Read Dead Soon Enough: A Juniper Song Mystery for Free Online

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    “It’s very important to me that Lusig take care of her body. I cannot have her acting out where I can’t see her. It won’t do.” She sighed. “However, there are certain barriers I can’t cross—that is, not directly.”
    “Are you worried that Lusig would find out?”
    “Yes, there is always that chance, though I try not to worry excessively about things that might never happen.” She paused, perhaps catching the irony. “But even if I knew Lusig would never find out, I would feel guilty and uncomfortable about spying on her with my own eyes and ears.”
    “Which is why you contacted a mercenary.” I smiled. I’d spent years romanticizing the literary private detective, but now I wore the badge, and I knew more or less what I was.
    “Yes. Do you understand my position? I think all this is quite necessary, but I have no intention of betraying Lusig’s trust where I can avoid doing so. If you overhear her talking about me, or my husband, for example, you don’t have to tell us that. I only need information pertaining to her obligation to me.”
    “Sure.”
    “Song,” she said, pronouncing it slowly.”Is that a Korean name?”
    “Yeah. So is Juniper.”
    “Oh, how so?”
    “Sorry, I was kidding. Though I guess only an immigrant would name her kid that. Anyway, what about it?”
    “I don’t know how things are in your culture, but Armenians are very family-oriented.”
    “Koreans, too.” I didn’t mention that my own family was all but entirely disintegrated.
    “Of course, no one would describe her culture as non-family-oriented, but the standard American model is to put the individual first, and that is not the case for Armenians. Do you know what I mean?”
    “Yeah, it’s an immigrant thing.”
    “Yes, exactly. In our family, at least, the lines that divide us are very fluid. And within our family? Lusig and I are bonded as strong as sisters.”
    I knew the feeling of being lied to by a sister, of wanting to know when I wasn’t being told.
    “Now, add to that that Lusig and I are both mothers to the same child. I feel that she would forgive me a decent level of intrusion.” She paused, and when I didn’t insert my agreement, continued. “Not that I need to defend myself, of course. I just don’t like to be thought of as unpleasant.”
    “Don’t worry, Rubina. I don’t judge my clients.”
    This wasn’t strictly true—most of my clients weren’t great people, and I was generally aware of their various flaws. It was part of my job to account for them, after all. But one thing Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade let you forget was that private investigation was a service job. The renegade PI was an interesting figure, but it was no accident that Marlowe never made any money. I was beholden to my clients, not just for services rendered, but for a baseline level of courtesy. I wasn’t obsequious, but I was too old to take pride in being an asshole.
    So while I couldn’t avoid forming general impressions on my clients, I maintained a fiction of impartiality, like the kindergarten teacher who loves all her students equally. My judgments were compartmentalized to the point where they couldn’t offend.
    “The GPS tracker, have you been using it?”
    “Lightly,” she said. “I was thinking it would be a good supplement to your service.”
    “Is it a real-time tracker?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you want to give me access to that?”
    “That would be fine.”
    “Alternatively, we can use the tracker to cut down on my hours. Not that I wouldn’t love to bill you for time spent reading a novel outside of her apartment, but maybe you don’t want to pay me when I’m not going to see anything.”
    She was silent for a few seconds, and I worried she thought I was being lazy.
    “I guess that isn’t exactly 24/7,” I said. “But think about it. She’s not trying to sneak around. I don’t think she’ll be beating on your baby when she’s alone in her apartment.”
    “Yes, you’re