Рита Браун - The Tail Of The Tip-Off

"A slight person could do it with great force?"

"Sure."

"H-m-m, well, the usual. Tests for drugs, alcohol, and I guess poison."

"She wasn't poisoned. The body doesn't lie, Coop. She died by violence."

Cooper noticed Yancy's blue eyes. "More than any of us you see what we do to one another. I see it in a different way but you see it in the tracery of the veins."

"Like you, I try to keep my professional distance and I'd be a liar if I said there weren't people on this slab who didn't deserve it. But a young woman, prime of life, I gotta wonder. Don't take this the wrong way, but if she'd been sexually molested it would make more sense to me. This," he shook his head, "this was about as far away from sex as you can get."

27

Wearing a white hard hat, Fred Forrest buttonholed Matthew Crickenberger at the site of the new sports complex. Tazio and Brinkley had just arrived, too. Matthew greeted the wiry man with no affection and none was returned. Tazio said hello to Stuart Tapscott and Travis Critzer who would be in charge of the earthmoving operation. They didn't get a chance to put in another word.

Fred folded his arms across his chest. "Don't think because I'm shorthanded that you can get away with anything."

"Oh, come on, Fred, I'm not trying to get away with anything. I've always gone by the code, exceeded code." Matthew's voice betrayed a hint of disgust.

"You're all the same," Fred sneered. "I'm hiring someone real soon and I'll have him up to speed in no time. You'd better toe the line. Going to be my special project, right here." He tapped the frozen earth with his foot. "Going to drop by just about every day."

"You can do whatever you want," Matthew, his face florid, replied.

"That's exactly right." Fred, no trace of humor, jutted his chin out. "Think you were damned lucky to get your environmental impact studies passed. UVA." He sniffed, implying the studies were accepted because this was a UVA project.

The truth was the opposite. Any time the university sought to expand or build, the county faced the hue and cry from non-university people that the school, like a giant gilded amoeba, was smothering the county. Any UVA request going before any county board or the county commission itself bore unusual scrutiny. Also, any university project was certain to be reported in the newspaper, radio, and on TV. The public then would respond.

Fred knew that. He wanted to get Matthew's goat. If the opportunity presented itself for Fred to needle Matthew, he took it.

"You've got a copy of the study, Fred. Read it yourself."

"Did. That's why I said you're lucky."

Stuart Tapscott, an older and wiser man, had to walk away. Travis, in his thirties, followed Stuart's prudent example. They didn't want to say something they would later regret.

Tazio stuck by Matthew. Brinkley stuck by Tazio.

"Get that damned dog out of here." Fred pointed a finger at the handsome animal.

"No." Tazio stared Fred straight in the face.

"You'll do what I tell you or I can make life interesting." He practically licked his lips.

"It's not against code for me to have a dog with me on the job. And you push me, I'll push right back. Go bully someone else."

"You think because you're a woman and black I'll go easy on you? Think again. You're all the same, you architects, big construction people. You think you're better than us. Make more money. We're just clock punchers. I know what you think. How you think. Get away with whatever you can."

"Leave Tazio alone, jerk," Brinkley warned as he put himself between Fred and Tazio.

"That dog's growling at me. I'll call Animal Control."

"He's clearing his throat." Matthew, feeling unflappable today, smiled. "Fred, run along. We've got work to do."

"I'll go when I'm goddamned good and ready."

"Suit yourself." He turned his back on Fred, put his hand under Tazio's elbow, guiding her to a spot ten yards away where a peg with surveyor's tape was in the ground. Brinkley remained next to Tazio but looked over his back.

Fred followed them. "Design will never work. Too much glass. Too expensive to heat."

"It will work. Not only will it work, it will be less expensive to heat and cool than the building currently in use, and this building is twice the size, thanks to my design"-she squared her shoulders-"and thanks to modern materials."

"Glass will pop out in the first big storm. Pop out like what happened to the John Hancock Building in Boston."

"Fred, we haven't even broken ground, why don't you plague someone else? You can't find fault with dirt." Matthew winked at Tazio.

"Yeah, leave my mother alone." Brinkley seconded the motion.

"I can declare the foundation inadequate. Shifting substrata."

"Go ahead. I've got a geologist and an engineer to prove you wrong. Go ahead, Fred, get on the wrong side of UVA. You aren't going to find one thing amiss, you're going to delay construction, cost the university money and, buddy, I wouldn't give a nickel for your social life in this town."

"Scares me." He feigned fear then said with malice, "I know how to cover my ass."

"Is that why Mychelle is dead?" Matthew verbally slipped the knife right between his ribs.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" The cords stood out on Fred's thin neck.

"That you were banging her, buddy, and it got too hot. You just did her in."

Face contorted with rage, he spat, "You son of a bitch. Liar."

"You were in love with her. I've got eyes." Matthew had the whip hand now.

Tazio and Brinkley watched with lurid fascination. Stuart, Travis, and the other men stopped what they were doing to watch and listen, too, since Fred hit the screaming register.

"Never! Never. I ought to kill you. I ought to tear your tongue outta your head."

"You're awfully emotional for a man who wasn't in love with a woman. Awfully emotional for someone who says he's innocent." Matthew was unfair, but then Fred had been unfair to him.

Fred placed his feet apart, doubled his fists. "Loved that girl like she was a daughter. You'll turn anything slimy, Matthew. Way your mind works."

"Well, I ask myself, why would someone like Mychelle get killed? Sure can't be anything to do with her job. She was an irritant but not a major problem, and there's nothing she can offer any of us, good or bad, to get herself killed. That leaves a few little things, drugs or some kind of sordid affair. I pick the sordid affair and you are the most likely candidate, although why she'd bother with you is beyond me. Then again, I don't claim to understand women."

"Sick. You're sick."

Tazio quietly said, "Fred, you must have an idea who killed her."

The normal color returned to his face. "No. I don't have any ideas. Sick. Makes me sick. You make me sick." He turned his eyes again to Matthew.

"Sex or drugs," Matthew simply said, his voice almost victorious in tone.

"She didn't do drugs. I'd have known. Can't hide that."

"You can for a while, but I agree, Fred, sooner or later it comes out just like alcoholism leaks out."

Tazio noticed the surveyor's tape flutter as a little wind kicked up.

"She was a good girl!" Fred's eyes looked haunted.

"That leaves sex." Matthew shrugged. "Hey, she wasn't my favorite and neither are you, Fred, but I do hope Sheriff Shaw finds her killer. I'm just glad it wasn't you-if you're telling the truth."

"Never forgive you for this," Fred vowed.

"Do I care? You're as likely a candidate as anyone else. You were around her all the time. You're married. She's not. Younger. You're older. Hey, it's not such a far putt."

"I don't cheat on my wife," Fred, angry still but in control, answered. "You do. Matthew, you're a lying sack of shit. Always was. Always will be." He pointed his finger at Tazio. "He'll be on you like a duck on the fly."