What It Was (28 page)
They left twenty on forty-four. The bald tender scooped the cash up off the bar.
“Leo,” said Stefanos.
“Yasou, patrioti.”
Strange and Stefanos walked out onto Georgia Avenue. Strange buttoned his leather blazer and nodded toward his black Cadillac, parked on the street.
“Let’s go, Greek. The clock ticks.”
“What’s your hurry?” said Stefanos.
Strange squinted against the dying light. “We’ve got a case.”
George Pelecanos is an independent-film producer, an essayist, the recipient of numerous international writing awards, a producer and an Emmy-nominated writer on the HBO hit series
The Wire,
and the author of a bestselling series of novels set in and around Washington, D.C. He currently writes for the acclaimed HBO series
Treme.
The Cut
The Way Home
The Turnaround
The Night Gardener
Drama City
Hard Revolution
Soul Circus
Hell to Pay
Right as Rain
Shame the Devil
The Sweet Forever
King Suckerman
The Big Blowdown
Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go
Shoedog
Nick’s Trip
A Firing Offense
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2012 by George P. Pelecanos
Cover design by Keith Hayes
Cover image courtesy of the Advertising Archives
Illustrations by Philip E. Pascuzzo
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Reagan Arthur Books
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
First e-Book edition: January 2012
Reagan Arthur Books is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Reagan Arthur Books name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN 978-0-316-20955-7
