Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz [82]
“I’ll give it some thought,” Big Marv replied.
Lacey tossed the file out the window and then somersaulted out after it. She circled the building and met Sook in the adjacent woods.
With Sook back in her custody, Lacey drove to the Tarpit to sober him up and review the file.
“This is big,” Lacey said when she was done. “Looks like Big Marv and company were billing Medicare and receiving Social Security benefits for dead residents.”
“I knew something was fishy about that place. And you’re welcome, by the way,” Sook replied, drinking his cappuccino and eating a bran muffin.
“What should I do with this?” Lacey asked.
“Shouldn’t you wait until you’ve closed the deal with the Babalatos before you start nosing into their business?”
“I guess,” Lacey replied.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” said Sook, “but you seem to be getting distracted, just like your brother. I thought you were looking into Hart’s murder. Isn’t that what you’re really after?”
Sook had a point. If she started poking around every unpunished crime, this saga would go on forever and she’d never get out of Mercer. She had a murder to solve, plain and simple, and she was going to do it. She decided to put the Babalatos on the back burner—at least until there was reason to think their scam was related to the killings.
Lacey turned her thoughts back to the death of Harry Lakes. She wasn’t the only sibling who was aware of the finite window. In fact, she’d thought of it on her own ages ago. But now she realized there were two finite windows that could eliminate suspects. Suddenly, solving the murder seemed as simple as conducting a survey of all their acquaintances. She started with the person sitting right in front of her.
“Sook, where were you yesterday between one-fifteen and one forty-five p.m.?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Just answer the question, Sook.”
“I was at Betty’s place. Don’t you remember? You dropped me off?”
“Right,” Lacey replied. “And Betty can confirm you were with her?”
“We were playing pinochle.”
“So you can confirm Betty’s whereabouts. Correct?”
“That’s usually how it works when two people are together,” Sook replied. The cappuccino was sharpening him up.
“Congratulations,” Lacey said.
“For what?” Sook replied.
“I’ve just cleared you on the Harry Lakes murder. Now tell me, where were you last Sunday between two and three a.m.?”
Lacey drove to Tulac and made a copy of the Moakler file on the ancient Xerox machine at the Slow and Easy convenience store. She’d have to figure out how to sneak the file back into Big Marv’s office, but she figured he wouldn’t notice its absence for a day or two.
At home, Lacey drafted a list of all the persons of interest who lived in Mercer, Emery, and Tulac, which basically consisted of all of Paul and Lacey’s friends and acquaintances. Lacey scratched Sook off the list and Doc Egan, since he had no motive; she also eliminated a few obvious non-suspects, like anyone legally blind or immobile, which included a large majority of the We Care and Mapleshade residents. At the top of the list she wrote Doc Holland in quotes. As far as Lacey was concerned, he was suspect number one. Although she couldn’t figure out how he could lug a grown man (minus head) on and off their property. But maybe he had a sidekick, some brain-dead local short on cash.
When Paul came home, he entered the kitchen and, against his better judgment, asked Lacey what she had been up to. Lacey split the piece of paper in half and handed it to Paul.
“You want this thing to end, don’t you?”
“What thing?”
“Living with your sister in a nowhere town, looking over your shoulder for killers. Maybe you even want to break up with that gimpy stripper and find a genius with a good leg and less history.”
“I love Brandy.”
“It was worth a shot,” Lacey replied. “Still, you want this investigation to come to end, right?”
“Most definitely,” Paul replied.
“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m merely suggesting you help me with this investigation. We do that, we’re