Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

yard bitch gives me
    “And what golden opportunity would that be?”
    the warm fuzzies.”
    He gave me a calculating look. “I’ve had dealings with Finn snorted. “You are deeply disturbed.”
    owen Grayson before. He’s deeply devoted to his sister. I grinned. “And that’s why you love me.”
    Their parents died young, and he raised her himself. A Finn snorted again, then batted his eyes at Sophia to real family guy that way. I imagine you could ask him for get another refill on his chicory coffee. After the dwarf the moon right now, and he’d find a way to deliver it.”
    obliged him, Finn stuck his nose in the financial sec“Good thing I don’t want the moon then.”
    tion of the Ashland Trumpet . I leaned my elbows on the
    “But—” Finn started.
    counter, stared at the newspaper photo of the Pork Pit,
    “Forget it,” I said. “I’m not asking owen Grayson for and brooded about my unwanted publicity. Maybe the anything. All I want to do is cook Fletcher’s barbecue reporter could have a small accident. Something painful, sauce, run the restaurant, keep my head down, and make but not immediately lethal—sure Jake McAllister gets what’s coming to him.”
    A shadow fell over me, blocking my light. “Ahem.” A
    “Even with your testimony, the girls’ testimony, it’ll small, polite sound.
    never go to trial,” Finn pointed out. “Jonah McAllister I looked up. My lone customer of the day, the girl, will make sure his boy won’t spend a day in jail, no matter stood in front of me. My eyes immediately flicked to the what he has to do to accomplish that feat.”
    dishes on her table, the way they always did. I liked know“And what if I called in that favor owen Grayson ing my customers enjoyed their meals, and there was no owes me?” I asked. “You know, take advantage of this better proof of that than an empty plate.
    Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 54-55
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    56 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 57
    But food still covered the girl’s dishes. She’d barely Then I went back to the newspaper.
    touched her grilled cheese sandwich, steak-cut fries, and But the girl didn’t move. She just stood there in front triple chocolate milkshake. A shame, really. Because with of the register, like she wanted something else but didn’t Sophia’s sourdough bread, I made the best grilled cheese know how to ask for it. I decided to let her squirm for in Ashland. And the milkshake? Heaven for your taste ignoring my grilled cheese sandwich. Ten . . . twenty . . . buds.
    I ticked off the seconds in my head. Thirty . . . forty—
    The girl cleared her throat again and held out the
    “Um, this might sound strange, but is there an old ticket I’d written her order down on.
    man who works here?” she asked. “Maybe in the back or
    “Was there something wrong with your food?” I asked. something?”
    “Because it doesn’t look like you ate a lot of it.”
    Fletcher. She was asking about Fletcher. Not unusual.
    “oh, it was fine.” She shifted on her feet. “Guess I just The old man and the Pork Pit had been a downtown Ashwasn’t as hungry as I thought I was.”
    land institution for more than fifty years. Fletcher Lane I frowned. Everybody got hungry in the Pork Pit. No had been gone two months now, and people still came in true Southerner could resist the combination of spices, and asked about him. Where he was. How he was doing. grease, and artery-clogging fat in the air. But the girl When he was coming back. I stared at the copy of Where couldn’t be a Yankee. Not with that soft drawl that made the Red Fern Grows that adorned the wall beside the cash her voice ooze like warm preserves. More than likely, register. Fletcher had been reading the book when he’d she’d thought there was something off about the food, died, and the old man’s blood had turned the paperback considering no one else had been brave enough to come pages a rusty brown.
    in and try it today. I’d never met Jonah McAllister, but I
    “No,” I said in a quiet voice. “The old man isn’t here already disliked the man.
    anymore.”
    I rang up her total. “That’ll be $7.97.”
    “Are you sure?” she persisted. “He might . . . he might The girl dug through her wallet and handed me a call himself something. Tin Man, I think.”
    credit card. I raised an eyebrow.
    Tin Man . That got my attention. Enough to make me
    “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t have any cash on me.”
    palm one of the silverstone