Lassiter 08 - Lassiter by Paul Levine Read Free Book Online

before.
    “So if you’re ready to work together,” I said, “I have a bunch of questions about Krista that will help me get started.”
    Amy studied me, her eyes seeming to search for deception. I looked past her to an older couple pushing a cart of groceries along the pier. Tanned the color of a richly brewed tea, the couple was headed toward a Kaufman, a deep-water cruiser with a striking name on its transom,
Never Lost, Just Hard to Find
. I imagined them sailing around the world, but maybe that was my dream, not theirs.
    “So how about it?” I prodded her. “Are we a team?”
    “Do you win most of your cases, Lassiter?”
    “Not even half. But damn few of my customers are innocent.”
    “Customers …?”
    “All I ask is a check that doesn’t bounce and a story that doesn’t make the judge burst out laughing.”
    “Nice.”
    “Hey, they don’t call us ‘sharks’ for our ability to swim.”
    I figured she’d never buy it if I pretended to be Atticus Finch.
    “Do you have any siblings, Lassiter?”
    “A sister. Half sister, really. My mom had her out of wedlock after my father was killed down in the Keys. Why do you ask?”
    “Krista’s my half sister, too. We have the same father.”
    We were both quiet a moment, absorbing that small bit of commonality.
    “Do you love her?” Amy asked. “Do you love your sister.”
    Another weird question but I went along. “Janet’s a crack whore and a worse mother than Octomom, but yeah, I guess I love her.”
    “If someone killed her, what would you do?”
    “I’d go after him. Hard.”
    Her eyes warmed up just a bit. It was the answer she wanted to hear. Better yet, it was true. “What do you need to know about Krista?”
    That seemed to be her way of welcoming me aboard.
    “Everything. About her, about you. About the Larkins of Toledo, Ohio.”
    Amy looked off toward the bay, her sunset eyes seeming to reflect the moonlight. She told me about their father, Frank Larkin. After divorcing Krista’s mother, he married again, and his new wife gave birth to Amy. The two girls were close, even with the six-year age difference. Amy idolized her older sister. Krista was popular, smart, pretty. A cheerleader, but a secret one.
    “Krista hid her uniform in her locker at school. She told Mom she was at Bible study group when they practiced or had games.”
    Krista’s double life, it seemed, had started early.
    “Why’d she run away?” I asked.
    “Do you believe Jesus is the son of God?”
    The question came so far out of left field it was beyond the bleachers. A waiter came over, giving me time to formulate an answer while I ordered a beer, smoked fish dip, conch fritters, and jalapeño poppers. Amy opted for white wine.
    “I believe if there’s an all-seeing God, he must have his eyes closed. The universe is chaos. The Big Bang banged. Little molecules grew into big molecules, and after a thousand millennia, something slithered out of the swamp and turned into the bloodthirsty animal we call man.”
    She looked as if I’d dropped my pants at Sunday vespers.
    “No disrespect intended,” I added.
    “How do you live your life with such feelings?”
    “I try to do the least damage possible to people and God’s green earth.”
    “
God’s
green earth?”
    “I’m hedging my bets.”
    Amy fiddled with her napkin. “Mom was a Higher Life Pentecostal. Dad sort of went along, but he drew the line at speaking in tongues. Krista refused to go to church. Her way of rebelling against my mom, her stepmom. Krista taunted her. Smoked and drank and ran around with boys. One night, I overheard Mom on the phone, talking to someone about an intervention. Kidnapping Krista, taking her someplace where the church would program her.”
    It wasn’t hard to figure out what happened next. “You told Krista your mom was gonna snatch her.”
    She nodded. “The next morning Krista was gone. Never even said good-bye.”
    Headed to South Beach to be a supermodel, I guessed.