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She sucked the salty blood while Phil negotiated the traffic in the hospital driveway. You nearly got that old woman with the cane, Helen said. No points for that, Phil said. You have to aim for the healthy young ones. He steered the Jeep around a wary mother with a stroller and was out on the street. I got some inside information from my friends on the force. The cops actually told you something? Helen said. You forgot, I m connected, he said. Also, the guy is dead and they re going to close two murders. The Jeep hit a pothole, and Helen winced. The jolt went right up into her aching head. Turns out the late Craig was a small-time hustler and drug dealer, Phil said. He had a long sheet, includ ing assault and battery. He beat up a prostitute when she objected to him not paying. I never guessed boy-band Craig was violent, Helen thought. Not till he tried to attack me. None of us did. I escaped with cuts and bruises for my mistake. Rhonda paid for it with her life. The police found a couple of fake fifties in his apart ment, Phil said. They figure he may have gotten stung in a drug deal and tried to hand off some of the bad money to Rhonda. He told me straight out he gave the bad money to Rhonda, Helen said. He didn t care if she got caught passing it. He wasn t your caring kind of guy, Phil said. But he and Rhonda were definitely an item.The police found his fingerprints all over her apartment, along with a few other jailbird prints. She had lousy taste in men, Helen said. Murder with Reservations ] 229 Looks like it. Unless they were on a Wanted poster, she didn t want them, Phil said. There were blood stains at Craig s place, too. He tried to clean away the blood, but it showed up loud and clear with Luminol. Was it Rhonda s? Helen said. It s definitely her blood type. They won t get the DNA results back right away, but they think he killed her at his apartment and took her in his car to the hotel Dumpster. I don t know why he didn t dump the body somewhere else. I do, Helen said. I bet he thought he knew every thing about that hotel, including the Dumpster sched ule. Rhonda s body would have been picked up early the next morning, except Sybil got that trash perfume and changed the pickup schedule. That s how Craig got caught. I found the body. If the trash had been picked up by the old schedule, Rhonda s body would have been carted away early that morning. She would have disap peared and no one would have known she was dead. The revenge of the Full Moon, Phil said. Sounds like a movie. Helen didn t laugh. Nothing seemed funny. She felt like someone had drained the blood out of her. At the Coronado, Margery treated her like an invalid. She helped Phil settle her into bed and plumped Helen s pillows. Margery gritted her teeth when Thumbs rubbed up against her legs begging for food (the landlady hated cats) but she fed the big-pawed fellow. She brought Helen soup, scrambled eggs and toast. Thumbs snoozed on the bed most of the day, while Helen stared at the ceiling and thought about how wrong she d been about Craig. She saw Dean Stamples photo of his smiling children and pretty blond widow. If she d figured things out sooner, would his family still have a father? At sunset, Phil knocked on her door. Come sit out by the pool with everyone, he said. Margery, Peggy and Pete are waiting to hear your story. 230 ] Elaine Viets I don t feel like it, Helen said, and gave a dramatic sigh. She wanted to brood. Two minutes later her door was flung open, and Margery flipped on the light in her darkened bed room. We ve been patient enough while you ve moped around, her landlady said. Get your ass out here. I ve heard bits and pieces of this story from Sybil and Sondra and I saw some confused reports on TV. I want to know what happened. Margery handed Helen her bathrobe. You don t have to dress for us. Helen went outside on wobbly legs. She felt better in the fresh air, but she wasn t ready to admit that. Phil grinned at her and held out a chaise longue. Pete sat on Peggy s shoulder and watched her with beady eyes. Helen sat down gingerly, favoring her bruised shoul der. Phil put a soft pillow at her back. She looked at the expectant faces of the people who d helped her through so much. Margery was right. She owed them an explanation. Helen took a deep breath and started to talk. She didn t cry once. Not even when she said, Craig was shot dead in front of me. His blood was all over the floor. I think he wanted the police to kill him. Maybe it was suicide by cop, Phil said. Maybe it wasn t. Sometimes the suspects are just doing what human nature designed them to do look at the sound of the commanding voice. Is the police officer in trouble for shooting an un armed man? Helen asked. Word is he ll be OK. Whoever called 911 made it sound like Craig was killing you. He was, Helen said. Three cops swore they thought the chair leg was a loaded weapon and Craig was going to fire. The of ficer identified himself and told the suspect to drop the weapon. He was considered armed and dangerous. He d already killed two people. Murder with Reservations ] 231 Rhonda and Dean Stamples, the man in room 322, Helen said. How did Dean die? Margery said. Scotch bottle, Helen said. Someone forced him to drink too much? Peggy said. No, they hit him in the face with it, Phil said. When the killer hit Dean, he shoved that cartilage in Dean s nose right through Awwk! Pete said. I think I know enough, Peggy said quickly. Dean s death was probably a spur-of-the-moment thing, Helen said. It was her story, and she wanted it back. The cops think he caught Craig in his room and accused him of stealing. Craig wasn t stealing. He was looking for the robbery stash, but he would have been fired for unauthorized entry into a guest s room. That would have cut off his access to the hotel and his search for the money. Craig had to find that cash. So he killed Dean. That s so sad, Peggy said. Dean died for nothing. So did Craig, Helen said. He never found the money. It s still missing. And poor Rhonda her dream [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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