Mitch turned to Dodge and said, “Why have you done this? What did the Acars ever do to you?”
“They’ve cut our morning take-out trade in half, that’s what,” Dodge spoke up, his voice calm and matter-of- fact. “They’re absolutely killing us with those Turkish pastries of hers. The locals haven’t come anywhere near The Works since she started selling them. I begged Nuri to give us a break. I said to him, look, you’ve got a thriving gasoline business. Kindly leave the food trade to us. He refused. I even offered to buy the damned pastries from him myself and sell them at The Works. Again he refused. He just wouldn’t listen to reason. Those Acars are unbelievably stubborn people.”
“So, what, you’re trying to scare them into leaving town?” Mitch asked.
“I’m trying to protect my investment. This is business I’m talking about, Mitch. People play for keeps. Believe me, some fellow who was truly ruthless would have burned this damned place to the ground a month ago and never lost a night’s sleep over it. We will have to shut down half of our bakery operation if they don’t back off. As far as the banks are concerned that’s a red flag. I won’t be able to raise any more capital. I won’t be able to meet my overhead. The Works will go into receivership, and I’ll be cleaned out. I’ll lose everything.”
“In other words, the Acars are smart businesspeople and you’re not.”
“Don’t judge what you don’t understand,” he shot back gruffly.
“Actually, I understand you perfectly, Dodge,” Mitch said.“You’re the single most arrogant egomaniac I’ve ever met. You think the rules that apply to other people don’t apply to you. That you can do whatever you want to whomever you want, up to and including your own daughter. Well, you’re wrong, and it’s amazing to me that you’ve lasted all of these years without finding that out. I guess you’re just a sheltered small-town boy. But let me just ask you this-why did you have to push Tito off of that cliff? And how did Donna qualify as competition? It seems to me she was one of your biggest assets.”
“Now, you wait one minute.” Dodge’s eyes widened. For the first time he seemed genuinely rattled. “I’ve stepped over the line a tad, I’ll grant you that.”
“You’re granting us jack,” Des snapped. “We caught you in the act.”
“I threw a rock through a window,” Dodge acknowledged readily. “I sprayed some graffiti on a wall. But that’s all. You can’t pin those murders on me. I had nothing to do with them. I am not a killer, I swear.”
“All I know,” Mitch said, “is that Donna told me not to look too closely at her business or her marriage. And now she’s dead and you’re out here trying to put a hardworking immigrant couple out of business.”
“Where were you last night, Mr. Crockett?” Des asked him.
“I was home all evening.”
“Alone?”
“Very alone. I don’t seem to be too popular these days.”
“I can’t imagine why,” she said, raising her chin at him. “Were you romantically involved with Donna?”
“Of course not,” Dodge replied. “Donna Durslag didn’t sleep around. She wasn’t the type. Believe me, I know about these things.”
Mitch started to say something back but before he could get the words out something went ker-chunk inside his head and he just stood there with his mouth open, dumbstruck. Because it hit him now-the thing that had been staring right at him all along. The thing he’d completely ignored.
And now Mitch stood there in the Citgo parking lot with his head spinning. It was spinning when the cruiser that Des had summoned pulled up and an immense young trooper climbed out. It was spinning as Des went over the charges with the trooper. It was spinning as she uncuffed Dodge from the door handle and put him in the backseat. It was still spinning when he and Des stood there watching the cruiser take Dodge away to the Troop F barracks in Westbrook.
“Are you okay, boyfriend?” Des asked, examining him with concern. “You look a little blown away.”
“Des, I’ve figured it out…”
“Figured what out?”
“Who killed Tito and Donna.”
“Well, are you going to tell me about it?”
“Of course, only there’s absolutely no way to prove it. No conventional way, that is. Des, I’m afraid that this is going to call for some more, well, visionary thinking.”
She stood there with her hands on her hips, scowling at him. “Mitch, you have got to be kidding me.”
“What do you mean by that?” he protested innocently.
“I mean, I know that look on your face. You look just like a fat little boy who is about to stick his fat little hand in the cookie jar.”
“Okay, first of all I resent the repeated use of the F-word-”
“You want to set some kind of a trap. And you want me to watch your back, don’t you? Tell me I’m wrong. Go ahead, tell me.”
“Well, it worked once before, didn’t it?”
“You ended up in the hospital before.”
“I didn’t mind. The wound healed fast, and I got all of the ice cream I could eat. Not to mention tapioca.”
“Mitch, it cost me my damned job on Major Crimes.”
“And look how much happier you are. Look at how much fun we have together, day in and day out.” He strode resolutely back to his truck now and got in, waiting for her join him.
Des followed him reluctantly and climbed in, her eyes shining at him. “Mitch, I’m being serious now, okay? Please, please don’t do this-whatever this is.”
“I have to,” he insisted, pulling out onto Old Shore Road and heading for home.
“Why, damn it?”
“Because somebody has been killing people who I care about. You guys can’t put a stop to it. I can. And there’s absolutely no need for you to worry about me. I can handle myself. I’m perfectly capable of. ..” Mitch frowned, glancing over at her. “What was that noise you just made? I distinctly heard a sound come out of you.”
“That was sheer human anguish!” she cried out. “I am involved with a crazy person. You are insane!”
“Am not. I’m just a concerned Dorseteer who’s had enough.”
“Kindly tell me this, Mr. Had Enough-what am I supposed to do about Rico and Yolie? What do I tell them?”
“Not a thing. If they have so much as a hint of prior knowledge then it’s entrapment. That’s one of the truly valuable things I’ve learned from hanging with you, Des.”
“Mitch, it’s entrapment if I’m involved!”
“But you’re not. You’re simply backing my play in case it all turns sour. They can’t fault you for being in the right place at the right time. Perfectly legitimate.”
She glowered out the windshield in seething silence. “You’re going to do this no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“If you don’t want in, just say so. I promise I won’t hold it against you.”
“You know what I should do? I should cuff you to that steering wheel right now.”
“But you won’t,” he said, grinning at her.
“Why the hell not?”
“Two reasons. One, because I’m your sweet baboo-”
“You were my sweet baboo. Our love is like so hanging in the balance right now.”
“Two, because deep down inside, where your scrupulously high moral standards live, you know I’m right.”
She said nothing in response to that. Just rode along next to him, smoldering, as he steered his truck back to Big Sister.
“I can’t do it,” she finally said, her voice low and pained. “Not again. I won’t be there to help you this time. You’re on your own. I’m out.”
“That’s fine. I understand.”
“I mean it!”
“So do I.”
“Mitch, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I am hating you right now.”
