“The take, part of the payoff. He could be getting a piece of the Rio Company—that?s if he knew
what he was doing and Tagliani felt it necessary to put him on the sleeve. I don?t know the answer to
that yet.”
“What do you think?”
“I don?t think he was.”
“Why?”
“Too much to lose. I think Seaborn?s indiscretion was that it looked good for the bank and good for
the town and he didn?t think about the consequences. Seaborn?s a small-town banker. It probably
never occurred to him that what he was involved in was illegal until it was too late to get out. That?s
the way it usually happens.”
“Who else was getting paid off?” Donleavy asked, leaning across his desk. “What cops? What
politicians?”
“I?m working on that.”
“Any ideas?”
“A few.”
“Care to share them?” he asked. “1 assure you, I am as interested in resolving this mess as you are.”
“I?m sure you are,” I said.
He was leaning on the desk now, staring intently at me.
“Any more logic?” he asked, still smiling.
“I?ve been thinking a lot about Raines? death,” I said. “Trying to narrow down the possibilities.”
“Have you come up with anything?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Logic tells me that there?s only one person who could have killed Harry Raines.”
“And who?s that?” he asked eagerly.
“This is going to sound crazy,” I said.
“Try me.”
“It seems to me the only person who could have killed Harry Raines was you.”
“Me!” he gasped, and started to laugh. “Well, except for the fact that I was at my place on Sea Oat
Island twenty miles from here and couldn?t have done it, how did you come up with such a notion?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “You have two alibis, me and Dutch. And yet, I have this thing about the logic
of the situation. According to Seaborn, you were the last one who spoke with Harry Raines before he
was killed. He left Seaborn?s office without even saying good-bye and he was gunned down two
minutes later. That makes you the only one who could have known exactly where he was going, arid
when.”
