NOWHERE YET
A NOVEL
EDWARD COZZA
Pinot Dog
Encinitas, California
Copyright © 2012 Edward Cozza
All rights reserved.
Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from the publisher. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors’ rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is merely coincidental.
Published in eBook format by Pinot Dog, Encintas, California.
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9881-9060-3
NOWHERE YET
A NOVEL
For Mary Elizabeth.
None of my dreams would have ever been possible without you.
PROLOGUE
The phone in Grant Pettitte’s living room rang. It startled him, because the phone never rang. In the stillness of the mostly empty room, amidst the furniture that he had made, the ringing phone sounded like a gun going off. Grant wondered why he hadn’t had the thing disconnected before now. Its presence added nothing to the nearly bare environment of his living quarters. One less cord to trip over would be fine. The loud intrusion into the quiet confines made him flinch in his worn leather chair before he answered it.
“Hello.”
“I knew you’d be there.”
It was his friend Rex Schmidt. It took Grant a few seconds to gather his words, as Rex had been missing for a couple of years. But he easily recognized his voice, his East Coast accent.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
“You never go anywhere.”
“How would you know? You’re not here.”
“I just know. Glad to hear from me, aren’t you?” Rex laughed.
“You don’t know shit these days. I’m indifferent to hearing from you.”
“That’s mighty fancy talk from a cowboy. I know you used to go lots of places when I was around to get your sorry ass moving, but that’s been quite a while ago. Why the indifference?”
“What do you want?” Grant asked.
“The usual, money, food, booze, women. I’m a little bored, but bored is good right now.”
“The only one of those you were ever any good at was food. Bored? Read a goddamn book. Get a dog.”
“You’re the one that really should get a dog. You are such a fucking hermit, and even fucking hermits have dogs, but back to me. I still am good at food.” Rex sounded like he was opening some sort of cellophane bag, followed by crunching noises.
“That’s great to know that you still know how to eat, and thanks for providing the audible proof. I’ll sleep much better tonight.” There was an awkward pause.
“Right, I’ve been meaning to call you—”
“That so?” Grant injected bitterly. “I left you a message—sorry, no, make that six or eight messages. I forget what the messages were about, since it’s been a few years.”
“It’s pretty complicated, Grant.” Rex was still crunching food on the other end.
“It always is with you.”
“No, really, that’s one of the reasons I’m calling, but both are good reasons.”
“Ah.”
“Listen, I understand you being a little pissed, but things have been, well … they have been, eh, there has been some kind of serious shit at work. I didn’t want that to spill over onto you.”
“Hmm, always looking out for others,” Grant said.
“Without going into all the shitty details, the firm I was working for got into some trouble. Some of the people at the top might end up doing some jail time. It has been a pretty shitty couple of years, pretty harsh all the way around, and I didn’t want anyone to know, or seem connected to me for their own good.”
“You do anything illegal?”
“No.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“The law firm did some wacky shit, but I wasn’t involved. They got in with some rather shady characters, and that’s what got the Fed boys’ attention. I’m sorry I didn’t get back with you, but I think radio silence was actually a good thing for you, as well as for anyone who knows me. It has been pretty miserable. Hell, I don’t know. All I can think about is if I make it without getting popped, I’ll throw one ginormous party, you know, to make-up for lost time. All kinds of things went through my head, I don’t expect you to understand, and I actually would prefer to talk about it in person, just in case someone is listening to our conversation, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I kind of wanted—wanted to get together with you, with you and Annie. Talk about all the crazy shit that we did, which I know Annie didn’t like, but maybe she can laugh about it now. Hell, I’m just rambling,” Rex said, sounding out of breath.
“You are always just rambling, and somebody listening to our conversation? I think you may have finally and completely lost your fucking mind. What might be good would be for you to tell me something I don’t know … like what does Annie have to do with this?”
“The point is, it came to me that with all the things that have been going down at work, it was boiling down to those bastards telling me they might take away everything, and everyone I ever cared about, and maybe end up in….”
“End up in Texas?” Grant asked, laughing.
“No, jail, or worse. Texas. Always the cowboy.”
“You could survive jail, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t survive Texas. What do you mean worse?” Grant paused. “And why are you bringing Annie into this conversation?”
“Yeah, that’s one thing we agree on. We never had good luck in Texas. By worse, I mean the Fed boys, some shady characters
