Need You by Blake Pierce EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Blake Pierce
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 1 MB
Daisy Fortune sat at her desk in a rundown section of East Plainfield,
New Jersey, eyeing the picture of her father on the wall as she waited for her
one o’clock appointment to arrive.
In the photograph, her father, the esteemed Edward Fortune, was shaking
hands with the President of the United States. Handsome and bulldog-strong,
he posed on the steps of the state courthouse, fresh after breaking up a
massive drug ring. National media had been there, and he’d gotten personal
congratulations from the Big Man in the White House.
Edward Fortune had been a force, a well-known name across the state.
Daisy had been four at the time, and yet it stood out to her as one of her first
memories. She remembered how proud everyone had been of her father, and
with good reason—that had been only the start of a long and illustrious career
in private investigations. As a result, Daisy had gotten her nose tweaked by
the president, dined with the governor, seen her father’s face in enough
newspapers to wallpaper the office, and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle
growing up. She and her older brother, Charlie, used to walk to this office
every day after school and play with her dolls and his action figures on the
now-threadbare rug.
She tapped her fingers on the blotter as she stared at the empty desks
surrounding her. In its heyday, Fortune Investigations had employed over a
dozen private eyes.
But that had been a long time ago. Now, thirty years after he’d gotten that
commendation from the president, all but one of the desks were empty. Some
of them still had typewriters on them beneath layers of dust. The place looked
dirty and old. It was old, the HVAC always left the place ice-cold and never
fully circulated the stagnant air. It smelled now of a burned popcorn mistake
she’d made with the breakroom microwave a week ago. The neighborhood
around the place had deteriorated, too, and now, the only businesses on the
street were pawn shops and an addiction treatment center. Her father had put
bars on the windows a decade ago, and yet that hadn’t stopped someone from
spraying a graffiti SUCK IT on the storefront window a month ago.
Fifteen minutes late, her one o’clock strolled in, smoking a cigarette. She
stubbed it out on the front stoop and teetered in her five-inch heels as she
made her way past the waiting area to Daisy. Wilma Watkins seemed the
perpetually late type; she’d been a half-hour behind for her first meeting and
hadn’t apologized then, either. Ordinarily, Daisy might have called her out on
it, but really, what else did she have going on today?
“You find anything?” she said, dispensing with greetings. She stared at
Daisy expectantly, one false eyelash not quite adhering to her lid, causing it
to droop into her eye.
Daisy sighed. At one point, she’d hoped to be as respected as her father.
That was why she’d gone into the business, and why she’d eagerly learned
everything about it. She’d wanted to make things happen. Clearly, though,
things had gone wrong. Very wrong. Now, she only had a handful of clients,
mostly women looking for dirt on their cheating spouses.
And Wilma clearly didn’t respect her enough for even a, “Hello, how are
you?”
Daisy smiled. “Hi, Wilma. How is it out there? Still freezing?” she said,
hoping to coax some pleasantries out of her.
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