“If you say so?”
“How long has he been carrying that straight razor?”
“Hell if I know. That was the first time I’ve seen it though. Why are you telling me this?”
“If he is the one, then the best way to keep Harry out of it would be for you guys to turn him in and at least leave a tip. If you don’t want a bunch of cops digging in Harry’s business, it’d be better to be ahead of it. I believe Harry when he says he had nothing to do with it. If this was Lucas doing it on his own, this is your chance not to let him trip you up.”
Bobby drank some beer and thought about it for a second before he said, “I’m not sure what you want me to do.”
“The way he’s dropped some hints, I’m sure he’d tell you if you asked.”
Bobby shook his head. “I ain’t a rat.”
Margot didn’t really have a counter for that, so she drank some beer while Bobby did some more thinking.
“If it is his hair on the dress, can’t they match it up?”
“Sure, but to be honest, they’re not really looking to find another suspect right now.”
Bobby shook his head and then admitted, “You know, Lucas shot a dude once. I’m not going to tell you who or when or even why, but it happened. Dude lived and was in no mood to press charges after Mr. Lee and I had a conversation with him, but it looked shaky for Lucas for a while.”
“Okay,” Margot replied. She wasn’t sure of the relevance, but Bobby seemed to have a point in mind.
“Thing is, he didn’t want to give up the gun, even though this is America; you can always get a new gun. Even after I took it from him and tossed it in the ocean, I found out he kept the shell casings. He didn’t want to give up those either.”
“He likes to keep souvenirs?”
“Yeah, and I ain’t around to make him toss the shit in the ocean on this one.”
Margot thought about the missing murder weapon, Bobby’s theory had possibilities. The problem was, even if she could get the detectives in charge of Phoebe’s case to consider the possibility, they’d have a hard time getting a search warrant based on Lucas’s vague boasts and the speculation of a felon.
“Do you know where Lucas lives?”
“Sure, but be careful. Like I said, here in America, you can always get a gun.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 12
Margot watched the ground floor apartment Lucas lived in and was glad to see it looked worse than her own. It didn’t look like being a driver for a mobster paid very much. Lucas emerged and got in an old Honda Civic, his ride when not driving Harry, and drove off.
Bobby had told her that he thought Lucas would be driving him and Harry around this afternoon, so Margot figured she had some time to do some illegal breaking and entering if she had to. She waited until he was out of sight and then went to the door. She knocked first, even though she’d been told Lucas lived alone. She was examining the lock when she heard Lucas saying, “What the fuck?”.
She had her hand in her purse as she turned.
“You going to pull that little lady gun on me?” he asked. “All that talk of weight class was just that, wasn’t it?”
“You going to pull that razor on me?”
“Shit, I don’t need no blade to take on you. I don’t even have it with me.”
“You know Bobby’s not here?” Margot said as she took her hand out of her purse and zipped it shut.
“I don’t need him.”
Margot saw the straight razor he pulled out of his back pocket open, and the blade come at her face just in time to lean back. He was quicker than he looked, and the honed steel missed her nose by about an inch.
He immediately swung at her again, but this time he lost the element of surprise. His swing left him open and Margot kicked him in the chest. Taking her heel to his sternum knocked the breath out of him and pushed him back a few steps. He swung wildly with the razor and Margot let the blade go by her again before she drove her heel into his knee and then hit him with a straight left followed by a right cross.
Lucas stumbled and fell to the ground. Margot stomped on his hand and then kicked the razor away. Before she kicked it away, she noticed the pearl handle was marked with the initials ‘T M.’ She looked up and saw several people watching the proceedings.
“Anybody call the police yet?” she asked, thinking she may have gotten lucky and found a souvenir from a past crime that Lucas had kept.
When no one replied, she said, exasperated, “Well, get to it.”
A couple of phones came out and Margot said to Lucas, “Get up. We’re not done here.”
To his credit, he got to his feet and threw some kicks and punches her way that indicated he’d taken some martial arts at some point, but Margot had been a borderline professional fighter before she joined the police. He gave her an opening and she broke his nose with the heel of her hand and swept his legs out from under him so he hit the ground hard.
When he got up, instead of coming at her again, he ran for his apartment. Margot didn’t see this coming and he made it to the door before she could react. She still could have stopped him, but him being inside would give the police an excuse to look around his place, so she let him.
What she didn’t expect was
