Snow Blind - Lori G. Armstrong [14]
Kevin didn’t smile . . . at first. Then he smirked.
“They are pretty bodacious.”
And he clammed up again.
So I whipped out my oyster knife to pry him open a bit. “Besides being partners, we’re still friends, Kev. You don’t talk about this kinda stuff with me anymore, but if you wanted to talk . . . well, I wouldn’t be a total dick about it. I’d listen and try not to be a smart-ass.”
“I know.”
“Good. Just thought I’d put that out there.”
“Thanks.”
The tires threw gray slush on top of the piles of dirt-colored snow heaped along the street. The 44
morning forecast called for more white stuff and arctic temperatures.
As we waited at the red stoplight on the corner of Mt. Rushmore Road and Saint Joseph Street, Kevin said, “Amery wasn’t the first woman I’ve slept with since Lilly died. You don’t need to worry if I’m feeling guilty about it, because I don’t. I’ve moved on.”
I didn’t ask him when he’d made that decision. I knew. After I’d been shot and almost died late last fall. After he realized my thing with Tony Martinez wasn’t just another sexual fling. So while it stung that he’d denied sharing those important changes in his life with me, I understood his reasoning because I no longer shared those intimate things with him. He parked in his usual spot next to my truck. “Been a long morning and we didn’t eat. You hungry?”
“Yeah. Pizza sounds good.”
“Why don’t you call it in and I’ll call Amery and update her.”
I buttoned my coat under my chin, preparing to brave the tundra. “Should I order enough pizza for Amery?”
Pause. “For her and Kim. Once Kim gets a whiff of meat and cheese, she’ll be up for her midafternoon snack.”
My bud Kim had bypassed the barfy stage of her pregnancy and settled into the eat-everything-in-sight stage. Since she’d sworn off alcohol, I did my level best to corrupt her with food.
I closed my office door and typed up everything 45
from my conversations with Reva and Luella to keep the details fresh. I’d crushed out my third cigarette when Kevin knocked. “Food’s here.”
“Be right there.”
Amery had cocked a hip on the conference table like a Fortune 500 CEO decked out in a form-fitting black and gray pin-striped business suit with a satiny white blouse unbuttoned to reveal her generous cleavage. The spiked heel black patent leather boots hitting below her knee were straight out of a dominatrix’s closet. Her lustrous blond hair brushed her shoulders, the cut and color resembling Marsha Brady’s: smooth, silky, and impossibly shiny.
I couldn’t help but compare her to a business shark in such severe work clothes. Yet, the flustered smile she offered was sweetly appealing and I saw why Kevin was smitten.
Didn’t mean I liked it. He was too goddamn old for her; she was too goddamn young to appreciate him. I didn’t voice my concerns; I merely smiled back at her. “Amery. Thanks for coming on such short notice. Even through the snow and cold.”
“No problem. I don’t mind the cold or the snow after living in Minnesota. It’s been a slow day anyway.”
Amery schlepped bus tours and airline tickets as a travel agent. Why weren’t people clamoring to get the hell out of this cold snap and book a cruise to the Bahamas? Even Martinez and I had discussed a tropical getaway. 46
“Kevin said you’d had some success today?”
I filled her in while we polished off the pizza. I tried to concentrate on recounting my adventures and not on the hungry stare Kevin gave our client rather than the food.
After I finished speaking, I watched her process the information as she picked at a discarded crust with fingernails bitten to the quick.
“I knew something was going on, although part of me wishes I’d been wrong.”
Kevin placed his hand over hers and squeezed.
“Do you want us to continue looking into this matter?”
She raised her gaze to mine at my overly formal tone. I expected glimmery tears in her baby blues, not steely determination.
“Yes. How much more will it cost? Not that it matters, because