by Nora Kane
“In my experience, Harry is more the tell-you-in-person type as well.”
“Which is why I’m less worried about that and more concerned with Trevor.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve made a list of all the people you’ve named in recent episodes?”
“I have, but—no offense Margot—I handed that one to the police. The only name I didn’t give them was Trevor.”
“Because you want me to handle that one?”
“If possible. If you don’t think he’s getting the point, then I’ll tell the police about him. Can you help me?”
Margot didn’t have it in her to say no. “I can squeeze it in, but I’m not cheap.”
“I can afford a day and honestly, it shouldn’t take that.”
“Leave me off your YouTube show, and I’ll do this one for free.”
“Considering you’re in the middle of the biggest story I’ve got going, I don’t think I can do that.”
“Okay, how about you quit calling me ‘Viuda Negra’ and implying I’m some sort of cartel super-assassin?”
“I don’t think I ever said ‘super.’”
“You know what I mean.”
“You do this for free if I agree?”
“It’s what I just said.”
“You must really hate that. Honestly, I think it sounds cool.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay, I can do that. I really appreciate this.”
“I hope it works out. In my experience, words aren’t always enough, but I’ll do what I can. Tell me everything.”
Even though she was recording the encounter, Margot took notes.
“When are you going to do this?” Cassie asked.
“Ideally tomorrow, but I can’t guarantee it. Before the end of the week for sure. I don’t want to give him another chance to take a shot at you.”
“I appreciate it,” Cassie said as she stood up.
She was almost to the door when Margot said, “You seem to be on top of a lot of this stuff.”
“I try.”
“Can I ask you a question then? It needs to stay between you and me for the time being.”
“Are you using me as your source?”
“Depends if you know anything.”
“Ask away.”
“Does the name Dennis Thorn mean anything to you?”
Cassie turned around and went back to the chair.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“I asked you first.”
“There are six suspects in the murder of Lucas Lau. Basically, the only six people who could have had access including the staff. Fun fact, your favorite detectives, Anderson and Cranston, missed being on the list of suspects by an hour. Of the six, one of them, Conner Heller—the main suspect, if you ask me—had a visitor named Dennis Thorn.”
“Okay, so what?”
“Dennis Thorn doesn’t exist. His I.D. was bogus.”
“There should be video.”
“There is,” Cassie said as she reached into her purse and retrieved her phone.
“You have surveillance video from county jail?”
“I have connections,” she said as she pulled up the video. “Whoever Dennis Thorn really is, he knows the set up over at county. He never looks directly into the camera, so all they have is an approximate height and weight. He probably has tattoos since he went to some effort to make sure he was covered up.”
Margot watched the video and saw she was right. Something about the man did seem familiar, however.
“They figure he made some sort of deal with Heller to off Lucas. If Heller had a personal reason to want Lucas dead, no one’s found it. Of course, that goes for everybody else.”
“Lucas was the kind of guy who could make quick enemies.”
“I heard the same thing, though if he was telling the truth about the Hottub Massacre though, it was in someone’s best interest he shut up.”
“Did you name some of these “someones” on your show?”
“I named a couple of them, you included. If you’re wondering, the death threats came soon after.”
Margot took one last look at the video and then handed it back.
“Thanks, that was helpful.”
“Helpful enough I can do another Viuda Negra story?”
“No.”
Cassie shrugged, “It was worth a try.”
This time, when she went out the door, Margot let her. Even though the video never came close to showing what Dennis Thorn really looked like, Margot thought his walk looked familiar. As far as she knew, a person had never been identified by their gait, at least not in court, but the way this guy walked reminded her a lot of Mal. He looked the same height and weight as well.
As she sat there thinking about Mal, Margot remembered where she’d heard the name, Dennis Thorn.
She knew Mal’s phone number was long dead, but his email address was probably still good. If he had a burner phone, he might even check it once in a while. He might not, but Margot figured it would be worth a try.
She sent him a message saying: We need to talk.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, she left another that just read: Dennis Thorn.
She finished up some paperwork until it was time to meet Radcliff. She checked her phone before she left. Mal hadn’t responded.
Chapter 4
Cassie thought it was odd when Margot asked her if Trevor smoked. Especially when she was in the middle of telling her about Trevor’s job on the night shift over at 7-11. What his nicotine habit told Margot was Trevor would be outside sometime around two hours after his shift started. This meant she wouldn’t have to go inside and if things did get a little dicey, none of it would be recorded by a security camera.
Radcliff was disappointed when she left after dinner and didn’t stay over at his place. Margot was disappointed too; being with Radcliff would have been much more fun than staking out a convenience store in a questionable neighborhood in the middle of the night.
Just as she figured, two hours after his shift was supposed to start, Trevor was standing by the trash can firing up a Marlboro Red.
“Hey Trevor, how’s it going?” Margot asked as she walked up.
“It’s going,” he said with a smile. As Margot stepped into the light, he asked, “Do I know you? You don’t have the kind of face I’d forget.”
“No, but I’m a friend of Cassie’s.”
“Whoa, I take that back, I do know you. You’re that Viuda Negra chick. I’ve got to say her video doesn’t do you justice.”
“Is that so?”
“I don’t normally go for older chicks, but I think I’d make an exception for Viuda Negra.”
“You know calling a woman old is never a good idea.”
“I said older and I meant it as a compliment.”
Margot nodded. “That sounds like you’re over Cassie.”
Trevor had to think about that for a second before he said, “What she don’t know won’t hurt her.”
