Secret Prey

SLUGGISHLY AROUND, looked at the clock: already nine. He dressed, stopped at a fast-food place for French toast, then headed downtown. He called the county attorney’s office and got Kirk.
    ‘‘Had the bail hearing yet?’’
    ‘‘Yeah. The judge was a wee bit skeptical about the arsenic. J. B. did a pretty nice job. We got the bail up to a million, but she was ready for it.’’
    ‘‘She’s out?’’
    ‘‘Twenty minutes ago,’’ Kirk said.
    ‘‘How about the arrest warrant on her mother?’’ ‘‘We’re slowing down on that. J. B. brought up this stuff about the old house they used to live in, and we heard about this business with her sister, so we’re gonna have the house checked and depose the sister. I mean, we’ve got her on a million, I don’t think she’ll run.’’
    SHERRILL DROPPED BY AT MIDMORNING, CARRYING A doughnut and two cups of coffee. ‘‘She’s out, I hear.’’
    ‘‘Yeah,’’ Lucas said in disgust. ‘‘I’ll tell you what: if she was a black guy with a record, she’d be washing dishes in Stillwater by now.’’
    ‘‘Sloan told me about that whole rap about her sister: that’s pretty weird.’’
    ‘‘Yeah, I don’t understand that,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘It’s a fucked-up defense. You put Helen on the stand, the truth is gonna come out.’’
    ‘‘You don’t think there’s any chance that Audrey’s telling the truth? That it’s Helen?’’
    ‘‘No, I don’t.’’
    ‘‘The one thing that’s hard for me to get over is her appearance,’’ Sherrill said. ‘‘She’s only five years older than me . . .’’
    ‘‘Really? I thought you were sixteen . . .’’
    ‘‘Shut up. I’m being serious. The thing is, if you take the attack on Elle, where somebody beat her up with a ball bat, who do you think would be most likely to do that? Helen, who looks pretty active, pretty good shape, still young? Or Audrey, who looks old, slumped over?’’
    ‘‘Whatever she looks like, she’s only thirty-eight,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘She—’’
    He stopped, put a hand to his forehead. ‘‘What?’’ Sherrill asked. ‘‘A stroke?’’
    ‘‘Aw, man,’’ Lucas said. He picked up the phone book, talking fast: ‘‘I think this might have gone through my head the night we were at St. Anne’s, the night Elle got hit, but it went away; it’s like it was a stroke . . .’’
    ‘‘What, what?’’
    ‘‘If Elle takes the phone call, and grabs her keys, and runs out the door and gets jumped . . . whoever called her must’ve been standing right there. Must’ve been calling from the bushes. Must’ve used a cell phone, not a pay phone. All the other tips we’ve had have come from pay phones, it must’ve blocked me off or something . . .’’
    Sherrill snapped her fingers: ‘‘Phone records.’’
    ‘‘Absolutely.’’
    The man who could get the records was away, but was expected back before lunch. In the meantime, the company would try to reach him, to hurry things up.
    Lucas said to Sherrill, ‘‘If this pans out, she’s dead meat.’’
    ‘‘What if it’s Helen’s phone?’’
    ‘‘That’d be a problem,’’ Lucas said.
    ‘‘So we wait?’’
    ‘‘We wait.’’ Lucas looked at his watch. ‘‘Shouldn’t be more than an hour or so.’’
    DEL STOPPED IN: ‘‘I’M BEING HAUNTED BY THESE OLD ladies,’’ he said.
    ‘‘Tell them if they insist on going to jail, they’ll be raped by bull dykes,’’ Sherrill suggested.
    ‘‘I think some of them are gonna need to be rehabbed,’’ Del said. ‘‘They’re all getting different lawyers; there’s gonna be fifty-eight lawyers to deal with.’’
    ‘‘Too bad the pinking shears thing wasn’t fatal,’’ Lucas said nastily. ‘‘Think how much better off you’d be.’’
    ‘‘That’s the truth,’’ Del said sincerely. ‘‘Jesus, what a mess.’’
    ‘‘When’re you going to Cancu´n?’’ Sherrill asked.
    ‘‘In a week,’’ he said. ‘‘Hope this is done by then. I’d hate to have it hanging over my head for the whole time I’m down there.’’
    ‘‘THE THING IS,’’ SHERRILL SAID, AFTER DEL HAD GONE, ‘‘what if Helen really loves Audrey—they’ve been through a lot together, and they’re sisters—and decides to help her out? What if we go talk to Helen, and she starts taking the fifth? Audrey gets on the stand, blames everything on Helen, and Helen refuses to talk . . .’’
    ‘‘I don’t think that would happen. Audrey