Days of Rage: A Smokey Dalton Novel Read Online Free Page A

chance that some of them still worked at Sturdy.
    If Laura’s father was connected to these deaths in any way, a lot of Chicagoans would believe that Laura knew about the deaths as well. The press would have a field day with it. They already felt that a woman heading one of the city’s major corporations was wrong; this would only compound the matter.
    And then there were the police. The Chicago Police Department was one of the most corrupt in the nation, and in the past, Sturdy had bought its share of policemen. Laura had stopped a lot of those payments. If this came out, the police wouldn’t hesitate in arresting her in a very public manner. Or they might give her another choice: resume the bribes and any potential charges would simply disappear.
    Laura wouldn’t like either option. I was worried about all of this, and uncertain about how to present it to her , even though I knew she would understand the implications once I told her what I ’d found.
    I also didn’t want Jimmy to know that anything was wrong.
    I already had the grill going by the time Laura arrived. Jimmy’d been nurturing the bratwurst I’d splurged on, soaking it in beer and butter — something he’d devised after eating Althea Grimshaw’s hamburgers that way.
    The afternoon already felt a little surreal to me: it had been a long time since Laura had come to my apartment for a meal. One of the last times had been just before I left for the East Coast. I’d grilled hamburgers and told her that we were leaving to work on an out-of-state case. She figured out, almost immediately, that in addition to the case, I was looking for somewhere new to live.
    The coals looked just about perfect when I heard a car door slam. A few minutes later, Jimmy came around back, holding the bowl with the bratwurst in it. Laura followed closely behind him.
    She wore a pair of cut-off blue jeans, a white blouse covered with appliqu é flowers, and flip-flops. She had pulled her blond hair away from her face, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She had a light tan, which the white of her blouse accented.
    She looked beautiful.
    I set my tongs on the TV tray I’d set out beside the grill, and walked over to greet her. She smiled when she saw me, but her expression was cool.
    “Smokey,” she said.
    “It’s good to see you,” I said. “I’ve missed you.”
    “Really?”
    Jimmy looked back and forth between us. When she dismissed my comment, he rolled his eyes, then shook his head. He was siding with Laura — he had all summer — and he said I had to do something “really spectacular” to make things up to her.
    I wasn’t sure anything would make things up to her, and I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to try. My trip to the East Coast had been the right decision for Jimmy and me, even if it hadn’t worked out.
    I took the bowl of brats from Jimmy and carried it to the grill. “One or two?” I asked Laura.
    “Two,” she said with a smile. “You know I can’t resist those things.”
    I put six brats on the grill. They sizzled as the wet meat touched the metal. Smoke rose. From this moment on, cooking became an art form, and I was wedded to the grill until the brats were done.
    I sent Jimmy back upstairs for the plates, buns, silverware, and potato salad. Laura offered to help, but Jimmy turned her down. He was trying to give us time alone, thinking this lunch was about our relationship, not about business.
    I would let him continue to think that. I really didn’t want him to hear about my discovery.
    “What had to be discussed in person?” Laura stood next to me, out of the smoke, watching me turn the brats.
    “The last house you assigned me,” I said. “The one near Jackson Park where the manager died.”
    Jimmy marched toward us, plates in hand. He held the package of buns as well, and set them all on the TV tray beside me. Then, without asking, he took the bowl which had held the brats and took it back upstairs.
    “He’s becoming quite