rex armstrong
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He took his usual seat by the window, like the view belonged to him. The only seat left was the one with its back to the door. I looked around, hoping he would move but he didn’t. I stood there for some time, perhaps an hour, a day, a week, just staring at him, he never turned from the view, never raised his eyes to meet mine. I should have known something was up. Finally, I sat down, waited my fate. He dealt the cards. I turned them up. Aces and eights. The dead man’s hand. The bullet passed through my brain, out my cheek and hit another writer in the wrist. ‘Take that! Damn you!’ It was an incomplete life, now it had to be written up as a complete novel.
Genre:
- Adult Fiction
Skills:
- Novelist
- Playwriting
- Short Story Writing
Branch:
Auckland
Location:
Auckland
Publications:
Invitation to a Death.
An Inspector Giovanni 'Rex' Matsuko novel set in Italy. If your name is Inspector Giovanni ‘Rex’ Matsuko and you’re from the Milan Sanitation Department you could be forgiven for being confused. The doctors are saying you have amnesia but you’re being sent to Capri where there’s a writer with your name who has to be questioned about a missing woman who looks just like a Japanese Audrey Hepburn.
Examining the Corpse
‘Agent Matsuko, Milan security police DIGOS, Divisione Investigazioni Generali ed Operazioni Speciali.’ That’s what the card says. He knows the name. Not the face. The person he’s looking at has been in the wars. Shaved head. Staples. Stitches. Black eyes. One eye swollen, distorted. The other a blob of yellow offal. Corn fed chicken. The face is trying a grin. Fat lipped oyster smile. One side of the mouth baring its teeth, the other frozen. A finger reaches out. Touches where the stitched cheek is. A stranger’s face. Not his. Somebody has tried to kill him, now he has to find out who. Only one man is likely, the writer Giovanni Rex.
Death Comes Looking
It sounded like a murder that grew out of events, but Inspector Giovanni ‘Rex’ Matsuko was sure the events had been shaped to fit the murder. A body had been washed up. Drowning wasn’t a possibility, neither was suicide, the body didn’t have a head. They had a suspect, the writer Giovanni Rex. ‘He’s your man Agent Matsuko, just bring him in and question him until he confesses, and if you can’t do that then take him to a deep well and drop him in it. You have our permission to do whatever it takes to get rid of this swine. He’s upset too many people of influence. And remember Agent, he is the one who tried to kill you, that was not an accident, he tried to kill you and managed only to kill your father. I have my orders, now you have yours, so if you value your career and your life, make sure this gets done and done quickly.’
Revenge is a Self Inflicted Wound
Inspector Giovanni 'Rex' Matsuko remembered all this quite clearly later on. When he recovered. When his hearing returned. After the bomb. After the spray of bullets. After the terrace across the street collapsed. After the woman had disintegrated into pieces of red meat, black and white cloth. What an impression she had made, if indeed it was who he thought it was, what a death mask of lost opportunity, the way her hand had flown to her face, the cup had fallen, the coffee flying in an arc with nothing to hold it, weightless as the terrace fell away, the woman’s body suspended as if in slow motion, arms swimming, waving, the look on her face of utter surprise, her mouth shaped in a perfect O. Bologna would never be the same.
The Reluctant Gunmen
Why is the writer Giovanni Rex intent on making life hell for everyone he writes about, especially the Italian police Inspector whose high-profile job has been reduced to inspecting drains? Why has he been sent to new Zealand when he hates flying, surely not to fix their drains? And what about the Bulgarian gang that likes skimming bank machines, fishing, kidnapping dogs, blowing up towns, especially small Italian towns that don’t want hamburger joints selling fast food …and why should all of this be happening like it’s the Gunfight at the O.K Corral all over again. Reluctant gunmen, Shelley, Pugnano, Joe James, Henry James, Wyatt Earp, what, who, and why would anyone be concerned about a missing dog? Stupid, you bet. Plotless, what the hell. But wait until the gunfight starts and a whole town runs for cover.