Opening paragraphs..................

I'm dying, Spenser," the man said.
     I nodded, not knowing what else to say.  An early-summer rain beaded down my office window, dark gray skies hovering over Berkeley and Boylston as afternoon commuters jockeyed for position out of the city.  Their taillights cast a red glow on slick streets.  Somewhere a prowl car hit a siren, heading off to another crime.  The man sitting before me smiled and nodded, his hands withered and liver-spotted.  His name was Locke.
     "How long have we known each other?"  Locke asked.
     "A long time."

-Ace Atkins, channeling Robert B. Parker in the Spenser novel, Old Black Magic