Service Dress Blues

Service Dress Blues Read Free Page A

Book: Service Dress Blues Read Free
Author: Michael Bowen
Tags: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General
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vehicle and pulled out onto Christiana Avenue.
    â€œHe wants a copyright lawyer, he’s willing to pay travel time for house calls a hundred miles from Milwaukee, and the check he sent me for the retainer cleared on the first try. The check was drawn on the account of something called the Paper Valley Political Education and Values Fund, so I figure he’s involved in politics. What else should I know?”
    â€œâ€˜Involved in politics’ is a world-class understatement. He called the presidential vote right in every county in Wisconsin to within one percentage point in last month’s election. Look closely at the pictures on the walls when he takes you into the club room. You’ll recognize a lot of the faces. But at the moment the main thing you need to know is this.”
    Reaching across to Rep’s side, Carlsen punched a button on a DVD player mounted next to the glove compartment on the ample dashboard. The tiny screen filled with an array of freshly-scrubbed, bright-eyed teenagers on risers, their faces beaming with earnest, up-with-people expressions. Mostly white but with a handful of black, Hispanic, and Asian faces sprinkled in. A simple, catchy tune began playing on a piano off-screen. Rep recognized a folk melody, Shaker perhaps, that he knew under the title
’Tis a Gift to be Simple
. After eight bars and a brisk arpeggio, the piano stopped briefly. When it resumed, the adolescents started singing in unison, their clear, innocent voices and the upbeat tune clashing with stridently muscular lyrics:
    Come now you people who are bold and are free!
    We can make our lives the way we know they ought to be!
    We can decide for ourselves without some plutocrat’s decree!
    We can live in a world that is peaceful and free!
    Speak now, and let your voice be heard!
    Children yet unborn will be grateful for our words!
    We are the future and we will not be deterred!
    We will speak now, and make our voices heard!
    We dream for tomorrow while we work for today!
    We are not afraid to fight and we are not ashamed to say
    That we know where we’re going and rejoice along the way!
    â€™Cause the whole world is listening to what we have to say.
    Let’s speak now, and make our voices heard!
    Children yet unborn will be grateful for our words!
    We are the future and we will not be deterred!
    We will speak now and make our voices heard!
    â€œOkay,” Rep said as the screen went blank.
    â€œOle wants to talk to you about copyrighting those lyrics. More important, he wants you ready to sail into court on a moment’s notice the second someone infringes.”
    â€œFair enough. I’m not sure the lyrics say ‘platinum’ to me, but I’m just the lawyer. You don’t need a hit to register a copyright.”
    â€œSelling CDs is the last thing Ole is worried about.”
    â€œWhat’s the first thing?” Rep asked.
    â€œThe Attorney General of Wisconsin. He’s a Republican.”
    â€œNobody’s perfect.”
    â€œIt gets better. He’s the
only
Republican in the United States to win a statewide election for a Democrat-held office in 2006. In-the-United-States. Take a second and think about that.”
    â€œImpressive.”
    â€œImpressive cubed,” Carlsen said. “Republicans are hungry for winners these days, so the odds are he’ll be running for something else soon. Maybe as early as 2010.”
    â€œMaking Attorney General an open office.”
    â€œRight. Now skip to the next track on that DVD.”
    Rep obeyed. The screen this time showed a woman at a podium. She looked like she was in her mid- to late thirties. By squinting Rep could make out something about Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations on a banner stretched across the wall behind her. The woman seemed to be finishing up a presentation. After thanking the audience and the organizers on behalf of the Institute for Cultural and Artistic Liberty, she

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