a Little Death in Dixie (2010) by Turner Lisa

Author:Turner, Lisa [Lisa, Turner,]
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Published: 2011-01-14T19:07:41.562000+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Five

Tuesday, 11:20 a.m.

At breakfast, T. Wayne had asked Mercy to dress like money. He explained that his campaign contributions had wired him in politically, and that in Memphis, who you know and how you are perceived is what counts, especially when you're in trouble. He wanted her to look especially good for the TV cameras today. He said it was important. It was for Sophia.

His hand shook when he'd poured his coffee. Despite his rather self-aggrandizing explanation, she wondered if maybe she'd misjudged his sincerity the night before.

So she'd dressed like money. Her power suit. She knew the pencil skirt made her legs look long. The cut of the jacket revealed the right amount of cleavage to be sexy and still allowed her to be taken seriously. Mercy had bought the Carolina Herrera suit as an asset for her negotiations with a major food distributor over the licensing of her holiday pumpkin and chess pies. Wearing that suit had helped her close the deal she wanted: a three-year contract with the unilateral termination working in her direction.

She'd packed the suit on the chance Sophia was planning a special evening out. It gave her confidence.

Now she sat in the reception area of the downtown CJC, overdressed, flipping through old Reader's Digests. She wondered what was taking so long in the interview between T. Wayne and Detective Able. Overton had assured them the meeting would be brief and friendly. Then they were supposed to join the judge at noon for lunch to discuss the details of the reward offer.

Tired of waiting, she walked down a corridor and turned a corner. Two cops were coming toward her, hauling a foot-dragging Charles Chan between them. His thighs bulged out of polyester shorts, and the front of his Spiderman T shirt strained to contain his belly.

Charles spotted her. His features contorted. "Miz Mercy, I hurt myself," he blubbered, pointing to a red welt on his knee.

"You let him go," she called out to the cops.

Charles lunged toward her. "I wanna go home!"

"He's just scared, ma'am," one of the cops said. "Bumped his knee getting out of the car. We didn't cuff him or nothing."

The corridor turned hectic as a group of police academy recruits spilled out of the elevator, laughing and joking. In the midst of the confusion, T. Wayne banged out of a doorway and stalked toward her, his mouth pressed in a tight line.

"We're out of here." He stabbed his finger at the elevator.

"Don't leave me, Miz Mercy," Charles wailed, refusing to take another step.

"Where's Detective Able?" she said to T. Wayne over the noise. "I need to take care of Charles."

"Forget that asshole." T. stomped to the elevator and pushed buttons. From the whipped look on his face it was clear the interview had gone sour. Able must have gotten the upper hand.

She turned to see Able striding toward her. "What's Charles doing here?" she said.

"He's a material witness. Nice suit, by the way."

"Never mind my suit; we had an agreement. You promised he'd be okay.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.