Liver Let Die by Liz Lipperman Read Free Book Online Page B

who makes book out of the back room at that laundry by the mall?”
    “It’s Terlinga’s Laundry, and Quincy is the lead counsel for them,” Lola said with a huff. “He’s a really nice man and a good lawyer.”
    “And why on earth would a laundry need a lawyer on its payroll, my dear?” Michael responded. “I heard the guy from Kansas City who lives on the third floor lost a bundle to him during March Madness last spring.”
    Ray ignored the comment and focused on his lady. “Why do you think Jordan needs a lawyer, darlin’?” he asked, standing behind her now and rubbing her shoulders.
    “She probably doesn’t, but it won’t hurt to be prepared if it ends up she does.” Lola shrugged out of Ray’s caress and went to Jordan, grabbing both hands. “I read tarot cards for Quincy every so often. He’s a little eccentric, but he’s a good lawyer, and he’d do anything for me.”
    “Have they told Jordan she’s a person of interest?” Michael asked.
    “Cautioned her not to leave town.” Ray rubbed his chin. “My little apple dumpling may be right about this. I’m not crazy about Quincy Dozerly, either, but he was a pretty good defense lawyer in his day. Managed to get a lot of scumbags off on technicalities.”
    Rosie’s face scrunched with concern. “Won’t it look suspicious if Jordon hires a lawyer?”
    “It might,” Ray answered. “But I can tell you from my years in the Dallas Police Department, those cops will get our little girl in a room and pound away at her like you wouldn’t believe. Before long, she’ll be confessing to everything.” He turned back to Lola. “Make the call, sweetie.”
    Lola smiled up at him in a way that left no doubt he would be rewarded later for siding with her. “I’ll invite him to our card game this Friday,” Lola said. “That way Jordan can check him out, and if it becomes necessary to seek counsel, at least she won’t have to talk to a perfect stranger.”
    Jordan gulped. “Ray, do you really think I might need a lawyer?”
    “You never know, honey,” he responded, his voice nowhere near reassuring. “It’s gonna hit the fan, though, when the police discover you’re missing a knife from the set.”

CHAPTER 5

    The rest of the weekend passed without further drama. The police didn’t question Jordan again, but they’d made it clear before they left that she was a person of interest. And they didn’t even know about the missing knife. Early Saturday morning, Ray took the rack and remaining knives to a storage unit he kept a few miles down the road. Wondering how the cops would react if they tracked it there, Jordan envisioned her and her friends sitting in a jail cell down at City Hall.
    On Monday, Jordan returned to work, still a little shaky over the whole experience but anxious to hear about the reaction to her scathing exposé of the foie gras at the Longhorn. The minute she walked though the door at the Globe , she knew something was up. Three people actually seemed pleased to see her as she crossed the newsroom to her desk.
    “Egan wants to see you before you get settled,” a middle-aged woman hollered from three cubicles over. “Great job on the article, Jaden.”
    Okay, so the woman didn’t get her name right, but after the freeze-out she usually got from her co-workers, she didn’t care what they called her.
    “Thanks. Know what he wants?”
    The plump woman shook her head.
    Time to face the music.
    When Jordan locked her purse in a desk drawer, she was tempted to pop a chocolate antianxiety treat but staunchly resisted. She tried to limit her indulgence to afternoons. She’d look like a blimp if she ate one every time she got jittery. Some days, she felt like an alcoholic, watching the clock until a minute after twelve.
    Jackie Frazier wasn’t at her desk when Jordan walked into the editor’s waiting room, so she settled in a chair against the wall. Grabbing a magazine from the stack on the table, she thumbed through it