Read Online The Ambitious Card (An Eli Marks Mystery) by John Gaspard - Free Book Online

mission ahead of him, he stood up, folding the newspaper carefully as he did.
    “I’ll go with you,” I said, taking his cup to the sink and adding it to my own.
    He stopped folding the paper. “We both don’t need to go,” he said. “That would be overkill.”
    “I want to go,” I said as casually as I could. “Besides, it’s a nice day out.”
    He gave me a long, penetrating look. He had spent a few years in the early part of his career touring with a mind-reading act, but it didn’t take those unique skills to deduce my ulterior motive for this mission. “You just want to gape like a lovesick schoolboy at the new landlady.” He put a mischievous little spin on the word lady . “Don’t think I can’t see that. It’s so obvious, you could see it from space.”
    “Guilty as charged,” I admitted. “I’m going with you.”
    And that was that.
      
    Presenting the monthly check to the landlord in person has been a Marks’ family tradition for as long as I can remember. As a child I had enjoyed the privileged assignment of taking the check, sealed tightly in a plain white envelope, over to Mrs. Reinhardt, who lived in one of the brick apartment buildings on the other side of the movie theater. She always made a big fuss about my arrival and would encourage me to perform, for her and her cranky husband, whatever magic trick I was currently attempting to master. He matched her level of enthusiasm with his own dour nature and in his own, grumpy way he taught me a lot about dealing with a tough audience.
    Now the tradition had moved from grandmother to granddaughter.
    It was a short walk from our door to hers. In addition to owning the strip of retail shops that took up half the block, and the old brick apartment buildings that took up the other half, Megan had laid a personal claim to the shop on the corner. For years it had served as our local drugstore, under the name Shenandoah Drug, an odd choice given how far away we are from the state of Virginia and the eponymous river. Over the years that corner shop had taken on other identities since the Targets and Walmarts of the world had driven nearly every corner drugstore out of business. Now it was owned and operated by Megan, with a new name that amused me every time I saw it— Chi & Things.
    The inside of the store was about what you would expect for a store with a name like that. It was packed from wall to wall with New Age books, incense, crystals, natural oils and a large selection of teas; in short, just the sort of mishmash of items that would appeal to a wide spectrum of credit card-wielding spiritually-minded seekers.
    Harry and I entered the store to find that, despite the early hour, numerous customers were already meandering through the cramped space, looking for just the right new age tchotchke to set them straight on the path to enlightenment or help them further tune their chakras toward nirvana.
    While two young clerks roamed the aisles offering oil samples and answering questions, Megan stood behind the counter, merrily ringing up sales and chatting warmly with each customer. She looked stunning and, as is often the case with naturally beautiful women, seemed to have no idea of the visual impact she was making.
    I tried to keep from staring, but it was hard not to. I was completely smitten. As we waited in line to give her the rent check, I surreptitiously tugged on Harry’s coat sleeve. “Give me the check,” I said in my best sotto voce whisper. “I want to give it to her.”
    Harry scowled at me. “What are you, five years old?” he said, not bothering to match my vocal volume.
    “You gave it to her last time,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “That makes it my turn. It’s only fair.”
    “Well, if you want to talk about fairness, since I wrote the bloody check and it’s coming out of my bloody account, I don’t think you have any legitimate claim on its ultimate distribution.” He waved the check in my face for emphasis