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.
Why didnt you tell me this Saturday? asked Sloan.
Because I didnt think there was any chance shed done it. And if she hadnt done it, talking about it could only get me in trouble. So I wanted to check with her. I came back, and I couldnt find her online, and I didnt know where she lived. Shes unlisted, and Id only gotten together with her at Uncle Tonys. Thats a bar…
We know, Sherrill said. The one with the porno on computers.
Porno? You mean the TV Three story? That was all bullshit…
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Lucas said. Go ahead.
Anyway, when I did find her, yesterday, I asked her if shed heard about it, and she said yeah, shed done it, Robles said.
But you dont believe her.
No. Shes never fired a gun. She doesnt even go outside, for Christs sake. Shes white as a sheet… she doesnt know about walking around in the woods. Her old mans got something wrong with his bowel or something and never worked, and they never went anywhere when she was growing up. She said she shot him with her fathers. 3030, and I bet she doesnt even know what a. 3030 looks like or that he has one.
Could be the right kind of rifle, Lucas said. Themedical examiner says Kresge was killed with a largecaliber rifle, which around here probably means thirtycaliber…
Thats why I decided to tell you, Robles said plaintively. Im ninety-five percent sure she didnt do itbut Im five percent not sure.
And you dont know where she lives, Sloan said.
No, but she uses her drivers license as an ID, and I figured you could get that.
Bonnie Bonet?
B-O-N-E-T, Robles said, spelling it out. Is this gonna be in the newspapers?
Sherrill looked at Lucas: Want me to pick her up?
Yeah. Do that. Get some uniforms to back you up. Call me when youve got her. When Sherrill had gone, Lucas turned back to Robles, looked at him for several seconds, then said, Well need a statement. Detective Sloan will take it.
And to Sloan: Read him his rights on the tape.
My rights? Robles threw his head back to peer at Lucas. To a lawyer? Do I need a lawyer?
Lucas shrugged: Purely up to you… Anyway, talk to Sloan. And to Sloan: Ill be down at my office. Ive got some paper to look at.
TWO FILES WERE WAITING FOR HIM: FILES ON THE PEOPLE mentioned in the anonymous letter as victims of Wilson McDonald.
Lucas took off his jacket, hung it on an antique oak coatrack, and dropped in the chair behind his desk. He picked up the first file, put his heels on his desk, and leaned back. And then let the file drop to his lap for a few seconds. He was not particularly introspective, but he was suddenly aware that the constant mental grinding in the back of his headthe grinding that had gone on for weeks, a symptom of the beast prowling around himwas fainter, barely distinguishable.