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Overview
An unexpected windfall has given burned-out Chicago journalist Mark Manning the chance to reconnect with his boyhood roots. With the blessing of his lover, Neil, he leaves the Windy City to return to Dumont, Wisconsin, to take over the town paper. His long-awaited family reunion is cut short when his cousin Suzanne is bludgeoned to death just before Christmas dinner. Before she dies, she whispers something to Manning: the name of her son. Was she expressing a mother’s dying wish for the future welfare of her child? Or revealing the identity of her murderer? When Manning ends up in the local law’s sights, he’s suddenly racing against time to clear his own name and smoke out a killer. With no lack of suspects, from a troubled homophobe to a lesbian activist to a housekeeper, the clock is ticking on a story that could be the biggest of Manning’s career—if he lives long enough to write it. Body Language is the third book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which begins with Flight Dreams and Eye Contact.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781480433939 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Media |
| Publication date: | 07/23/2013 |
| Series: | The Mark Manning Mysteries , #3 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 273 |
| Sales rank: | 923,653 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Michael Craft is the author of more than a dozen novels and three stage plays. He is best known as the author of the popular Mark Manning series, set in the Midwest, as well as the Claire Gray series, which takes place in Palm Springs, California. Three of Craft’s novels have been honored as national finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. His latest mystery novel, The MacGuffin, features a new protagonist, architect Cooper Brant.
Read an Excerpt
Body Language
A Mark Manning Mystery
By Michael Craft
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 1999 Michael CraftAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4804-3393-9
CHAPTER 1
Three Months Ago
WHERE TO BEGIN? The roots of this story trace back to my boyhood, some thirty-three years ago when I first visited Dumont, Wisconsin. And there were even earlier chapters, with a hidden prologue written prior to my birth in Illinois forty-two years ago. But the events that led to the tragedies of the past few weeks are not nearly so distant. The main action of this tale began just three months ago.
It was autumn, mid-October in Chicago, arguably the most pleasant weeks of the year— cool, dry, and invigorating. Kids were back in school, the opera and symphony seasons were in full swing, and the world got busy again with the productive grind of life. For all of these reasons and countless others, I have always enjoyed fall.
But last October was different. A mild despondency had gnawed at me all year, and by the time the leaves began to yellow, I found myself in the throes of full-blown depression. On the surface, this condition could be glibly diagnosed as a common case of midlife crisis. Indeed, like most men in their forties, I had begun to contemplate my mortality, and my staunchly rational creed did not permit the safety net of an afterlife. At the suggestion of an attorney friend, Roxanne Exner, I even wrote a will.
The truth was, though, that while I wasn't getting any younger, there wasn't a thing physically wrong with me. I was (and still am) as fit as most at thirty. So it is simply inaccurate to say that my depression was caused by the pull of the grave. What was really eating me was my job.
Doubtless, there are many who look back at their life's work and wonder why they've bothered. All too often, visions of a changed world are dead-ended by the realities of a future that doesn't measure up to the plan.
My career, however, exceeded all expectations. Back in the seventies, as a journalism student at Champaign-Urbana, I didn't dare dream that success might await me in Chicago, where I managed to land a reporting job at the Journal, one of that city's two major dailies. Over the years, I honed my skills and eventually secured a reputation as the most respected investigative reporter in the Midwest—a statement that verges on boasting, perhaps, but it is not with empty pride, because I did, in fact, deliver a unique brand of journalism in a city that's known as a newspaper town.
Most notably, last summer's big story dealt with a civic festival of the arts and sciences. When I took on the assignment, I had no idea—no one did, other than a handful of conspirators—that the festival was related to a bizarre scheme with insidious social implications for the entire country. During the course of my investigation, several of my coworkers were killed, and while there were many who considered me a hero in these developments, I myself had a hard time shrugging off the notion that I had played a role in these deaths.
