“I’m going to be taping this session,” she said, activating the recorder on the table. “I’ve been talking with the authorities and DA’s offices down here and up in Mono. I can offer you a deal, depending on the information you’re willing to give up.”
Flicker of interest in his eyes. “Yeah? What kind of deal?”
Lark began ticking off the items on her fingers. “No charges in the Hayley Perez murder. No charges in the attack on Amy Perez-”
“Amy? She didn’t know I was the one-”
Snared. Snared and stupid. But Mono wasn’t giving up anything, because they had no evidence Boz had killed Hayley, and Amy really couldn’t identify him as the perp.
“Yes, she knows,” Lark lied. “And she’s willing to testify to that effect. On the other hand, McCone is willing to forgive you on the trespass on her ranch and assault charges. You tell us what you were looking for in Amy’s cabin, it all goes away.”
“… A letter from Miri Perez. Something Bud Smith gave Hayley. What this meeting the night she was killed was all about-the one she was gonna profit from. I tore the trailer apart, but it wasn’t there. So I figured she’d given it to Amy.”
“You have to beat up and cut Amy to search for it?” I asked.
Sheppard started. He’d forgotten I was there. “I didn’t know the little skank was in the cabin. She woke up and tried to hit me with a lamp. Real fighter, that one.”
“Don’t browbeat the man, McCone,” Lark said, glaring at me. She turned back to Sheppard. “Tell us about your history with Hayley.”
“What about the rest of my deal?”
“This information is to cement the deal with Mono.”
“Okay, okay. I met Hayley in Vegas. She was hooking.”
“And you were…?”
“Working in a casino.”
“Which one?”
“Same one she was.”
“The name?”
“I forget.”
I said, “He was probably dealing-but not cards. Or pimping. Were you her pimp, Sheppard?”
“Leave him be, McCone,” Lark said.
“He wasn’t doing anything legitimate in Vegas, that’s for sure.”
Again Lark glared at me. “Not relevant.” She turned her attention back to Sheppard. “Okay, you knew Hayley in Vegas. When?”
“When she was first there, I don’t remember how many years ago. Then I did a stretch for possession. I was railroaded.”
I said, “That’s what they all claim.”
“And after you got out?” Lark asked him.
“I decided to go to Vernon. I had connections-”
“Drug connections,” I said.
Lark gave an exasperated sigh. “You see Hayley in Vegas beforehand?”
“Yeah. I stayed with her a few days till my parole officer gave me permission to leave the state. She said she had family here and might visit me sometime. And she did-late September, I think. She needed a place to stay. She’d come up HIV-positive, was already feeling sick.”
So that was why she’d taken out the insurance policy with Amy as beneficiary. The county’s pathology reports hadn’t showed any evidence of her illness because they hadn’t been looking for it. Which meant the life-insurance policy benefiting Amy would pay off.
“And?” Lark asked.
“I let her stay. Next thing I know, she’s talking about cashing in on something, living out the rest of her life in luxury.”
“Something that was in the note Miri left for her with Bud Smith.”
“I guess.”
“Did Hayley own a gun?”
“Hayley? Jesus, no. What would she need a gun for?”
“Violent johns?” I said.
“McCone, I’m warning you!”
“Sorry.”
“Okay, Boz, do you own a gun?”
Silence.
“Part of your deal.”
“… Okay, I’ve got a thirty-two I bought off of a guy in Reno.”
“Where was this gun the night Hayley was killed?”
“… In the trailer.”
“So Hayley had access to a weapon of the caliber that killed her.”
“Yeah, she did.”
All three of us were silent. Then I said, “Don’t you want to discuss the deal you’ve got here in Inyo?”
He shot me a look of pure rage. “Who the hell’re you, coming in here and trying to take over from
“Somebody who thinks you’re pond scum. All right if I tell him about his deal down here, Lark?”
“Sure, be my guest.”
“There isn’t any.”
“But she said-”
“She said that she talked with the authorities and DA in Mono and down here. She said ‘I can offer you a deal.’ Not we-I.”
“You stone bitches!” He started to rise from his chair, but the guard, who had been standing by the door the whole time, stepped in quickly to restrain him.
Lark and I exchanged glances. Then she extracted the tape from the machine on the table, and we left Sheppard in the hands of the Inyo County authorities.
“Amazing!” Lark said. “I thought we were headed straight for Tufa Tower, but that’s June Lake down there. I didn’t even notice when you turned.”
“Because you had your eyes closed again. You didn’t notice that it was a steep bank, either.”
“No kidding.”
“Want to close your eyes one more time?”
“Uh, why?”
“It’d be interesting to know if you could tell when we were upside down.”
“No way!”
“Just one little spin.”
“Spin! Jesus, like a tailspin-?”
“Then I guess you’ll have to keep your eyes open and enjoy the scenery.”
Back at the ranch house, I found a message from Mick: “Call me ASAP. I’m at the rehab place and Nurse Ratched has confiscated my laptop. Says I can only speak to you for three minutes.”
I dialed, and a woman’s voice answered. I almost asked her if she was Nurse Ratched, then realized it was Charlotte Keim.
Well, well…
She passed me along to Mick.
“Charlotte’s forwarding you the information on Hanover that I accessed-
“How’re you feeling?”
“Okay. But listen, they really mean it about the three minutes. What I found out is that Trevor Hanover owns
