by Nora Kane
“I suppose I can do that, but why?”
“Some things he said.”
“That’s it?”
“That, and he and Phoebe probably wear the same size dress,” Margot said, leaving out the part about the straight razor. She found it curious that, in a world with no shortage of combat knives and switchblades, Lucas carried a straight razor a lot like the one Phoebe said was stolen from her place.
Chapter 11
Bobby was sitting at the bar drinking a dark beer when Margot sat down next to him. Since she was working, she ordered a light beer.
Bobby didn’t look at her as he said, “We both know this isn’t the kind of place you drink.”
“Is that so?”
“You come here looking for payback? I was willing to call it even.”
“Since we’re even, I thought maybe we could talk.”
“About what? You ain’t really my type, so I’m not sure what we’ve got to talk about.”
“Lucas.”
“What about him? I know he talks a lot of shit, but if you were two inches from officially being a midget, it might make you a little angry too.”
“Are you saying he’s got issues?”
“I’m not saying shit, but isn’t it kind of obvious?”
Margot took out her digital recorder.
“You recording this?”
“No, I usually do, but I figure you’d want this conversation off the record and I’m fine with that.”
“You say that like there’s going to be a conversation.”
Margot played the sound she had queued up.
“Keep talking, bitch. The last woman who disrespected wished she hadn’t.”
“That sounds like Lucas,” Bobby told her.
“You know who the ‘last woman who disrespected him’ was?”
“Dude didn’t get a lot of respect, especially from the ladies.”
“That include Rita?”
“That includes the entire female gender unless he was paying them. I don’t know if you noticed, but besides not being a physical specimen, he’s not exactly charming. What are you getting at?”
“Okay, in the course of his duties, did he and Rita ever run across each other?”
“Yeah, the fact was, she was really the head of Helms’ operation. She liked to let him pretend he was running things, but if we needed something done, she was the one to talk to. I can’t remember anything specific though.”
“Did he know Rita threatened to expose your business with Tim and Helms?”
“Yeah, he heard, so what?”
“How bad does Lucas want to impress Harry?”
“Pretty damn bad. Honestly, it’s probably why he keeps him around. Anybody can drive a car, but Lucas is sure eager to please.”
Margot hit play again.
Lucas’s digital voice said, “It’s probably good they did it that way, boss. Cops never even considered it could have been you.”
“Was that in the car on Saturday?”
“Yeah, I forgot to turn it off after I was talking to Helms and you forgot to check for it. Don’t worry, there’s nothing incriminating on there. Other than the parts with Lucas, I dumped the rest.”
“So you’re thinking Lucas used his day off to kill Tim and Rita?”
“Seems a possibility.”
“A long shot at best.”
“Sure, but there’s more. The dress covered in blood they figured Phoebe wore had some hairs on it that didn’t match Phoebe’s. Short black ones.”
“Lucas is covered in those, but that doesn’t narrow it down much.”
“No, but put it in with motive, opportunity, and Lucas’s generally nasty disposition, it makes that long shot a few steps closer.”
“If you say so?”
“How long has he been carrying that straight razor?”
“Hell if I know. That was the first time I’ve seen it though. Why are you telling me this?”
“If he is the one, then the best way to keep Harry out of it would be for you guys to turn him in and at least leave a tip. If you don’t want a bunch of cops digging in Harry’s business, it’d be better to be ahead of it. I believe Harry when he says he had nothing to do with it. If this was Lucas doing it on his own, this is your chance not to let him trip you up.”
Bobby drank some beer and thought about it for a second before he said, “I’m not sure what you want me to do.”
“The way he’s dropped some hints, I’m sure he’d tell you if you asked.”
Bobby shook his head. “I ain’t a rat.”
Margot didn’t really have a counter for that, so she drank some beer while Bobby did some more thinking.
“If it is his hair on the dress, can’t they match it up?”
“Sure, but to be honest, they’re not really looking to find another suspect right now.”
