill gasp with pain. She had killed Hadley, shot Tomek and had come here tonight to kill him.
“Tell me,” he said.
“Jill shot at me. Idzi shot Jill.”
“Is there anything we should do for her?” he said. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was nerves that made him shiver.
“The first responders will be here any minute,” Lennox said.
“We’re telling them it was self-defense,” he told Idzi. “They’ll hold you for questioning. Don’t say a word until I get there.”
The noise from the sirens was deafening when the cops pulled into the garage. It was a matter of a minute that felt like an eternity. They laid their guns down on the floor and had their hands up when the cops reached them. One of the cops told Lennox she was bleeding.
A whole lot of questions. The ambulance hauled Jill away. A fireman cleaned and bandaged her cheekbone. Despite Kline’s protestations, Idzi was cuffed and taken into custody. Kline jumped into his car to follow them. Lennox went home.
She turned the thermostat up, built a fire in the fireplace, poured herself a triple shot of Kline’s scotch, petted the dog, but still, she couldn’t get warm. It was like that the rest of the night.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Diversion Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1635763819
• ISBN 13: 9781635763812
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 263
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar