Read Online Hanging on a String by Janette M. Louard - Free Book Online Page B

some serious scoop, and with gentle or not so gentle prodding, I would soon find out exactly what it was he knew.
    Although I got along with most of the people in the firm, I wasn’t close to anyone but Raymond, Lamarr, and Hernanda, my secretary. Lamarr and I had spent many late evenings in the office, talking about life and firm gossip. He kept my secrets and made me laugh even on bleak days when I cursed the day I entered the legal profession. We were buddies almost from his first day at work at B&J.
    Tall, thin, with skin so light that most people thought that he was white, Lamarr had come to B&J right out of drug rehab. Raymond had been a board member of the rehab center, and another board member, an idealistic social worker who still believed in the goodness of people’s hearts, prevailed upon Raymond to give Lamarr a job. Lamarr had started out as a file clerk and ended up running the mail room, and in most respects, running the office. He helped out with everything, from sorting mail to document production, to supervising the file clerks. Raymond often said that Lamarr was his best hire. I was inclined to agree.
    â€œNow, Jasmine girl, you know how I hate to gossip... .”
    I didn’t know any such thing. In fact, I knew the opposite was true, and I said as much.
    â€œYou got me there,” he replied. “But I don’t want to gossip about the recently dearly departed.”
    â€œLamarr!”
    â€œNow, Jasmine, you know that discretion is my middle name.”
    â€œI don’t know any such thing,” I replied.
    Lamarr closed the door, a sure sign that he was ready to dish the dirt, and sat down in front of me, in the same chair that Detective Claremont had occupied earlier that morning. He flashed me a smile and lowered his voice.
    â€œJasmine, now you know you didn’t hear it from me, but Irmalee and Chester had been kicking it for years.”
    â€œKicking it?”
    â€œYou know, they’d had a relationship for a while. Let’s put it this way: their thing predated his marriage to Sherrie, and from what I hear, they were together even before you lost your mind and dated that fool, not to talk ill of the dead.”
    With everything that was going on with my sister, and everything I knew about Chester, this news shouldn’t have surprised me. What did surprise me was that I had not picked up this particular bit of gossip on the office grapevine.
    â€œHow did you find this out?” I asked Lamarr.
    â€œLet’s just say that my eyes did not deceive me one cold winter night.”
    I shook my head. If I’d married Chester, I would have shared Sherrie’s fate. “This was still going on after he and Sherrie got together?”
    Lamarr nodded his head. “I didn’t discuss it with you at the time because of your, er, history with the man, but now that you’re going to be working on Chester’s files, probably with Irmalee’s help, I figured that it was time to give you full disclosure.”
    I agreed. It was best to know all when you were walking into a minefield, something I suspected I was doing as I examined Chester’s files.
    â€œIn other words, Sister Jasmine,” Lamarr continued, “watch your back.”
    I could see why all those women in Red Hook, the neighborhood that Lamarr grew up in and swore never to leave, were steadily trying to catch his attention. There was no nicer, kinder person than Lamarr. An all true man, as Alexander O’Neal used to sing. There were times when I would wonder what it would be like to be more than friends, but we’d never crossed that particular bridge, and it was just as well.
    â€œWhen are you going to find some nice woman and rock her world?” I would ask, but I knew the answer.
    Lamarr’s wife had died years ago, and his grief about her death had ultimately led to his dance with Mr. Heroin. A dance that almost killed him. It had taken years, but he got