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“What do you think?” Lucas asked Virgil, as they waited.
“That fuckin’ Heath,” Virgil said.
“Really? I was looking for something a little more complicated,” Lucas said, leaning back against a wall. “We’ve got a missing guy, we’ve got Heath, who fits the physical description of the Sand killer, and we’ve got a dead Pollard, but as far as I can see, the pieces don’t fit.”
“Who’s Heath?” the old lady asked.
Lucas didn’t answer the question, but asked her, “You didn’t hear anyone come down the hall since you heard Ms. Pollard on the cell phone?”
“Nope. I was probably on the pot. I’ve got an overactive bladder. The doctor can’t fix it. Not that she gives a shit.”
Virgil said, “I have to talk to the marshal. Why don’t you go back inside and shut the door?”
“Because I want to hear what you say. I’ve never been around no murder. First murder in this building.”
“Go inside,” Lucas said.
When she was inside, with the door closed, Virgil said, “Cheap door. Probably has her ear pressed against it.”
“Do not,” the old lady called.
Virgil pointed down the hall. “Why don’t we...”
They walked down the hall and Virgil said, “The piecesdofit.Heath kills Sand because Sand was going to drop his donation to the Home Streets scam, but he hoped he might still get money from Maggie Cooper. But: Hinton knew something that tied Heath to the murders, and after we started busting his balls, he went to Heath and either asked for help, or threatened him, and Heath kills him and dumps his body. Then, because Pollard also knew too much, he gets rid of Pollard. With, I have to say, what must have been a hammer, or something like a hammer.”
“That’s an intriguing theory,” Lucas said, “If you’ve conveniently forgotten that Heath was having dinner with a half-dozen people at the Town and Country Club when Sand was being murdered, and one of his witnesses is the mayor.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because Heath showed up at the Sand murder scene while I was there. He showed up with the mayor—they’d been having dinner with a bunch of other people when the Sands were murdered,” Lucas said. “He was interviewed, but he was never a suspect and he had a solid alibi with several eyewitnesses.”
Virgil said, “Huh. You never mentioned that.”
“Yeah, huh. You got anything else for me, that’s not useless?”
“One thing,” Virgil said. “Dodd said, ‘Holy fuck knuckles’ when he saw the body. I’m always looking for expressions like that. I’ll use it in the novel.”
“I meant about the Pollard murder,” Lucas said.
“Nah. You shot me down. I got nothin’,” Virgil said.
—
The West St. Paulcops arrived first, four patrolmen and an investigator. Lucas warned them about going inside the apartment ortouching the doorknobs on either side of the door but allowed the investigator to push open the door, to look at the body.
“That’s about as dead as you can get,” the cop said. “Anything alive inside? I mean a cat could... you know. Take a bite.”
“Maybe we should leave the door open,” Virgil said.
They made small talk with the investigator and a couple of uniform cops until Durey arrived. He looked at the body, and said, “Crime scene is on the way. They were getting in the van when I left the office. Do you guys have any idea of what’s going on?”
“Lots of ideas,” Lucas said. “After crime scene gets this, Virgil and I oughta go back to the office and make statements. It’s complicated.”
Virgil: “It’s possible we caused this by poking around.”
“Give it to me in two words,” Durey said. “Did the Sand killer do this?”
Virgil and Lucas looked at each other, and then simultaneously shrugged. “We don’t think so, but it’s not impossible,” Virgil said.