This notion may have been shared by the Partridge Committee, that august body of publishers and scholars responsible for handing out the Partridge Prize (investigative journalism's highest award, known among reporters as "the coveted brass bird"). When the nominations were announced last fall, my efforts were again ignored, and the elusive prize was awarded posthumously to a reporter who was felled by the events of my story. Ironically, this was his second Partridge. The one awarded to him in life meant little to him—he treated it like a knickknack, a gaudy paperweight.
I am a reasonable man, self-analytical and perhaps overly logical, hardly prone to fits of peevishness. But that story was easily the highlight of my reporting career—any journalist would drool at the prospects of typing his byline over it. A combination of circumstances, luck, and my own best efforts produced an investigation that was hailed by my editor as the story of the year, if not the decade. Public acclaim was overwhelming, but the Partridge people ignored me. And this has happened before. I believe this is the result of a particular prejudice against me. I believe this is a reaction to the fact that I am gay.
Recognition of prejudice is not a persecution complex, and my insistence upon maintaining this distinction is not mere defensiveness. People are free to believe whatever they wish, and if, as a result of their beliefs, they don't "like" me, so be it—I'm not apt to like them, either. But the Partridge Foundation, while private, functions in the public arena, claims open-mindedness, and parades a veneer of objectivity. By any objective standard, I was screwed.
In other words, last October my career at the Journal maxed out. I had taken the job as far as it was likely to go, and while my performance was recognized by the adulation of my readers and the respect of my cohorts, I was convinced that my reporting would never be endorsed by that one evasive plum it deserved. Further, assignments like the festival story don't come along every day—subsequent stories fired no passion within me. And there was still that nagging thought that I had played a role in the death of friends.
I was beginning to grapple with awareness of the unthinkable: my reporting days at the Journal were drawing to an end, and I had no idea where I was headed.
All was not bleak, however, not by a long shot. Though the stability of my professional life was approaching a crisis of uncertainty, I had achieved emotional bedrock at home with Neil Waite. Meeting him, learning to love him, had precipitated a different kind of crisis— an identity crisis—some three years earlier. Approaching forty, I was single, straight, frustrated, and curious when an intriguing young architect, barely in his thirties, came to Chicago on business from Phoenix. At first glance, I judged him athletically handsome; during our first evening of conversation, I came to understand that he was intellectually rigorous as well. I was doomed (perhaps "destined" has a less pejorative ring) to fall in love with him, and my lifetime of fears became meaningless.
Roxanne introduced us, a courtesy she learned to regret, as she'd set her sights romantically on both Neil and me over the years. By the time Neil made his decision to relocate to his firm's Chicago office, it was obvious to both of us, as well as to Roxanne, that he and I belonged together. We were relieved when Roxanne ultimately reconciled herself to the role of unwitting matchmaker, and she has since been our closest friend.
The other aspect of my life that was anything but bleak last autumn was finances. As the Journal's star reporter, I was well paid, of course, but that was just the beginning. When I solved a prominent missing-person case nearly three years ago (at the time I met Neil), I received a substantial cash award from the woman's estate. Not long after that, I learned that I had inherited a large house from an uncle in central Wisconsin—Dumont, Wisconsin—which I had seen only once during a boyhood visit. Since both Neil and I were then anchored to our jobs in Chicago, I sold the house to an architecture buff and his wife from Madison, a Professor and Mrs. Tawkin.
The proceeds from all this were used to customize a cavernous loft apartment in Chicago's Near North area, which I had bought and Neil redesigned. The renovation took nearly two years, but we both enjoyed the process despite the upheaval. We were literally building our life together, and our home was the tangible symbol of that commitment.
The loft project, while substantial, did not exhaust my windfall, and I proved myself a shrewd investor of the remaining funds, watching with bemused disbelief as they multiplied. Then, last summer, after my investigation of the festival story made page-one headlines worldwide, I found myself in constant demand as the recipient of outrageously inflated lecture fees, which fueled my investment hobby with additional capital.
No, money wasn't a problem. Nor was my home life the problem. The problem, as I have said, was my job. I wanted out.
"So just quit," Neil told me. "Take a breather. Or take an early retirement." We were at home one evening at the loft, and he waved his arms at our lavish surroundings, all paid for. "You don't need to work."
