Read Online C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton - Free Book Online Page B

possibility that they’d peed on the crop to retaliate for unfair labor practices.
    â€œWhat do you think about this business with Bobby?” I said to Derek when I finally got my mouth unpuckered.
    â€œHis claim about a murder attempt? God, I don’t know. It sounds pretty farfetched to me. He and his mother seem to believe it, but I can’t figure out why anybody’d do such a thing.”
    â€œWhat about money?”
    â€œMoney?”
    â€œI’ve been wondering who benefits financially if Bobby dies. I asked Glen the same thing.”
    Derek began to stroke his double chin. The excess weight made him look as if he had one normal-sized face superimposed on a much larger one. The jowls were just leftover flesh hanging out the sides. “It’d be a fairly conspicuous motive, I should think,” he said. He wore the skeptical look of a man in a stage play: an exaggerated effect for the audience twenty-five rows back.
    â€œYeah, well forcing him off the bridge was conspicuous too. Of course, if he’d died in the wreck, nobodywould have known the difference,” I said. “Cars go off the pass every six months or so anyway because people take the curves too fast, so it could have been passed off as a single-car accident. There might have been some damage to the rear bumper where the other driver made contact, but by the time they’d hauled Bobby’s car up the mountain, I don’t think anybody would have suspected what really occurred. I take it there weren’t any witnesses.”
    â€œNo, and I’m not sure you can count on what Bobby says.”
    â€œMeaning what?”
    â€œWell, he obviously has a vested interest in having someone else to blame. The kid doesn’t want to own up to the fact that he’d been drinking. He always drove too fast anyway. His best friend gets killed. Rick was Kitty’s boyfriend, you know, and his death threw her for a loop. I don’t mean to cast doubt on Bobby’s version of the story, but it’s always struck me as self-serving to some extent.”
    I studied Derek’s face, wondering at the change in his tone of voice. It was an interesting theory and I got the impression that he’d been thinking about it for some time. He seemed uncomfortable, though, pretending to be casual and objective when, in fact, he was undermining Bobby’s credibility. I was sure he hadn’t dared mention his idea to Glen. “You’re saying Bobby made it up?”
    â€œI didn’t say
that,
” he replied evasively. “I think
he
believes it, but then it gets him off the hook, doesn’tit?” His eyes slid away from mine and he signaled to the bartender for a repeat, then glanced back at me. “You ready for another one?”
    â€œSure, why not?” I hadn’t actually finished the wine I had, but I hoped he’d be more at ease if he thought I was matching him drink for drink. Martinis will make you say anything and I was curious what might come out once his tongue was loosened. I could already see that look in his eyes, something slithery and pink that hints of alcoholic tendencies. He fumbled in his shirt pocket and took out the pack of cigarettes, his gaze riveted to the diorama. A tiny mechanical Mexican with a machete was climbing up the tree again. Derek lit a cigarette without looking at it and the gesture took on a curious air, as if it couldn’t count against him if he ignored it himself. He was probably the kind of person who eats while watching TV and tops off his Scotch so it will always look as though he is only having one.
    â€œHow was Kitty when you saw her? You haven’t said.”
    â€œShe was . . . you know, she was upset, I guess, to find herself hospitalized, but I told her . . . I said, ‘Now look, kid. You’re just going to have to shape up.’ ” Derek had shifted into his parental persona and he seemed uncomfortable with