Invasion of Privacy

slaughterhouse there... I wasn’t acting on orders. I was freelancing.... Cowboying it to make things turn out the way I wanted them to. And I been lying ever since.” I realized Zuppone was choking back tears. “Lying to the fucking people who made me... what I am today. I don’t understand it, and there ain’t even anybody I can talk to about it. I... I ” He gave out, sinking his chin into his forearms on top of the wheel.
    I lowered my own voice. “Primo, you crossed a line. Crossed it to save me, but like you just said, you made the decision for yourself.”
    No reaction.
    Fingering the Alasdair Fraser tape in my jacket pocket, I said, “Maybe we could ride around for a while, listen to some music.”
    After a moment, Zuppone lifted his chin from his arms. “Yeah.” Snorting, he turned the ignition key. “Yeah, matter of fact, I wouldn’t mind that, you got the time.”
    “I’ve got the time.” Taking the cassette from my pocket, I handed it to him.
    “What’s this?”
    “Scottish fiddle music.”
    “Scottish fiddle?”
    “Kind of ‘Old Age’ stuff.” I thought back a few nights to Nancy and me, awaiting the results of her biopsy. “It’s good background for talking things out.”
    Primo looked over. “Tell you the truth, I wouldn’t mind doing that, either. The talking part, I mean.”
    After popping the tape into the slot by his radio, he took a fresh toothpick from the ashtray and stuck it in his mouth. “So,” clearing his throat again, “what do you want to talk about?”
    Settling back into the buttery upholstery, I caught myself almost smiling. “Whatever comes to mind.”
    Primo Zuppone nodded once. Checking all three mirrors, he edged out into the empty street, his voice blending with the fiddle’s melancholy strings.

JEREMIAH HEALY is a professor at the New England School of Law. A former president of the Private Eye Writers of America , he has earned eight Shamus Award nominations, most recently for Foursome. Invasion of Privacy is the eleventh novel in his acclaimed series featuring John Francis Cuddy. Previous entries include the Shamus winner The Staked Goat, and Blunt Darts, So Like Sleep, Swan Dive , Yesterday’s News, Right to Die, Shallow Graves, Foursome, Act of God, and Rescue.