The Alibi Man

Chapter 46

I prowled around my living room with my cell phone in my hand, trying to decide what to do next. I could go to Bennett’s neighborhood in the Polo Club and ask around to see if anyone saw him murder a girl Saturday night. That would go over big.

I could see it: security handing me over to Landry to be arrested for criminal trespass while he was executing a search warrant at Bennett’s house. How convenient.

He didn’t need me asking the neighbors anything. He would have uniforms doing KOD duty (knocking on doors) while he oversaw what went on in the house.

He would be trying to get a search warrant, I knew. If I had been in his position, that was what I would have been trying to do. I wondered how far he would get before my father stuck a wrench in the wheels of justice.

If he hadn’t already at some point in his career, Landry was about to find out that there was a different set of rules for men like Bennett Walker and Edward Estes. The iron hand of justice would put on the kid glove. People who would have been ready to jab the needle in the arm of any other murderer would suddenly back down. The district attorney would be more willing to accommodate a deal.

Hard time? Surely, Mr. Walker-whose father-in-law footed the campaigns of practically every Republican candidate in the state-hadn’t intended to strangle the girl. It was probably an accident. Perhaps time in a minimum-security facility with a good tennis court in exchange for a plea to involuntary manslaughter…

But what was I thinking? My father would never entertain the idea of a plea. He would run the state ragged in a full-blown CourtTV trial. He would reach deep into Bennett’s coffers and call expert witness after expert witness. The state’s budget for the trial would be pocket change by comparison. The state’s attorney would be begging for five bucks to get ink pens and legal pads for the table. Edward would be forking over five or ten grand a pop for people with degrees to take the witness stand and convince the jury to buy a nickel for a dime.

At least this time the victim couldn’t recant her testimony in exchange for a six-figure payoff.

Restless, I went to look in on Lisbeth. Whether she had been faking it or not when I left the room, she was well and truly out now. The lamplight from the bedside table touched her face with an amber glow. She looked about twelve, with her thick, wavy mane spread out across the pillow. A little girl still dreaming about becoming a princess.

I went in and covered her with a cashmere throw and touched her forehead to check for any sign of a fever.

Elena Estes: Mother Earth.

The cell phone vibrated in my hand. I walked out into the hall and answered it.

“Elena? It’s Juan. I need to speak with you.”

“Here I am,” I said. “Have at it.”

“No, no. Not this way. I want to see you.”

“Why?”

“You are not making this easy for me,” he said.

“Well, I know that’s how you like things, but I’m not in the mood for it, Juan. Lisbeth Perkins has been beaten, strangled, and half-drowned.”

“What?” he asked with what sounded like genuine shock. “Lisbeth? When did this happen? How did this happen?”

“Last night. She did night check, then someone grabbed her.”

“Oh, my God.”

“I’m trying to decide if I should be upset about that or if I should just shrug it off,” I said sarcastically. “Especially seeing as she isn’t dead, she just wishes she was. What do you think?”

“I think you are trying to make a point I’ve already taken.”

That gave me pause.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, soul-searching.”

“It’s good to know you have one.”

“I suppose I deserved that,” he said.

“I suppose you did.”

He heaved a sigh and tried to regroup. “Please, Elena. Meet me. Or I can come to you. Whatever you prefer.”

I preferred not to have him come to my home, where my only witness was passed out cold in the bedroom. I had no reason to trust him. Even money said someone in that clique had attacked- or paid someone else to attack-Lisbeth. There was no doubt in my mind they had put their heads together the night before, after finding out about my past life with the sheriff’s office. Brody knew I had been pumping Lisbeth for information. So did Barbaro.

Instead of trying to take me out of the equation, they did the easier thing and turned on Lisbeth. Easier to turn off the faucet than to make the bucket disappear.

“What’s it about?”

“Bennett.”

I said nothing.

“Meet me downstairs at Players. I want to speak with you before I go to the detectives. Please, Elena, give me that chance.”

He was going to turn on Bennett. I couldn’t have been more shocked… then hopeful, then suspicious.

“A soul with a conscience,” I said. “Seems too good to be true.”

“Meet me, please,” he said.

“I’ll be there in twenty,” I said, and closed the phone.