Bobby shook his head and then admitted, “You know, Lucas shot a dude once. I’m not going to tell you who or when or even why, but it happened. Dude lived and was in no mood to press charges after Mr. Lee and I had a conversation with him, but it looked shaky for Lucas for a while.”
“Okay,” Margot replied. She wasn’t sure of the relevance, but Bobby seemed to have a point in mind.
“Thing is, he didn’t want to give up the gun, even though this is America; you can always get a new gun. Even after I took it from him and tossed it in the ocean, I found out he kept the shell casings. He didn’t want to give up those either.”
“He likes to keep souvenirs?”
“Yeah, and I ain’t around to make him toss the shit in the ocean on this one.”
Margot thought about the missing murder weapon, Bobby’s theory had possibilities. The problem was, even if she could get the detectives in charge of Phoebe’s case to consider the possibility, they’d have a hard time getting a search warrant based on Lucas’s vague boasts and the speculation of a felon.
“Do you know where Lucas lives?”
“Sure, but be careful. Like I said, here in America, you can always get a gun.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 12
Margot watched the ground floor apartment Lucas lived in and was glad to see it looked worse than her own. It didn’t look like being a driver for a mobster paid very much. Lucas emerged and got in an old Honda Civic, his ride when not driving Harry, and drove off.
Bobby had told her that he thought Lucas would be driving him and Harry around this afternoon, so Margot figured she had some time to do some illegal breaking and entering if she had to. She waited until he was out of sight and then went to the door. She knocked first, even though she’d been told Lucas lived alone. She was examining the lock when she heard Lucas saying, “What the fuck?”.
She had her hand in her purse as she turned.
“You going to pull that little lady gun on me?” he asked. “All that talk of weight class was just that, wasn’t it?”
“You going to pull that razor on me?”
“Shit, I don’t need no blade to take on you. I don’t even have it with me.”
“You know Bobby’s not here?” Margot said as she took her hand out of her purse and zipped it shut.
“I don’t need him.”
Margot saw the straight razor he pulled out of his back pocket open, and the blade come at her face just in time to lean back. He was quicker than he looked, and the honed steel missed her nose by about an inch.
He immediately swung at her again, but this time he lost the element of surprise. His swing left him open and Margot kicked him in the chest. Taking her heel to his sternum knocked the breath out of him and pushed him back a few steps. He swung wildly with the razor and Margot let the blade go by her again before she drove her heel into his knee and then hit him with a straight left followed by a right cross.
Lucas stumbled and fell to the ground. Margot stomped on his hand and then kicked the razor away. Before she kicked it away, she noticed the pearl handle was marked with the initials ‘T M.’ She look
ed up and saw several people watching the proceedings.
“Anybody call the police yet?” she asked, thinking she may have gotten lucky and found a souvenir from a past crime that Lucas had kept.
When no one replied, she said, exasperated, “Well, get to it.”
A couple of phones came out and Margot said to Lucas, “Get up. We’re not done here.”
To his credit, he got to his feet and threw some kicks and punches her way that indicated he’d taken some martial arts at some point, but Margot had been a borderline professional fighter before she joined the police. He gave her an opening and she broke his nose with the heel of her hand and swept his legs out from under him so he hit the ground hard.
When he got up, instead of coming at her again, he ran for his apartment. Margot didn’t see this coming and he made it to the door before she could react. She still could have stopped him, but him being inside would give the police an excuse to look around his place, so she let him.
What she didn’t expect was for him to come out carrying Glock. Margot ran and jumped over the nearest car parked on the street as he tried to take aim. He put a bullet through the window as Margot got low and retrieved her own pistol. She was thinking she really screwed this up when the police arrived.
As the squad car pulled up, Margot put down her gun. Lucas did not. He wheeled and put a couple bullets into the red and blue lights on top of the squad car. He turned to run after that and took a bunch of bullets to the back. When he fell down, it was clear he wasn’t getting back up.
