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

something on you?”
    “It will be Mr. Menard’s job to find that out.”
    “Okay, but I’m still confused. How do we know about this in the first place?”
    “Oh, we have quite an organization, as you’ll find out. Quite large and quite impressive, if I do say so.”
    Potter was itching to get to work. “Mr. uh, Errol, do you mind if…”
    He didn’t even get to finish. Daddy read his mind and waved him out of there.
    He got on the phone to a volunteer: “We have a situation here. A very disturbed person is harassing Daddy. We need information and we need letters. I want you to call ten people and have each of those people call ten people, and so forth…. Get each of them to report back to you with the names of the ten they called, and get each of them to get reports from their callers and get them to you. Then you get them to me.”
    “Potter,” asked the volunteer, “what exactly are we trying to do here?”
    “Why, nip this thing in the bud, Culotta. Any way we can. Do you understand what I’m saying? This person is a white police officer named Skip Langdon. She lives on St. Philip Street in the French Quarter. Her best friends are a homosexual named Jimmy Dee Scoggin and a black woman who works as a psychologist for the police department. Get each of your people to contact anyone they know in the police department or the French Quarter or the homosexual community or anyone who’s a psychologist or even in therapy. They’re to find out anything they can about her and write letters. Call me if you find out anything damaging or helpful in any way. Do you understand?”
    That was the small stuff. After he got that going, he settled down to the serious business of damage control. He dialed a number in the police department. “Hey, Rosie. Potter. Been thinkin’ about you, baby. She’s fine. Yeah, the kids are fine, too. Alexa’s taking riding lessons. Yeah, can you believe that? I’m scared of horses, too. She’s only ten and a half. Listen, baby, I need a couple of favors. Who do you know in the chiefs office?”
    He wrote as she talked. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. How about personnel? I need somebody’s file.
    “You can? Terrific. Now about this Tony in the chief’s office—how well do you know him? Think I could call him directly?”
    Next he called the man in the chief’s office. “‘Tony, this is Potter Menard over at Errol Jacomine’s. You know, we think the chief’s doing a really great job. Errol asked me to call and just let you know how much we admired your handling of that little PR problem you had last week— yeah, with the officer who put out the contract on that woman. Whooo-ee, talk about a tough one.
    “We loved what you said—just loved it. Errol said, ‘Now there’s a man who’s doing a great job. How many city officials can you say that about?’ He had me there, Tony, what do you say? How many could you say that about? So we just wanted him to know, that’s all.”
    “I’ll be sure and tell him,” said Tony, and Potter knew he would. The police chief was appointed by the mayor: a new mayor could mean a job in jeopardy.
    “Say, Tony, while I’ve got you, I came across something kind of odd a couple of weeks ago—forgot all about it till right this minute, but I just happened to think, ‘Maybe Tony can shed some light.’ Do you know a detective named Skip Langdon?”
    Tony laughed. “Everybody knows that one. That’s kind of a high-profile cop you’re talking about. On the news every other day, it seems like.”
    “A real hot dog, huh?”
    “Damn good cop, though. Had some bad luck recently. Her partner got killed, and she ended up shooting the guy who killed him—kind of a double whammy for her.”
    “Hey, I’d have thought she’d be thrilled she got the guy.”
    “I’m sure it was better than not getting him, know what I mean? But he had a little girl, and Skip felt real bad about it. Matter of fact, I think she’s on leave right now.”
    “Oh, well, if