Invisible Prey

especially those who are old and infirm and have buckets of cash, but she was well tended by other people. She was surrounded, really. I bet she got twenty calls a week from ‘friends,’ who were really calling about money. Anyway, I never met her. I would never have had a chance to clip her money, under any circumstances, but I would have liked to have seen her antiques.”
    “‘Clip her money,’” Lucas repeated.
    “Trade talk,” she said.
     
    L UCAS’S CELL PHONE RANG.
    He dug it out of his pocket, looked at the screen, and said to Anderson, “Excuse me. I have to take this…”
    He stepped away from her, toward the front door, turning a shoulder in the unconscious pretend-privacy that cell-phone users adopt. In his ear, Flowers said, “I’m at the Barths with Susan Conoway—have you talked to her, she’s from Dakota County?”
    “No. I talked to somebody. Lyle Pender?”
    “Okay, that’s somebody else. Anyway, Susan was assigned to prep the Barths, but Kathy’s heard that she can take the Fifth, if she thinks she might have committed a crime. Or might be accused of one. So now she says she doesn’t want to talk to Susan, and Susan’s got a date that she doesn’t want to miss. The whole fuckin’ thing is about to go up in smoke. I could use some weight over here.”
    “Damnit. What does Barth’s lawyer say?”
    “He’s not here. Kathy’s nervous—I don’t think this is coming from her lawyer,” Flowers said. “It might be coming from somewhere else.”
    “I’m sure Kline wouldn’t have…Ah, Jesus. You think Burt Jr. might have talked to her?”
    “Maybe. The thought occurred to me, that fat fuck,” Flowers said. “If he has, I’ll put his ass in jail. I told Kathy that the grand jury could give her immunity and that she’d have to testify, or go to jail. Nobody told her that. But if she decides to take the Fifth, it’s gonna mess up the schedule and it could create some complications. If Cole started getting cold feet, or Kline’s buddies in the legislature got involved…We need to get this done.”
    “Why doesn’t Conoway talk to her?” Lucas asked.
    “Says she can’t. Says the Barths have an attorney, and without the other attorney here, she’s not comfortable examining a reluctant witness. That’s not exactly what she said, but that’s what she means.”
    “Listen: It’ll take me at least ten or fifteen minutes to get there. I have to walk home, I’m six or seven minutes away from my car,” Lucas said. “What is Jesse saying? Is she letting Kathy do the talking, or can you split them, or what?”
    “They were both sitting on the couch. It’s all about the money, man.”
    Lucas groaned. “I don’t know why the Klines are holding on like this. You’d think they’d try to deal. Suborning a witness…they’d have to be crazy. How could they think they’d get away with it?”
    Flowers said, “Burt’s a fuckin’ state legislator, Lucas.”
    “I know, but I’m always the optimist.”
    “Right,” Flowers said. “Ten minutes?”
    Lucas glanced at Anderson, who at that moment tipped her wrist to look at her watch. “I need a minute or two to finish here, then walk home, so…give me fifteen.”
     
    H E RANG OFF and stepped back into the living room, took a card from his pocket, and handed it to Anderson. “I’ve got to run. Thanks for your time. If you think of anything… About Donaldson, about Bucher, about possible ties between them, I’d like to hear it.”
    She took the card, said, “I’ll call. I’ve got what we call a grip-and-grin, trying to soak up some money. So I’ve got to hurry myself.”
    “Seems like everything is about money,” Lucas said.
    “More and more,” Anderson said. “To tell you the truth, I find it more and more distasteful.”
     
    L UCAS HURRIED HOME, waved at a neighbor, stuck his head into the kitchen, blurted, “Got something going, I’ll tell you when I get back,” to Weather, and took off; Weather called after him, “When?” He shouted back, “Half an hour. If it’s longer, I’ll call.”
    There was some traffic, but the Barths lived only three miles away, and he knew every street and alley. By chopping off a little traffic, and taking some garbage-can routes, he made it in the fifteen minutes he’d promised Flowers.
     
    F LOWERS WAS LEANING in a doorway, chatting with a solid dishwater-blond woman with a big leather bag hanging from her shoulder: Conoway. Lucas had never met her, but when he