Carol Higgins Clark [Regan Re Iced (retail) (epub)

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.He never thought he’d enjoy life without crime, but after he was hatched from prison five years ago, he decided that that was it.A master of separating jewelry from the bejeweled, he had enjoyed considerable success until the unfortunate evening when he unknowingly targeted the wife of the police commissioner of New York.The occasion had been a dinner at the Plaza Hotel.Employed by the waiters’ union thanks to fake identification, Eben had gone around collecting dirty dishes while plying his true trade.Until that moment it had been a very successful night.A Rolex watch and a ruby pendant were concealed in the floating remains of a Banana Surprise.As it turned out, the police commissioner’s photographic memory had already identified Eben and he had been watching him.An on-the-spot arrest was made, much to the oohs and aahs of everyone at the surrounding tables and the disappointment of the dinner speaker, who had just reached page eight of his address.In the confusion that followed, many of the guests who’d fallen into an involuntary trance sensed the opportunity to put themselves out of their misery and seized on it immediately.Jolted awake, they jumped from their seats and scurried to the coatroom with a grateful nod to the handcuffed Eben.In the five years he’d spent up the river, Eben had mused that he’d been stealing jewelry since he was sixteen.He comforted himself with the thought that thirty-odd harmonious and profitable years were enjoyed by almost no one else in his profession.However, five years as a guest of New York State had permanently soured Eben on the prospect of a return visit to the penitentiary.When he was given a measly check, an ill-fitting suit and the address of his parole officer, he had one fleeting moment of regret for the friends he’d made behind bars.They’d even put together a party of sorts in the TV room the night before he was sprung.One friend’s wife had baked a seven-layer cake and as a tribute to his particular skills had filled the layers with plastic toy watches.Swallowing over a lump in his throat as the whole room burst into “Auld Lang Syne,” followed by “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” Eben had said to them, “You’re the only family I’ve ever known.But I still don’t want to come back.”In his days as a thief, Eben had come to enjoy a bit of gracious living.He was particularly fond of renting nice houses.Post-prison, he realized that he would never be able to afford such luxury from the fruits of honest labor.While flipping through a copy of Architectural Digest, he started to get depressed but then happened upon an ideal solution.It occurred to him that every one of the estates he was looking at probably had a caretaker.Kidney-shaped pools with their very own waterfalls needed to be maintained, velvety lawns needed to be raked, long winding driveways needed to be blown clear of snow to make way for luxury vehicles.Many a time Eben had made his leisurely way through an estate house after disconnecting the alarm, while the caretaker sat in his apartment over the garage drinking beer and watching mud-wrestling on television.Eben had decided that the only way he was going to come even close to living the good life again was to be a caretaker.Of course the old-fashioned way was to marry into it, but so far Eben had found no prospects.To be totally insignificant-looking had been a great advantage when he was pursuing his life outside the law.Medium height, mousy hair, brown eyes and average features constituted a nightmare for police sketch artists.Horn-rimmed or frameless glasses, colored contact lenses, various hues of hair rinse contributed to his makeovers, enabling him to elude police for so long.Now he had put on a little extra weight that he wasn’t proud of, but at least he didn’t have to worry about disguising it.He’d won the drama medal in the eighth grade after starting out playing the third wise man in the school Christmas pageant and then had gone on to star, ironically enough, as the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist.The zealous director should never have called in the magician named Slippery Fingers to teach me all those tricks, he often thought.It became too easy to relieve people of their gems.After his arrest, the only chance Eben had to exercise his acting skills was when he played Santa Claus for the children of inmates at the annual family Christmas party.Which leads me to where I am today, Eben thought as he looked down from his perch.The slopes that a short time ago had been dotted with skiers were now virtually empty.The clouds that had blown in only a few minutes ago opened up and it began to snow.The thick soft powder immediately began to obscure the mountain peaks on the horizon.Eben began to hum “Frosty the Snowman.” This was perfect.He’d have one more run down the mountain, then go home and get ready for his big night [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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