[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I crawled on top of her back, straddling her, and pulled her arms back and up until she squeaked a little, so I knew she wasn’t unconscious.I lifted my head fast, trying to flip all the hair out of my eyes to see what was going on in the rest of the room.“Is everybody okay?” I asked just as Detectives Mabry and Amoretti came through the front door, guns drawn.XXIXThe cops seemed to outnumber us within a matter of seconds.I climbed off Janet, a uniformed officer got cuffs on her, and she was gone, out the front door of Molly’s house.Thankfully, the one shot Janet fired had merely cut a hole in one of Molly’s original oil paintings on the wall.It turned out that Jeannie, who had been surprisingly quiet while Janet was spitting her vile stuff at us, had actually reached into her pocket under that horse blanket of hers and pushed redial on her cell phone.“Since Clay was the last one I called—right after you called from Homestead,” she said, “I knew it would dial him.”“Clay?” I asked.She looked over at Detective Mabry and stuck her chin out.“That one.Detective Mabry,” but she wasn’t quite able to pull it off without a little smile.I’m certain I was standing there with my jaw dragging on Molly’s terrazzo floors when Detective Amoretti asked Zale about the case he was holding.“It was my dad’s.It was on his boat, the Mykonos.”“Well, I guess that means it’s yours now, son.What’s in it?”“I don’t know.” Zale hugged the case tighter to him.“Do you want to tell us about what’s happened here?” Mabry asked.I gave him a grateful look.He understood that we shouldn’t push Zale right now.He’d give up the case when he was ready.Jeannie jumped up and said she’d make some tea, and Molly was walking around her living room, trying to push the furniture back into place.Detective Amoretti took her arm and asked her to sit.“Do you guys mind if Zale and I clean up a little before we get into this long story? This wet suit is giving me the worst goddamn case of chafe you’ve ever seen.” While Jeannie made the tea, Molly found me an extra-large T-shirt and a pair of overalls she used for painting, and Zale and I retreated to the two bathrooms for a little desalting.When I came out ten minutes later combing my wet hair, Jeannie and Detective Mabry were sitting next to each other on Molly’s dining room chairs chatting and laughing as though they were on a date.Molly and Zale came out of his room, and Detective Amoretti took up his usual position leaning against the wall, watching.A uniformed officer stood by the door, his pad at the ready, taking notes.Through the front door, I could see the sky growing a pale pink.There were still clouds out there, but they were cumulous now, bulbous and blue, blowing fast across the horizon.The old Florida houses like Molly’s were built without heat or air, and though her parents had installed air conditioning, they’d never added heat.Someone had started a fire in the fireplace, and it was making a big difference in the temperature in the room.“Have a seat, everybody,” Mabry said.“My partner’s already spoken to Ms.Pontus while you were in the shower and taken her statement as to what occurred here between the time Ms.Black brought her home from the courthouse and when we arrived.Now, Ms.Sullivan, if you please.”“First, I don’t get it.What was Janet doing here?”Molly spoke first.“She was really acting crazy when she came to the door.She said she’d searched their whole house.Torn everything apart.She said there was no way it was over there, so it had to be here in my house.She said the cops were looking for her brother, and he wasn’t answering his phone, and somehow all of that had gotten mixed up in her head to mean it was my fault.Everything that was happening to her was my fault, she said.She was just about to have me start tearing my house apart, when you guys showed up.”“Molly,” I said, “you tried to tell us what a monster Janet was and we didn’t believe you.I’m sorry about that.She was a hell of an actress.Janet played the part of a normal human being so well.She fooled me.”“Me, too,” Jeannie said.“And not many people manage that.”So then it was my turn.I had a feeling they already knew what had happened to Richard Hunter and his two crew members, but I told the story and they took their notes.I noticed that Zale no longer had the line tied to his wrist, but he sat with the case on his lap, fingering the keyholes.Some details of the story—details Zale had already heard once and that I didn’t think the kid needed to hear again—I omitted.Maybe it was history that explained who these Hunters were, but I decided to keep my mouth shut about it for now.Besides, I didn’t have the stomach for it.So, I told them how Richard had kept asking us about “it,” and we assumed “it” was in the case, but we really had no idea what “it” was.And I told them how they’d died, that we hadn’t seen or heard anything, and how Zale had sailed us home.When I’d run out of story, everyone turned to Zale.“Well, son,” Mabry said.“Are you ready to see what it was your daddy wanted you to see?”Zale nodded and held the case out to Detective Amoretti.He set it on the dining table, produced a set of picklocks out of his pocket, and opened the case in seconds.Amoretti lifted out a simple manila folder and opened it.“Interesting,” he said, handing the open folder to Molly.Zale craned his neck and read over her shoulder.After a few seconds’ reading, she looked up from the document and stared out through the front windows.“It’s a third will?” she asked.“Looks like it,” Amoretti said.Molly flipped to the back of the document.“It’s signed by Nick and witnessed by Leon Quinn.Why wouldn’t he have said anything about this? He never told me.”Mabry motioned for the uniformed officer, and when he came, Mabry spoke at length in his ear.The officer then left through the front door and went out to the car.“He may be long gone, but we would like to have a talk with Mr.Quinn, it appears.”“That’s just reminded me of something Richard said yesterday.When he was trying to get Zale to tell him where it was, he said, ‘Nick told Quinn that the kid knew where it was.’ How would Richard know that unless Quinn told him?”“Or told Janet,” Mabry said.