one suitcase opened but not packed. Toiletries are gone
from the bathroom, drawers with underwear and shirts mostly empty.
And the pocket calendar left behind. Nobody does that unless
they’re in a hell of a hurry.”
“ You’re too much,” I said.
“A guy’s a messy packer, and that’s your proof of murder. Unless
you’ve got a witness who eyeballed Blinky at my house, you’ve got
nothing, and you know you’ve got nothing. I’m surprised a judge
even gave you a search warrant on all that speculation.”
I watched the undertaker’s smile form at the
corner of Socolow’s mouth. He was thumbing through his notes. “You
have a neighbor named Phoebe Gethers at the intersection of Kumquat
and Solana. That’s right across the street from you, isn’t it,
Jake.”
He knew very well it was.
“ At about a quarter to
ten,” the detective said, “she’s sitting on her front porch, and a
taxi drops off a man at your house. She didn’t get a look at him,
but we check the cab companies, and a Haitian driver with no work
permit positively ID’s Hornback from a mug shot. A few minutes
later, your neighbor gets some houseguests and goes inside. More
guests arrive, and she’s back at the front door, letting them in.
She puts the time between ten and ten-fifteen, and now there’s what
she calls a Jeep sitting in front of your house. We show her some
pictures, and she ID’s it as a dark green or black Range Rover. By
the time you show up around eleven-thirty, the Range Rover’s gone,
and Hornback’s strung up with your tie. Basing it on body
temperature of the stiff, rigor mortis and livor mortis, the M.E.
puts time of death between nine and eleven p.m. Hornback was
rendered unconscious with barbiturates, then strangled.”
“ So where was Blinky
between eight and ten?” I asked.
Socolow grunted. “Who knows and who cares!
He was at your house when it counted.”
“ I care because Blinky’s
not a murderer.”
“ Jake’s right, for once.”
It was Jo Jo Baroso, coming through the balcony door. Behind her,
one of the cruise ships was headed out Government Cut toward the
Caribbean. My brother is not emotionally or physically
capable.”
The sister to the rescue, I didn’t expect
it.
“ As I see it,” she
continued, “Luis brought some muscle with him. When Kyle wouldn’t
agree to whatever deal Luis wanted to cut, the muscle did the dirty
work.”
Oh boy, with a sister like this, who needs a
prosecutor? But then, the sister is a prosecutor. I looked back at
Socolow and said, “Okay, I get the picture. After ten minutes of
detective work, it’s the collective wisdom of the police and the
state attorney’s office that this case is solved.”
“ Hey, Jake,” Socolow said,
with a smile I now recognized as a sneer in sheep’s clothing, “it
wasn’t that hard. You know the three elements of every prosecution,
don’t you?”
“ Sure. Perjury, coercion,
and pure dumb luck.”
“ Motive, opportunity, and
means,” Socolow corrected me. “Baroso knew Hornback was going to
flip. There’s the motive. We can tie the two of them together in
your house, at least circumstantially. That’s the opportunity. As
Josefina suggests, the means were undoubtedly provided by hired
muscle.”
“ Undoubtedly,” I said, with
as much sarcasm as possible. “Of course, your security guard didn’t
see a third party with Blinky, and Phoebe didn’t report another car
at my house, and even if it was Blinky’s Range Rover, you have no
one eyeballing him, and the three of you are so far off base about
the kind of person Blinky Baroso is that I don’t even know why I’m
arguing with you.”
I was getting aggravated, so I stood up and
paced. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is sit still. In court, I
have a tendency to prowl when the opposition is doing the
questioning. To fight the urge, I imagine myself chained to my
chair. Here the chains were broken, but Blinky’s living room felt
like a cage. Something
from the bathroom, drawers with underwear and shirts mostly empty.
And the pocket calendar left behind. Nobody does that unless
they’re in a hell of a hurry.”
“ You’re too much,” I said.
“A guy’s a messy packer, and that’s your proof of murder. Unless
you’ve got a witness who eyeballed Blinky at my house, you’ve got
nothing, and you know you’ve got nothing. I’m surprised a judge
even gave you a search warrant on all that speculation.”
I watched the undertaker’s smile form at the
corner of Socolow’s mouth. He was thumbing through his notes. “You
have a neighbor named Phoebe Gethers at the intersection of Kumquat
and Solana. That’s right across the street from you, isn’t it,
Jake.”
He knew very well it was.
“ At about a quarter to
ten,” the detective said, “she’s sitting on her front porch, and a
taxi drops off a man at your house. She didn’t get a look at him,
but we check the cab companies, and a Haitian driver with no work
permit positively ID’s Hornback from a mug shot. A few minutes
later, your neighbor gets some houseguests and goes inside. More
guests arrive, and she’s back at the front door, letting them in.
She puts the time between ten and ten-fifteen, and now there’s what
she calls a Jeep sitting in front of your house. We show her some
pictures, and she ID’s it as a dark green or black Range Rover. By
the time you show up around eleven-thirty, the Range Rover’s gone,
and Hornback’s strung up with your tie. Basing it on body
temperature of the stiff, rigor mortis and livor mortis, the M.E.
puts time of death between nine and eleven p.m. Hornback was
rendered unconscious with barbiturates, then strangled.”
“ So where was Blinky
between eight and ten?” I asked.
Socolow grunted. “Who knows and who cares!
He was at your house when it counted.”
“ I care because Blinky’s
not a murderer.”
“ Jake’s right, for once.”
It was Jo Jo Baroso, coming through the balcony door. Behind her,
one of the cruise ships was headed out Government Cut toward the
Caribbean. My brother is not emotionally or physically
capable.”
The sister to the rescue, I didn’t expect
it.
“ As I see it,” she
continued, “Luis brought some muscle with him. When Kyle wouldn’t
agree to whatever deal Luis wanted to cut, the muscle did the dirty
work.”
Oh boy, with a sister like this, who needs a
prosecutor? But then, the sister is a prosecutor. I looked back at
Socolow and said, “Okay, I get the picture. After ten minutes of
detective work, it’s the collective wisdom of the police and the
state attorney’s office that this case is solved.”
“ Hey, Jake,” Socolow said,
with a smile I now recognized as a sneer in sheep’s clothing, “it
wasn’t that hard. You know the three elements of every prosecution,
don’t you?”
“ Sure. Perjury, coercion,
and pure dumb luck.”
“ Motive, opportunity, and
means,” Socolow corrected me. “Baroso knew Hornback was going to
flip. There’s the motive. We can tie the two of them together in
your house, at least circumstantially. That’s the opportunity. As
Josefina suggests, the means were undoubtedly provided by hired
muscle.”
“ Undoubtedly,” I said, with
as much sarcasm as possible. “Of course, your security guard didn’t
see a third party with Blinky, and Phoebe didn’t report another car
at my house, and even if it was Blinky’s Range Rover, you have no
one eyeballing him, and the three of you are so far off base about
the kind of person Blinky Baroso is that I don’t even know why I’m
arguing with you.”
I was getting aggravated, so I stood up and
paced. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is sit still. In court, I
have a tendency to prowl when the opposition is doing the
questioning. To fight the urge, I imagine myself chained to my
chair. Here the chains were broken, but Blinky’s living room felt
like a cage. Something
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