I think its the car thats interesting. If there wasnt a car, it almost had to be one of those guys. Whoever it was had to know the Kresge place pretty well, and theres no way you could walk in from very far away.
Yeah, but hes pretty shaky on that car stuff, Lucassaid. ODell would have been walkingawayfrom her tree stand if she was going in the direction Hanks said she was. She was definitely at her tree when Bone came by to pick her up at nine oclock.
Maybe we push Miz ODell, Sherrill said. See which way she goes.
Not yet, Lucas said. I want to go back up there, to Kresges, look around. And we need to know more about the bank-merger ideaof the three realistic candidates to run the bank, we have accusations against two of them, McDonald and ODell. All the accusations came in anonymously, from women. At least, we think the accusation pointing at McDonald came from a woman… So the question is, are they legit? Or are they meant to drag ODell and McDonald into an investigation that would eliminate them from contenders to run the bank.
You mean, by Bone? Or somebody working with Bone?
Id hate to think so, Lucas said. Because I kinda like the guy. But all of them are smart and tough. And the stakes are pretty big. Bone would be looking for an edge.
So we push Bone.
Lets wait before we push anyone. Just a day or two… Let me get back up north.
Want me to come?
Lucas looked at her as he finished his Twinkie. If you want to. If you stay out of my goddamned life while Im trapped in the car.
She flushed and said, I meant what I started out to say, before we got sidetracked. If you still want her, youve got to get off your ass and go after her. If you dont, youll just… drift away. And youll never know for sure that its over. If you go after her, youll know pretty soon whether theres any hope.
Ill think about it, he said.
So when are we going up north?
Tomorrow, Lucas said, looking at his watch. Weshould have some biographical stuff about the people McDonald supposedly killed: Lets take a look at that.
THEY WERE SIX BLOCKS FROM POLICE HEADQUARTERS when Sherrills telephone chirped. She fumbled it out of her jacket pocket one-handed, said, Yeah? and then passed the phone to Lucas. Sloan, she said.
Lucas took the phone: Whats going on?
I solved the Kresge case, Sloan said laconically. I had a little break from the Ericson thing, and I thought I might as well clean it up.
Thats good, Lucas said. Its a burden off my mind.
Sloans tone of voice changed: Terrance Robles just walked in and said he may know who did it.
Lucas, uncertain, and not wanting to bite too hard, said, Youre kidding.
Im not kidding. Hes out sitting at my desk. Where are you?
About two minutes away.
See you in two minutes, Sloan said.
EIGHT
ROBLES WAS SITTING AT SLOANS DESK WHEN LUCAS and Sherrill arrived at Homicide. He was talking to Sloan, and Lucas watched for a minute. Robles was crossing and recrossing his ankles under his chair, twisting his hands together, rubbing the back of his neck, squirming in the chair. Serious stress, Lucas thought. Lucas walked up behind him, trailed by Sherrill, and when Sloan looked up, Robles turned, then got to his feet.
D-D-Detective Davenport, he stuttered. Ive bbbeen talking to Detective Sloan, he thinks you should know about this.
Lucas took a chair and Sherrill pulled one out of a nearby desk.
So… you think you know who did it? Lucas asked.
No. I know somebody whosaysshe did it, but I dont think she really did. But if I didnt tell you, I thought… I dont know what I thought.
So? Lucas grinned at him and made aWhat? gesture with his hands.
Robles had a friend, he said, a woman, a computer freak hed met in an Internet chat room, and then in person, when it turned out that she lived in Minneapolis. When the news hit the papers that Polaris was considering a merger, and alarge number of administrative and clerical personnel in Minneapolis could lose their jobs, she called him to ask him if the merger could be stopped.
Her mother works at Polaris, routine clerical stuff, exactly the kind of job that would probably be wiped out, Robles said.
And you told her that the merger couldnt be stopped.
Not exactly. I told her that nobody much wanted it except Kresge and a small majority of board members, and the only reason the board was going for it was the stock premium…
Explain that, Sherrill said. I dont understand stocks.
Well, see, Midland has offered to buy all the outstanding Polaris shares by trading with their shares, one to one. When they made the offer, they were trading in the sixtiessixty-plus dollars per shareand we were trading in the upper thirties. Their stock dropped on the offer, down to about fifty-three right now. But ours went to forty-six right now, and the closer we get to the merger, and the more certain it looks, the more ours will go up. If we finally merge, and nothing else happens, itll probably be around fifty dollars a share. Polaris needs ten board members to okay the deal. If you look at how many board members own how much stock, the tenth biggest holder… Robles looked at Sherrill, who seemed to be having trouble following the explanation. What Im saying is, of those ten members needed to approve the merger, the one with the smallest holding is Shelley Oakes. He has ninety thousand shares, plus options for fifty thousand more at an average price in the thirties. If the sale goes through at fifty bucks, hell make a couple of million bucks over what the stock was worth before the merger talk started.
Ah, Sherrill said, as though she understood.
The biggest holder, Dave Brandt, has better than four hundred thousand shares, plus God only knows what he has in stock options, which he could exercise before the dealgoes down. Hell make tens of millions. Literally tens of millions.
So the board and Kresge make millions, and everybody else gets fired, Lucas said.
No, not exactly. Some people would make it. Therere rumors that the investment division will be kept intact, that Midland wants the division. Then there are other executives who could make a stink, but most of them have stock options.
Do you have options? Lucas asked.
Yeah, yeah. Ive got options on five thousand shares at a bunch of different prices that average out to about thirty-five, so if it goes to fifty, Id make seventy-five thousand. But Ill tell you what, thats about six weeks pay for me. And the government would get most of it anyway. I mean, its nothing.
Nothing, Sherrill said.
Nothing.
Jesus, I make forty thousand a year, Sherrill said. And Ive been shot for it.
For your big shots, forty aint a salary, Sloan said from behind Robles. Its more like the price tag on something they might buy next week.
Okay, okay, Lucas said. So this woman…
Bonnie Bonet.
… told you she killed Kresge, and she has some motive.
Yes.
Whyd she tell you?
Ah, God. Because I asked her. He twisted his hands nervously, and Lucas noticed that he seemed to sweat all the time, and copiously. See, the thing is, when she came on the net and asked if the merger could be stopped, I told her, not unless we killed Kresge. I didnt mean it, we were just joking on the net. But she came right back and said, Lets do it.
And you said…
I said maybe we could figure a way to blow his car up, Robles said.
Blow his car up, Sloan said, repeating the phrase as though he were astonished.
I wasjoking. I really wasId never hurt anyone, it was just all bullshit. We went back and forth about ways to kill him, all ridiculous, like sci-fi stuff, and then… we stopped.
Stopped? Sherrills eyebrows went up.
Yeah. It never came up again, Robles said. It was like, a couple of nights, then we wore the subject out, and it never came up.
Until somebody killed him, Lucas said.