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.I stopped for a beer.”“That was a Thursday night.Was it usual for you to have the girls on a school night?”“No… but it wasn’t unusual.I get them the first and third weekends, plus alternate holidays.Easter weekend threw us off, then Rebecca had something planned for the following Wednesday, so I picked them up on the twenty-fifth, agreed to keep them all week, nine days, actually, since the following weekend was mine.Then we’d be back on schedule.”Dixie opened her wallet to a dog-eared calendar sent by her insurance agent every year.Time for a new one.“You planned to take the girls back on May third, the following Sunday?”“That’s right, Sunday.” He picked up a ballpoint pen from the desk and stared down at it.“But one of the Austin accounts we’d been pitching wanted to meet on Friday, May first.I had to fly up there with some rough layouts.”Dixie wondered why he wouldn’t meet her eyes.“Do you stop by the Green Hornet every time you take the girls home?”“Every time? Of course not.What are you trying to do, turn this around so that I’m the drunk who ran Betsy down? Ms.Flannigan, I was on a plane at nine o’clock that morning.”But Betsy was killed at seven-fifteen.Not impossible, Mr.Keyes.Not impossible at all, if you had a reason to kill your stepdaughter.“How late were you at the Hornet that night?”“Till closing.” He clicked the ballpoint to the writing position.“Where did you go afterward?”“Home.To bed.” Click, click.“With an early flight, it’s surprising you stayed so late.”“Usually, I wouldn’t, but I got to talking to someone—a salesman.He gave me some tips on how to pitch my account the next day—talked about selling fishing trips in the Caribbean, but I could see where the same techniques would work for me.Sales is not my strong suit, not what I usually… godammit!” He slammed the pen down on the desk.“That was Dann, wasn’t it?”“You didn’t recognize him when you saw him in court?”“I never went to court.”“The newspapers, then.”“I didn’t recognize the bastard, okay? Probably saw his picture, if it was in the paper, but I’d had a lot on my mind… that new account to worry about, Betsy’s death… maybe it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken the girls home three days early.” Click, click.Click, click.“The cops did a good job catching the bastard as fast as they did.I don’t care what he looks like, only that he’s behind bars for the rest of his life.”The pen still clicking, he glanced at a Sierra Club calendar with days marked off in orange.“Mr.Keyes, your other stepdaughter, Courtney, also suffered a fatal accident earlier this year.”Keyes turned to look at her slowly.A quizzical frown wrinkled his brow.“What’s Courtney got to do with this?”“Doesn’t it seem a bit… strange….two fatal accidents only three months apart?”He hesitated, then, “I don’t see where you’re going.”Dixie’s pulse hammered wildly.This was the break she’d been searching for, if she could figure out what to do with it.Keyes was nervous about something… but why would he risk setting Dann up for hit-and-run after spending so much time talking with him in public? On the other hand, real killers were rarely as smart as the ones in mystery novels.“Where were you the day of Courtney’s swimming accident?”“On my way to Austin again.Driving, since I planned to stay there several days.What the hell are you implying?”“I’m not implying anything.Just trying to see how it all ties together.”“It doesn’t tie together.Betsy was killed by a drunk driver.Courtney…” He looked away again.Click, click.Click, click.“I taught those girls to swim, and they were good.Too good for some freak accident like that to happen.Those camp counselors were negligent.”“What exactly did happen?”He shook his head, as if baffled.“All anybody could determine was that she must have tangled herself in the vegetation growing near the bank, maybe cramped up and couldn’t pull free.”“When did you hear about the accident?”A muscle in his jaw jumped.“When I returned from Austin.Rebecca had left a message on my answering machine.She knew where I was, godammit? She had both numbers.If her child-support payment hadn’t shown up on time, she would have tracked me to the North Pole, but to tell me my daughter was—” He glared at Dixie, his eyes moist.“I returned in time for the funeral.Just.”Dixie wasn’t sure what to make of him.He was either extremely distraught or a hell of a good actor.“You said daughter, not stepdaughter.”He brushed a thumb under his nose, then snatched a tissue from a box beside his drafting table.“I adopted the girls when I married Rebecca.Courtney was a year old, Betsy three.We were married five years, and I raised them as my own, loved them every bit as much as I love Ellie.In fact, Rebecca and I would’ve divorced long before we did if it weren’t for the kids [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.I stopped for a beer.”