Stranglehold (45 page)

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Authors: Robert Rotenberg

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BOOK: Stranglehold
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In my final year, I dashed off an essay on John Keats the night before it was due. I can still see myself a few days later walking into his book-filled office. He gave me his usual warm smile, then his face turned grave. “Bobby, I’ve given you an A,” he said, “but this is the last time. Writing comes too easily to you. You must work harder.”

There was nothing I could say. I’d been caught out. He was right. They were words that drove me like no others.

After I graduated I didn’t see him again for many years. Then one Halloween night, I was taking my oldest son out trick-or-treating in our new neighbourhood. We knocked on a door and to my amazement Professor Chamberlain answered it. I mumbled an awkward hello then dashed with my son off his front porch. For years I made a point of avoiding his street.

In 2009, when my first novel was published, I worked up the nerve to knock on his door again. Sure enough, he’d moved to Vancouver. I found his e-mail address and wrote:

Professor Chamberlain:

I was a student of yours back in the 1970s and have always looked forward to the time when I could present to you a book that I was able to get published. Fortunately that day arrived and my first novel,
Old City Hall,
has recently been published in nine languages.

I’d love a chance to meet you again after all these years and give you a copy. It would mean so much to me.

The same day he wrote back:

Dear Bobby (if I remember rightly . . . or maybe you are now a more stately Robert, as befits a distinguished author! If so excuse the old handle),

It is so good to hear from you with such splendid news. Congratulations. This is a real achievement. I’m very much looking forward to reading
Old City Hall.
Good on you.

Later that year he was in Toronto. We met for coffee and I brought my faded Keats essay with me, his red-marked comments still there on the front page. When I showed it to him and told him how much his words and teaching had meant to me, tears came to both of our eyes.

Now Professor Chamberlin insists that I call him Ted. I’m still getting used to it.

Which leads me to thank those who have helped me with this novel. (Please note: feel free to skip this paragraph as it is filled with names that will mean nothing to you.) Matthew Arbeid, Paul Barker, David Basskin, George Chaker, Alison Clarke, Carey Diamond, Natalka Falcomer, Ash Farrelly, Joseph Frankel, Bonnie Freedman, Elizabeth Fisher, Dr. Marc Gelman, Edward Greenspan, Anneliese Grosfeld, Gary Grill, Kevin Hanson, Angela Hughes, David Israelson, Amy Jacobson, Christina Jennings, Jake Jesin, Nicola Jowett, Justine Keyserlingk, Tom Klatt, Denise Kask, Marvin Kurz, Corinne LaBalme, Julie Lacey, Michael Levine, James Levine, Howard Lichtman, Kathy McDonald, Douglas Preston, Jim Rankin, Michelle Sheppard, Alvin Shidlowski, Victoria Skurnick, Patty Winsa.

A special nod to Travis West, my online guru, for redoing my webpage. (You can check it out at
robertrotenberg.com
and sign up as a subscriber. Don’t worry, I only send out short and funny updates a few times a year and
no one
gets your e-mail address but me.)

Plus a shout-out (wouldn’t you love to know who came up with that phrase?) to Dinah Forbes, my extraordinary new editor.

And of course to my wife, Vaune Davis; my children; and all those close to me.

On to book five.

Toronto

December 2012

ROBERT ROTENBERG
is a criminal lawyer in Toronto, where he lives with his family.
Stranglehold
is his fourth novel.

Visit
www.robertrotenberg.com
.

MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT

SimonandSchuster.ca

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ALSO BY ROBERT ROTENBERG

Old City Hall

The Guilty Plea

Stray Bullets

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Touchstone

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Legal Fiction, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

This Touchstone export edition May 2013

TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Designed by Akasha Archer

Cover design by PGB

Cover Photograph by Eva Serrabassa / Getty Images

Author Photograph by Ben Mark Holzberg

ISBN 978-1-4516-4241-4

ISBN 978-1-4767-5774-2 (ebook)

CONTENTS

Epigraph

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Part Two

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Part Three

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Part Four

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Part Five

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Part Six

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Part Seven

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Part Eight

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Acknowledgments

About Robert Rotenberg

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