Murder Deja Vu

him.”
    “ They ? Who the hell are ‘“they”’ besides the most quoted people in the universe. No matter what they say, twelve jurors of his peers convicted Reece Daughtry of murder.”
    “Whatever, Robert. You’re the prosecutor. You should know what you’re talking about.” Klugh scanned the diner. “And I’d keep your voice down if you don’t want to call attention to yourself. Now, what do you want from me?”
    “I’m Mr. Minette to you today.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I want you to get me something to connect Reece Daughtry with the woman in Corley. Better yet, get me proof he killed her. The matchbook they found at Daughtry’s is worthless, and the guy who said he saw Daughtry on Friday night was falling-down drunk. Even I can’t make him look credible. The judge will set bail. We’ll be lucky if that stone man doesn’t sue us for false arrest.”
    Klugh laughed. “Maybe there is no proof.”
    “Well, find some. I don’t give a damn how. Just do it. I didn’t bring you up from Atlanta to ask me how to find evidence. That’s your job. Talk to the victim’s friends. See if she ever mentioned meeting a tall guy at Rudy’s who looked like Daughtry. See if she slept with him, for crissakes. I hear she slept around.”
    Klugh leaned in closer, spoke in a whisper. “You don’t pay me enough to do what I think you’re asking. I won’t manufacture evidence, for any amount of money.”
    Robert snorted. “Bullshit.”
    Klugh sipped his iced tea. He leaned over and patted Robert’s breast pocket.
    “I’m not asking you to do that, and stop fiddling. Do you actually think Robert Minette is crazy enough to record this?” He zeroed in on Klugh. “And you better not be doing it now.”
    “I’m not,” Klugh said. “But I recall you saying to always get the goods on those who can either hurt or further your career. You take your own advice seriously, don’t you? Look at you—gift wrapped in your designer suit and hundred-dollar tie. You’re a picture of a man at the top of his game. But we both know how you arrived at your lofty position. The first time, when was it, twenty, twenty-five years ago?”
    “Never mind,” Robert snapped. “Water under the dam. You’ll never use it.”
    “Not unless I have to.”
    Robert knew Klugh had kept a copy of the tape. He even played it for him once. “You’d be cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
    “Maybe. But you know why I keep it?”
    Klugh spoke in a voice so cold and tight, it sent a spike of fear to the base of Robert’s skull. He was afraid of Klugh, with good reason.
    “To keep you in line, Robert. So watch your fucking mouth when you talk to me. I’m not some lackey you can threaten.”
    Robert moved back in the booth. “Okay, okay. Let’s forget it, okay?”
    Klugh relaxed, unable to hide a victorious smirk. “Why do you have a hard-on for this guy? What’s he ever done to you?”
    Robert didn’t answer.
    “Is it because he’s banging your ex-wife? Yeah, read they hauled him out of her house. Must be humiliating to have the woman who bore your sons fucking an ex-con. But then he’s a whole lot better looking than you.”
    Robert struggled to restrain his hair-trigger temper from boiling over, but Klugh knew how to stoke the fire. He also knew Robert had broken the rules in Charlotte. Broken the rules? He’d broken the law. Not that he’d given Klugh the order to make a witness disappear. Not explicitly. Robert never ordered anything.
    “Keep my wife out of this. She’s a soft touch, and Daughtry’s story would break anyone’s heart―if he weren’t covering up a double murderer. Nailing him for this one will prove he was rightly convicted in Boston. I’d be in line for a judgeship, or maybe I’d run for governor. They couldn’t ignore Robert Minette then, could they? My name would be on everyone’s lips before they dragged Daughtry from the courtroom.”
    “Well, you’d better figure a way to nail him, because there’s nothing to tie him to the murder. Even if he screwed the girl, he didn’t do it Friday night. Like you said, your eye witness is a bomb, and the bartender said Daughtry wasn’t there. Plus, the victim left with someone else, and Daughtry’s lawyer won’t quit until she finds out who.”
    “Do you know?”
    “Haven’t got a clue, and if I did, I’d go straight to the police.”
    Yeah, right. Klugh go to the police? He’d blackmail the killer into