Scam

the ultimate rejoinder. Before he did, I said, “Sorry. I’ll get out of your office. I was just hoping you could put a spin on these new facts. The fact she wanted to be found, and the fact she took the keys.”
    “We know why she wanted to be found,” MacAullif said. “She got a bonus for tellin’ her story.”
    “Yeah, but why?”
    “So you wouldn’t know about the keys.”
    “Why is that so important?”
    “Because if you knew about the keys, you could figure it out. “
    “But I can’t figure it out.”
    “Sure, but you’re a moron. The person who set this up was concerned with a bright person stumbling on the facts.”
    “Fine. If you’re so smart, tell me what the keys mean.”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Then how do you get off slamming me for not knowing?”
    “Oh, you want fair? I’ll come find you in your office, make you guilty of conspiring to conceal a crime.”
    “Come on, MacAullif. What’s the dope on the keys?”
    “You know as much as I do.”
    “Yeah, but what’s it mean?”
    MacAullif took out a cigar, drummed it on the desk. “A person wants a key to unlock a door. In your client’s case, it could be the keys to the office, it could be the keys to his home. The first consideration is the keys to his home.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it’s him. All these guys had keys to the office, right? But he’s the only one’s got keys to his home. If the target was the office key, then it’s random—I mean, the fact that it’s him. If it’s his apartment key, then it’s specific. It’s him and him alone. In that case, you got one suspect loomin’ larger than the rest. The guy from the company makin’ a play for the wife.”
    “How does that make sense? He and she were thick as thieves.”
    “So they appeared. It doesn’t make it true. What did you actually see? As I recall, the guy called on her, took her out to lunch. She, in return, voted her stock for him. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they were in it together, or even that they were having an affair.”
    MacAullif leveled the cigar. “There’s another thing. All this happened before your client was dead. Obviously. Suppose this guy—the one hitting on his wife—what’s his name?”
    “Marty Rothstein.”
    “Right. Suppose this Marty Rothstein is your man. Suppose it’s him all along. He wants the keys to your client’s apartment. Why? To get in there and get something on him. He does that, but it backfires in his face, because your client calls him on it, and he has to kill him.”
    I frowned. “How the hell does that make any sense?”
    “I don’t know. I’m coming up with theories from brand new facts. Assuming they’re facts. Assuming they’re not a bunch of lies you’ve been fed. Taken at face value, we’re speculating who stole the keys and why. The most obvious answer is this Marty Rothstein, to get into your client’s apartment. I know you don’t like that, because your storybook mentality says the most obvious answer can’t be true. The thing you lose sight of is, every once in a while it is.”
    “Fine, MacAullif,” I said. “Can I point out a flaw?”
    “Be my guest.”
    “If Marty Rothstein stole Cranston Pritchert’s keys to get into his apartment, it seems to me the most likely scenario is he does that, Cranston Pritchert comes home unexpectedly and surprises him, and he shoots Cranston Pritchert dead. But Cranston Pritchert wasn’t killed in his own apartment, he was killed at work.”
    “Not a big flaw,” MacAullif said. “How’s about this? Your client comes home, finds someone’s been through his study. Perhaps something’s missing. I don’t know what, maybe a list of friendly stockholders. But whatever it is, the guy goes batshit. He rushes up to the office, and who does he find but what’s-his-name, this Rothstein, going over whatever it is he just filched. Say it was a list of stockholders, and Rothstein’s now on the phone calling everyone on the list. Your client goes ballistic, and Rothstein has to shoot him.”
    “What about the others?”
    “What others?”
    “The talent agent and the girl—why does he kill them?”
    “Because he killed him. These murders were never intentional. Not from the beginning. But once he kills your client, he has to cover up. Who can link him to the crime? The talent agent and the girl. So they gotta go.”
    “Wait a minute. How do you mean, the crimes weren’t intentional?”
    “I mean from the beginning. That’s