Secret Prey

government would get most of it anyway. I mean, it’s nothing.’’
    ‘‘Nothing,’’ Sherrill said.
    ‘‘Nothing.’’
    ‘‘Jesus, I make forty thousand a year,’’ Sherrill said. ‘‘And I’ve been shot for it.’’
    ‘‘For your big shots, forty ain’t a salary,’’ Sloan said from behind Robles. ‘‘It’s more like the price tag on something they might buy next week.’’
    ‘‘Okay, okay,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘So this woman . . .’’
    ‘‘Bonnie Bonet.’’
    ‘‘. . . told you she killed Kresge, and she has some motive.’’
    ‘‘Yes.’’
    ‘‘Why’d she tell you?’’
    ‘‘Ah, God. Because I asked her.’’ He twisted his hands nervously, and Lucas noticed that he seemed to sweat all the time, and copiously. ‘‘See, the thing is, when she came on the ’net and asked if the merger could be stopped, I told her, not unless we killed Kresge. I didn’t mean it, we were just joking on the ’net. But she came right back and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ’’
    ‘‘And you said . . .’’
    ‘‘I said maybe we could figure a way to blow his car up,’’ Robles said.
    ‘‘Blow his car up,’’ Sloan said, repeating the phrase as though he were astonished.
    ‘‘I was joking . I really was—I’d never hurt anyone, it was just all bullshit. We went back and forth about ways to kill him, all ridiculous, like sci-fi stuff, and then . . . we stopped.’’
    ‘‘Stopped?’’ Sherrill’s eyebrows went up.
    ‘‘Yeah. It never came up again,’’ Robles said. ‘‘It was like, a couple of nights, then we wore the subject out, and it never came up.’’
    ‘‘Until somebody killed him,’’ Lucas said.
    ‘‘Why didn’t you tell me this Saturday?’’ asked Sloan.
    ‘‘Because I didn’t think there was any chance she’d done it. And if she hadn’t done it, talking about it could only get me in trouble. So I wanted to check with her. I came back, and I couldn’t find her online, and I didn’t know where she lived. She’s unlisted, and I’d only gotten together with her at Uncle Tony’s. That’s a bar . . .’’
    ‘‘We know,’’ Sherrill said. ‘‘The one with the porno on computers.’’
    ‘‘Porno? You mean the TV Three story? That was all bullshit . . .’’
    ‘‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘Go ahead.’’
    ‘‘Anyway, when I did find her, yesterday, I asked her if she’d heard about it, and she said yeah, she’d done it,’’ Robles said.
    ‘‘But you don’t believe her.’’
    ‘‘No. She’s never fired a gun. She doesn’t even go outside, for Christ’s sake. She’s white as a sheet . . . she doesn’t know about walking around in the woods. Her old man’s got something wrong with his bowel or something and never worked, and they never went anywhere when she was growing up. She said she shot him with her father’s .30–30, and I bet she doesn’t even know what a .30–30 looks like or that he has one.’’
    ‘‘Could be the right kind of rifle,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘The medical examiner says Kresge was killed with a largecaliber rifle, which around here probably means thirtycaliber . . .’’
    ‘‘That’s why I decided to tell you,’’ Robles said plaintively. ‘‘I’m ninety-five percent sure she didn’t do it—but I’m five percent not sure.’’
    ‘‘And you don’t know where she lives,’’ Sloan said.
    ‘‘No, but she uses her driver’s license as an ID, and I figured you could get that.’’
    ‘‘Bonnie Bonet?’’
    ‘‘B-O-N-E-T,’’ Robles said, spelling it out. ‘‘Is this gonna be in the newspapers?’’
    Sherrill looked at Lucas: ‘‘Want me to pick her up?’’
    ‘‘Yeah. Do that. Get some uniforms to back you up. Call me when you’ve got her.’’ When Sherrill had gone, Lucas turned back to Robles, looked at him for several seconds, then said, ‘‘We’ll need a statement. Detective Sloan will take it.’’
    And to Sloan: ‘‘Read him his rights on the tape.’’
    ‘‘My rights?’’ Robles threw his head back to peer at Lucas. ‘‘To a lawyer? Do I need a lawyer?’’
    Lucas shrugged: ‘‘Purely up to you . . . Anyway, talk to Sloan.’’ And to Sloan: ‘‘I’ll be down at my office. I’ve got some paper to look at.’’
    TWOFILES WERE WAITING FOR HIM: FILESONTHEPEOPLE mentioned in the anonymous letter as victims of Wilson McDonald.
    Lucas took off his jacket, hung it on an antique oak coatrack, and dropped in the