Read Moonlight Rises (A Dick Moonlight Thriller) for Free Online

mind is entirely accurate. But it feels sort of accurate, in a Hollywood sort of way.
    “You visit me?” I press.
    “I did come to see you just this morning. Remember? I was concerned about you. You were groggy, but awake. We laughed about your nurse with the . . . uhhh . . . nice breasts.”
    “Breasts,” I say, picturing the small blond nurse. “How’d you find out I was hurt?”
    “This is SmAlbany, after all. Word gets around quick. Cops reported the news to the Times Union after they found you half dead. I read the police blotters off the internet edition. Old habit of mine. It’s fun. I’m surprised you don’t read them.”
    “Albany might be small, but not small enough for you to ever run into your father?”
    “Gee, Mr. Moonlight. It’s like I said. I’m not sure I would know my father if I were sitting next to him at the Miss Albany Diner. That’s why I’ve hired you.”
    Lola’s driving, listening, white knuckle-gripping the steering wheel like she’s trying to fly a plane that wants to crash.
    “OK,” I say, “I get it. You came to see me. We conversed about a nurse’s tits. What the hell else did we talk about?”
    Lola exhales angrily. I cup my hand over the mouthpiece. “Sorry Lo,” I whisper in her direction.
    “You were pretty out of it. It wasn’t much of a conversation to be honest. I only stayed a couple of minutes.”
    “Did you give me something? A box?”
    He hesitates for a weighted beat.
    “You still there, Czech?”
    “Still here, yes siree. No I don’t recall giving you anything. Not even a stick of gum. Not that you could chew it without choking anyway.” He follows up with a chuckle. Guy’s responsible for me nearly buying the farm and he’s getting a big kick out of it. If he were in front of me now I’d tip over his wheelchair. OK, maybe not.
    “You’re sure.” A question.
    “I’m a nuclear engineer. I’m paid well both for my precision ability and razor-sharp recall.”
    “Good enough. Oh, and Czech, do you actually work on the submarines themselves? Do they have any at the plant?”
    He laughs again. Guy’s just full of good humor today.
    “We work mostly on computer-simulated models. CAD programs. If you recall, the Knolls Atomic plant resides on the Mohawk River, so it’s possible we have a nuclear sub or two in our possession. But . . .” He lets the thread trail off.
    “But I’m not supposed to know about that am I?”
    “Correcta-mundo!” he barks.
    Oh goody. Lucky for him he’s revealing national security tidbits like that over his cell.
    “I’ll be in touch, Czech.”
    “I hope you find daddy.”
    Daddy . . .
    I hang up.
    In the split-second before I hand the phone back to Lola, the screen that represents my call to Czech disappears. That’s when I catch a quick glimpse of her phone call log. The number she connected with last just prior to the phone call I made to Czech. According to the readout, the number was pulled from her stored speed-dial list.
    It says, “My Father.”

CHAPTER 7

    WE RIDE IN SILENCE until we hit new Scotland Avenue. Me thinking about how Lola never once mentioned her father, only to tell me that he died a long time ago. I might mention seeing the speed dial with the title “My Father” on it in big ass letters, but like my interest in Some Young Guy, I choose to hold off. Maybe “My Father” is just a spiritual friend of hers, like a priest or a Rabbi. But then I’ve been led to believe that Lola doesn’t believe in God. And the way the listing is so coldly rendered.
    My Father . . . As if she were saying, My Cancer . . .
    Anyway, Lola has a life separate from mine; separate from ours , I should say. OK, whatever. That doesn’t change the fact that clearly something is up with my girlfriend, and I’m not about to confront her with it until I’m good, ready, prepared, and not half dead and bleeding out, or else risk her going entirely closed-mouthed on the subject.
    Forever!

    But then quite