“That was a Thursday night.Was it usual for you to have the girls on a school night?”“No… but it wasn’t unusual.I get them the first and third weekends, plus alternate holidays.Easter weekend threw us off, then Rebecca had something planned for the following Wednesday, so I picked them up on the twenty-fifth, agreed to keep them all week, nine days, actually, since the following weekend was mine.Then we’d be back on schedule.”Dixie opened her wallet to a dog-eared calendar sent by her insurance agent every year.Time for a new one.“You planned to take the girls back on May third, the following Sunday?”“That’s right, Sunday.” He picked up a ballpoint pen from the desk and stared down at it.“But one of the Austin accounts we’d been pitching wanted to meet on Friday, May first.I had to fly up there with some rough layouts.”Dixie wondered why he wouldn’t meet her eyes.“Do you stop by the Green Hornet every time you take the girls home?”“Every time? Of course not.What are you trying to do, turn this around so that I’m the drunk who ran Betsy down? Ms.Flannigan, I was on a plane at nine o’clock that morning.”But Betsy was killed at seven-fifteen.Not impossible, Mr.Keyes.Not impossible at all, if you had a reason to kill your stepdaughter.“How late were you at the Hornet that night?”“Till closing.” He clicked the ballpoint to the writing position.“Where did you go afterward?”“Home.To bed.” Click, click.“With an early flight, it’s surprising you stayed so late.”“Usually, I wouldn’t, but I got to talking to someone—a salesman.He gave me some tips on how to pitch my account the next day—talked about selling fishing trips in the Caribbean, but I could see where the same techniques would work for me.Sales is not my strong suit, not what I usually… godammit!” He slammed the pen down on the desk.“That was Dann, wasn’t it?”“You didn’t recognize him when you saw him in court?”“I never went to court.”“The newspapers, then.”“I didn’t recognize the bastard, okay? Probably saw his picture, if it was in the paper, but I’d had a lot on my mind… that new account to worry about, Betsy’s death… maybe it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken the girls home three days early.” Click, click.Click, click.“The cops did a good job catching the bastard as fast as they did.I don’t care what he looks like, only that he’s behind bars for the rest of his life.”The pen still clicking, he glanced at a Sierra Club calendar with days marked off in orange.“Mr.Keyes, your other stepdaughter, Courtney, also suffered a fatal accident earlier this year.”Keyes turned to look at her slowly.A quizzical frown wrinkled his brow.“What’s Courtney got to do with this?”“Doesn’t it seem a bit… strange….two fatal accidents only three months apart?”He hesitated, then, “I don’t see where you’re going.”Dixie’s pulse hammered wildly.This was the break she’d been searching for, if she could figure out what to do with it.Keyes was nervous about something… but why would he risk setting Dann up for hit-and-run after spending so much time talking with him in public? On the other hand, real killers were rarely as smart as the ones in mystery novels.“Where were you the day of Courtney’s swimming accident?”“On my way to Austin again.Driving, since I planned to stay there several days.What the hell are you implying?”“I’m not implying anything.Just trying to see how it all ties together.”“It doesn’t tie together.Betsy was killed by a drunk driver.Courtney…” He looked away again.Click, click.Click, click.“I taught those girls to swim, and they were good.Too good for some freak accident like that to happen.Those camp counselors were negligent.”“What exactly did happen?”He shook his head, as if baffled.“All anybody could determine was that she must have tangled herself in the vegetation growing near the bank, maybe cramped up and couldn’t pull free.”“When did you hear about the accident?”A muscle in his jaw jumped.“When I returned from Austin.Rebecca had left a message on my answering machine.She knew where I was, godammit? She had both numbers.If her child-support payment hadn’t shown up on time, she would have tracked me to the North Pole, but to tell me my daughter was—” He glared at Dixie, his eyes moist.“I returned in time for the funeral.Just.”Dixie wasn’t sure what to make of him.He was either extremely distraught or a hell of a good actor.“You said daughter, not stepdaughter.”He brushed a thumb under his nose, then snatched a tissue from a box beside his drafting table.“I adopted the girls when I married Rebecca.Courtney was a year old, Betsy three.We were married five years, and I raised them as my own, loved them every bit as much as I love Ellie.In fact, Rebecca and I would’ve divorced long before we did if it weren’t for the kids [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]