No Good Deed (32 page)

‘There is not little girl.'

‘Claude, I'm asking you one more time, then I got things to do. You want a lawyer, or you want me to grab you a candy bar and a Coke, maybe a cup of coffee, whatever, and you and I sit down like civilized people and get all this straightened out?'

‘You have the Baby Ruth?'

‘Babe Ruth it is. What to drink?'

‘Cherry Coke.'

She got herself a candy bar too. What the hell, she was mad at the world anyway. Reese's Cups. She liked the bright orange wrapper, and there was nothing quite like peanut butter and chocolate. They both got intent on opening candy wrappers and popping soda tabs. She had managed a surprising camaraderie with this guy over chocolate.

‘Ah,' he said, mouth full of chocolate, caramel and peanuts. ‘The Reese's Cup, this is good too.'

It reminded her of Jean-Claude van Damme, the way he talked, only this guy wasn't nearly as smart or good-looking.

She broke him off a piece of a Reese's Cup – the sacrifices she suffered to make a living – and was touched when he responded with a chunk of Baby Ruth.

She took a sip of Coke. It was cold and wonderful. Pah on coffee. ‘I just don't get it. I can't picture you, doing something like that.'

He looked uncomfortable, and was clearly struggling to figure out which crime she was referring to.

‘Was it an accident, you know, because you really just wanted the horse?'

‘Yes, the horse I wanted, but I get it other ways. I tell you there is no girl.'

‘Let me refresh your memory, Claude, Joelle Chauncey was the girl
riding
the horse. Tell me it was an accident. Tell me that you didn't mean for her to get hurt. Believe me, it'll make a big difference.'

‘But I tell you there was no horse.'

‘Oh, come on—'

‘No. Delaney has the horse, and this horse is Bisky property.'

‘Which horse are we talking about?'

‘The mare, Sundance, she is in foal to Big Blue Baby who has blood from We Had It Coming, very good lines these are.'

‘And she's owned by the Biskys?'

He waved a hand. ‘By the client of the Biskys.'

‘Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. How did Delaney get the horse?'

‘Is business arrangement.' He leaned across the table. ‘This Bisky people, they have the beautiful show barn. You've seen it?'

Sonora nodded.

‘They have over-rented the stalls, you understand this?'

‘Rent them out to more than one horse, collect all the board fees you want.'

‘And big board fees, these are. One thousand a month, just board. Fifteen hundred to foal. More to train. Mr Bisky, he calls this bread-and-butter funds.'

‘So he farms the horses out.'

Vincent took a large swallow of cherry Coke, and picked a fallen peanut up off the table. Sonora pulled another candy bar out of her jacket pocket and laid it in front of him. Pay-day. He picked it up, said ‘Oh, thank you,' opened it and gave her half.

This guy was amazing.

‘It is a bad business, this. These places are bad – I have grown up with horses, they are where I will spend my life.'

If you're not in prison, Sonora thought.

‘And the Delaney people, they do not feed or worm these animals. The pasture is very bad. This is true also in my own country. People are not good to animals if there is money involved. I have worked and studied with many farms – it is a hard way to make a living. Money is so hard, even good people do bad things. From here my plan is to Kentucky, then to Ireland. They have more horses per capita than anywhere in this world.'

‘I get you, Claude. There's no doubt – look at your hands there, look at the calluses – you've studied and worked hard. Probably done a million and one odd jobs.'

He nodded.

‘I mean, you cleaned stalls, and—'

‘No, I have done that, but I have learned to train, studied the nutrition—'

‘Probably even worked with a vet, haven't you?'

He sat up straighter and smiled. ‘Yes, this is true, for many years.'

‘Probably get board-certified, if they'd let you.'

‘I could pass every test. Dr Vooherman, he let me take care of even some high-dollar horses.'

‘Even the hard stuff? Like surgeries? That advanced?'

His smile of pride was a ray of sunshine in Sonora's heart. She wished she'd looked at his feet earlier, but he was a hunk – she would have bet anything that his shoes would match the print outside Delaney's window. They had their finger-ripper.

