Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [147]
I considered not answering, but I’d just have to call her back later. “Might as well get it over with,” I muttered. I rose to my feet and flipped open the phone. “Hello?”
My mother’s first words were, “ ‘Singing Server Sees Slaying’?”
“You read the tabloids?” I blurted.
“No, dear. But people love to share good news with a proud mother.”
I sighed and started walking down the aisle. “It’s all over now. They caught the killer.”
As I guiltily headed for the exit before she could ask where I was, she said, “Please tell me you’re not still waiting tables at the restaurant where this happened.”
“Actually, I am. But things are looking up, Mom. I just got cast as a homeless bisexual junkie prostitute.”
“How nice,” she said.
“On a TV show,” I said.
“Oh, good. This way a maximum number of people nationwide can see my daughter in that persona.”
Outside in the sunlight, New York City greeted me with robust noise and color and life. Sometimes besieged by Evil, and sometimes full of heartbreak, but always full of wonders.
Acknowledgments
Blame my friend Mary Jo Putney for putting the idea of Mercury Retrograde into my head, though any misstatements about it in the text are strictly my own error. Apart from that, I once again owe MJP many thanks for her practical help and moral support.
I also extend my gratitude to Naomi Wiener and the Israeli science/fiction fantasy community, Karin Laub in Jerusalem, Denise Little and my friends at Tekno Books, Hilary and Tim Warmoth, Linda Howard, Valerie Taylor, Zell Schulman, Pat McLaughlin, Jerry Spradlin, Betsy Wollheim, Marsha Jones, Elaine English, and my parents, who all made it possible, in their various ways, for me to write this book and to see it published, after some hairpin turns in fate, while juggling many commitments and crossing the ocean twice.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Acknowledgements