PI On A Hot Tin Roof

chair at a right angle from her. “Sure ya wouldn’t like somethin’ to eat? Least I can do’s feed ya. Miz Valentino says ya did a real fine job over at Buddy’s, rest his evil ol’ soul. What can I do for ya?” He didn’t stop to let her answer. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing they did to Miz Valentino and that Indian fella. Real shame about that. And all she cared about was her client—didn’t think about herself at all. Fine, fine woman, Angela Valentino. Don’t come any better than her.” His face hardened. “Listen, whoever knocked off ol’ Buddy did us all a favor. Thought about it myself once or twice.”
    “Somehow, I don’t see you as a murderer,” Talba said truthfully.
    “Oh, I got a temper on me. Ask Denise—or my wife. Anybody’ll tell ya that. More than once I thought about takin’ the law into my own hands. But no need, no need; thanks to Miz Valentino. And you, of course. I have to thank ya for what you did.”
    “It kind of backfired on me, though. I didn’t mean to get the judge killed.”
    He patted her hand. “Course ya didn’t. Man like Buddy, though, he had enemies.”
    “Sure you didn’t kill him?” Talba smiled when she said it.
    “Killin’ him wasn’t exactly my fantasy. I had one, though—don’t think I didn’t. Thought about torchin’ that hellhole more than once. Too close to home, though; mighta spread.”
    “The marina, you mean?” she asked, wondering whether he was serious.
    “Garbage dump’s more like it. Buddy’s shrimp mighta been ‘wild-caught,’ but I don’t want to think about sanitary conditions over there. Not to mention safety considerations. Whole neighborhood was up in arms about that poor little Dorand boy.”
    “I hear he lived around here,” Talba said. “You know his family?”
    “I do now.” He looked uncomfortable. “Simple folk. Salt of the earth—didn’t know what hit ’em. Ya never did say what I can do for ya.”
    “Still got a few loose ends on the case. Angie isn’t off the hook quite yet. She said you almost got the same treatment.”
    “Hell, yeah, I did. Goddam those bastards—think they own the earth.”
    “What bastards? I mean—Buddy and who else?”
    “People in power that take advantage of the little folk. That’s all I meant. Why?”
    “I heard you saw who planted the drugs on you.”
    He shook his head. “Well, I did and I didn’t. Saw a couple guys get out of my car and run away. Only saw ’em from the back. But one of ’em was bald as an egg. Pretty sure it was Brad Leitner. I thought they were stealing something, but nothing was missing. Right away I knew what happened.”
    “How?” Talba asked.
    “Pretty obvious. There was a bag of pot on the front seat.” He picked up a cellophane pack of saltines and began to worry it open.
    “In plain sight,” Talba said.
    “Right. So anybody walking by could see it. See what I’m getting at? It wouldn’t take an illegal search to find it. So puttin’ two and two together, it had to be a plant. Because Buddy’d threatened me. Or rather, he’d gotten Brad Leitner to do it.” There was something odd about his face when he mentioned Leitner, as if a whiff of Buddy’s marina had wafted by.
    “What did Brad threaten you with?”
    “Just that I’d be sorry—that kind of crap.” Izaguirre was now pouring ketchup into one of the little sauce cups. “So I just took the package and threw it in the water. By the time I got back to the car, a couple guys were looking in the window—sheriff’s car was parked right down the street.”
    “That was pretty quick thinking.”
    Izaguirre looked up from his sauce-making. “Ya know something, Miss Wallis? I wasn’t thinking at all. I got the hell scared out of me, that was all. Besides, I know Leitner. My kid went to school with him—always was a sneaky little bastard.”
    Talba smiled. “What’d he do to your kid?”
    “Turned half the school against him—told lies about him.”
    Since he hadn’t mentioned what kind of lies, Talba didn’t feel comfortable asking. Instead, she waited while Izaguirre added horseradish and Tabasco to his concoction.
    Finally, he said, “They were both on the track team. Said Mikey tried to grab him in the shower.” He stirred the sauce with a cracker.
    Talba smiled. “Oh. What’d Mikey do to make him mad?”
    “Little pissant was jealous. Mikey was the captain of the team.” He stirred the sauce again.
    “Was Leitner ever in any kind of