The Last Kind Word (36 page)

“And you prefer not to leave any misunderstandings behind.”

“I'm sorry, Josie.”

“It's not like you didn't warn me.”

“I'm sorry.”

She moved toward the cabin, got halfway around it, and stopped.

“Are you going to marry her, this girlfriend?”

“It's still undecided.”

“If she won't have you, I will.”

A moment later, Josie disappeared from view. I watched the spot where she had been standing for a long time. Bachelors, I told myself, and bachelorettes—we fall in love too easily for our own damn good.

 

ALSO BY DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT

Featuring Rushmore McKenzie

A Hard Ticket Home

Tin City

Pretty Girl Gone

Dead Boyfriends

Madman on a Drum

Jelly's Gold

The Taking of Libby, SD

Highway 61

Featuring Holland Taylor

Penance

Practice to Deceive

Dearly Departed

Other Novels

The Devil and the Diva
(with Renée Valois)

Finders Keepers

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Housewright has worked as a journalist covering crime and sports, an advertising copywriter and creative director, and a writing instructor. His crime fiction has been awarded both the Edgar Award and the Minnesota Book Award. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

Visit the author's Web site at
www.davidhousewright.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE LAST KIND WORD.
Copyright © 2013 by David Housewright. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover photograph of city © Bill Moss; man © Cavan Images/Getty Images

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Housewright, David, 1955–

    The last kind word / David Housewright.—First edition.

          pages cm

    ISBN 978-1-250-00960-9 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-03739-8 (e-book)

  1.  Private investigators—Fiction.   2.  Undercover operations—Fiction.   3.  Illegal arms transfers—Fiction.   4.  Minnesota—Fiction.   I.  Title.

    PS3558.O8668L37 2013

    813'.54—dc23

2013006984

eISBN 9781250037398

First Edition: June 2013