“How about bullets? Would they hurt her?”
“That’s kind of a weird question.”
“Somebody shot at her last week.”
“No shit?”
“No shit. Fired a .40 at her.”
“Are you implying something?”
“Why would you say that?”
“I’ve got a forty, under the counter inside.”
“It’s not that uncommon, plenty of people have them. Of course, you’re the only one of those people who Cassie broke up with.”
“It’s less a breakup and more just a break. We aren’t even seeing other people, just not exactly seeing each other.”
“Sounded like you wanted to see me.”
“I was just flirting.”
“What if I said yes?”
“Are you saying yes?”
“No.”
“You come out here to talk about Cassie?”
“I came here to tell you something for her.”
�
��She couldn’t tell me herself?”
“After you shot at her, she didn’t want to get too close.”
“Wait, when did this happen?”
Margot told him.
“You say it happened around eight? At night?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. I was here.”
“You work midnight to nine.”
“I was filling in for somebody and took an evening shift. Made for a long ass day since I worked graveyard the night before, but I was here.”
Margot looked at him.
“I can prove it. It’s a high traffic time so it’s not a solo shift like graveyard. Not counting customers, I’ve got two people that can tell you I was here all night.”
Margot planned to check, but right now, she had no reason not to believe him.
“Shooting or not, she wants you to leave her alone.”
“I thought I was doing that?”
Margot was about to tell him to continue when she heard the squeal of tires and the roar of an engine. She turned back to see a big American muscle car, most likely a Dodge Charger, come screaming into the parking lot. She saw the arm coming out the window and immediately recognized what the long metal finger pointing her way was.
She pulled Trevor down as the passenger opened fire. The shots went above their heads, shattering the big glass window that took up the entire front side of the store and showering the two of them with glass and shredded posters advertising beer.
The car came to a stop and Margot could tell they were coming back to finish the job. She stayed down and plucked her own pistol out of her purse. As the car started backing up, Margot aimed and fired. The short barrel on her gun meant it wasn’t very accurate, so she picked big targets like the back windshield. The glass fell and the gunman disappeared into the car.
Margot emptied her magazine into the car as it drove by. With her shooting, the gunmen didn’t raise his head. Margot reloaded using her only spare magazine as the driver sped into the night.
“You make anybody mad, Trevor?” Margot asked as she stood up and brushed the glass off of her.
“Me? I figured they were here for you.”
Margot wished she could argue with him. The car was too much like something Mal would drive. As she brushed the glass from her hair, she couldn’t help but wonder if her former lover just tried to kill her.
Chapter 5
“Did you get the license plate?” Ames asked. He’d subbed in to do an overnight shift when a couple of detectives were out sick.
Margot thought it was weird seeing him without Radcliff. If Radcliff was around, he’d play nice, but without him, Ames didn’t even attempt to hide his disdain for her.
“I was kind of busy,” Margot told him.
“Maybe you should have been doing that instead of shooting up the city.”
“I don’t know about you, but I like to save my reading for after the gunfight is over. Are you going to arrest me?”
Ames shrugged. “I’d like to, but honestly, I can’t think of a time since you and Mal left the department when I didn’t want to arrest you. Just like every other day, though, it looks like I’m going to have to wait. With the clerk telling everybody you saved his life, dragging you away in handcuffs would look bad. Plus, I’m homicide, it doesn’t become my problem until one of those bullets hits someone.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I heard you were here and thought I might come by and see if you got shot.”
“Thanks for the concern.”
“Maybe next time.”
Margot didn’t have anything to say to that.
“That’s the problem with you, Margot. There will be a next time and a next time after that. One of these times, a bullet is going to have your name on it.”
“You think I want this?”
“You say you don’t, but here we are again. Why were you talking to the clerk anyway? Looking to step out on my partner?”
“Work. He was harassing my client.”
“Any chance they were shooting at him?”
“I don’t know him well enough to say no, but I doubt he has my history.”
“You want to venture a guess who it was this time?”
“I thought this wasn’t your kind of case.”
Ames shrugged. “Professional curiosity.”
“The name Dennis Thorn ring any bells with you?”
“That who shot at you?”
“No, not exactly anyway.”
“Don’t be cryptic with me, Margot. If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
Margot thought about it for a long second before she said, “It’s not your case, Ames, and I’m going to say this once, I don’t want to say it twice.”
“You want me to get the detective in charge?”
“Not yet, I need to talk to someone first,” Margot said as she checked the time.
There was a chance Harry Lee would be up, but even bars were getting ready to close, so she figured she’d talk to him tomorrow. Margot sent a text anyway. If he was up and wanted to talk, she’d be good with it. It was going to take a while and more than one glass of whiskey to get to sleep after the adrenaline rush that accompanied having someone try to murder you.
Chapter 6
After the night she had, Margot would have loved to take the day off, sleep until noon and then spend the rest of the day drinking the bullets that went by her head off her mind, but she had work to do. Shaw would have probably let her, but Browers and Associates might not be as understanding, especially since it happened while she was working for someone other than them. She never promised exclusivity when working for them, but she had a feeling they expected it anyway.
She’d told Thad she’d check on Phoebe, so she decided to make that the first business of the day. Talking to Phoebe, who once dated Radcliff, wasn’t always easy, but they seemed to have come to an understanding. Plus, with Margot getting her out of jail, Phoebe wasn’t nearly as nasty as she had been when they first met.
Margot tried to call to let Phoebe know she was coming by, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a message and headed over.