Dead Even - Mariah Stewart [37]
“Damn,” Will muttered. “Damn it. I thought they were going to keep an eye on him.”
“Apparently their idea of surveillance is limited to twice-nightly drive-bys.” Her shoulders dropped. “May I come in?”
“Of course. Sorry.” Will stepped back to allow her to enter, then closed the door.
“I feel like an idiot. We were all so sure Lowell was such a pussy he’d never do something bold like kill a man. God, we are so stupid.”
“Whoa, take it easy, Miranda. Even Annie, who is usually right on the money when it comes to figuring people out, thought Archer would be a no-show when it came to finishing up the game.”
“Well, it just goes to show you, like Annie always says, profiling is not an exact science.”
“Do we know for a fact that it was Lowell? Or are we assuming?”
“Well, wouldn’t it just be the biggest coincidence in the world if someone other than Lowell pulled the trigger?”
“Good point.” Will took her arm and led her through the house to the kitchen. “Come on. You look like you could use a cup of coffee.”
“Bastard had us all fooled,” Miranda said. “No one figured him for a cold-blooded killer.”
“Here, sit down.” He pulled a chair out from the table, and offered it to her. “What exactly did the police say when they called?”
She sat, turning the chair slightly to the left when he sat down next to her.
“A cruiser passing by the theater early this morning noticed the lobby lights were still on, which is not normal for that hour. So the cops stopped to investigate, found the door unlocked, went into the lobby, heard the vacuum cleaner running. They entered the theater, saw the vacuum but not Al. When they walked down to the front, they found the body. There was no one else around, and a canvass of the neighborhood has turned up nothing. No one saw anything; no one heard anything.” She blew out a long, exasperated breath. “And the Telford police are telling me they have no suspects.”
“What do you mean, they have no suspects?” Will frowned. “We told them who to watch for, even gave them a picture of Lowell.”
“Yeah, well, they’re saying there’s no evidence to tie Lowell to the murder. We can’t even prove Lowell was in Telford last night.”
“They think this whole thing is one big coincidence? Who else could it have been?”
“Do you think there’s a chance there could have been a fourth person in on this game?” Miranda asked.
“I don’t see how. The only time we can place Lowell, Giordano, and Channing together was in the police van one morning back in February, and even then, according to the guards and the driver, they did not speak to one another. There was one other inmate in the van that morning, but he’s spending the rest of his life behind bars.” Will paused, then added, “As a matter of fact, on the morning in question, this other prisoner had escaped into the courthouse and held up things for hours. Put the entire courthouse on lockdown for a good part of the day until they found him.”
“I don’t recall hearing about that.” Miranda frowned.
“It was in an amended report that Evan Crosby filed. It’s in the packet of material Jared put together for us.”
“What were the other three doing while the courthouse was on lockdown?”
“I don’t know. Good question, though. Maybe we should give Evan a call and see if he knows.”
“If he doesn’t, I’ll bet he can find out.”
“I have his card in my desk. I’ll be right back. In the meantime, think you could throw together a pot of coffee? The coffee maker is there on the counter. Coffee and filters are the same place they were the last time you were here.”
By the time Will returned to the kitchen, the coffee was just beginning to drip and Miranda was leaning into the open refrigerator, searching for a carton of milk.
“I had to leave a voice mail for Crosby.”
“He’ll call you back. He’s real good about returning calls. He’d make a great agent. Bet it wouldn’t take much to