I sat there, a plan taking shape in my mind, a plan that could get me, and Sarah, our rightful jobs back. If I had a story about rampant corruption in the health department, about restaurant owners offering bribes, making death threats, I’d—

The passenger door opened abruptly. Before I could even think, I’d shouted, “Jesus!”

Lawrence Jones settled in next to me. “You always that jumpy when a black man gets in your car?” He pulled the door shut, looked at what I was driving. “Wow. This makes my Jag look like a piece of shit.”

CHAPTER 19

19

“WHERE WERE YOU?” I asked.

“What do you mean, where was I?” Lawrence said. “I was hiding. Did you want me to sit on the hood of your car?”

I waved at him dismissively. “Okay, you’re brilliant. But thanks for keeping a watch on things.”

Lawrence Jones shrugged. “Everything looked pretty harmless. You hardly needed me around. From where I was watching, the guy appeared to be doing a bit of blubbering. They seem a lot less threatening when they’re blubbering.”

“He unloaded,” I said. “Sorry if I dragged you out here for nothing.”

Another shrug. “Whatever. I only had to cancel some highly lucrative corporate surveillance stuff to do this.”

Lawrence was looking, as usual, trim and fit and immaculately turned out. Even to hide in the bushes and keep a watch over me, he wore perfectly tailored black slacks, leather shoes, and a dark green windbreaker with a Hugo Boss emblem stitched to the collar. This one outfit was worth more than everything in my closet.

I’ve known Lawrence a couple of years now. I was doing a feature on a day in the life of a private detective, and Lawrence, a former cop who’d gone out on his own, had agreed to let me tag along with him. That encounter turned into much more trouble than either of us ever expected, and nearly left my new friend dead. Lawrence credits me with saving his life. Not because I warded off his attackers. I just showed up in time to get him to the hospital before he lost his last drop of blood.

And more recently, he’d been there for me, and my father, when my dad was having a bit of trouble with his neighbors.

“I’m starting to worry that I’m becoming a nuisance,” I said.

“Becoming?” Lawrence said.

I smiled. “You got time for a coffee? I’m buying.”

“I’d rather you bought me lunch,” he said. “You mess up my day and think you can make it all better with a coffee?”

He had to go back and get his car, so we agreed to rendezvous at a nearby diner. He ordered an open-faced roast beef sandwich and mashed potatoes, smothered in gravy. With coffee. I got a BLT with extra mayo.

“So,” Lawrence said, “you keeping out of trouble?”

How could you not laugh?