{"id":365,"date":"2011-01-14T22:24:05","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T02:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/?page_id=365"},"modified":"2013-10-05T17:03:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-05T21:03:59","slug":"excerpt-from-%e2%80%9cthe-hungry-ghost%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/?page_id=365","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from \u201cThe Hungry Ghost\u201d<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hungry Ghost<\/span><\/h1>\n

A novel by<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michel David Lowe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prologue<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It ended the day Elmore Leonard stepped aside.\u00a0 Fitting I suppose that all the misery and blood would come to an end the same day we lost one of our masters.\u00a0 You remember Elmore Leonard, he gave us Maximum Bob<\/i> and they made a pretty good movie out of Get Shorty<\/i> with John Travolta and Gene Hackman.\u00a0 I think Dennis Farina passed that same summer.\u00a0 He was in the movie, too.\u00a0 I lost track of current events what with the other current events I was participating in.<\/p>\n

It ended in August in 2013.\u00a0 It began the winter before, but really, it began a long time ago.\u00a0 Elmore said not to start a story with the weather report and maybe I\u2019ve already broken his first rule.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just say it ended on an August day in northern Virginia, hot with air thick as syrup.\u00a0 I\u2019ll leave it at that.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/b><\/p>\n

Sandy Norcross was exhausted at the end of the day.\u00a0 As a Twenty-First Century Latina tiger mom she did it all: she managed the household finances, day-to-day activities like groceries and laundry; she scheduled and chauffeured the kids to their extracurriculars, and, as an equity partner in a leading St. Louis law firm, pulled down nearly as much in salary as her stock trader husband.<\/p>\n

To do all this she rose before six, did thirty minutes on the treadmill then showered.\u00a0 She dressed in her walk-in closet and, emerging from the dressing room, shook the foot of the bed rousing her husband, Peter.<\/p>\n

Peter Norcross showered and shaved, helped Sandy dress and feed the girls and get them to their bus stop in time to catch their ride to Kennerly Elementary where Gabbie was in third grade and Rosita was in Mrs. Robinson\u2019s fifth grade class.<\/p>\n

Sunset Hills in southwest St. Louis County was an older town but it still felt the development pressure of the recent nationwide housing boom.\u00a0 Peter drove past neighborhoods of 1980\u2019s ramblers, like his and Sandy\u2019s; these houses sat on large lots canopied by mature oaks and maples, surrounded by lush lawns and sheltered from the road by privets, ewes and flower beds.\u00a0 Open design and the Great Room was the recent architectural improvement over the boxy 50s and 60s ranchers with their picture windows and split foyers.\u00a0 Unlike the New Millennium subdivisions of two story colonials set on postage stamp lots with a single Bradford pear in a sea of rolled sod, Peter appreciated the character of his split level Tudor.<\/p>\n

Out of the developments and subdivisions he made his way onto Lindbergh, north across Watson Road, onto the I-44 ramp to I-270 then north to Manchester Road east and to his office at Edward Jones in Des Peres.<\/p>\n

At the same time Peter drove his commute to Des Peres, Sandy also took I-44.\u00a0 But at the Laclede Station Road exit she turned north until Laclede became Hanley Road, continued north across I-64 \u2013 everyone in St. Louis still called it US 40 \u2013 to wind up her drive in her assigned parking slot at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP in Clayton.<\/p>\n

As the county seat of St. Louis County, Clayton was the perfect example of Joel Garreau\u2019s Edge City<\/i>.\u00a0 Though Washington Post reporter Garreau was writing about Northern Virginia in the D.C. suburbs, Clayton was a perfect fit for his uptown<\/i> model: a satellite city at the western orbit of St. Louis now grown up with mid-rise office buildings, malls, and heavy reliance on automobiles and surface parking at the expense of pedestrian traffic.<\/p>\n

Sandy marched into the building promptly at 8:15, collected a Starbucks in the lobby, and elevatored to her office on the sixth floor.<\/p>\n

