Part 42 (1/2)
”You really gotta get a sense of humor, Dan. It'll help you with the girls.”
The rental car flashed around a turn a couple of hundred yards ahead. Cora stomped on the accelerator, shot down the road like a NASCAR driver heading for the flag. She screeched through the turn and straightened up just in time to see Bambi's car zoom out of sight up ahead. She tromped down harder on the accelerator.
”Are you crazy!” Dan said. ”Slow down.”
”Sorry. This is a Toyota. They don't stop.”
Half a mile ahead, the brake lights flashed and the car turned right. Cora made up the distance, fishtailed through the turn.
The rental car pulled up alongside the riverbank. Bambi jumped out. She had something in her hand.
”Okay, kid, you're up. Got your handcuffs ready?”
Cora screeched to a stop in the gravel. She wrenched the door open and jumped out. ”Don't do it, Bambi!”
Bambi stood frozen. A deer in the headlights.
In her hand was a laptop computer.
CHAPTER.
56.
Chief Harper was somewhat perplexed. ”You take a recess to collect evidence against one person, and arrest another?”
”Yeah,” Cora said. ”Isn't that nice?”
”The prosecutor doesn't think so. Now he's got two people arrested for the crime.”
”Yeah, but he's going to let Melvin go.”
”I'm not so sure.”
”I am. For one thing, he's innocent. For another, if he holds him, he can't hold the person who actually committed the crime. Both seem like excellent reasons for letting him go.”
”a.s.suming they're true.”
”You know they're true. Just look at the little hussy. Did you ever see a more guilty-looking woman?”
”Yeah, but she won't talk. She asked for a lawyer and clammed.”
”What more proof do you need?”
Harper looked at her in exasperation. ”How can you say that? You're always haranguing me about defendants' rights, and how stupid cops are for taking silence as an indication of guilt.”
”Yeah, when they're innocent. Then it's really stupid. But when you've got some bimbo who's guilty as sin ... h.e.l.l, the way she moves her hips is an indication of guilt.”
”I'm not sure you're entirely rational on the point.”
”You're the one not being rational, Chief. You got her laptop. She was apprehended trying to destroy it. You're probably going to find the puzzles on it. Or at least the programs to create them.”
”Can you tell me what happened? In simple, plain English I can pa.s.s on to the district attorney?”
”I'll use words of one syllable.”
Chief Harper gave her a dirty look.
”I'll be good,” Cora said. ”Here's the dope. My ex-husband, Melvin, is a low-life, philandering creep.”
”You seemed quite close to him.”
”You wanna hear this or not?”
”Go on.”
”His wife, the redhead spitfire, doesn't take it lying down. She fixates on him with the type of obsessive hatred only guys of his caliber can inspire.”
Harper raised his eyebrows.
Cora put up her finger. ”I warned you.”
”I'm listening. I'm listening.”
”She pesters his girlfriend with the usual tactics. Did-you-know-he's-married notes, stuff of that ilk. She spies on him, keeps a record of his indiscretions. They play the game. Melvin tries to hide stuff from her. She tries to find out.
”What he doesn't try to hide is his alimony scheme. He's always short of money. His excuse is the alimony he's paying. The reality is the bimbo he's banging. Anyway, my monthly bill is something he and the current Mrs. Melvin can agree on. Both would love to see it stopped.
”And so it comes to pa.s.s that Melvin has to go to Bakerhaven. It's a business trip, he's going with his lawyer, his wife can't come. Of course, he's going with his lawyer, but he's not staying with his lawyer, because he's going to be joined by the young and nubile Bambi.
”Here's where the whole thing bites him in the a.s.s, and you'll pardon me a bit if I gloat. He's cheating on his wife with his current girlfriend, but it doesn't mean he's dead. He tells Bambi it's a business trip and she's gotta stay behind, at least until he gets everything set for the hearing. It's partly true; he is lining the witnesses up. But he also wants to get away from his current squeeze and check out the other fish in the sea.
”Lilly Clemson is female, and she has a pulse. Just Melvin's type. He makes a play for her. Big mistake. The wide-eyed, innocent Bambi is actually a cold, calculating schemer.
”Bambi rents a car and follows. To see if Melvin is cheating on her. And what does she find? It's a parade! Melvin's being followed by his wife. Bambi spots Mrs. Melvin, but Mrs. Melvin doesn't spot her. She probably plotzed when the woman turned into the same motel. What the h.e.l.l! Was Melvin cheating on her with his own wife?
”But, no, Mrs. Melvin rents a unit, watches her husband from a distance. Bambi watches both of them. When Melvin goes out, he's got a double tail. The redhead and the bimbo. Hmm. Sounds like a TV show. Bet I could pitch that.
”Melvin makes a play for the teller. Takes her to dinner, tries to talk his way upstairs. He's spied on by his wife and his girlfriend.”
His wife is merely amused. This is the type of behavior she's grown accustomed to from the philandering son of a b.i.t.c.h. But the bimbo is royally p.i.s.sed, decides to fire a warning shot across the bow. Without revealing her presence, of course.
”Bambi's a whiz at puzzles. What can I tell you, some airheads are. She composes a simple KenKen. Breaks into the banker's house and leaves it there.”
”In his safe?” Harper said. ”How the h.e.l.l did she get into his safe? Don't tell me she's a safecracker, too.”
”It was probably unlocked. She was trying to make the room look like it had been searched. She took the picture down off the wall, found the safe. It was unlocked because there was nothing in it. Perfect. She pulls the door open, puts the KenKen in.