It was supposed to be simple. All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick a man up, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he says he is ... and they both know it. Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful. But they have something in common. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on. And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side.

The Low Between

“That was fast,” Joe said into the receiver. “What do you got for me?” Almost immediately, his shoulders went tense again. “But the paper said his secretary found him.”


Carlo frowned. He knew papers could be biased, but putting deliberate lies within an article was simply wrong. Was that what Joe had meant about what they were holding back?


“Well, I suppose that makes sense.” Joe didn’t sound like he liked it, though. “Did they get lucky with a name?…No, of course not, because that would be too—what?” His tone sharpened, ready to cut at the slightest provocation. “But that takes days to find out…You don’t think I don’t know that?”


The rest of the conversation was silent on Joe’s part, and while it felt like it stretched for hours, it could only have been another minute or two before Joe muttered a goodbye and returned the phone to the cradle. Carlo waited for him to turn around, to speak, to do anything, really, but all he did was stand there, staring at a blank spot on the wall.


Chapter 23