Lisa Scottoline - Devil's corner

"If she had told us she had given the guns to her mother, she probably wouldn't have been charged."

"But her mother would have been. It's still a loose end."

"Life is full of loose ends. You can't know everything, babe." Dan smiled. "Now. You coming to work with me?"

"Not yet. I have something to do this morning."

"Not with Reheema?"

"Yes."

Dan laughed. "What now?"

Vicki told him, but she wasn't asking permission.

And, in the end, it wasn't given.

An hour later, the morning sun was climbing the clouds in the sky and Vicki was back driving the Cabrio, supplied with fresh coffee and newspapers. She'd have to return her rental fleet, but that was low priority today. Stopped in traffic, she read the newspaper headlines. TOYS "R" US GUNMAN IN FEDERAL CUSTODY, announced a banner on the Philadelphia Inquirer , while the local tab went with KID KILLER KAUGHT. Both papers had a short sidebar and bio on Morty, including a photo and quotes by Strauss. Neither newspaper had a sidebar on Shayla Jackson.

Vicki glanced up but traffic was still stalled, so she went back to reading. Both papers covered the stories every which way, including sidebars on the ATF SWAT team methods, new security measures in shopping malls, use of surveillance security cameras, and the crack cocaine trade. She paged to the Inquirer op-ed, where an editorial entitled IGNORED AT OUR PERIL emphasized the connection between the crack cocaine trade and random violence at toy stores. Vicki counted that as progress.

The traffic freed up, and she took off, and in no time entered Devil's Corner and turned onto Lincoln Street. The sawhorses were gone, but crushed paper cups, soiled napkins, and beer cans littered the street, and they were being picked up by a small cadre of neighbors carrying black trash bags. Reheema, in her pea coat, was one of the hardy few, and she dumped her Hefty bag in a can and waved good-bye to her neighbors when she spotted the Cabrio.

Vicki pulled up at the curb, leaned over, and opened the passenger door for Reheema, who looked like a new woman. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, gold studs made bright dots in her ears, and a light swipe of pink gloss gave her full lips a shine.

"Wow, you look great!" Vicki said.

"No more disguises, thank God." Reheema folded herself into the passenger seat, and almost immediately the Cabrio interior filled with a lavender fragrance.

"You even smell great. I have a girl crush."

"I showered!" Reheema smiled. "I got heat, electric, and water."

"Party! We so love our utilities."

"We so do !"

"In fact, how about I buy the Intrepid, and you can pay me back when you get a job." Vicki felt flush, now that she had her job back. "Or you can have the Sunbird. I'm your vehicle, baby."

"I'll think about it, thanks a lot." Reheema grinned. "Now, where we goin'?"

"First, let me tell you what's going on with your mother's case." Vicki hit the gas and pulled away as she filled her in about the deal with Dan. Reheema nodded, listening with her head slightly inclined.

"So Dan the Man is gonna pull some strings?"

"He'll get the case VIP treatment, he said."

"We'll see what he comes up with, for the time being. I want to know who killed her."

"Of course," Vicki said, praying that Dan came through. "If the cops pick up this hired killer, that frees us to try to figure out why Jackson set you up."

"Wonder if they're connected."

Vicki looked over and almost ran the red light. "Think out loud."

"What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking. Maybe we can figure it out together. I do it all the time."

"I never do."

Vicki smiled. "Go ahead. Try."

Reheema paused. "Okay, well, it's just that Jackson framed me, about a year ago, and then somebody killed my mother. It's like a puzzle, and if you just look at that one piece, it kinda makes you think somebody doesn't like the Bristows."

Vicki blinked. "True. Any ideas?"

"If my dad weren't dead already, I woulda thought of him, first."

Vicki kept her own counsel. It made her family issues look like comic relief. "Any other relatives?"

"No, just her and me, long as I can remember. I had an uncle but he's gone, too."

"What about that boyfriend you mentioned?"

"Gone and married."

"I'd wonder about the FDC, but the timing's wrong, you were set up before."

"I got no enemies."

"Hard to believe," Vicki said, and they laughed, now that they were friends. Almost.

"Think they're connected?"

"Possibly." Vicki was kicking herself. She should have thought of that herself, but she had been so focused on Morty. "It doesn't change what we have to do. Let's let the cops work from that end and we'll work from ours. If we meet in the middle, we still win."

Reheema nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

"We canvass the neighborhood."

"Which means what?"

"Well, our problem is that we don't know why Jackson set you up. We have to learn more about Jackson and figure out her connection to you. So we ask her neighbors. Cops do it all the time after a murder. It's only because this time they had an eyewitness-me-it wasn't so necessary. Or if they did it, I don't know."

"What about what you thought before, that maybe Jackson was jealous of me? That Browning and her saw me and so she set me up."

"That's one of the reasons I want to find her friend Mar, who her mother told me about. Mar could tell us if Browning even knew you." Vicki remembered that missing file of grand jury testimony. "Without support, it's farfetched."

Reheema fell quiet as the Cabrio wound its way through traffic, and so did Vicki, until a thought struck her:

"What if you're in danger now, Reheema?"

"What?"

"What if whoever was hired to kill your mom intended to kill you, too?" Vicki's fingers squeezed the steering wheel, as the possibility began to dawn on her. "I mean, you were supposed to be released from the FDC earlier that day, and the paperwork got held up. Maybe you were the real target, and your mom was just there. Or they meant to get you both." Vicki locked eyes with Reheema and they both knew it wasn't that crazy. "Whoa."

"Yeah." Reheema winced as Vicki dodged a SEPTA bus passing on her left. "But who would know I was being released? Had to be somebody at your office."

"What?"

"Think about it. If that's true, the only people who knew I was being let out of the FDC were the people in your office, whoever they are. Or the Philly cops, or the ATF guys. Did any of them know?"

Vicki scoffed. "Then that's not what happened. Forget it. That's impossible."

"Is it?" Reheema lifted an eyebrow.

"Of course it is. But it is possible that you're in danger, so it's all the more reason we have to learn more about Jackson. Her mother told me that Jackson had decided to change her life and was going to move. We know she was packing." Vicki toted it up. "I think she broke up with Browning and wasn't dating anyone."

"Okay. So?"

"None of us lives in this life alone. She had a friend. Mar." Vicki was thinking out loud, too, and it was nice to have someone else as a sounding board. Maybe that was the Almost Friend part. "Did she go to a gym? Did she go to a doctor? She was pregnant, so she'd need prenatal check-ups. Who's her doctor?"

"Okay, so we go to the houses and we ask questions."

"Right." Vicki took a left turn, and Reheema frowned.

"You're lost, aren't you?"

Vicki nodded. "Don't start with the Harvard stuff again."

"Did I say anything?"

An hour later, Vicki parked the Cabrio, grabbed her bag and the newspaper, and they walked together in the cold sun to Jackson's house, a two-story brick semidetached. The crime scene tape was gone, though a shred of yellow strip flapped in the bitter wind. Vicki felt herself shudder at the sight. Coming back to where Morty had been killed was easier in theory than in practice. Somehow, having his killer in custody didn't ease the pain.