ALSO BY SARA PARETSKY
Critical Mass
Breakdown
Body Work
Hardball
Bleeding Kansas
Fire Sale
Blacklist
Total Recall
Hard Time
Ghost Country
Windy City Blues
Tunnel Vision
Guardian Angel
Burn Marks
Blood Shot
Bitter Medicine
Killing Orders
Deadlock
Indemnity Only
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
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Copyright © 2015 by Sara Paretsky
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paretsky, Sara.
Brush back / Sara Paretsky.
p. cm.—(A V.I. Warshawski ; 17)
ISBN 978-0-698-19683-4
1. Warshawski, V. I. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women private investigators—Illinois—Chicago—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3566.A647B78 2015 2015005018
813'.54—dc23
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Version_1
For Jeremy
He had but little gold within his suitcase;
But all that he might borrow from a friend
On books and learning he would swiftly spend,
. . . And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.
—CHAUCER
THANKS
Bill and Eleanor Revelle showed me V.I.’s route into the Villard mansion in Chapter 44. Fay Clayton gave generous advice on payday loan companies. Cheryl Corley and Elizabeth Brackett’s coverage of the pet coke in South Chicago, for Public Radio and PBS, respectively, first alerted me to the existence of these dust mountains in Chicago. Tricia Rumbolz drove me as close as we could get to them as ordinary tourists. Kathryn Lyndes stepped into the breach to help me finish the final rewrites.
This book is a bit of an anachronism: part of the action takes place under the stands at Wrigley Field, but starting in the fall of 2014, the field has been undergoing major demolition and reconstruction. I first heard about Wrigley’s underground spaces from Brian Bernardoni and thought they would be a perfect setting for a crime novel. Although I tried for over a year to see these spaces firsthand, I was never able to get calls or e-mails to the Cubs answered, and so I relied on my unfettered imagination to describe them.
As for climbing up the bleachers into the stands, as V.I. says she and her cousin Boom-Boom used to do, when I worked in advertising many years ago, one of my clients told me about doing this as a young man during the Great Depression, when he couldn’t afford the price of a ticket. He also used to shinny up the L girders so he could ride the trains to Wrigley Field for free.
I’ve also taken a few liberties with how Bernadine Fouchard handles the college admissions process.
Thanks to Karl Fogel for explaining how easy it is to hack into someone’s bank account online.
Aimee LaBerge gave correct Québécois idioms for the French in the novel, in particular the insult “ostie de folle.” Heather Watkins confirmed this phrase.
Readers interested in how Boom-Boom ended his life under the screw of the Bertha Krupnik can find out by reading Deadlock.
CONTENTS
Also by Sara Paretsky
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Thanks
1. Shortstop
2. Home Base
3. Slugger
4. Out at the Plate
5. Whiffing the Curve
6. Force Play
7. Crowd Noise
8. Calling Time
9. Minor League
10. Balk
11. Fleeing the Lions
12. Brush Work
13. Buy Me Some Peanuts
14. Ejected
15. Into the Gap
16. Brush Back
17. Keep on Truckin’
18. Ballpark Chatter
19. My Last Duchess
20. Dog Days
21. The Umpire Strikes Back
22. The Too-Real Thing
23. The Play’s the Thing
24. Short Relief
25. High and Outside
26. Roach Motel
27. Dead Ball
28. Blood Sport