Laura Lippman: The Sugar House

“Even if I make the wrong ones, sometimes?”

“Especially when you make the wrong ones.”

Esskay circled the room, a little panicky at the sight of a place with no soft furniture on which to rest. Crow had retreated to the kitchen, where he was opening and closing the cabinets, testing the old-fashioned metal latches, scratching at the decades of paint covering the woodwork. “Pine, I think,” he called out. “Maybe maple.” Patrick stood with his hands in his pockets, studying the neon sign with the sort of baffled expression he had once reserved for Crow. He didn’t understand her, not entirely, Tess realized. He never would. Parents probably never understood their children. That was okay. She didn’t understand him, either.

“I would prefer,” Pat said, his voice a little stiff, as if he expected resistance, “that I be the cosigner on the loan, if you go through with this. I know I’m not a famous billionaire, but I think my credit’s just as good.”

“No, you’re wrong about that,” Tess said, shaking her head.

“What?”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s better. I’d much rather do business with you.”

They shook on it. It was a deal, after all, not a time for hugging.

Favors, Arnie Vasso had once said. Your father knows all about favors. He had meant it as an insult, a sly reference to the corners the Monaghans and Weinsteins cut here and there. Now Tess saw it for the simple truth it was: Her father understood favors. How to do them, how to accept them, how to walk away when the price was too steep. It was a lesson she wouldn’t mind learning someday.

Maybe this was the place to start.

First and foremost: love and undying gratitude to John Roll, who makes everything possible. For those who believe nothing good ever came of the Maryland General Assembly, all I can say is that I met my husband on the floor of the Senate, and have never regretted it.

My colleagues at the Baltimore Sun continue to help me get things right in spite of myself. Mike James and Kate Shatzkin of the Sun wrote the articles that inspired this book. I am indebted to William F. Zorzi Jr. and Tom Waldron, who have long been my patient guides to the Maryland political scene. Tom Stuckey of the Associated Press and Rick Tap-scott of the Washington Post also contributed to this book, although they may not realize it. Thanks, too, to the editors-Eileen Canzian and Robert Benjamin, in particular-who gave me a front-row seat on the 1998 governor’s race. Joe Mathews shared his South Baltimore expertise. Peter Hermann, as always, was a cherished technical adviser.

Susie Rose arranged my first shooting lesson; any errors are the result of an inattentive pupil. I’d never have met Susie if it weren’t for Sherry Dougherty and Sandee Mahr, so a toast to the Misses Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet.

A factual note: Maryland has only forty-seven senate districts. There has never been a senator from the forty-ninth district in Maryland. There has, however, been a governor who held an AK-47 on a smirking reporter. Of course, he’s no longer governor. He’s now the state’s comptroller.

LAURA LIPPMANwas a newspaper reporter at the Baltimore Sun for fifteen years. Her Tess Monaghan novels- Baltimore Blues, Charm City, Butchers Hill, In Big Trouble, The Sugar House, and The Last Place -have won the Edgar, Agatha, Shamus, Anthony and Nero Wolfe awards, and her novel, In a Strange City, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her latest standalone crime novel, Every Secret Thing, was published by William Morrow in September 2003. You can visit her website at www.lauralippman.com .