Tourist Trap (Rebecca Schwartz #3) (A Rebecca Schwartz Mystery) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series)

time, thinking about it, and finally I headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge, feeling perfectly miserable. I found Art Zimbardo at Full Fathom Five.
    He should have looked like the happiest man in the world, but he didn’t. His smoldering eyes seemed even bigger than usual, even darker, like a raccoon’s. He looked as if he’d been losing sleep. He said, “I couldn’t come to court today. I haven’t even talked to Lou yet.”
    “But you’ve heard what happened?”
    “Yes.” He tried to smile. “You got him off.”
    If I had any doubts about the conclusion I’d come to, his odd, distant behavior was dispelling them. I said, “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
    His face was sullen. “I’m working.”
    “Art, do you remember what I told Lou when you two first came to me? I said I had to advise him to turn himself in. I’ve come to tell you the same thing.”
    He turned around and walked back into the kitchen. I went outside the restaurant and stood blinking in the bright sun, not wanting to follow and create a scene, but not knowing what to do. I was still standing there when Art joined me, no longer wearing his waiter’s jacket. He looked about fourteen, and miserable. “You knew it was me when I called, didn’t you?”
    I shook my head. “No. I figured it out after court today, when I found out Les had been dead for months the day someone threw that rock on the bridge. It might have been someone who was trying to cash in on the Trapper killings—Les had that idea himself—but that didn’t really make any sense at that point, with Lou right on the verge of conviction. Everyone already thought the real Trapper was behind bars and on his way to staying there. Everyone except you and me and Chris and Rob. We all thought the real Trapper was still out there somewhere. And you had a strong enough motive to commit murder yourself to spring Lou. Once I thought it might be you, I started playing with the idea. Both Rob and I had talked to the real Trapper, and he hadn’t whispered. But the person who called me did. So maybe it was someone whose voice I knew—once again, you. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it before. Throwing that rock wasn’t nearly as sophisticated, as well planned, as the Trapper’s other crimes. It was more like an act of desperation.”
    “I had to do something, Rebecca! I couldn’t let him die. He was the only one who was nice to me when I was a kid. It just wasn’t fair.”
    “What wasn’t?”
    “He saved my life once. Maybe more than once. We had a stepfather who beat us—beat me, mostly, because I was younger. He’d get drunk and lose control—you know what I mean?”
    I nodded.
    “Lou stepped in and stopped him once. I ended up in the hospital with a couple of broken ribs. Another time, Lou hit him—just hit him because he was beating on me. The old man took it out on Lou.”
    “So you tried to save Lou’s life in return.”
    “I thought he deserved a chance. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”
    “Tell me something. Why did you ask for the money?”
    “I thought if Lou got loose, he and I could go somewhere. And be rich.”
    I was reminded of the time more than twenty years ago, when my mother was sick and my father away on business. I thought and thought of what I could do to make things better for her and finally came up with a plan that thrilled me: I cut every flower in her garden and got Mickey to help me arrange them artfully. Nothing I’d experienced before or since had dismayed me so much as the look on her face when we bore them triumphantly into her bedroom. I knew I was going to see the same look when I talked to Lou.
     
    THE END

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
     
    Heartfelt thanks to Brian Rood for generous and valuable advice; to my editor Michael Seidman, whose good sense and sharp eyes are really very much appreciated; and to a blue-ribbon panel of expert witnesses: Diane Schneider, Cliff Sharp, Dr. Ronald Roberto, Dr. Steve Holtz, and Tom Wendt.

 
The next Rebecca Schwartz mystery is DEAD IN THE WATER; find it at www.booksbnimble.com or www.juliesmithbooks.com
    The Rebecca Schwartz Series
     
    DEATH TURNS A TRICK
     
    THE SOURDOUGH WARS
     
    TOURIST TRAP
     
    DEAD IN THE WATER
     
    OTHER PEOPLE’S SKELETONS

Also by Julie Smith:
     
    The Skip Langdon Series
     
    NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
    THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ
    JAZZ FUNERAL
DEATH BEFORE FACEBOOK
(formerly NEW ORLEANS BEAT)
    HOUSE OF BLUES
    THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
CRESCENT CITY CONNECTION
(formerly