Leo Flower
by
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As he dreamed about perfect pancakes, the waitress brought his coffee. A few moments later an oval dish in front of him smelled the good smell. The plate held two dark tan ovals with deeper colored edges, each one almost three-eights of an inch thick. Could it be possible? Gaping at them, he cut off an inch with his fork and saw the air holes in the cream colored center. Then, without syrup or butter to cloud the issue, he slid the piece into his mouth and smiled. Symphonic music would have been appropriate. His smile changed into a broad gin and he was happy. He took the butter from the little paper cup and spread it on the top pancake, added a touch of salt and a dribble of syrup -- real maple -- and started to eat. It was a delight, a morning's joy. It was water in the desert. The waitress offered more coffee. Leo smiled and nodded. The coffee added to the wonder of it all. It took seven minutes and two cups of coffee to finish the pancakes. "Mister, you really know how to eat breakfast. I ain't never seen nobody get a rapture from pancakes." Leo looked at the waitress. Like some who work around food, she was thin, but not athletic thin -- she looked anorexic. Had on white sneakers and a white uniform that contrasted with her flaming red hair. Not the red of the runway model, but the red hair that ladies change from... not to. She could have been the over-fifty cover girl for the Irish Times.
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About the Book
Leo Flower got his name in a Greenwich Village orphanage because he loved to listen to Mayor Fiorello Laguardia, New York’s “Little Flower,” read the funny papers on the radio. When Leo is twelve, he is adopted by a priest and his sister and raised as their own. They love and support him throughout his schooling and his time in the military. After leaving the army, Leo becomes a cop and eventually a lieutenant. Time passes, and he’s sixty, drifting in a dull but comfortable routine. That existence comes crashing down, however, when his adoptive parents are murdered. With seething vengeance, Leo hunts for their killer. His search is interrupted when he is transferred to an elite unit and assigned to develop a plan to stop the assassination of the Pope during his visit to the United Nations. As his search for the murderer continues, Leo puts his plan to save the Pope into action with the help of a street thug, an old gangster, a famed French actress, a doorman, and the Catholic Church. The search for one thing often leads to the discovery of another; so it is with Leo Flower—a man seeking a killer and finding instead something he never expected.
About the Author
Norman Isaacson is a retired professor from Lehman College, City University of New York. He currently devotes his time, energy, and imagination to write intriguing stories of people and places that touched his life as a New Yorker. He lives with his wife, Susan, sixty miles from the Big Apple.