Read Never Tease a Siamese: A Leigh Koslow Mystery for Free Online

by the exit, but he didn't seem overly interested. "Leigh Koslow, here. Your grandmother sent me to help you out."
    His soft brown eyes, which had the same mischievous sparkle as Adith's,  flickered briefly with guilt. But he said nothing.
    She cut to the chase. "You're here because my father, Randall Koslow, thought you must have been trying to steal drugs from the clinic. Your grandmother says that's not true. Is it?"
    Ricky fidgeted in his hard plastic seat. It was several moments before he finally answered, his voice weak and tinny. "Can't say."
    Leigh's brows arched. "Look," she said, lowering her voice. "I don't know why you think keeping quiet is in your best interests, but I'm telling you that my dad is willing to drop the charges—all of them—as long as he's convinced that you weren't stealing drugs. You convince me; I convince him; you’re outta here. It's that simple."
    She waited for the gist of her speech to sink in, but it seemed to be taking a long time. Ricky's eyes showed nothing.
    "Did you hear me?" she asked, wondering if Mrs. Rhodis had left anything out of her grandson's story—like three years of inpatient treatment at Western Psych.
    "Yeah, I heard you," he answered softly, scratching his fingernails idly on the countertop. "But I'm not saying anything else. I told them I wasn't stealing drugs and I wasn't. They can't prove I was."
    "They don't have to prove you were stealing drugs to lock you up," she reasoned. "They've got you on breaking and entering."
    "But I didn't break in," he protested mildly.
    "Trespassing, then," Leigh said with irritation. "And enough with the technicalities. The point is you're facing charges. Just tell me what you were really doing at the clinic. If you don't, I can't help you."
    He started to answer, then paused in thought. "How much time do you think I could get for—for what you said?" he asked innocently.
    She stared at him, dumbstruck. "More than you'd want to do, trust me." She couldn't imagine what was motivating the kid to keep mum, but it was clear she would have to motivate him otherwise. "And what about your grandmother? You think she wants to see her only grandson rot in jail? You'd break that poor woman's heart."
    The guilty look returned in spades. "I told her not to worry about me," he said miserably. "I told her everything would be fine, and it will. You tell her that, okay?" He rose with a nervous jerk.
    Leigh got up also. This kid was not going to walk out on her. She might have had men walk out on arguments before, but having one chose a prison cell over the pleasure of her company was downright insulting. "Ricky!" she spat into the phone earnestly. "I know about the cat."
    Ricky had just pulled the receiver away from his head when his arm froze. He pulled the phone slowly back to his ear and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't.
    "I thought that might get your attention," she said happily, plopping back down in her seat. "Now, can we talk? Please?"
    Ricky remained standing, eyeing her with a strange mix of gratitude and resentment. He collected his thoughts, then spoke nervously. "I'm not saying nothing. You tell everybody that."
    He slammed the phone in its cradle, whirled around, and made a beeline for the door.
     
    ***
     
    Curse. Mutter. Curse. Mutter.
    Leigh grumbled her way back to the clinic, stopping for a much-delayed fast-food lunch on the way. It was amazing she hadn't been hungry earlier, but then her appetite had been up and down ever since she had memorized the early symptoms of pregnancy. Naturally, said symptoms had all appeared immediately thereafter, twice. But much to her disappointment, both times were false alarms, and she now did her best to ignore such complaints.
    It had started raining again—a brisk April downpour. When she returned to the clinic there were only two cars left in the parking lot, which was good news, since yesterday she'd left her umbrella at Hook, Inc., the fledgling advertising agency at which she was