by Nora Kane
“Uh, no.”
“Dennis Thorn.”
“Mal’s alias?”
“Same one he used when he visited that punk Heller in county jail.”
“Anything ever come of that?”
Radcliff shook his head.
“You think Mal is the driver?”
“Certainly looks that way.”
“I don’t see him using an alias that’s already burned. He might as well have put his name on it. He’s not that stupid.”
“I wouldn’t think so either, but ‘I’m not that stupid’ has never been a viable legal defense. Maybe he didn’t have another fake driver’s license or maybe he figured no one would connect this with his visit to county jail. I have to admit, it’s my case and I never would have made the connection if you hadn’t figured out the county jail bit. I’m also sure he wasn’t figuring on the intended victim filming the first attempt.”
“Or the second. Someone shot at her before. Remember, they dragged me in to talk about it?”
“I do. I was there.”
“So, either Mal is in the middle of this or someone wants us to think so.”
“I’d bet on the former.”
“Yeah, me too. Though I’m not sure how being the getaway driver on a hit on an internet journalist qualifies as a ‘big thing’.”
Radcliff shrugged. “Maybe this is just a warm-up. It wouldn’t be the first time the cartel had someone do something to prove their loyalty.”
Margot nodded, Radcliff had a point. She re-started the video.
The picture went back to Cassie who explained the door the woman knocked on was hers. She said she filmed the woman because after someone took a shot at her a while back, she’d made a habit of filming people acting suspiciously around her house. She ended by saying that, because of this incident, she would be staying at an undisclosed location for the near future. Then she signed off.
“I’m guessing that undisclosed location was Trevor’s parents' place.”
“Makes sense.”
“Only they figured it out. So, the question is, where would she go next?”
“She doesn’t have any family in town or even in the state, though considering how this Viuda Negra person feels about collateral damage, that’s the last place she should be running.”
“You really calling her that?”
“Makes sense. When she was saying you were Viuda Negra, we kind of assumed she was just making it up, but maybe it wasn’t entirely a product of her imagination. She has legit sources for information and access to crime scene evidence she shouldn’t have, so perhaps she got a name—or at least a nickname that hadn’t come across our radar.”
Margot played the video again.
“Damn, am I wrong or could that be me? Right height, about the right weight, the hair you see could be mine.”
“Enough that I feel obligated to ask what you were doing two days ago around eleven o’clock.”
“Seriously?”
“If not me, someone a lot less friendly.”
“I was checking on a guy with a limp for the insurance company.”
“In the field?”
“Nah, online. If his Facebook profile showed him climbing mountains or running marathons, there might be a problem. I was at the office. Shaw and Ms. Collins can attest I was there all day. I think I even ate lunch at my desk.”
Radcliff nodded. “Did you find anything?”
“A lot of pictures of his grandkids and questionable political posts, but no evidence of insurance fraud. If I didn’t get paid either way and if it didn’t provide me an alibi, I’d say it was a waste of time.”
“It’s good you have one, though having a rock-solid alibi for the dry run isn’t the same as having one for the actual murder. It doesn’t help that the window for Trevor’s murder still puts you at the scene either right after or during.”
“Odd thing to do, calling you guys, if I did the shooting.”
“Yeah, but criminals doing odd things isn’t all that odd.”
“I’m not a criminal.”
“I’m not the one you need to convince. Having Mal involved doesn’t help you either, since you two have history.”
“How long before I need to call my lawyer?”
“As long as Ames and I are working it, no one’s arresting you. Unless you did it.”
“Really?”
Radcliff smiled. “It never hurts to ask.”
“It might if I broke your nose. For the record, I didn’t.”
“Good to hear.”
“What now?”
“We try to find Cassie and Mal and hope they lead us to Viuda Negra before someone else gets shot.”
“Why Cassie?”
“She knows a lot she shouldn’t. Maybe she stumbled on something they didn’t want to her putting out on the internet. We’ve been reviewing old shows to see if she dropped something on the Cartel that would put her in danger.”
“Find anything?”
“Not yet. She’s thrown some things out about Harry Lee that might make him a little sore, but no cartel stuff of any consequence.”
“Great, that Harry Lee stuff gets back to me too.”
“I wish I could tell you it didn’t, but it does. The Mal connection doesn’t help.”
“It’s not Harry Lee’s style. He’s more a make-people-disappear type of guy.”
“The ‘I normally kill people this way’ defense has worked about as often as the ‘I’m not that stupid’ defense. Maybe less.”
Margot couldn’t deny that logic.
“Have you tried to find her source for the crime scene photos?”
“Since I’ve been working homicides, I haven’t had time to look into the leaked photos, but I suppose the two have intersected, haven’t they?”
“I’d say so.”
“I’ll get on that tomorrow. Do me a favor though, okay?”
“Name it.”
“Stick with looking for insurance fraud and cheating husbands while I sort this out. You should have never gone to Trevor’s house. Next time you get a lead, could you let me in on it?”
“Of course. You’re right, I should have called you, but I didn’t think I was going to walk in a homicide. I just thought I might get to talk to Cassie.”
“From here on out, when it comes to this mess, assume you’re walking in a homicide.”
“Will do.”
“Excellent, can we now pretend none of this happened until tomorrow and hang out like normal people?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Chapter 5
Margot kept her promise until about ten o’clock the next morning.
She’d meant to stay out of Radcliff’s and Ames investigation, but she was having trouble maintaining her concentration as she scrolled through the social media accounts of potential insurance fraudsters.
