Mind Prey

croaked…excuse me…”
    “Yeah, yeah, if Tower croaked, what?”
    “Would his wife get it?”
    “No. I mean, not if Andi and the kids were still around. Jesus, listen to the way I’m talking, for christ sakes.” And the phone went dead. Lucas looked at the receiver, unsure about what had happened. He redialed.
    A cop picked up on the first ring, and without preamble said, “Chief Davenport?”
    “Yeah, I was talking to Dunn.”
    “Well, Jesus, sir, I don’t know what you said, but he cracked up. He’s back in his bedroom.”
    “Ah.”
    “Do you want me to get him?”
    “No, no, let him go. Tell him I’m sorry, okay?”
    “Sure, I will…”
    “And after he’s got back together, ask him if I could get a copy of the Manette Trust document. They must have one around.”
     
    L UCAS, STILL WIDE awake, crawled back into bed and lay looking at the ceiling for a moment, then rolled over and gripped Weather’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Can you wake up?”
    “Hmmm?” she asked sleepily.
    “Are you operating in the morning?”
    “At ten,” she said.
    “Oh…”
    “What?” She rolled more on her back and reached up and touched his face.
    “I need to talk to you about the case. I need an opinion from a woman. But if you’re working…”
    “I’m fine,” she said, more awake now. “Tell me.”
    He told her, and finished with, “Tower could die anytime. If Andi and the kids are gone, his wife is gonna get a load. Whatever he’s got, plus—maybe—whatever’s in the trust. Probably four million, plus a million-dollar house. So the question is, could Nancy Wolfe do that? How about Helen?”
    Weather had been listening intently. “I can’t say—it could be either one. Normally, I’d say no to Wolfe. Even if she’s having an affair with Tower, she can’t be so sure that he’ll marry her, that she’d already be maneuvering for the money. Not to the extent of killing three people. Helen, well, Helen doesn’t have anything invested in Andi and the children. She was having an affair with Tower before Andi’s mother was gone—so she and Andi probably dislike each other. And if Helen knows about the affair with Nancy Wolfe, maybe…”
    “Yeah. If Andi and the kids are gone, she gets more from a divorce, if there is one. If Andi and the kids are gone, and Manette croaked from the stress, or from the stress before a divorce, or both…well, all the better. So Helen looks good.”
    “Except.”
    “Except,” Lucas repeated.
    “Except that we don’t know much about Wolfe’s relationship with Andi Manette. They are partners and old friends, we’re told—but that’s exactly where you’ll find some really deep, rich, suppressed hatreds. Things that go back decades. My best friend in high school got married when she was nineteen, had a bunch of kids, and wound up flipping burgers in a motel. The last time I saw her, I realized…I think she hates me. Andi was always rich, Wolfe didn’t have money; Andi married a man who Wolfe met first, and who went on to become a multimillionaire. Andi has good-looking kids, Wolfe is at the time of life when she’s got to face the possibility that she won’t get married and have children at all. And maybe Andi would interfere with this affair. I wonder if she knows about it. Anyway—that’s all pretty emotional stuff and pretty tangled up.”
    “Yeah. And there’s something else,” Lucas said. “If somebody sicced a fruitcake killer on Andi Manette, who’d know more about picking a fruitcake killer than Wolfe?”
    “Maybe you’re looking at the wrong files,” Weather said. “Maybe you should be looking at Nancy Wolfe’s.” After a moment, “And there’s always George Dunn.”
    “He doesn’t feel right to me, anymore,” Lucas said. “He’d have to be a great liar, a great actor.”
    “In other words, a sociopath,” Weather said.
    “Glad you said that,” Lucas said.
    “A lot of very successful businessmen are—at least, that’s what I’ve heard anecdotally. Like surgeons…”
    “Nancy Wolfe once called him a sociopath,” Lucas said.
    “…and if he were facing a divorce that would cut his business in half…How much did you say he was worth?” Weather asked.
    “If he wasn’t lying, could be anything up to thirty million.”
    “So Andi Manette’s death could be worth fifteen million dollars to him,” Weather said. “I’ll tell you something. Rich people get very attached to their money. It’s like one