While they were putting the cuffs on them both, Margot said, “You might want to tell someone in homicide the razor he attacked me with has a murdered man’s initials on it.”
Chapter 13
“You got lucky,” Radcliff told Margot, “that could have been much worse.” He’d met her outside the county jail where she’d got to spend the afternoon until they realized she was fighting the Masterson Hot Tub Massacre perpetrator and let her go.
“Yeah, well, how was I to know Lucas forgot his phone?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have been snooping around his place.”
“Part of the job. Was I right about the razor?”
“You were. Turns out he kept the butcher knife too. Since it was actually the murder weapon, he hid that in a shoebox in his closet, along with a handful of spent bullets. Looks like you found the killer.”
“That should make Phoebe happy.”
“Did you see her? I mean, you were both in the same jail.”
“She had her bail hearing in the morning and she got it. We have the same lawyer. Or had—I think we’re both going to be in the clear.”
“Let’s hope. They frown on detectives dating felons.”
“All I did was knock on his door and then I defended myself. Just because I’m good at it doesn’t mean it’s not self-defense.”
“True. Why do you think he put on the dress?”
“He didn’t want to wear his own clothes? I bet he was thinking he’d set up Phoebe since she could have been a problem as well. He’d have known about her and Harry. My guess is, once Phoebe was convicted, he’d spill his plan to Harry and get promoted or something.”
“Too bad we can’t ask him. Kind of a crazy plan.”
“If he didn’t like to run his mouth and keep souvenirs, it probably would have worked.”
Cassandra Cole was waiting by Radcliff's car, just like last time they’d walked out of the county jail.
“Do you have any comments about the rumor that the incident with Harry Lee’s driver was a failed hit attempt by you?”
“Rumor? Who the hell is saying that?”
“Is that your comment?”
“Are you just going to keep doing this?”
Cassandra turned off her camera. “Uh, yeah. I get more hits on Viuda Negra videos than all the others combined.”
“Go to hell, Cassie,” Margot said as she got in Radcliff’s car.
“You still owe me an interview.”
Margot opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say something Radcliff drove away.
Twisted Interest
Margot Harris Book 7
Nora Kane
Prologue
“How’s my favorite victim of police brutality doing?”
Lucas sat up as best he could in his hospital bed and gave Heller a little head nod before he replied, pointing to his groin, “I’ll be better when they take this tube out of my “you know what” and let me out of here. I miss the regular hospital.”
“Least you ain’t handcuffed to the bed in here.”
“Not like it makes any difference. Even if I could get up and walk, where would I go?”
“I hear you on that. Jail sucks, but trust me, prison is worse.”
“No shit. They got you sweeping the floors now?”
“Yeah, but I can’t complain. No tube in my dick.”
Heller moved on, going through the motions like he was actually cleaning something.
Lucas looked up at the box-shaped television mounted on the wall in front of him. The thing looked older than him. He missed the television at the regular hospital; having a flat screen and some decent channels when you're stuck in bed all day and all night made being handcuffed to the bed worth it.
The nurse walked in and announced, “Good, you’re awake. You’ve got visitors.” He left as quickly as he’d arrived, probably going off shift—unlike Lucas and Heller, he got to go home at night. Lucas didn’t get a chance to ask who his visitors were, but he didn’t have to wait long to find out.
The two detectives came into the room. Anderson, the younger and fatter of the two, was first in. He leaned against the rail at the foot of the bed and made sure his big body was blocking the television.
“What are you two doing here? This ain’t your kind of case,” Lucas remarked.
“We’re organized crime. You work for Harry Lee. This is our case.”
“Then you wasted your time. I’ve got nothing but nice things to say about Harry Lee. You all need to quit harassing him. He’s just a misunderstood businessman.”
“Whose driver went all horror movie on two people.”
“Did I?”
“If you didn’t, who did?”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told everybody else. You want to know who killed that white boy and his bitch, I need to be doing my recovery on the outside.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Anderson said.