"But I do need to work." I handed him one of the two cocktails I had just poured, Japanese vodka over ice with a twist of orange peel—more of a summer drink, actually, not quite right for October, but ever since the evening we first met, this had been "our" drink, our ritual.
Taking the glass, he said, "Concentrate on your investments. You're good at it."
"Just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I enjoy it." I sat next to him on a sofa facing a tall bank of windows looking east toward Lake Michigan. "I'm no bean counter. I'm a journalist."
"Then write a book."
A tempting thought. I knew very well, though, that books get written by people who have something to say, not by people who are merely in search of a literary pastime. I told Neil, "Someday, sure, I'll try my hand at a book. Now, I'm still absorbed in the day-to-day mindset of newspapers—that's all I've done, and that's really all I know. But it's time for a change."
We'd had this discussion before, frequently, so Neil was aware that I was wrestling not with idle musings, but with an active attempt to solve a dilemma. He'd been wholly sympathetic in these talks, but knowing that any major change in my life would surely affect his as well, his sympathy was tempered by a measure of caution. He said, "If you need to stick with newspapers, you could easily get a reporting job somewhere else. You'd be welcome in any newsroom on the planet. Please, though, not New York—I'm just not ready for it."
I laughed. It felt good, as my mood had ranged from funky to somber over the previous few weeks. Setting my drink on a table in front of the sofa, I took Neil's hands into mine. He still held his glass, and its icy condensation spread through his fingers to mine. "Set your mind at ease, kiddo," I assured him. "I won't let this come between us. You're far more important to me than my professional wanderlust. You've uprooted yourself once already to be with me. I wouldn't dream of confronting you with such a choice, not again."
"But you've got to be happy," he insisted, setting his own drink next to mine and leaning forward, his face close to mine. I felt his breath as he continued. "You're at the top of your profession, Mark. I can't expect you to take some beat reporter's job in Podunk. You need to move up, and there aren't many options—none within driving distance."
I smiled, wanting to tell him how much I loved him, but that might have led to some carnal diversion, and there was something I was eager to discuss with him. "I've had an idea," I told him, "and I think it might work, and it wouldn't disrupt 'us' at all."
"Oh?" Intrigued, he reached for his glass again and sipped. "I'm all ears."
Pausing, I grinned. "What if I bought a paper? Nothing on the scale of the Journal, of course—that's impossible. But with other investors, I might be able to swing a small-town daily somewhere, maybe in the suburbs. It would be a big investment, certainly a gamble, but one that I would really care about. And here's the point: It would be a new challenge. Acting as a publisher, I would be moving up, 'steering the ship of journalism'—a small ship, granted, maybe a measly punt, but it would be mine and I'd be in charge." Twitching my brows, I asked Neil, "What do you think?"
"Mr. Manning," he told me, kissing me before passing judgment, "I think you're a genius." Then his face turned quizzical. "How do you go about buying a newspaper? Check the want ads?" He wasn't serious.
"There are various trade journals," I explained, "and if I need to field some discreet queries, Gordon said he'd help."
"You've already discussed this with Gordon?" asked Neil. "He'd be the last person I'd tell."
We were speaking of Gordon Smith, the Journal's acting publisher, recently promoted, waiting for the nod to take over the position permanently. Before his promotion, he served as managing editor, and I'd worked with him on a daily basis for years. He always took a fatherly interest in my career, pride in my success. Much of what I achieved at the Journal, I owed to Gordon's mentoring.
"Gordon is remarkable," I told Neil. "He seems almost as concerned about my welfare as you do, and he knows that I'm itching to try something else. I can tell that he's sick at the prospect of losing me, though."
"Who wouldn't be?" asked Neil. Then we sat quietly for a while, weighing the future's uncertain prospects, but secure in the knowledge that we'd hit upon a workable plan.
Later that week, I was at my desk in the Journal's newsroom, at work on a story about some routine autumn scandal in the county treasurer's office, when I took a phone call, grateful for the interruption.