‘So what happened with Delaney?'

He tapped a finger on the table. Clearly thinking. Coming to a decision. About what, Sonora could only imagine.

‘Delaney will not give back this horse. Bisky, he tells her the client is coming to town, I think this is unexpected, and Delaney says no horse unless she gets more money. It is blackmail. Bisky, he thinks she is waiting for this opportunity. She has taken such bad care of others that he is deciding not to use her again, and he thinks she has figured this out and wants to stick him for what she can.

‘She will not give back this horse, so there are some visits and much argument, and a payment of money, they are in agreement. And then the horse disappears with this little girl. And Bisky …' He leaned closer. ‘He is out of town but he calls the sister and they are angering like you cannot say. They think Delaney has done this so she will not give back the horse. This little girl who disappears, she is the daughter of Delaney's man who cleans the stalls. They think Delaney just has moved the horse and the girl a while. And the sister, Vivian, she does not like to be beaten down, not by a Delaney woman. They never do get along, both are strong and mean.'

Sonora nodded.

‘So she has the idea for me to do.'

‘Do what exactly?'

He sat back and shrugged. ‘Apply the pressure. Just tough phone calls and such.'

‘And such.' Sonora leaned back too, a big believer in advance and retreat when you were trying to catch a man or a horse. ‘The riding glove was inspired.'

He tried very hard to look blank.

‘But not very nice. You scared some of the children. I bet you were following orders.'

He did not seem to know where to look – at her, or the floor.

‘But you know, scaring kids is one thing. Killing them's in a whole other league.'

‘I have killed no one.'

‘See, Claude, we're going to have to sort out what you did and didn't do. What you did to Delaney – in your favor, she was blackmailing your boss. And it's not like you were irresponsible. She could have bled to death when you made the cut, except you made sure to stitch her up.'

‘Yes, I am most careful, there is almost no bleeding, no pain.'

‘The ER doctor was pretty impressed.'

‘It is in the sharpness of the knife.'

‘You used a scalpel, didn't you?'

‘Yes, I believe strongly the right tool for the job.'

‘How'd you get her doped up? Didn't you come in through the window?'

‘She is doped already. In the beer. Sleeping hard.'

‘Who was helping you out with that?'

He got that wary look she never liked to see in the interrogation room. It was a look that often shut things down. She'd been too direct. No choice now but to go with it.

‘Hey, Claude, don't be the sucker who takes all the heat. You made sure she didn't bleed to death, you stitched her up. You're almost clean here, but we need somebody to hang. Don't risk your future for somebody else.'

‘It is Vivian.'

‘Vivian Bisky?'

‘Yes. She goes ahead to give more money, is what she says, but the truth is she puts chloral hydrate in the beer. And I go in and do the job.'

‘Did she make it easy for you, leave the door unlocked?'

‘No, I have to do that through the window.'

‘She did that on purpose, you know that, don't you? We couldn't have gotten you for the breaking and entering if you'd gone in through an unlocked door. She's rich, she knows the law, and she wants you at risk. So then what happens?'

‘This little girl, she is a very big deal, and the Biskys are most nervous. The brother is in Florida and will not come home, and leaves this all to Vivian.'

‘What'd she do?'

‘She says keep the pressure on Delaney, then after the girl is found dead, she says pull out and back off. This is much too hot.'

‘And she was right too. Whoever did the girl – we give the death penalty, here in Cincinnati.'

‘I have nothing to do with little girl.'

‘Here's what you need to do, then. You need to give us hair and blood samples, so we can rule you out. You don't have a problem with that?'

‘No, no problem. I invite you.'

‘Good. The business with the girl, that's all a mistake, so I'm going to help you out. Let's do it like this.' She shoved a legal pad and a pen across the table. ‘You write out a statement. Keep it simple, tell it in your own words. Explain everything just like you told me.'

‘I do not know.'

