"Casey Daniels - Pepper Martin 01 - Don of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniels Casey)

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

About the Author



Dedication
For David,
my cemeterystommpin ' buddy.

Here's to tomato soup andCheez -Its!

Chapter 1




I have to admit, the first time GusScarpetti spoketo me, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention.

After all, the guy had been dead for thirty years. How much could he possibly have to say?

"Hey, doll baby!" He called out from the back of the crowd that was gathered around me, and though
I'm usually pretty quick on my feet, I was so freaked when I saw him that I was speechless.

I glanced over my shoulder at the black marble mausoleum that contained the worldly remains of Gus
Scarpetti . I looked back toward where this GusScarpetti wound his way in and out of the clumps of
tourists waiting for me to begin the day's talk: "Cleveland's Famous Dead."

Dead being the operative word.

I reminded myself of that fact while I watchedScarpetti sidestep between two blue-haired ladies. "Doll
baby. Hey!" He gave me the once-over. Like I'd been hearing since I was thirteen, I was too tall for a
girl. Five eleven. Just about the same height as this guy. I also happened to have a size 38C bust.

Guys always noticed. Even guys who were pretending to be dead guys.

Scarpettistared at my chest for a while and he smiled when he looked me in the eye. "You got no
manners? I'm talking to you. The least you could do is say hello."

"Hello." I answered automatically. I was still trying to figure out who concocted a joke this lame.
Whoever it was, I had to give him (or her) credit. Where they found a GusScarpetti who looked exactly
like the GusScarpetti I had seen in the pictures in the cemetery's research archives was a mystery to me.

The guy was shaped like a bull, compact and big-boned, with a nose that sat on his face at an angle, a
souvenir of his early years working as mob muscle. He had a football player's neck, as beefy as a
porterhouse. Like the photos I'd seen, this GusScarpetti was dressed in a perfectly tailored dark suit, a
fat tie, and a diamond ring on the pinky finger of his left hand. A white handkerchief peeked out of his