“I think it’s likely Quinn was involved with the boss’s wife.He probably thought he’d seduced her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.I crawled on top of her back, straddling her, and pulled her arms back and up until she squeaked a little, so I knew she wasn’t unconscious.I lifted my head fast, trying to flip all the hair out of my eyes to see what was going on in the rest of the room.“Is everybody okay?” I asked just as Detectives Mabry and Amoretti came through the front door, guns drawn.XXIXThe cops seemed to outnumber us within a matter of seconds.I climbed off Janet, a uniformed officer got cuffs on her, and she was gone, out the front door of Molly’s house.Thankfully, the one shot Janet fired had merely cut a hole in one of Molly’s original oil paintings on the wall.It turned out that Jeannie, who had been surprisingly quiet while Janet was spitting her vile stuff at us, had actually reached into her pocket under that horse blanket of hers and pushed redial on her cell phone.“Since Clay was the last one I called—right after you called from Homestead,” she said, “I knew it would dial him.”“Clay?” I asked.She looked over at Detective Mabry and stuck her chin out.“That one.Detective Mabry,” but she wasn’t quite able to pull it off without a little smile.I’m certain I was standing there with my jaw dragging on Molly’s terrazzo floors when Detective Amoretti asked Zale about the case he was holding.“It was my dad’s.It was on his boat, the Mykonos.”“Well, I guess that means it’s yours now, son.What’s in it?”“I don’t know.” Zale hugged the case tighter to him.“Do you want to tell us about what’s happened here?” Mabry asked.I gave him a grateful look.He understood that we shouldn’t push Zale right now.He’d give up the case when he was ready.Jeannie jumped up and said she’d make some tea, and Molly was walking around her living room, trying to push the furniture back into place.Detective Amoretti took her arm and asked her to sit.“Do you guys mind if Zale and I clean up a little before we get into this long story? This wet suit is giving me the worst goddamn case of chafe you’ve ever seen.” While Jeannie made the tea, Molly found me an extra-large T-shirt and a pair of overalls she used for painting, and Zale and I retreated to the two bathrooms for a little desalting.When I came out ten minutes later combing my wet hair, Jeannie and Detective Mabry were sitting next to each other on Molly’s dining room chairs chatting and laughing as though they were on a date.Molly and Zale came out of his room, and Detective Amoretti took up his usual position leaning against the wall, watching.A uniformed officer stood by the door, his pad at the ready, taking notes.Through the front door, I could see the sky growing a pale pink.There were still clouds out there, but they were cumulous now, bulbous and blue, blowing fast across the horizon.The old Florida houses like Molly’s were built without heat or air, and though her parents had installed air conditioning, they’d never added heat.Someone had started a fire in the fireplace, and it was making a big difference in the temperature in the room.“Have a seat, everybody,” Mabry said.“My partner’s already spoken to Ms.Pontus while you were in the shower and taken her statement as to what occurred here between the time Ms.Black brought her home from the courthouse and when we arrived.Now, Ms.Sullivan, if you please.”“First, I don’t get it.What was Janet doing here?”Molly spoke first.“She was really acting crazy when she came to the door.She said she’d searched their whole house.Torn everything apart.She said there was no way it was over there, so it had to be here in my house.She said the cops were looking for her brother, and he wasn’t answering his phone, and somehow all of that had gotten mixed up in her head to mean it was my fault.Everything that was happening to her was my fault, she said.She was just about to have me start tearing my house apart, when you guys showed up.”“Molly,” I said, “you tried to tell us what a monster Janet was and we didn’t believe you.I’m sorry about that.She was a hell of an actress.Janet played the part of a normal human being so well.She fooled me.”“Me, too,” Jeannie said.“And not many people manage that.”So then it was my turn.I had a feeling they already knew what had happened to Richard Hunter and his two crew members, but I told the story and they took their notes.I noticed that Zale no longer had the line tied to his wrist, but he sat with the case on his lap, fingering the keyholes.Some details of the story—details Zale had already heard once and that I didn’t think the kid needed to hear again—I omitted.Maybe it was history that explained who these Hunters were, but I decided to keep my mouth shut about it for now.Besides, I didn’t have the stomach for it.So, I told them how Richard had kept asking us about “it,” and we assumed “it” was in the case, but we really had no idea what “it” was.And I told them how they’d died, that we hadn’t seen or heard anything, and how Zale had sailed us home.When I’d run out of story, everyone turned to Zale.“Well, son,” Mabry said.“Are you ready to see what it was your daddy wanted you to see?”Zale nodded and held the case out to Detective Amoretti.He set it on the dining table, produced a set of picklocks out of his pocket, and opened the case in seconds.Amoretti lifted out a simple manila folder and opened it.“Interesting,” he said, handing the open folder to Molly.Zale craned his neck and read over her shoulder.After a few seconds’ reading, she looked up from the document and stared out through the front windows.“It’s a third will?” she asked.“Looks like it,” Amoretti said.Molly flipped to the back of the document.“It’s signed by Nick and witnessed by Leon Quinn.Why wouldn’t he have said anything about this? He never told me.”Mabry motioned for the uniformed officer, and when he came, Mabry spoke at length in his ear.The officer then left through the front door and went out to the car.“He may be long gone, but we would like to have a talk with Mr.Quinn, it appears.”“That’s just reminded me of something Richard said yesterday.When he was trying to get Zale to tell him where it was, he said, ‘Nick told Quinn that the kid knew where it was.’ How would Richard know that unless Quinn told him?”“Or told Janet,” Mabry said.“I think it’s likely Quinn was involved with the boss’s wife.He probably thought he’d seduced her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]