"Good morning, Mr. Manning," said the thin voice of an older man on the line. "This is Elliot Coop. Do you remember me?"
I hesitated. The name was familiar. He continued. "I'm the lawyer from Dumont who handled the sale of your uncle's house on Prairie Street."
"Of course. Forgive my memory lapse, Elliot. It's nice to hear from you—it's been a while."
"Nearly three years," he tittered. "I got a phone call from Professor Tawkin yesterday, and I thought you'd want to know about it. You do remember the Tawkins, don't you?"
How could I forget? Elliot Coop prattled on about something, but his words were a blur against the din of the newsroom as I recalled the day some three years ago when I first met both the lawyer and the Tawkins.
I hadn't seen the house on Prairie Street in over thirty years, when I first visited Dumont as a boy of nine. Even then, the house struck me as a place of uncommon beauty— masculine beauty—but its restrained grandeur seemed tainted by an unspoken past. Like its occupants, it guarded secrets, and those bits of missing history puzzled me until the day I returned, the day I met Elliot Coop.
The first I knew of Elliot was a few weeks prior, when I received a FedEx from him informing me that I had inherited the house from my uncle, Edwin Quatrain, who had recently died. Uncle Edwin, my mother's brother, was a wealthy man, patriarch of the huge Quatro Press, a web-fed printing business in Dumont, situated in the central Wisconsin area known for its paper mills. His children grown and his wife long dead, Uncle Edwin had no other family with him during his latter years in the house on Prairie Street, just the live-in housekeeper who had helped raise the children. Her unlikely name was Hazel.
Both Neil and our lawyer friend, Roxanne Exner, were with me in the Chicago loft on the evening I opened Elliot's FedEx. They were as astounded as I to learn of my good fortune. "Wow," said Neil. "Your uncle had no kids?"
"As a matter of fact, he had three."
Roxanne asked, "Then why would you inherit the house?"
"I'm not sure." Then I added, "There was also a printing business, big enough to make them all rich," as if the house were merely an afterthought, a trinket for a distant nephew.
"What's it worth?" asked Neil, never one to dance around delicate subjects. I had mentioned the house before, and he was intrigued by it, but we would not be moving into it. We were both city mice finding scant allure to the prospect of life in central Wisconsin. Of course it would be sold.
"Plenty," I told him. "Hundreds of thousands—maybe three, maybe five, depending on the market up there."
Roxanne asked, "Going up to see the place?"
"Probably. The lawyer's letter says they've already got a prospective buyer. They'll let me know when they need me. God, talk about a nostalgia trip."
And a nostalgia trip it was. A few weeks later, I was summoned to Dumont by Elliot Coop, the Quatrains' longtime family lawyer who was handling the estate. He'd found a buyer for the house, the architecture buff from Madison who planned on moving up to Dumont to live in it. We would be meeting him at the house with his wife—she held the purse strings and still needed a bit of convincing.
Driving north in a slick new Bavarian V-8, I was thrilled by the satisfaction of having finally bought the car I'd always wanted. Neil had accused me of counting chickens before they hatched, but it turned out that my estimate of the house's worth was well on the low side, so the car would barely make a dent in the windfall that would come of that afternoon's transaction. Besides, I told myself, Uncle Edwin would surely approve—I could still smell the leather in the magnificent imported sedan he drove when I first visited Dumont as a boy.
As I turned onto Prairie Street, the house filled my view, and the sight was no less imposing than when I first saw it thirty years before. An agent's spec sheet, which was sent to me, described the house as "vintage Prairie School, Taliesin-designed." It was, in fact, the work of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students at Spring Green, Wisconsin.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Body Language by Michael Craft. Copyright © 1999 Michael Craft. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
PROLOGUE This Afternoon,PART ONE Three Months Ago,
PART TWO Three Weeks Ago,
PART THREE Three Days Ago,
PART FOUR Three Hours Ago,
EPILOGUE This Afternoon,
Preview: Name Games,
A Biography of Michael Craft,