The Kindness of Strangers (Skip Langdon Mystery #6) (The Skip Langdon Series) by Julie Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

could have used one once.
    “We all need our daddy,” Jacomine said. “And we need our mama too. We don’t ever outgrow it.”
    Potter had been a Christian for a long time, ever since he was a teenager, since long before he found Daddy, and he had wanted God to be enough. But he wasn’t, he was too distant, too pie-in-the-sky. Daddy said you needed a symbol, some kind of symbol of God-on-Earth to bring it all together for you. For his flock, Daddy was that symbol, and Potter had never known such certainty, such a sense of purpose as he did now, working for Daddy.
    Potter stepped into his office. “Yes, Mr. Jacomine.”
    “Potter, for the Lord’s sake, call me Errol.”
    Potter grinned. He just couldn’t, but he wasn’t going to say that to Daddy. He spoke to the other man in the office, the new press secretary. “Hey, Noel.”
    “Sit down, Potter,” said Daddy. “Look, I just got a call that worries me. Somebody out there doesn’t like us.”
    Potter sat and crossed his legs, his pulse speeding up a bit. He was about to get a problem to solve, and he thrived on problem-solving. Liked it best of anything in the world because you could take care of something small. You couldn’t save the world or maybe, in some cases, even your own family members, but some things you could do, as long as you did them one at a time. That was what Potter liked and what he did well: He had a teacher once who called him Potter the Plodder, and he took it as a compliment.
    “Don’t know if I ever told you about this funny thing that happened last year. A female detective came to see us, big, fat girl, but skittish … didn’t want to tell us what she was working on, couldn’t wait to get out.”
    This was for Noel’s benefit; Potter knew as much about it as he knew about Daddy’s daily schedule. He’d been promoted now, but he was still Daddy’s sometime bodyguard and chief of security—at least that was how he thought of himself—and he made it his business to know what Daddy was doing every minute of every day, just in case.
    Daddy was looking at Noel, bewildered, as he always was when he told this story. “We’d had someone make cookies for her, and we had tea all ready. But she just rudely spurned our hospitality—we never even found out why.”
    Noel asked, “What did she want?”
    “She was looking for a former member of our flock. Unfortunately we were unable to help her, though we did try. We tried to be as nice to her as we knew how to be. But for some reason, she seems to have taken a dislike to us. You know your Bible, Noel? Bible says it’ll be this way. It is written, it is predicted, and it should come as no surprise to us: ‘My enemy is like a lion eager for prey, like a young lion crouching in ambush.’ ”
    Potter knew there was going to be more. Daddy never stopped at one Bible verse. “ ‘The Israelites cried out to the Lord their god. Their courage failed, because all their enemies had surrounded them and there was no way of escape.’
    “‘All nations surround me, but in the Lord’s name I will drive them away. They surround me on this side and that and in the Lord’s name I will drive them away.’
    “This is my life, gentlemen—our lives, if you will. This is what we must bear if we walk the path we have chosen. I regret to say that this young woman is out to discredit us. This is the call I have just received. Potter— any questions?”
    Potter thought. “No sir. I’ll take care of it.”
    “Of course you will. Noel, I just wanted you to be alert to the situation. Mr. Menard knows what to do, you need not concern yourself.”
    Noel looked confused. “But what is she doing, Errol?”
    “The information we have at present is that she is trying to discredit us. Exactly why is not clear, though I expect the answer is quite simple—she is undoubtedly a Perretti supporter.”
    “Wait a minute, wait a minute. If she’s a cop, this could be serious. Are you saying she’s got