Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) by Elaine Macko Read Free Book Online Page A

just got a rodent. Wait, on second thought, don’t terriers keep the rodent population down? I’ll take him.”
    “Samantha!” I admonished my sister. “Henry would be devastated if anything happened to Scoop.”
    “Scopes. Not scoop, though that’s what I’d like to do. Scoop it right out of the house.”
    “Well, I’m taking Riley home with me until I can find him a suitable home and one, preferably without a pet rat,” my mother said.
    “I wonder if I could get Henry to trade.” My sister stared at the dog and I could almost see the wheels spinning in her head.
    “Alex, I just stopped by to ask you to keep an eye on your grandmother.”
    My mom and Riley followed me back to my office. “Why? I was just there last night and she seemed fine to me.”
    My mother patted an errant piece of her lovely thick silver gray hair back into place. “Oh, she’s fine. It’s just the company she keeps that worries me. I stopped by this morning and a man was there. Sloth.”
    “The man’s name is Sloth?” I asked, wondering what my grandmother was up to now.
    “I’m sure it’s not the name he was born with, but that’s what he’s calling himself now. He’s a tattoo artist with a questionable past and your grandmother is helping him open up his own shop.”
    I smiled. “She told me about him last night. He actually won some award for best new artist of the year. Meme helped him find a suitable place and offered to loan him the money for the deposit and first couple months of rent.” My grandmother was a bit of a loan shark, though on a much smaller scale than say the mob. She sought out young people who had a bit of bad luck and offered to help them. So far, she’s never been stiffed. She has a real knack for picking out worthy causes and Sloth, from what she told me, was quite gifted in the tattoo area. He found a small shop, got some backing for equipment, but needed a bit more help with the first few months of rent and deposit on his new place.
    “She’ll be fine,” I said to my mother. I always wanted to get a tattoo. A small one. Maybe a little fish on my ankle. My sister wanted one, too, and I bet I could convince Millie as well. Once Sloth was ready for business it might be fun to be his first customers. I decided not to share this latest inspiration with my mother. “So what are you going to do with the dog?”
    My mother looked down at Riley, who was sitting on one of her feet. “He is adorable, isn’t he?”
    “Yes he is,” I said with a contented sigh. I had a feeling our family had just grown by one furry little ball of fluff.

 
     
     
Chapter Thirteen
     
     
    After my mother left, with a promise from me to watch out for Meme, I got back to work. Of course I didn’t tell her I would help ensure Sloth repaid my grandmother by paying him handsomely for his services. Now all I had to do was figure out what kind of fish I wanted on my ankle.
    A little after one I decided to go out for a sandwich. Sam and Marla were gone for a meeting with our accountant and Millie and her boyfriend, Rueben, the undertaker, were sitting in the kitchen playing a game of Scrabble while eating their lunch. The two had been dating for some time but so far no wedding plans were in the works. Nor were plans to move in together as far as I could tell. Millie still lived at home with her mother and grandmother and Rueben had recently bought a small house not far from where my former house was. I still owned my old place but had rented it out once John and I were married.
    Millie, her mother, Judith, and her grandmother were a very close unit. When Millie’s dad died she and her mother had moved in with her grandmother and there they had stayed all these years. It was a safe, happy home and I had a feeling it would be very difficult to break it up.
    I told Millie I had a few appointments and might not make it back by the end of the day. I first stopped by Krueger’s Market and got a ham and cheese on crusty bread