Stakeout (2013) Read Online Free PDF Page B

conspiracy theory are you dreaming up?”
    He shrugged. “I know the way your mind works. If there’s an improbable, unlikely scenario, you’ll go for it.”
    “I have not touched a gun within recent memory.”
    “How’s your Alzheimer’s?”
    “I would remember a gun. Let’s not get hung up on the murder weapon. That’s just an unfortunate circumstance.”
    “Like the corpse. What’s your connection to him?”
    “His wife hired me to tail him.”
    “Sealing his death warrant. What’s the wife like?”
    “Perfectly nice.”
    “She got big tits?”
    “What’s that got to do with it?”
    “I know you. You have a permanent midlife crisis. Let a hot babe walk into your office and your brain turns to Jell-O.”
    “The wife has nothing to do with this.”
    “Schmuck. The wife has everything to do with this. She hired you. She gave you the assignment. She’s the reason you went to Jersey. Any chance she could have killed him?”
    “No.”
    “I’ll take that for a yes. As far as I’m concerned, the wife is guilty until proven innocent.”
    “She couldn’t have done it.”
    “Why not?”
    “I was watching the motel room. She never went in.”
    “Who did?”
    “No one.”
    “Then he’s still alive. Unless he shot himself. Any chance he did?”
    “Not unless he didn’t want the crime scene to seem cluttered so he slid the gun under the bed.”
    MacAullif shook his head. “I gotta tell you. If I was a New Jersey cop, you’d look pretty good to me.”
    “I didn’t do it.”
    “Can you prove it?”
    “I don’t have to prove I didn’t do it. They have to prove I did.”
    “That’s fine in theory.”
    “What do you mean in theory?”
    “The facts you told me prove you did it. So you do have to prove you didn’t.”
    “No, I just have to raise reasonable doubt.”
    “Good lord, has it come to that?” He shook his head. “What a sad state of affairs. I assume the ambulance chaser’s in charge of that?”
    “Yeah, but he’s not happy.”
    “Why not?”
    I told him about the motel manager.
    “So he’s lying?”
    “Or just mistaken.”
    “Hell of a mistake.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Did he call the cops?”
    “Why?”
    “Someone did. If it was him, it’s good.”
    “Why is that?”
    “He claims the dead guy opened the door and let you in, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “If that’s true, why’d he call the cops?”
    “Good point. There’d be no reason.”
    “There’s something you can hit him with. Why’d he call the cops if he thought the guy let you in? So how’d this murder take place? According to you, it couldn’t have happened.”
    I told him about the connecting door.
    “Oh, wonderful. The old adjoining room theory. You know how much credence the cops are going to give that?”
    “They’re not.”
    “No shit. They got the killer dead to rights. You think they’re going to waste time with something that undermines the theory?”
    “Of course not.”
    “That’s why you gotta do it.”
    “Do what?”
    “Check it out.”
    “I can’t check it out. The motel manager thinks I’m a killer.”
    “It is inconvenient being a murder suspect.”
    “But you could check it out.”
    “Oh, for Christ’s sake.”
    “Why not? No one thinks you’re a killer.”
    “Because I don’t do stupid things like that.”
    “So he doesn’t know you from Adam. You could walk in, take a look at his ledger.”
    “I can’t do that.”
    “Why not? You’re a cop.”
    “I got no jurisdiction in Jersey.”
    I smiled. “He doesn’t know that.”

11
    M AC A ULLIF PARKED DOWN THE BLOCK not that far from where I’d been pissing in my Gatorade bottle. I figured that was probably a poor thing to point out. I sat in the police car, waited while he went in.
    He didn’t come out. I’m sitting there, waiting for something to happen, and nothing did.
    I started getting punchy, thinking maybe the guy called the cops. That was stupid. He’s talking to a cop, he’s gonna call the cops? I mean,