Dead Wood

“So far three people have been murdered,” I said. “Jesse Barre. Larry Grasso. And Rufus Coltraine. All people within his orbit.”

“They were in a lot of other people’s orbits too,” Nate said, soy sauce dripping down his chin.

“Maybe Sha

“And why would a woman worth about a hundred million dollars need to kill someone for guitars? They were expensive, but not that expensive.”

“Had to be the ex-husband then,” I said. “He was still in love with Sha

Nate stopped eating. I knew it was big if he stopped eating.

“They were?”

I nodded. “I talked to a guy I know at Jackson.”

“So you think that was the case?” he said.

“It’s a definite possibility. But I don’t think Grasso was working alone. Someone was pulling his strings, maybe using his love for Sha

“Maybe it was Sha

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I heard the woman speak. It wasn’t Sha

Nate pushed his plate away from him and belched, a low rumbling passage of gas that reminded me of a coal mine being exhumed.

“Don’t mess with this guy, John,” he finally said. “I think people who fuck with Teddy Armbruster end up being hurt. And hurt badly.”

“Someone else may be fucking with Teddy Armbruster. And it isn’t me.”

•

By the time I got back to my office, it was late. The only people more tired than me were the guys at the Chinese restaurant in charge of replenishing the buffet.

I checked my watch. Nearly five o’clock. I checked the mail for a package from Molly but no dice. Most courier services finished up by six. I had a bad feeling in my gut, and it was only partially from watching Nate ingest the caloric equivalent of a small family.

Whatever Molly had intended to send me should have been here by now. I wondered about the interruption. Had the man heard Molly? Was she in trouble?

I weighed the pros and cons of waiting. It didn’t take long. Sitting around waiting for a courier made little sense. I thought about calling, but that didn’t seem like a good idea either. She was constantly in someone’s presence. Someone who was always listening. It would be better just to show up. Be the asshole PI who needed to be dealt with. That chore would fall to the lowly personal assistant.

Besides, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my guts, I wondered, what if the courier never comes?

The drive back to Sha

Blue and red flashing lights pulled me closer. Please, God, no, I thought. Don’t let this happen.

The driveway was choked with police cars. I pulled over into the grass next to the driveway and jogged toward the door. A cop stopped me, a thick-necked bull with a shiny black crew cut. I didn’t recognize him, and I didn’t see Ellen around.

I looked past him and saw Erma and Freda being questioned by two detectives.

And on the floor was a body.

Even from here I could see that it was a small body. Swimming in a large pool of blood.

Molly.

Chapter Forty

“How did you manage to get here before me?” a voice asked. I turned, and Ellen walked toward me, her thumbs hooked in her gun belt.

I was staring out at Lake St. Clair. The water was smooth and green, waiting for a giant freighter to plow through the center of its body.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how another life had been taken and how Molly had tried to get in touch with me. I should have done more. I should have driven to see her immediately after her call was interrupted. Goddamnit, I thought.

“John,” my sister said.

“I should have known,” I said.

“Just start at the begi

Ellen didn’t respond when I finished.

“So what’s your best guess?” she said.

“Honestly,” I said. “I have no clue.”

“You don’t know what she was trying to get to you?”

I shook my head. Ellen turned and looked out at the lake.

“Her neck was broken,” she said. “Apparently.”

“Ah, Jesus.”

“They’re saying she fell down the stairs.”

That brought me off the car. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Fell down the stairs? I don’t think so.”

“No other signs of injury. Two witnesses say they saw it happen.”

“The pork queens? Erma and Freda?”

“They heard a loud crash,” Ellen said. “Rushed in and found the victim at the foot of the steps.” I could tell Ellen wasn’t buying it either; she was just laying out the official story so far.

“Oh my God,” I said. “What total bullshit.”

“It isn’t bullshit until it’s proven to be bullshit.” I heard what she was saying.

“If it’s the last goddamned thing I do,” I said.

I kept thinking of Molly. Of her crisp way of speaking, her little daily pla

“We did a quick search on the vic,” Ellen said. “She looks clean as a whistle. No record, not even a speeding ticket.”

I thought about my interaction with Molly. Precise. Efficient. Maybe a tad on the cold side. But that was her job. To protect her boss.

It looked now like she should have been a little more worried about protecting herself. Whatever it was she’d found, she was trying to get to me. But why me? If it had something to do with the murder of Jesse Barre, why not go to the cops? I knew the answer as soon as I asked the question.

She was worried about what might happen to her.

So she was going to let me get the evidence.

In short, she wanted me to take the fall.

I winced at the irony.

•

Ellen went back into the crime scene where I still wasn’t allowed, so I turned my attention once again to the lake. When you lived in Grosse Pointe, you couldn’t help but associate the lake with events in your life. Lake St. Clair sat there, a silent witness of the community next to it. I had my own personal history with the lake. Culminating in the death of Benjamin Collins. His life ended in the lake. Along with what used to be mine.

And now, here I was back at the lake, working a case that was spiraling out of control. Every one of my instincts told me that my meeting with Sha

But I didn’t believe Sha

But I’d been wrong plenty of times before.

Something was nagging at me. Like a hair-trigger on the verge of being pulled. My mind kept going back to Laurence Grasso. He was a trigger too.

Rufus Coltraine had been the second to die. There was something about his role in this thing too. Something about him that kept coming back to my mind but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Something about—

Family.

And then something sparked in my mind. Family. Joe Puhy, the prison guard at Jackson had said he thought Coltraine would head South to see his family. So why hadn’t he? And Puhy had said that Coltraine didn’t get any letters—so how did he know he had family in . . . where was it?