Secret Prey

interested in their reactions. ‘‘A couple of minutes after eleven o’clock, somebody rang the doorbell at Susan O’Dell’s apartment, and when she opened the door, shot her twice in the head with a handgun. O’Dell’s dead.’’
    And they were, as far as Lucas could tell, stunned. Astonished.
    Bone, who didn’t seem given to sputtering, sputtered, ‘‘That’s not possible. I just talked to her tonight.’’
    ‘‘What time?’’
    ‘‘Seven o’clock or so.’’ He looked at Kresge. ‘‘About the Community College deal.’’
    Kresge was solemn: ‘‘You know what? It’s a crazy man. We could be next.’’
    ‘‘Mr. Bone, I don’t want to imply anything, but you’re the obvious beneficiary of all this—the top job is opened up by a murder, then the main competition is eliminated. Again, I don’t mean to imply anything, but we really have to pin down where you were, and what you were doing all evening.’’ He turned to the woman. ‘‘And the same with you, I’m afraid.’’
    ‘‘Do you really think I’d do this?’’ Bone asked. He sounded more curious than afraid.
    Lucas thought for a moment and then said, ‘‘I don’t know you well enough to say. But even if I didn’t, I have to make sure. If McDonald left here a little after ten-thirty, and you were here alone, and the woman didn’t get here until eleven-thirty . . . who has an alibi?’’
    ‘‘I wasn’t alone,’’ Bone said. ‘‘I’m sorry, I should have said so . . . My assistant, I think you met her at the bank, the blonde? Kerin Baki? She was here. We were working on a presentation for the board.’’
    ‘‘When did she leave?’’
    ‘‘A few minutes after Wilson—she was heading down to the bank. She’s probably still there,’’ Bone said. ‘‘And between the time she left and the time Marcia got here, I made a half-dozen phone calls. There must be some way to get at phone records.’’
    Lucas nodded. ‘‘We’ll get those.’’
    And Bone said, ‘‘I’ll tell you something else: We know exactly how many votes I’ve got, which is nine. And we know how many Susan had, which is seven. I’m one vote away. At least three votes are uncommitted, and we were just working out ways to get one of those three. Because when we get one, all the others will come.’’ He hopped off the couch, and started to prowl the apartment as he talked. ‘‘So what I’m saying is, I think I had the top job. This might knock me out—or slow things down. If the board thinks there’s the slightest chance that I’m implicated, I’m dead meat. Better to hire somebody else, and apologize to me later, if I’m innocent, than get stuck with a CEO who turns out to be a killer.’’
    ‘‘You know who the real beneficiary is?’’ Kresge said. ‘‘Wilson McDonald.’’
    ‘‘He made a deal with her,’’ Lucas said.
    Kresge made a rude noise: ‘‘She might have made a tactical agreement with him, just to grab the top slot. But after she’d gotten rid of Bone and a few other people, she’d have gotten rid of McDonald. She and Jim were actually friends, in a way—but she hated McDonald.’’
    ‘‘But everybody says McDonald’s out of it.’’
    ‘‘Not if there’s nobody else left,’’ Kresge said. She looked at Bone. ‘‘Jim darling, I’d be very careful if I were you. Very careful.’’
    BONE AND KRESGE AGREED TO STAY AT THE APARTMENT until Sloan got there. Lucas talked to Sloan by phone, and Sloan said he was nearly done with the McDonalds.
    ‘‘What do you think?’’ Lucas asked.
    ‘‘When I talk to Mrs. McDonald alone, she’s pretty straight,’’ Sloan said. ‘‘When I get her around her old man, she’s a fucking ventriloquist’s dummy.’’
    ‘‘I talked to Elle Kruger about that. She said severely abused women can get like that.’’
    ‘‘We need to give McDonald a good look,’’ Sloan said. ‘‘Something tells me he’s involved. I don’t know if I think that because he’s really involved, or because I just don’t like the sonofabitch.’’
    ‘‘Listen, when you get to Bone’s . . . get him aside and talk to him about his sex life. Who he’s screwing. Because I think that tip about him sleeping with Kresge is right. You’ll understand what I mean when you see them together. And find out if he’s screwing his assistant. She’s a little chilly, but that’s probably just me. Maybe Bone can warm her up.’’
    ‘‘I’ll do that,’’ Sloan