Read Online Sham Rock by Ralph McInerny - Free Book Online Page A

as Max Brand when he started.”
    â€œLet me see it.”
    â€œNot on your life. I don’t even let Peaches read work in progress.”
    â€œThis place is a step up from a dorm room.”
    â€œCome on, I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”
    He had forgotten asking if he could stay here. Following Casey upstairs, he felt it would be rude to tell him he had taken a motel room.
    The second floor was livable, even comfortable, if you liked living in a library.
    â€œHow many books do you own, Casey?”
    â€œI never counted them.”
    Casey showed him the cot in the third bedroom. “You can pretend you’re Brother Joachim.”
    So there was his opening, if he wanted it. “He gave some stuff to the Notre Dame archives.”
    â€œThey’ve asked for my papers.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.”
    Casey laughed. “That was my reaction. I didn’t know anyone there was following my career.”

    â€œYou can’t walk through an airport without being reminded.”
    â€œNo kidding.” Casey grinned as if he were surprised that he had millions of readers.
    Downstairs again, Casey opened the refrigerator. “I have beer.”
    â€œAre you having one?”
    â€œIt’s my reward for finishing my daily pages.”
    They took their beer out onto a veranda with a nice view of the Gulf.
    â€œCasey, you’ve got it good.”
    â€œYou said it was a dump.”
    â€œEnvy. Do you ever spend any money?”
    â€œThat’s Peaches’s department.”
    â€œHow is she?”
    â€œWait and see. What did Pat give to the archives?”
    â€œRemember Quinn?”
    Casey had to think. “Our missing classmate. I wonder what happened to him.”
    â€œPat seems to be suggesting that he’s buried by the Log Chapel.”
    â€œThe Log Chapel.” Casey shook his head. He had the look of an alumnus about to start remembering the good old days.
    â€œA boulder marks the spot.”
    Still Casey did not react. Instead he said, “Pat could have become a writer, Dave. He already was one. I wonder why he didn’t keep at it. How many years before he went into the monastery?”
    Dave let it go. Maybe Casey’s was the right reaction to Pat Pelligrino’s veiled suggestion that Dave had killed Timothy Quinn. Where he should have headed, during his frantic peregrinations, was Gethsemani Abbey to ask Pat what the hell he was trying to do with that story, with the bequest. The fact was, he dreaded such an encounter.

    â€œSo you’re selling your place?” Casey asked.
    â€œWant to buy it? I’ll throw in a boat.”
    â€œI thought you were closing on the condo.”
    â€œIt fell through. I was practically giving it away, and they wanted another reduction.”
    â€œThis is no time to sell a house. Ask Peaches.”
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    The big surprise was that Peaches was pregnant. She was maybe ten years younger than Casey, so that wasn’t the surprise. It was the thought of his own son, Jay, a student at Notre Dame, that hit him, and here was Casey expecting his first child.
    â€œAs far as I know.”
    Peaches stuck out her tongue at him. “So the deal on the house fell through,” she said.
    â€œWhy don’t you two buy it? If I’m going to be robbed, I’d rather be robbed by friends.”
    â€œWe’re happy where we are.”
    â€œHow’s the realty business?”
    â€œThe market is glutted. It’s a good time to buy, but buyers are scarce.”
    â€œYou’re telling me.”
    â€œHow’s this slump affecting you, Dave?” Casey asked.
    They were at table in the Columbia Restaurant on St. Armand’s Circle on Lido Key. The place was full; no sign of a slump here. Casey poured the last of the wine and ordered another bottle.
    â€œCasey!”
    â€œPeaches, think of it as a class reunion. It’s our duty to get