Lisa Scottoline - Lady Killer

“I was too scared to, in case Bobby ever found it in the car.” Trish eyed her directly. “Mare, I kept up that diary to make a record of what he was doin,’ in case they found me dead. Gimme a break.”

“Why didn’t you tell Giulia and them about the boyfriend?”

“Are you for real?” Trish chuckled. “The mouths on them? Why don’t I just put it on MySpace?”

“I thought you guys were so close.”

“They’re close to me, but I’m not close to them.” Trish’s tone was matter-of-fact, and so frank that Mary knew it was true. Nobody ever got close to the Queen Bee, which made her the loneliest girl of all.

“Okay.” Mary let it go. “Get back to the story. You called your boyfriend.”

“Right, and he drove up, and he told me to sit tight until we can figure out what to do.”

“Great advice.” Then Mary remembered. “Wait. When did you call your mom?”

“When we first came up to the house. Bobby went outta the room, and I saw what was gonna happen and I started to get scared. So I called my mom, but the connection was bad and I left a message. Then he came in and took the cell phone from me, and I could tell by that look in his eyes, that animal look, that he was gonna lose it. I was gonna be dead on my birthday.” Trish’s mouth twitched with something like pain, but Mary couldn’t stop doubting her story.

“Trish, be honest with me.”

“I am being honest with you.”

“What happened to Bobby that night, after you ran out of the house.”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you think? Spin it out for me. You know him.”

Trish sighed. “I think he went back home in the pickup, to the city, lookin’ for me, to kill me. And then he musta got a call to do some business, and somebody set him up and whacked him. Maybe Cadillac or maybe another guy did him. They’re cutthroat, like any other business. They all want what the other one has.”

Mary mulled it over, but something nagged at her. “I don’t get why you didn’t call anybody. The girls, your mom, somebody.”

“Like I said, I knew Bobby would ask them where I was. He mighta killed them if they knew. That’s why I didn’t go back to the city right away. If he’s lookin’ for me, they’re all lookin’ for me. Any one of them coulda taken me out. I couldn’t even go home.”

Mary wasn’t buying it. “But you called your boyfriend. You told him. Why?”

“Dummy, because nobody knows about him, not even the girls, so I couldn’t get him killed. He lives in the burbs, he’s legit. He was the only one I could call.”

“You could’ve called me.”

“You’re not my friend.”

“Thanks.” Mary burst into laughter.

“Sorry.”

Then she had a darker thought. “I didn’t find your gun. Where is it?”

“I got it with me.” Trish gestured at her purse on the bed, a black leather clutch. “I took it with me when we went out. I told you, I was afraid of what was gonna happen.”

“Then why didn’t you use it when he attacked you?”

“I couldn’t get to it fast enough.”

Mary thought about it, and it made sense. Trish was a hairdresser, not a ninja.

“The next thing I hear, Bobby’s dead.” Trish heaved a sigh. “We both knew the cops would think I did it.”

Mary felt her blood run cold. She’d been thinking the same thing, but hadn’t admitted it to herself until now. “Well, did you?”

“No, of course not. You believe me, right?”

Mary didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t process it fast enough.

“Thanks, back at you.”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Whatever.” Trish waved her off like a fly. “Anyway, my boyfriend came up and we went out to this burger joint because I was starvin’ and this dump doesn’t even have a coffee shop, and he calmed me down. Then you showed up.” Trish cocked her head. “How’d you find me, anyway?”

“Tell you on the way back,” Mary answered, rising.

“To where?”

“Either home or the Roundhouse, if I can get a hold of Brinkley.”

“The cops? You think that’s a good idea?” Trish looked up, worried. “My boyfriend said-”

“Forget what he said. I’m your lawyer, and you have no choice. We go and tell the truth.”

“But what if they charge me? What if they think I did it?” Trish didn’t move from the bed.

“They won’t. You were checked in here the night he was killed, and we can prove that.”

“No I wasn’t. I only found this place the next day, the morning after.”

Huh? Mary frowned. “Where were you when Bobby was killed, Tuesday night?”

“Hell if I know. I drove around and around, and I got lost. It was all trees and more trees. I never been in the mountains before. I didn’t know where I was at.”

That, Mary understood, but she also knew that I-don’t-know-where-I-was-at sucked as an alibi.

“There’s no stores, no bars, no nothin’ up here.” Trish’s eyes widened, incredulous. “You believe people live like this? It’s nuts!”

“Okay, so what did you do?”

“I was too freaked to keep drivin’, and Bobby had my cell. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t find an effin pay phone. So I went off the road into the woods and parked there all night, outta sight.”

“You slept in the car?”

“Yeah, and the next morning I drove around till I found a phone and called my boyfriend and he came up. I didn’t check in here till Wednesday.”

“Okay, so you’ll tell them that. It is what it is.” Mary shrugged. “We gotta go. People are looking for you.”

“But I have no alibi, and I do have a motive to kill him. It’s like you said, how do you break up with a mobster? Only one way. You kill him.”

“You’re just being paranoid.” But Mary remembered, and it was making her nervous.

“You know, I used to lie awake at night and pray he’d get killed, that one of the boys would off him, or even he’d end up in a car crash.” Trish snorted. “Now that it finally happened, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that he’s dead and I didn’t kill him.”

“Nice talk, T.” Mary couldn’t manage a smile. She felt her anger rising again. “If this is supposed to convince me, try again.”

“I’m not trying to convince you. It’s the truth.”

“Look, get up, we’re going to the cops. As a legal matter, it takes more than motive to charge somebody with murder, even if you have no alibi.”

“Like what?”

“Like evidence. For one thing, the ballistics won’t match. They’ll be able to tell that the bullets that killed him didn’t come from your gun. They know by the grooves.”

“But the cops could say I used a different gun.”

“Where would you get another gun?”

“You kiddin’ me, with my connections? I could get you one, if you wanted it.”

Um, right. “You weren’t in the city. You were up here.”

“So what? I had enough time to drive back to the city, find Bobby on his corner, kill him, and come back up here. I know where he worked. I coulda told you he’d be there.”

Mary felt confused and suddenly tired. “Then why would you come back here?”

“To set up my alibi. To make it look like I didn’t do it.” Trish arched an eyebrow. “See what I mean?”

“No.” Mary couldn’t deal. “This is crazy. You’re watching too much TV.”

“Face it, I look guilty.”

“Yes, but it’s only a circumstantial case. They don’t just charge people with murder, willy-nilly. You’re his victim, not his killer. Brinkley has the diary. He knows Bobby’s history, and the guy was connected, for God’s sake.” Mary waved her up and turned to walk to the door. “Either way, we’re coming clean. We’ll go sort this out and call your mother, too, on the way home. I can’t take the guilt.”