Never Tease a Siamese: A Leigh Koslow Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

wait. And as long as you admit it's a reasonable possibility that Ricky Rhodis wasn't stealing drugs, you really can't—"
    Randall stopped his daughter's arguments with a raised hand, then shook his head with a smile. "Sometimes I think you should have gone to law school," he teased.
    She grinned back. "Nah. I kind of like my soul."
    He took the radiograph down from the viewer and turned around. "I'm going to take a few more views and make sure this cat's not in any immediate danger. Tell you what, you talk to the Rhodis boy and see if he'll give you a more reasonable explanation for his presence here than he gave the police last night. If so, perhaps we can drop the charges."
    Leigh smiled broadly. She felt like jumping up and down, but her father never appreciated gush. "Thanks, Dad," she said quickly. "I'll go visit him right after we're done. If we take a V-D view right away do you think—"
    He interrupted her again. "You don't need to stay for the x-rays. Somebody else can help me."
    "But—"
    He waved off her protests, his standard matter-of-fact tone ever so slightly on the nervous side as he added, "We need to run an ethylene oxide sterilization anyway. That can be—well, hazardous."
    Leigh took one look at his face and ceased her protests. He knew already.
    Jeanine .
    Imaging various ways of torturing the technician with her own dental equipment, Leigh looked away.
    "Fine, I'll go talk to Ricky," she answered quickly. "He talks; he walks. How hard can that be?" She headed out into the hallway and turned towards the door, only to see the clinic’s two joined-at-the-hip veterinary assistants, Marcia and Michelle, standing at the treatment room door, grinning at her.
    She made a quick turn for the exit and walked through it without looking back.
    Jeanine was going to pay.
     
    ***
     
    Trying not to think about her previous encounters with the facility, Leigh approached the Allegheny County Jail with confidence. She was going to get Ricky Rhodis off. Johnny Cochran had nothing on her—and she wasn't even an attorney.
    Which turned out to be unfortunate. "It's not visiting hours," the graying desk attendant told her curtly, pointing one pudgy finger at a nearby sign. "Come back then. You on the list?"
    Taken aback, but only momentarily, Leigh drew up her shoulders and tried her best to look like she knew what she was doing. She ordinarily avoided lying, but a cause was a cause. "This isn't a social call," she said firmly.
    "You a lawyer?" The man asked, eyeing her cynically. "Or a spiritual advisor?"
    Leigh smiled. Eureka . "The latter. I'm a personal evolution coach with the Church of the Blessed Redeemer. I've been engaged by Ricky Rhodis's grandmother to counsel the boy. She feels it's imperative that he get spiritual help immediately, and I agree."
    The man's eyes narrowed. "Never heard of that church. Where is it?"
    Leigh didn't hesitate. "North Hills—off of Babcock." She smiled with aplomb. Babcock Boulevard, like many Pittsburgh thoroughfares, snaked around the North Hills in about ten discontinuous segments, more if you counted all the "Old Babcocks" that kept it company. She had lived in the area her entire life and couldn't begin to recall all its convolutions—it was a reasonably safe bet this man couldn't either.
    He watched her another moment, then shrugged. "Fine. You got ten minutes."
    It took considerably more than ten minutes for Ricky Rhodis's bewildered face to appear on the other side of the glass panel.
    He was a shrimpy kid, five foot six at the most, skinny and pale with a thick crop of light brown hair. He could easily pass for fifteen or sixteen, although he had to be at least eighteen to land where he had landed. His pinched face looked both scared and tired, yet somehow resolute. He picked up the phone with question marks in his eyes, but he let her talk first.
    "Nice to meet you," Leigh began cordially, looking around to see if their conversation was being monitored. There was a guard