Pleasing the Dead by Deborah Turrell Atkinson

Author:Deborah Turrell Atkinson [Atkinson, Deborah Turrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General
ISBN: 9781615950065
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2010-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

Despite the hapless drunks’ efforts, Storm walked away lost in thought. Since picking up Stella six hours ago, she’d come across so much information she wanted to make an outline just to sort through it. To think that a day ago, she’d told herself to let the police handle Hiroki Yoshinaka’s suicide and his connection to Paradise Consortium. Now she was up to her ears in the mess, mostly because of Carmen and Keiko.

Despite her non-committal response when Stella asked her to be Keiko’s lawyer, Storm couldn’t turn her back on Keiko after what she’d been through, let alone Carmen, who was not only too young to understand what danger she was in, she was too injured to resist.

In addition to what she’d just learned, the hotel break-in had Storm worried. The guy not only had connections, he was a master of stealth. The fact that he’d been right next to her was downright creepy.

She was certain the thieves wanted information stored on her computer. Thing was, she wasn’t certain whether they wanted to know what she’d discovered, or whether they wanted to deprive her of the records. Or both. Whatever it was, it was tied into the twisted knot that began with a bomb-related death and included Keiko, Carmen and her family, Stella, Lara, the Tagamas, and the dive shop. It was all connected.

Add the theft to the warnings she’d received from a savvy techno-geek and an Assistant U.S. Attorney, who were both reacting to questions she’d asked after the break-in. No, she was swimming in it. She just hoped she wasn’t over her head.

Storm dropped onto the barstool next to Damon. He shoved a beer and a shot at her. “This is what I’m having,” he said.

Getting hammered on boilermakers wasn’t on tonight’s agenda. It might make her forget her troubles, but she couldn’t afford that. She gave him a sidelong glance. “What round is this?”

“Only the second. Hey, it’s Saturday night,” he said, and downed his shot, probably Jameson’s or Wild Turkey.

“Why don’t you slow down? It’s still early.” She wanted him to be coherent for a while longer.

“Early, that’s what I was thinking. The night is young.” He faced her with a big grin.

Storm was glad the hostess appeared to show them to their seats for dinner.

“Does this have to be all business?” Damon asked. He’d shaved; there was a dab of foam inside his ear.

“Business over a nice dinner,” Storm said. “Say, speaking of dinners, Lara told me she’s thinking of buying a restaurant.”

“She did?”

“Why do you say that?”

“She said not to tell anyone until she’d signed the papers.” Relief lightened Damon’s face. “Oh, she wants you to handle the legal aspects.”

Storm shrugged as if she couldn’t betray Lara’s confidence. “What do you think of the plan?”

“I dunno, seems like she’s pretty busy with the dive shop.”

“Have you done some other work for her?”

“I’m helping her with a remodel…” He stopped. “But you probably know all that.”

“She mentioned it,” Storm lied. “How’s it going?”

He appraised her, not so drunk after all.

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