"Broussard, John A - Kay Yoshinobu - Death On Watch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Broussard John A)

Several hours later in Kay's office, Sid expressed his doubts, but he finally had to admit that her explanation made good sense.

"I think the scenario went something like this," Kay explained. "For one thing, the security shack was an ideal distribution center for the dope. Solage had a steady supply of crystal methamphetamine, and Ben was his distributor. The retailers would drive up to the shack. Ben would go out with his clipboard with the packet underneath. The driver would take it and pretend to sign his name while slipping Ben the money. It was a neat trick that could even be carried out in broad daylight. But Ben became the weak link in the chain.

"Two or three days before he was killed, Ben told Solage he was quitting. That's not easy to do. He was the only dealer who knew that Solage was supplying the dope. As long as he worked for Solage, he was reliable. After all, he was doing well in the business. But once he quit, there was no way he could be trusted. If he suddenly had qualms about dealing, he might have decided to inform on Solage."

"Sure, but why did Solage go to all the trouble of killing him on duty? Why not just drive him out to some back road on some excuse and kill him there? It would have been easier to do it that way, and there would have been a lot less risk."

"And what would the police think if they found the body of a thirty year old male with a bullet through the head abandoned in some cane field?"

"I see what you mean. The police would have immediately assumed drugs."

"Exactly. And the investigation would have been in that direction. So when Solage heard that there was going to be a burglary at the Loftons' while Franco was on shift and when he was due to be out on patrol, he decided that would be an ideal opportunity to kill Ben and have someone else immediately blamed for it.

"Aaron Franco's description of the condition of the truck was what pretty much convinced me that that's what happened. Someone wasn't telling the truth, and I couldn't see what Aaron had to gain by claiming it was in perfect shape if it wasn't. So that told me Solange was the one who was lying when he said it was a clunker. The clincher, of course, was when I found out the pickup had actually been purposely disabled.

"Solange admitted he was there around the shift change at ten. That gave him the opportunity to put the sugar into the tank of the pickup then, when he was parked right next to it. After that he went home, waited till about one-thirty, then drove back out to Paradise Ranch and hid close by. From there he could check the calls on his answering machine with his cell phone.

"Shortly after two, he got Ben's message. In a matter of minutes, he'd walked into the guard shack, shot Ben, opened and locked back the gates, closed up the shack and took off to where he could watch the Lofton house without being observed."

Sid looked thoughtful, then exclaimed, "And when Mark went in to burgle, Solage slipped the gun under the driver's seat!"

"You've got it. There's no hint of drugs. No one's going to look too hard for any other killer when they've got a burglar with the murder weapon in his possession. And Solage is free to look around for another dealer - maybe even Ben Franco's replacement at the guard station."

"Now all you have to do is convince a jury."

Kay laughed. "Nope. The prosecutor has agreed to go into court this afternoon with me and ask that the murder charge be dismissed."

"How did you work that?"

"I didn't. The police did. They now have a list of all of Solage's calls, in and out, on his home phone and cell phone. He did get a call from Ben a few minutes after two, but he didn't answer it on his home phone. Didn't answer it at all, in fact. Instead, he checked his answering phone just a few hundred yards away from the gate. It's all a matter of record. And the police even found traces of ice in Ben's car and in Solage's apartment.

"Mark won't need a lawyer on that murder charge any more, but Solage sure will."


JOHN A. BROUSSARD was born in Cambridge, Mass in 1924 and graduated from Harvard and the University of Washington. He taught on the college level for twenty years and wrote non-fiction and reviews before turning to fiction; he's sold about sixty short stories recently. His first novel, a fantasy called MANA, will be published in November by Pulsar Books (ISBN 1-58697-206-5). You can find more information at www.fictionwritings.com.

Copyright (c) 2000 John A. Broussard