Read Online The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald - Free Book Online
Authors: John D. MacDonald
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23
"No, Sheriff."
"I could have swore. Do me a favor. Stand up." What can you do? I stood up. He came around his desk and stood in front of me and looked up at my face. He backed off and bent and took a good look at my shoes.
He sat down again and said, "No lifts. The one I mean, the one that looked like you, he was about six foot even. Once a man gets his height, he don't grow any more than that. Sure looks like you in the face. What's your name again? McGee. From Lauderdale? What's that you got there?"
I reached across the desk and handed him Boggs's card. He read it, looked at me, read it again, and put it down in neat alignment with the corner of his desk. He reached his hand across to me and we shook hands.
"Nice to know you, Mr, McGee. Now just what is it that I can help you on? You just tell me and we'll give it a try." It was as if I had suddenly turned into a Dixie County voter.
"What's the current status of the investigation of the Hubbard Lawless disappearance?"
"My investigation isn't the only one in town."
"I didn't think it would be."
He shifted around in his chair. If he'd had a window, he'd have gotten up and stared out of it.
"Our investigation so far tends to show that Hub Lawless is still alive."
"Where is he?"
He picked up Devlin Boggs's card again and asked me if I would mind stepping out of the office and closing the door. He said it wouldn't be more than a couple of minutes, and it wasn't. He called me back in and I sat down.
"You've got to keep this quiet, Mr. McGee."
"I intend to."
"I gave one of my deputies, a man name of Wright Fletcher, that speaks pretty good Mexican, leave of absence to go on down to Mexico with an investigator from the insurance company has the big- policy on Hub's life. Both those men thinks there's a pretty good chance of getting a line on him, and if they can locate him, there's enough federal heat involved, we should be able to get him extradited."
"So how did he get from the Gulf of Mexico to Mexico?"
"You know how he turned everything he could into cash, picked everything clean; that gave us the lead on premeditation."
"But wasn't there a hearing and a verdict that he was missing and presumed dead?"
"That was when the whole thing had just happened. Everybody liked Hub. What it looked like, he was just getting a bunch of cash together to put it into something good where he could turn it over fast and come out ahead. He'd done that kind of thing before. And nearly everybody knew he couldn't swim a stroke. It's like that with a lot of Florida native born. Me, I've lived all my life close enough to the Gulf to near spit in it, and I can't swim no more than Hub could. And the Gulf water is right cold in March. Once we get a line on Hub, we can open the whole thing up again. That insurance company sure-God doesn't want to presume him dead. And Julie Lawless wants to take them to court to get the money."
"What do you have to go on?"
"First there is kind of negative reasoning. We can show how he was turning stuff into cash.
Hundred dollar bills is all you can get hold of nowadays without attracting attention. You know how much space and weight is involved in six hundred thousand dollars? That is six thousand pieces of paper. It will weigh right around twenty pounds. If it was all mint, which it wasn't, it would make a package six inches by seven and a half inches, and ten inches high. We've not found" it or any part of it. And we have looked. We've looked good.
"The next part is negative reasoning too. When they got around to inventorying the stuff on the books of those four corporations of his, there.was a jeep missing he used a lot. An old yellow jeep with dune-buggy tires that he could run cross-country at the ranch and the grove. It has Page 24
never turned up. His other two cars were here, but the jeep is gone."
"Do you have any positive reasoning, Sheriff?"
He looked at me, and in those dusty brown eyes I could read a very serious message. Though
"No, Sheriff."
"I could have swore. Do me a favor. Stand up." What can you do? I stood up. He came around his desk and stood in front of me and looked up at my face. He backed off and bent and took a good look at my shoes.
He sat down again and said, "No lifts. The one I mean, the one that looked like you, he was about six foot even. Once a man gets his height, he don't grow any more than that. Sure looks like you in the face. What's your name again? McGee. From Lauderdale? What's that you got there?"
I reached across the desk and handed him Boggs's card. He read it, looked at me, read it again, and put it down in neat alignment with the corner of his desk. He reached his hand across to me and we shook hands.
"Nice to know you, Mr, McGee. Now just what is it that I can help you on? You just tell me and we'll give it a try." It was as if I had suddenly turned into a Dixie County voter.
"What's the current status of the investigation of the Hubbard Lawless disappearance?"
"My investigation isn't the only one in town."
"I didn't think it would be."
He shifted around in his chair. If he'd had a window, he'd have gotten up and stared out of it.
"Our investigation so far tends to show that Hub Lawless is still alive."
"Where is he?"
He picked up Devlin Boggs's card again and asked me if I would mind stepping out of the office and closing the door. He said it wouldn't be more than a couple of minutes, and it wasn't. He called me back in and I sat down.
"You've got to keep this quiet, Mr. McGee."
"I intend to."
"I gave one of my deputies, a man name of Wright Fletcher, that speaks pretty good Mexican, leave of absence to go on down to Mexico with an investigator from the insurance company has the big- policy on Hub's life. Both those men thinks there's a pretty good chance of getting a line on him, and if they can locate him, there's enough federal heat involved, we should be able to get him extradited."
"So how did he get from the Gulf of Mexico to Mexico?"
"You know how he turned everything he could into cash, picked everything clean; that gave us the lead on premeditation."
"But wasn't there a hearing and a verdict that he was missing and presumed dead?"
"That was when the whole thing had just happened. Everybody liked Hub. What it looked like, he was just getting a bunch of cash together to put it into something good where he could turn it over fast and come out ahead. He'd done that kind of thing before. And nearly everybody knew he couldn't swim a stroke. It's like that with a lot of Florida native born. Me, I've lived all my life close enough to the Gulf to near spit in it, and I can't swim no more than Hub could. And the Gulf water is right cold in March. Once we get a line on Hub, we can open the whole thing up again. That insurance company sure-God doesn't want to presume him dead. And Julie Lawless wants to take them to court to get the money."
"What do you have to go on?"
"First there is kind of negative reasoning. We can show how he was turning stuff into cash.
Hundred dollar bills is all you can get hold of nowadays without attracting attention. You know how much space and weight is involved in six hundred thousand dollars? That is six thousand pieces of paper. It will weigh right around twenty pounds. If it was all mint, which it wasn't, it would make a package six inches by seven and a half inches, and ten inches high. We've not found" it or any part of it. And we have looked. We've looked good.
"The next part is negative reasoning too. When they got around to inventorying the stuff on the books of those four corporations of his, there.was a jeep missing he used a lot. An old yellow jeep with dune-buggy tires that he could run cross-country at the ranch and the grove. It has Page 24
never turned up. His other two cars were here, but the jeep is gone."
"Do you have any positive reasoning, Sheriff?"
He looked at me, and in those dusty brown eyes I could read a very serious message. Though
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