Deadly Quicksilver Lies Read Free Page B

flesh-colored gloves I hadn’t noticed before. She considered Eleanor. Her face darkened. She shuddered. Eleanor can have that effect. “Fifth hour?” Maggie asked.
    “I’ll be there. But you’ll have to tell me where.”
    Her face did darken then. Big mistake, Garrett. I was supposed to know without being told. Unfortunately, I knew so little about Maggie Jenn I didn’t know that she would be irked because I didn’t know who she was or where she lived.
    The lady was a trooper. She carried on. She dallied only a moment before offering an address.
    I got real nervous real sudden.
    We were talking way up the Hill, where the richest and most powerful of the rich and powerful live, up where the altitude itself is the best indicator of wealth and might. Blue Crescent Street was in the realm of fairy tale as far as I was concerned.
    Maggie Jenn was a lady with big connections, but I still could not recall why I thought I should know her name.
    It would come when it was really inconvenient.
    I escorted the lovely lady to my front door. The lovely lady continued to smolder and invite. Would the evening have anything to do with a missing daughter?
     
     

4
    I stood bemused by Maggie Jenn swaying toward her litter. She knew I was watching. She made it a good show.
    That killer stump Mugwump watched me watch. I didn’t get the impression that he wished me well.
    “You never stop foaming at the mouth, do you?”
    I realized that I had settled down to savor every second of Maggie’s departure. I tore my gaze away, turned to see which of my busybody neighbors was going to permit me to bask in the chill of her disapproval. I discovered, instead, a very attractive little brunette. She had approached from the other direction.
    “Linda Lee!” This was my friend from the Royal Library, about whom I’d been thinking while holding Espinosa’s book instead. “This is the nicest surprise I’ve had in a while.” I went down to meet her. “I’m glad you changed your mind.” Linda Lee, barely five feet tall, with beautiful big brown puppy eyes, was just about the cutest bit of a librarian I could imagine.
    “Down, boy. This is a public place.”
    “Come into my parlor.”
    “If I do that, I’ll forget all about why I came here.” She plopped herself down on a step sideways. She locked her ankles together, pulled her knees up under her chin, wrapped her arms around them, and looked at me with a little girl innocence she knew would turn me into a love zombie.
    It was my day to be a plaything.
    I could handle it. I’d been born for that role.
    Linda Lee Luther was no innocent, whatever impression you got at first glance. But she did try hard to be the icemaiden some folks thought a librarian should be. She tried but failed. Real ice wasn’t in her nature. I just stood there, wearing my winningest grin, confident that she would talk herself into leaving the public eye.
    “Stop that!”
    “What?” I asked.
    “Looking at me like that. I know what you’re thinking...”
    “I can’t help that.”
    “Yes, well, you’re going to make me forget why I came here.”
    I didn’t believe that for a second, but I’m a good guy. I can go along with a gag. “All right. Tell me about it.”
    “Huh?”
    “What brought you here if not my irresistable charm?”
    “I need your help. Professionally.”
    Why me?
    I didn’t believe it. Librarians don’t get into fixes where they need guys like me to get them unfixed. Not cute little bits like Linda Lee Luther.
    I’d begun moving toward my door. Preoccupied, Linda Lee rose and followed. I had her inside. I had the front door closed and bolted. I tried sneaking her past the open door of the small front room. The Goddamn Parrot mumbled obscenities in his sleep. Lovely Linda Lee did not take exception. I began to recall why I was so fond of this girl. I asked her, “What’s got you so distracted?”
    This was her big chance to come back with something clever and suggestive, an