It was hard not to think about Mal and thinking about Mal made her think about his brother Marv. Marv had employed Margot not long ago to help him find his brother, who he correctly surmised was in trouble. That trouble both his brother and Margot were in had Marv catching bullets from a dirty cop turned cartel hitman.
While it might be a long shot, it wasn’t impossible that he could give her a lead on Mal. If she sent Radcliff and Ames his way, all she’d do was waste all their time. Marv was a lifetime criminal, formally high up in the ranks of the outlaw biker gang known as The Devil’s Racers. He would still be rising in the ranks if he hadn’t sided with his brother over the gang.
Even if he was still a Devil’s Racer member in good standing, some of his injuries at the hands of Deputy Brantley were permanent. He certainly was not in good enough health to continue his outlaw biker ways.
He now lived in a track house out east. Margot decided she could snoop on potential insurance scammers later and drove out to Marv’s place. She stopped on the way and picked up a six-pack of Dos XX and a pack of Marlboro Reds because she knew if she was just bringing questions, Marv wouldn’
t let her in the door let alone speak to her.
Marv’s old lady, Doris—who had the appearance of someone who had smoked and drank away her good looks prematurely—answered the door. She looked skeptically at Margot.
“You going to make him mad?” she asked.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“No one does, but it seems to happen anyway.”
“I come bearing gifts,” Margot told her as she held up the six-pack and the cigarettes.
“That’ll help,” Doris replied as she stepped aside. “Don’t let him smoke inside though. I quit about a year ago, and now I can’t stand the smell.”
“No problem.”
Doris yelled back in the house, “Marv, you got a visitor,” even though given the size of the place, Margot couldn’t imagine he hadn’t heard her ring the doorbell.
Margot found Marv sitting in an aging easy chair and watching the weather channel on the big flat-screen mounted on his wall. He muted the television as Margot walked in.
He held out a hand and Margot gave him a beer.
“Grab yourself one and put the rest in the fridge, if you don’t mind.”
Margot considered telling him she was working, but Marv probably wouldn’t like it if she refused to drink with him, so she did as she was told.
“I put a pack of Reds in the fridge with your beer,” she told him.
He nodded as he opened his bottle with an opener on his keychain. She sat down and he tossed her the opener.
“Doris tell you not to let me smoke inside?”
“Yeah.”
Marv shook his head and then pointed at his cane. “If she knew what a pain in the ass it is to move around these days, she’d let me smoke inside. I think she enjoys my pain.”
“I don’t know about that. She stuck around after you got shot.”
“True, I doubt she could do better than me though, even a broken-down me.”
“Be nice.”
“Sorry. I don’t suppose you just brought me beer and cigarettes as a thank you for me saving your ass.”
“No, I brought them just for that reason. Since I’m here though, I’m going to ask you a few questions.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“I can’t make you answer, but I am going to ask.”
“This about my brother?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“What did he do this time?”
“Someone used one of his known aliases to rent a car used to possibly commit a crime.”
“Possibly?”
“The car was caught on video during what looks like a hit that didn’t go down.”
“Is that a crime?”
“A day later it went down.”
“Mal the shooter?”
“Driver, maybe.”
“Lot of maybes.”
“I was hoping he could clear them up for me.”
“You think I know where he is?”
“Are you saying you don’t?”
“I am. I’m not lying to you. Whatever he’s up to, I’m out of the loop.”
“You know he’s up to something though.”
“Do I?”
Margot drank her beer.
“I guess I do,” Marv conceded. “He called me once, and one time he just showed up.”
“What did he want?”
“You don’t think he would just come by to say hello to his brother?”
“No, I don’t.”
Marv laughed. “I guess you know him about as well as anybody.”
Margot waited for Marv to fill in the details.
“He was trotting out some pipe dream about one big job that was going to set him up for the rest of his life.”
Margot nodded.
“He tell you the same thing?”
“He did. He wanted me to join him.”
“Then you two would run off together to live the good life on some island?”
“Something like that.”
“I take it you turned him down.”
“I take it you did too.”
Marv laughed again. “He didn’t offer to take me to an island. If he had, I might have taken him up on it. He wanted someplace to lie low, but Doris wouldn’t tolerate me hiding out some fugitive at the house, even if it was my brother.”
“So, you just told him to hit the bricks?”
“I couldn’t put him up at any Devil’s Racer’s places. If you’ll recall, I did that once before, and it didn’t work out very well for any of us.”
Margot did remember and it wasn’t a good memory.
After they both drank in silence for a few minutes, Margot pointed out, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“What do you mean?”
“You told me where he wasn’t. Which I could have figured out by myself.”
“I can't get anything past you, can I, Margot?”
“I suspect you can if you try hard enough.”
“If you find him, what are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not going to lie and say I won’t get the law involved, but it won’t be my first move. I’m going to at least talk to him first. There might be a chance he has nothing to do with any of this, but if he does, it’s nasty. The two victims so far are a couple of college kids who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Mal’s no angel, but he always kept the collateral damage to a minimum.”
“You’re right, but the people he’s involved with don’t seem to feel the same way. If it helps, it’s them I want. If Mal can help me then I’m not going to hold him driving the car against him.”
“How about the cops? They going to overlook that?”
“I can’t speak for them.”
Marv thought on this for a few minutes as he finished his beer.
“Can you grab me another one?”
“Sure.”
“Bring the cigarettes while you’re at it.”
Margot brought Marv another beer and the new pack of cigarettes.
