“Like a butcher's knife?”
“Could be, that is a fine murder weapon.”
“Did Phoebe put you up to this?”
“What makes you think she had to? I make my own decisions; I don’t need some trim to tell me when something has to be done. You want to put your hands against the wall and spread your legs?”
“No.”
Anderson waved the gun to remind her it was there. “Are you resisting arrest, Margot?”
“Not yet.”
“What does that mean?”
Margot punched him in the throat.
Even though he was struggling to breathe, Anderson tried to raise his gun. Margot caught his wrist and slammed his arm against the wall. He didn’t drop the gun, but she elbowed him in the temple and then twisted his arm a way it wasn’t supposed to go until the gun dropped. Margot kicked the gun off the walkway in front of her second-floor apartment and then pushed Anderson away. He tripped over his own feet and landed on his butt.
Margot saw him reaching for his ankle and realized he had a backup gun holstered there. She turned and ran. She moved fast enough Anderson never got a clear shot at her.
As she ran, she heard him shout, “You assaulted a cop, Margot! Now I don’t even have to make something up to throw your ass in jail!”
Chapter 13
“You know, I knew you were stupid, Margot, but I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to show up at my office,” Anderson said as he walked into the Homicide commander’s office. He’d thought it was strange she’d asked to see him but had never expected he’d walk in to see Margot sitting there. He added, “If I’d known you were just going to show up this morning, I wouldn’t have spent all night looking for you.”
“Actually, Anderson,” Ames told him, “She came to me.”
Anderson looked over at Radcliff who was leaning against one wall. Ames was against the other. Margot sat in one of the chairs at the front of the homicide commander’s desk. The commander, a woman named Rodriguez, was sitting on the other side.
“I thought you were the one she was fucking,” Anderson said to Radcliff. “Why’d she go to your partner? She dump you for him?”
“You should shut up before I let her kick your ass again,” Radcliff told him.
“We were just talking when she punched me in the throat for no reason. Though I suspect she did have a good reason. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn’t something to all this Viuda Negra stuff that goth chick has been reporting. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Harry Lee hired her to clean up the mess Masterson and his little girlfriend were making.”
“Is that what you think?” Ames asked.
“I think, given the way she attacked me, we might find some interesting things back at her place.”
Radcliff shook his head.
Anderson looked his way and said, “Given the way she’s had a thing for corrupt cops in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if you aren’t the choirboy everybody thinks you are.”
Radcliff looked at Rodriquez. “Do we have to listen to much more of this?”
“No,” Anderson said, “I’ll put the cuffs on her, take her county, then I’ll get a warrant and be out of your hair, choirboy.”
Rodriguez lifted Margot’s digital recorder off her lap and set it on the desk. She hit play.
“You know what, Margot? I think I’m going to arrest you and then throw your ex-cop ass into the general population. Maybe I’ll whisper in a few ears who you used to be and see how it goes.”
“On what charge?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll make something up on the way.”
“I hit record before you told me to take my hand out of my purse,” Margot told him.
“You can’t prove that was me.”
Rodriguez moved the playback forward and hit play again.
“You assaulted a cop, Margot! Now I don’t even have to make something up to throw your ass in jail!”
Anderson pointed at his eye where the swelling from her elbow was starting to turn purple. “Whatever I may or may not have said, she still assaulted me.”
“Seems kind of like self-defense to me,” Ames said. “You said you were going to toss her in jail on a made-up charge and make sure everyone knew she used to be a cop. That’s pretty much telling someone you’re going to kill them.”
“She can present that as her defense at trial. In the meantime, she’s still going to county.”
“We already talked to Phoebe,” Ames said, “and Cranston.”
“What do they have to do with her assaulting me?”
“Why did you go back to Lucas Lau’s room?”
“I didn’t.”
“Someone changed the logs to show you left an hour before the murder, but Cranston confirms you were both still there.”
Anderson didn’t say anything.
“Phoebe Masterson says you kept her out of jail and her husband in the dark about Harry Lee in exchange for sex.”
“Bullshit.”
“She thinks you and Lucas killed her husband. Lucas for his boss and you because you wanted her for yourself.”
“Nonsense.”
“She says you asked her to leave her husband. She says she told you that you don’t make enough money. She would have stuck with a good looking detective like Radcliff if she wanted to live on a cop’s salary.”
Anderson didn’t reply to that.
“Are we going to find the murder weapon at Margot’s? The one you put there after she ran away?” Radcliff asked.
“I didn’t put anything at Margot’s.”
Rodriguez cued up the recorder and pressed play.
“Maybe while you’re gone, someone will search your place and find something incriminating. Maybe even a murder weapon.”
“Like a butcher's knife?”
“Could be, that is a fine murder weapon.”
“Is that
