Read Online Black Jack Point by Jeff Abbott - Free Book Online Page A

said.
    ‘Aren’t you the busy bee?’
    ‘How’s the marriage?’ Sheriff Hollis set down his pen.
    A pause. ‘I filed for divorce last week. He knew it was coming.’
    ‘So he might have reason to leave town.’
    ‘He might. Although he’d hate to leave our girl, Britni. He does love her – I give him that, even if he don’t got the sense
     God gave a goose.’
    ‘Why’d you file?’ David asked.
    ‘Irreconcilable boredom.’
    Randy Hollis leaned forward. ‘If Jimmy calls you, Linda, what do you do?’
    ‘Tell him to stay the hell away. If he’s innocent in this, then he should come forward. If he’s guilty, give up. For Britni’s
     sake. Is this all?’
    ‘Judge Mosley’s conducting an inquest. He may call you for a statement.’
    ‘He’s okay,’ she said with a contemptuous glance at David. ‘A judge’s robe ain’t the same as a uniform, doesn’t make a man
     turn mean.’
    David felt his temper rise. ‘You be clear on this, Linda. Your husband calls you, you don’t offer him any help. You don’t
     want to be an accessory. I don’t want to be charging you. Putting your little girl through that grief.’
    ‘Try it without proof,’ she said. ‘This ain’t Red China.’
    She wasn’t going to get small, David saw, so he asked Linda Bird a few more questions he already knew the answers to and dismissed
     her. She left and David had his hand on the door when Sheriff Hollis said, ‘David. About Lucy Gilbert.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Are you just taking another statement or questioning her as a suspect?’ Asked like he didn’t know the answer, and David could
     tell he did.
    ‘Questioning her.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘She and Suzanne Gilbert are Patch Gilbert’s only relatives. They stand to benefit from his death.’
    ‘That aside, what you got on her?’
    ‘She runs a disreputable business.’
    ‘You talking about that psychic hotline thing?’ Hollis said. ‘How’s that disreputable? My mother calls it, says the girls
     on the phones are real nice and insightful.’
    ‘You like your mother pissing away her Social Security on phone psychics?’
    ‘She can piss her money how she pleases. I heard Lucy Gilbert’s dating Whit Mosley.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘His Honor’s not a big friend of yours, is he?’ Hollis capped his pen, gave David an unexpected frown.
    ‘We get along fine.’
    ‘No, you don’t. You’ve never gotten along with him. Never made the effort, far as I can see.’ Hollis stood, wadded up his
     page of doodles. ‘You got a reason to suspect Lucy Gilbert, a solid lead, you go for it. You questioning her because she’s
     the girlfriend of a guy who’s a pain in your ass, forget it. I won’t have an officer of mine abusing his position.’
    ‘I resent that. Deeply.’
    ‘I wouldn’t want you to resent it shallowly, David,’ Hollis said. ‘We clear?’
    ‘Crystal.’ David kept his voice steady. ‘I need clarification on some items in her statement. That’s all. In fact, my friend
     Judge Mosley and I are supposed to drive in together to Corpus for the autopsy results and to meet with the forensic anth
     team.’
    ‘Good. Keep playing nice.’ Hollis left.
    David Power unclenched his fingers. Odd. Hollis was a Democrat; Whit Mosley had been elected on the Republican ticket, although
     Whit looked more like a guy who’d gotten lost and had wandered into a Green Party meetingand stayed for the fashions. Why would Hollis take Whit’s side? But he saw it then: both of them from old Port Leo families,
     the old moneyed families of the coast that didn’t include the Powers. Old family allegiances meant more than political party
     lines.
    It wouldn’t buy you an inch with him.
    He stepped out into the hallway. Lucy Gilbert stood there, along with an older woman he presumed was her attorney. The lawyer
     gave David a predatory glare, like a barracuda who’d missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
    No sign of Whit. It surprised him; he thought Whit would be here, steam pouring