Read Online [SS01] Assault and Pepper by Leslie Budewitz - Free Book Online Page B

genuine concern for me. But Tag Buhner wouldn’t know genuine if it bit him in the extremely fine, tight ass.
    “Why did I even imagine you cared? I haven’t owned the shop a year but you want me to be a failure. Will that make you feel better about cheating on me?” I hitched my bag higher on my shoulder and marched forward.
    “Pepper, wait,” he said. “It’s not like that.”
    It was exactly like that. And I wasn’t going to wait around for him to prove it once again.
    •   •   •
    “SO nobody knows who he is?”
    I swigged my strawberry lime soda, the sharp fizz striking my nostrils and threatening a sneeze. “Somebody, somewhere. But not in the Market.” Laurel and I sat in the front window of Ripe, her gourmet deli on the Fourth Avenue side of the former bank building still known as “the box the Space Needle came in.” In the nine years I’d worked in its upper reaches, I’d probably drunk or eaten something of hers, eat-in or take-out, three or four days a week.
    “It’s an injustice,” she said. “In our so-called civilization, how can people fall through the cracks?”
    “SPD will figure out who he is. Homeless doesn’t necessarily mean anonymous.”
    “I’m sure you’re right and he died of natural causes.” Her voice said she wasn’t sure at all. “But the family deserves to hear from someone who knew him.”
    Laurel’s husband, Patrick, had been shot and killed two years ago when he heard a noise and stepped outside to check on it. Laurel and their teenage son, Gabe, had been away on a school field trip. A neighbor found the body. No arrests were ever made, but officials seemed to think the murder was linked to a corruption case Pat had handled as an assistant federal prosecutor. Laurel sold their Montlake jewel box and bought a houseboat on Lake Union, desperately needing change but not wanting to completely uproot Gabe. He’d taken to the boat like, well, a duck to water. So had she.
    People tell you not to make a major change right after a major loss, but Laurel and I were both proof that conventional wisdom isn’t one size fits all.
    Her meaning took a moment to sink in. “But I didn’t know him,” I said. “Not really. Besides, SPD has a team that notifies the family. If they’re in another city, the police request a notification by local authorities. It’s routine.”
    “‘We’re so sorry about your father/your brother/your son. He was a bum, he had it coming.’” Laurel’s long, curly, gray-brown hair was tied back, as always when she worked, but a tendril had escaped. She shoved it behind her ear.
    “They didn’t treat you like that. They won’t treat Doc’s family like that.” Laurel and I had known each other casually for years, but after her husband’s murder, I’d offered her an unjudging ear. She’d ranted and raved—still does, occasionally—but despite her freewheeling opinionating, I could scarcely imagine her pain. She’d hinted a time or two that someone higher up might not want the case solved, might not want a trial and all that it could expose, but I’d been married to a cop when it happened and she hadn’t spilled the details of her doubts. In truth, I didn’t want to know. I like believing that most people are good at heart and do the right thing.
    “My bad luck he died on my doorstep, but that doesn’t make me responsible for bearing bad news.”
    Her dark brown eyes glistened and she wrapped her strong fingers around my wrist. “Don’t leave justice to the system, Pepper. It’s too important.”
    We locked eyes and I sighed, hoping I wouldn’t regret what amounted to a solemn promise. “Change of subject. Dish the dirt on Alex Howard.” She knew I’d had dinner with him a couple of times and gotten all starry.
    “He’s big time. His restaurants are booked weeks out. He gets the celebrity photo shoots and the rave reviews.” She gave me a crooked grin. “He’s wickedly good-looking. But I can’t say we run in