The Alibi Man

Chapter 60

“So who is this guy?” Landry asked, shining his maglite into the trunk of the car.

“Jeffrey C. Cherry,” the deputy said, reading from the victim’s driver’s license. “West Palm Beach; 06-20-88. He’s got an employee parking sticker from Players.”

“Jeez,” Weiss said, poking at the trash around the body. “If he didn’t have that crowbar in his head, I’d say he died from eating his shit.”

“There’s a couple of dime bags of coke,” the deputy said. Could have been a drug deal gone bad.“

Landry looked over at Bennett Walker’s Porsche. “Could have been. But what was Bennett Walker doing here, and where is he?”

“And what drug dealer wouldn’t steal that car?” Weiss asked, the keys are in it.“

Landry took a pen out of his pocket and pushed open the small duffel bag that sat on the victim’s chest. A couple stacks of 1’s-singles topped with a twenty-and what looked like some drug residue.

“This sucks,” he said. “This is some kind of setup. This kid works at Players-”

“Valet,” Weiss said, peering in the open driver’s door. “He’s got a name tag in here.”

Landry walked away from the car and called Elena. Straight to voice mail. He didn’t like that. She would have been waiting to hear news on what the search warrant had gained them.

She had told him to talk to the valets. He guessed this was the kid who had split before he’d gotten there. Elena had known him, then. And Walker had been here.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he said.

Weiss flashed his light at the crowbar planted in Jeffrey C. Cherry’s skull. “Imagine how he feels.”