Never Buried: A Leigh Koslow Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

up and faced him. "Why did Wainwright pull the account?"
    "Nothing to do with our performance, at least, that's what he said. He claims they're restructuring and pulling more work in-house."
    Mr. Lacey didn't say anything else, and Leigh gathered she was being dismissed. She started to leave, but he spoke again just as she was opening the door.
    "Mrs. Reed will give you the details about your severance package...and the office situation."
    You mean, how soon I have to be out of here.
    Leigh turned around. "Goodbye, Mr. Lacey. Thank you."
    She went out the door and shut it behind her.
    Thanks a lot .
     
    ***
     
    Had she been an actress in a movie, Leigh would have headed straight for Point State Park. She would have watched the pigeons fighting over bread crumbs, then let the spray of the Point fountain settle on her hair while she reflected on the meaning of life. As it was, she walked straight to her car, drove to the nearest convenience store, purchased a Tootsie Roll, a Snickers bar, and a Diet Coke, and consumed them in the parking lot. Her only reflection was that she had neglected to buy a lottery ticket. When the Snickers wrapper was licked clean, she started the car. An ancient instinct took control of the wheel and steered her to the Koslow Animal Clinic.
    The business that was her father's pride, joy, and lifetime obsession was only slightly larger than the other brick row houses that flanked it; a tiny lot in the back passed for a parking area. Leigh squeezed the Cavalier into a slot behind the dumpster, throwing in the candy wrappers as she headed towards the clinic's back door. She opened it and stepped into the kennel room, wincing when a canine chorus announced her arrival. A harried-looking veterinary assistant paused in the midst of dumping cat litter and raised her eyebrows at Leigh. "Sorry Denise," Leigh said sheepishly, closing the door. "Just need a word with The Man." The younger woman tossed her head in the direction of the exam rooms and went back to work.
    Leigh found Randall Koslow, DVM, sitting on the wheeled stool in exam room one, snipping away at the feathers of a displeased blue and gold macaw. The uncertain-looking teenage employee holding the bird was sweating bullets—the patient seemed to have an unhealthy fascination with her hot pink glued-on nails. Leigh's father was, as always, oblivious to such signs of distress. "Tighter around the neck, don't squeeze the chest," he said mechanically. "Now, let's do the claws."
    Leigh nodded at the bird's owner, a thin, fiftyish-looking woman wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt. The woman responded with a plastic smile, her hands fidgeting over a pack of cigarettes protruding from her denim handbag. When the trim job was finished, Leigh's father replaced the bird in its cage. The bird's owner nodded hastily in all the appropriate places during the avian husbandry lecture, then swept out in search of a more carcinogen-friendly environment.
    Dr. Koslow turned to his only daughter with his usual no-nonsense manner. "It's the middle of the day, Leigh. What's happened?"
    She waited for the teenager to finish running cold water over her fingers and leave. Randall Koslow sat patiently, adjusting dark-rimmed glasses over his thin nose. He bore an amazing resemblance to Dennis the Menace's father, a burden that might have annoyed a man of lesser self-esteem.
    "I got laid off again," Leigh said simply.
    Dr. Koslow's wince was almost imperceptible. He removed his glasses and blew on them, then wiped an imaginary smudge with his smock. "Hard times for the company?"
    "That, and I got caught dancing naked on the boss's desk."
    Dr. Koslow's answer was matter-of-fact. "Then you'll get another job in no time. You have a good record; you're a talented writer. I assume you can dance half decently." He replaced his glasses. "This sort of thing is happening to everybody now. Don't beat yourself up over it, just go get another job."
    A shrill bark from the crowded waiting