The Accidental Detective and other stories (20 page)

Read The Accidental Detective and other stories Online

Authors: Laura Lippman

“We do a lot of substantive journalism. More than ever, given how the
Beacon-Light
has been gutted. I'd love to commission an article on the trial you've got going, Mr. State's Attorney. We also still make money. You know why? Because we are business friendly, which kept our advertising stable when the economy bottomed out. And we don't give all our content away.”

“Best doctors. Best restaurants. Best neighborhoods. Best of the best. Why notâbest places to pick up hookers? Heyâwhy not best hookers? That's news I could use.”

“I didn't know you had to pay for it, Tim.”

“I don't. I
prefer
to pay for it.”

“He's kidding,” Sean puts in, ever the PR man, worried that Gwen is going to run off and write a headline:
ASSISTANT STATE'S ATTORNEY PREFERS HOOKERS
. “Tim's so straight he doesn't even drive over the speed limit. And he's still stupid-in-love with Arlene.”

It's funny, how quickly they revert to their rolesâtheir roles as they first were, when they functioned as a group with no relationships within the relationships. The only thing different about their interaction is the alcohol. And that they are three, instead of five. They can never be fiveâthe starfish, as Mickey called itâagain. Gwen realizes she always hoped they might be, if only for a night, that they would come together once more and confront all the little ragged pieces of their shared story. Other than her father and her siblings, no one in her life knew her as a child. No one has any sense of the totality of who she is. Not even Karl, and certainly not Annabelle. Not her current staff and not her former colleagues from her newspaper days, scattered throughout the city. The Gwen that most people know is the adult Gwen. She wants to be among people who know her. She yearns for her mother, who made her feel special even when she clearly was not, who trusted her to morph into a swan. She even misses Mickey.

That is, she misses Mickey until the next morning when
McKey,
swathed in black from head to foot, enters the church moments before the funeral service begins and takes a seat in the Hallorans' pew, as if she's a part of the family. McKey even reaches around Sean to pat Doris Halloran's shoulder, then leaves her arm around Sean for several seconds.

It's easy to miss some people,
Gwen thinks,
until they actually show up.

About the Author

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at the Baltimore
Sun
. She is the author of eleven Tess Monaghan books including
Baltimore Blues
,
Another Thing to Fall
, and
The Girl in the Green Raincoat
; five stand- alone novels, including
Every Secret Thing
,
Life Sentences
and
Don't Look Back
; and a short story collection. She has won numerous awards for her work including the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe and Agatha awards. To find out more about Laura visit
www.lauralippman.com
.

Also by Laura Lippman

The Innocents

Don't Look Back

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

Life Sentences

Hardly Knew Her

Another Thing to Fall

What the Dead Know

No Good Deeds

To the Power of Three

By a Spider's Thread

Every Secret Thing

The Last Place

In a Strange City

The Sugar House

In Big Trouble

Butcher's Hill

Charm City

Baltimore Blues

Copyright

This short story collection is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

The short stories in this collection previously appeared in
Hardly Knew Her
. Copyright Â© 2008 by Laura Lippman.

“One True Love,” first published in
Death Do Us Part;
copyright Â© 2006 by Laura Lippman.

“Pony Girl,” first published in
New Orleans Noir;
copyright Â© 2007 by Laura Lippman.

“ARM and the Woman,” first published in
D.C. Noir;
copyright Â© by Laura Lippman.

“Honor Bar,” first published in
Dublin Noir;
copyright Â© 2006 by Laura Lippman.

“A Good Fuck Spoiled,” first published in
Murder in the Rough;
copyright Â© 2006 by Laura Lippman.

“Easy as A-B-C,” first published in
Baltimore Noir;
copyright Â© 2006 by Laura Lippman.

“Black-EyedSusan,” first published in
Bloodlines;
copyright Â© 2006 by Laura Lippman.

“Ropa Vieja,” first published in
Murderers Row;
copyright Â© 2001 by Laura Lippman.

“The Shoeshine Man's Regrets,” first published in
Murder and All That Jazz;

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EPub Edition

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Ebook Edition Â© June 2012 ISBN: 9780007492053

Version 1

FIRST EDITION

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