Partner track work at a major firm like Fulbright meant long, billable hours and late, late nights, last minute briefs, and wining and dining clients.\u00a0 Today and tonight were no different from most Fulbright nights.<\/p>\n

Peter Norcross picked up the girls at after school day care and marshaled them through homework, dinner, bath and bedtime before Sandy made it out of Fulbright\u2019s parking lot.\u00a0 Traffic was light and she made good time, but as she unlocked the garage door and dropped her briefcase in the hallway she was completely ragged out.<\/p>\n

Lean Cuisine awaited her in the fridge and a half bottle of merlot washed her dinner down.<\/p>\n

She stood at the foot of the bed in her slip watching Peter read.\u00a0 He looked up over the top of his reading glasses and set Patricia Cornwell face down on the bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look beat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel beat,\u201d she said slipping out of her slip and into a flannel night gown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that sexy negligee says no romance tonight,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive me a break.\u00a0 Unless you feel like fucking the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to do anything,\u201d he said, \u201cI can take care of the action for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not even up for necrophilia tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m almost done with this chapter, I\u2019ll finish with my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend, I promise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

He patted the side of the bed and she crawled in, pulled covers up around her shoulders and was asleep at once.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/b><\/p>\n

The next morning the phone rang until it rolled over to the answering machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Norcross, this is Miss Jones from Kennerly.\u00a0 I\u2019m calling because the girls are absent and no one called them in sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunset Hills patrolman Ronnie Branson played the message for Detective Roger Hilbert, St. Louis County Major Case Squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI checked with Miss Jones at the grade school, she\u2019s the attendance officer at Kennerly Elementary.\u201d\u00a0 He flipped opened a palm-sized notebook and said, \u201cShe calls all the unexplained absences, said she called the Norcross house around nine-thirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you officer,\u201d Detective Hilbert told the younger cop.\u00a0 \u201cSo you came to investigate the absent children?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Mrs. Norcross\u2019s office at Fulbright & Jaworski called the station, asked if we could send a car by.\u00a0 Mrs. Norcross missed a partner meeting at ten and didn\u2019t answer her cell or the home phone.\u00a0 Her admin was frantic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you found the crime scene pretty much as it is right now?\u201d asked Hilbert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe front door was ajar, like an invitation to come on in\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you came on in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d said Branson.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd nothing looked out of the ordinary except for the open door,\u201d said Hilbert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty fucking cold this morning, the furnace was blowing full blast but the house was freezing.\u00a0 I called out, but no answer from inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou checked the main floor then went upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u00a0 I went on up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls were in their respective rooms\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018They looked like they were asleep,\u201d said Ronnie Branson.\u00a0 \u201cI checked but didn\u2019t feel a pulse.\u00a0 And they were cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you attempt resuscitation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, what was the point?\u00a0 They were like ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you went to the master bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u00a0 The master bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to take a few minutes, get a cup of coffee before we go on to the master bedroom?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDetective Hilbert, I\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t go into that room again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilbert placed a reassuring hand on Officer Ronnie Branson\u2019s shoulder and said, \u201cNo problem.\u00a0 You just sit here on the stairs.\u00a0 Major Case can take it from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronnie sat on the steps and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m really sorry.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m supposed to be a law man and all, but I just can\u2019t go back in there again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major Case Squad Detective Roger Hilbert sat on the stairs beside Officer Branson and said, \u201cI know what you mean.\u00a0 My first couple of bad murders were really<\/i> bad\u201d<\/p>\n

Branson nodded and said, \u201cOh, and the puke\u2019s mine.\u00a0 Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hungry Ghost A novel by Michel David Lowe Prologue It ended the day Elmore Leonard stepped aside.\u00a0 Fitting I suppose that all the misery and blood would come to an end the same day we lost one of our … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/365\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micheldavidlowe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}