‘It's brave and loyal of you to want to protect people, Claude, but you're going to have to use your head if you ever want to make it to Ireland. Vivian Bisky is the one who had the big idea. She's the one who wouldn't even unlock that door, and if you don't think that was on purpose, you were born yesterday, which you weren't, right?'

‘Right.' His response was slow. He looked at the paper. The pen. Shook his head like a wet dog.

Sonora pointed to the tape recorder. ‘Look, we got all this on tape already. Writing it out is for your benefit. So you can add stuff if you need to, say why and that you're sorry. I'm trying to clear the way for you, okay? As best I can? You just write it all down and sign it, to let the judge know you were co-operative. That kind of thing carries a lot of weight. A
lot
of weight. And then an apology.'

‘On the paper?'

‘Let's do it up right, Claude. I want you to make an apology to the lady you hurt, to Donna Delaney. You write this down, then I'll take you out in the bull-pen and you can tell her you're sorry in person. That should take care of about everything. It's the Biskys who are at fault here, they're the ones making the money. And it's not like you didn't give the finger back, right?'

Chapter Fifty-One

Sonora gave Vincent one final look, saw his blond head bent over the yellow legal pad like a child at his homework, and headed into the hallway, shutting the door softly.

Ran, literally, into Hal McCarty. She stared at him with her mouth open. She'd been so into the interrogation of Claude Vincent she'd forgotten Hal. Her warrior juices started to ebb. Two seconds ago she had been all the way up, now she was all the way down.

His smile faded, and he took her elbow, guiding her into the corner, as if they were not under the casual observation of about ten other detectives in the bull-pen.

‘Tell me what's wrong.' He spoke quietly, and it was annoying that he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. They could have been so good together.

‘You didn't happen to bring up that you were married, Hal.'

His face went stiff and Sonora found herself wondering if he had a lot of little moments like this one.

‘I figured you knew. I figured you'd run me through the computer, check around. You didn't ask.'

‘You didn't tell. And you don't wear a ring.'

‘I'm working undercover.'

‘I'll say.'

He laughed, and grimaced, shook his head. ‘I'm really taken with you, Sonora.'

‘Are you happily married?'

‘I have a wife and five kids.'

‘Five?'

‘A combined effort. Two of mine, two of hers, one of ours.'

There was an obvious affection in his voice when he spoke of them, and she wanted to scream, God, I don't understand men, but she did. They were just like her.

She had a flash of envy for the private moments between the two of them. That would never do. It was a requirement that any man in her life adore her.

‘Listen, Hal, casual sex just doesn't do it for me. And God knows I've tried.'

He laughed again. She gave him a small smile. After all, he hadn't
lied
about being married. Listen to yourself, she thought. Was it genetics or plain stupidity, the way women, herself included, found excuses for men?

‘Look. I still want to see you. You're very … different.'

‘Yeah, I just bet. Come on, McCarty, we got work to do.' And she had no choice but to work with him.

‘What, I'm McCarty now?'

‘There's worse things I could call you.'

‘I'm not letting you go. Not unless you want me to.'

‘Business, Hal. I need you to help me pull off a reverse lineup.'

‘What's going on?'

‘Just that I'm one hell of a cop. Try to keep up.'

Chapter Fifty-Two

None of the women would talk.

Vivian Bisky already had an attorney, a chunky blonde with a sweet face and a killer reputation. Dead in the water, for the time being.

Donna Delaney, lips tighter than the bandage on her hand, would not say a word. Not to Hal, not to Sam. Sonora was dying to give her a try.

They had Donna in the bull-pen, sitting in front of Sam's desk. They'd rounded up every available female and scattered them throughout the office, to give Vincent a good choice.

Sonora led him out of the interrogation room. Steered him toward Sanders. Molliter was getting it all on videotape and she wanted to go out of her way not to influence him.

Vincent frowned, and moved away from Sanders, heading toward Donna Delaney. He stood over her, frowning.

She glared at him.

Sonora's heart was pounding. If Delaney kept up the prison-yard stare, Vincent would never come through.