Read Online Murder on Location by Howard Engel - Free Book Online

mob?” I asked without a build-up.
    â€œWhat kind of question is that? You think I’m a crook, or you want to enlist? Which is it?”
    â€œI’m working on a case. Tell me what you know about it.”
    â€œThere are a couple of guys in town you can place a bet with. Is that what you mean? There’s the Big Deal club over at the hotel. The club gets a rake-off on every hand.”
    â€œI’m talking about the mob, the Mafia, Cosa Nostra.”
    â€œThey say that Lou Tannenbaum was close to that fellow, what’s-his-name, Greenblatt from Detroit. But I never …”
    The doorbell rang upstairs, then voices at the door like jingling crystal. A moment or two later, my mother, transformed by a dinner dress of soft milky-coffeecoloured material, ushered Linda Levin into the television room. In her honour, Pa turned the knob down a couple of notches, so that you could no longer hear the announcer talking about the arrival of Peggy O’Toole in the Falls.
    Linda Levin was a slender woman about six feet tall. She shivered. Her dark hair was cut in bangs across her forehead, and the rest, in two even plaits, fell to her shoulders. She was dressed in a black cocktail dress with a peek-a-boo, low-cut top, covered by dark net. Her lips were very red, her earrings very green. She didn’t look as though she’d been closer to New York than the North Pole. She smiled a nervous smile of recognition and shook hands with my father, who half-lifted himself from his over-stuffed chair. I could still see in her the skinny girl who crouched with me on the rabbi’s cellar stairs.
    â€œHow are you, Linda?” I asked, and pulled a newspaper from the chair for her. My mother excused herself in order to complete her serving arrangements upstairs and warm the canned peas.
    â€œJust fine, Benny. You’re looking well.” She smoothed her hem at the knees as she sat between my father and me. It was an awkward grouping now that Ma had broken up the composition. “Wilfred ran into your mother and she invited me. Wonderful to see you after such a long time.” I could see that she was nervous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen knees pressed so tightly together. I’ll bet she had bruises. And I found that I was sweating a little too.
    â€œSo, how are things in New York?” Pa asked, not much liking the whole business, but trying to be polite. After all, although Linda was one of Ma’s ideas, she was also a person in her own right. Pa saw that.
    â€œVery busy,” she said. “Traffic, muggings, hold-ups, looting, you name it. We didn’t go into Manhattan much. Just for dinner and a show. The last time, Benny, we were caught by a blizzard and had to find a hotel.”
    â€œSo you didn’t live in New York?” Pa looked disappointed.
    â€œHightown is just a short drive, except in a snow storm. And it’s close to Trenton and Philadelphia too. Do you know the States, Benny?”
    â€œSome. I was in New York on a case a year ago.”
    â€œAnd he didn’t look up my brother, his own uncle.”
    â€œPrinceton’s miles from Manhattan, Pa.”
    â€œYou could have phoned.”
    â€œHe’s right. I could have. Tell you what, Pa, let’s phone him right now. I mean it.”
    â€œWhat are you suddenly crazy or something?”
    â€œI have this urge to hear Uncle Max’s voice.”
    â€œYou could do with some of his class, believe me.”
    â€œDo you know the street number? I’ll get it from Information.”
    â€œSit down. Don’t talk foolishness. A long-distance call you can make on your own phone.”
    â€œBut your own brother, my Uncle …”
    â€œÃ€ table, à table!”
my mother shouted from the top of the stairs. On the way up, Pa gave me a wounded look. I guess I’d laid it on a bit thick. Linda went into the kitchen to ask if there was anything she could do, and was