Brush Back

Guardian Angel

Burn Marks

Blood Shot

Bitter Medicine

Killing Orders

Deadlock

Indemnity Only

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

Publishers Since 1838

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New York, New York 10014

Copyright © 2015 by Sara Paretsky

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, sca

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Paretsky, Sara.

Brush back / Sara Paretsky.

p. cm.—(A V.I. Warshawski ; 17)

ISBN 978-0-698-19683-4

1. Warshawski, V. I. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women private investigators—Illinois—Chicago—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3566.A647B78 2015 2015005018

813'.54—dc23

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

For Jeremy

He had but little gold within his suitcase;

But all that he might borrow from a friend

On books and learning he would swiftly spend,

. . . And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.

—CHAUCER

THANKS

Bill and Eleanor Revelle showed me V.I.’s route into the Villard mansion in Chapter 44. Fay Clayton gave generous advice on payday loan companies. Cheryl Corley and Elizabeth Brackett’s coverage of the pet coke in South Chicago, for Public Radio and PBS, respectively, first alerted me to the existence of these dust mountains in Chicago. Tricia Rumbolz drove me as close as we could get to them as ordinary tourists. Kathryn Lyndes stepped into the breach to help me finish the final rewrites.

This book is a bit of an anachronism: part of the action takes place under the stands at Wrigley Field, but starting in the fall of 2014, the field has been undergoing major demolition and reconstruction. I first heard about Wrigley’s underground spaces from Brian Bernardoni and thought they would be a perfect setting for a crime novel. Although I tried for over a year to see these spaces firsthand, I was never able to get calls or e-mails to the Cubs answered, and so I relied on my unfettered imagination to describe them.

As for climbing up the bleachers into the stands, as V.I. says she and her cousin Boom-Boom used to do, when I worked in advertising many years ago, one of my clients told me about doing this as a young man during the Great Depression, when he couldn’t afford the price of a ticket. He also used to shi

I’ve also taken a few liberties with how Bernadine Fouchard handles the college admissions process.

Thanks to Karl Fogel for explaining how easy it is to hack into someone’s bank account online.

Aimee LaBerge gave correct Québécois idioms for the French in the novel, in particular the insult “ostie de folle.” Heather Watkins confirmed this phrase.

Readers interested in how Boom-Boom ended his life under the screw of the Bertha Krupnik can find out by reading Deadlock.

CONTENTS

Also by Sara Paretsky

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Thanks

1. Shortstop

2. Home Base

3. Slugger

4. Out at the Plate

5. Whiffing the Curve

6. Force Play

7. Crowd Noise

8. Calling Time

9. Minor League

10. Balk

11. Fleeing the Lions

12. Brush Work

13. Buy Me Some Peanuts

14. Ejected

15. Into the Gap

16. Brush Back

17. Keep on Truckin’

18. Ballpark Chatter

19. My Last Duchess

20. Dog Days

21. The Umpire Strikes Back

22. The Too-Real Thing

23. The Play’s the Thing

24. Short Relief

25. High and Outside

26. Roach Motel

27. Dead Ball

28. Blood Sport

29. It Ain’t Beanbag

30. Gamer Gate

31. Road Test

32. Chin Music

33. Floral Offering

34. Mixing It Up

35. Family Ties

36. Changeup

37. High Spirits

38. Suicide Squeeze

39. Pinch Hitter

40. Sound Check

41. Land of the Dead

42. Stickball

43. Di