Family Affair: A Smokey Dalton Story

By Kris Nelscott

Smokey Dalton gets a call from an old friend to help transport a battered woman and her young daughter from Madison, Wisconsin, to a shelter in Chicago. When Smokey and Marvella Walker show up at the drop site, they learn that the woman is both white and a racist. She refuses to leave with them. And that’s only the beginning of their problems.

Chosen as one of the best mystery short stories of 2009, “Family Affair” shows why Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books “a high-class crime series.”

“You don’t need to be a fan of private-eye novels to admire Smokey: You just need a conscience.”

—Kirkus Reviews starred review of Smoke-Filled Rooms

“Nelscott’s hard-boiled style gives an added blast of energy to the captivating story, and because her characters are so nuanced and naturally complex, we don’t know whom to trust.”
—The Boston Globe on Stone Cribs

Kris Nelscott is an open pen name used by USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was short-listed for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award finalist; and the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune’s best mysteries of the year. Kirkus chose Days of Rage as one of the top ten mysteries of the year and it was also nominated for a Shamus award for The Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year.
Entertainment Weekly says her equals are Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler. Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books “a high-class crime series” and Salon says “Kris Nelscott can lay claim to the strongest series of detective novels now being written by an American author.”
For more information about Kris Nelscott, or author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s other works, please go to KrisNelscott.com or KristineKathrynRusch.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jul 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476243801

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

FAMILY AFFAIR

Copyright © 2012 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

First published in Subterranean Online, Fall 2009.

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover and Layout copyright © 2012 by WMG Publishing

Cover design by Allyson Longueira/WMG Publishing

Cover art copyright © 2012 by Childhood/Dreamstime

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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Table of Contents

About the Author

Copyright Information

THE SMOKEY DALTON SERIES

in order:

Novels

A Dangerous Road

Smoke-Filled Rooms

Thin Walls

Stone Cribs

War At Home

Days of Rage

Street Justice (March 2014)

Short Stories

Guarding Lacey

Family Affair

I KNEW the day had gone bad when the white woman in the parking lot started to scream. I turned in the seat of my mud-green Ford Fairlane, and watched as Marvella Walker and Valentina Wilson tried to soothe the white woman. But the closer Marvella got to her, the faster the woman backed away, screaming at the top of her lungs.

We were in a diner parking lot in South Beloit, Illinois, just off the interstate. Valentina had driven the woman and her daughter from Madison, Wisconsin, that morning.

The woman was a small thing, with dirty blond hair and a cast on her right arm. Her clothing was frayed. Her little blond daughter—no more than six—circled the women like a wounded puppy. She occasionally looked at my car as if I was at fault.

Maybe I was.

I’m tall, muscular, and dark. The scar that runs from my eye almost to my chin makes me look dangerous to everyone—not just to white people.

Usually I can calm people I’ve just met with my manner or by using a soft tone. But in this instance, I hadn’t even gotten out of the car.

The plan was simple: We were supposed to meet Marvella’s cousin, Valentina Wilson, who ran a rape hotline in Madison. The hotline ran along the new Washington D.C. model—women didn’t just call; they got personal support and occasional legal advice if they asked for it.

This woman had been brutally raped and beaten by her husband. Even then, the woman didn’t want to leave the bastard. Then he had gone after their daughter and the woman finally asked for help.

At least, that was what Valentina said.

Marvella waved her hands in a gesture of disgust and walked toward me. She was tall and majestic. With the brown and gold caftan that she wore over thin brown pants, her tight black Afro, and the hoops on her ears, she looked like one of those statues of African princesses she kept all over her house.

She rapped on the car window. Val says she can make this work.

She said that with so much sarcasm that her own opinion was