Identity Crisis (Sam McRae Mystery 1)

“Lawyer.” I found one of my cards and gave it to him. “I represent the lady with brown hair. Cops think she killed the guy.”

“No.” He looked shocked. “I remember her plain as day. I heard them talking when she left. They was jawing for a while. She was kinda upset about something.”

“You’re sure it was him?”

“Positive. Saw him through the peephole.”

“You said he had another visitor? A lady?”

“Two, I think. They came by real late.”

“Two ladies?”

“Well, sure.” He issued another high, thin laugh. “You know. Double your fun.” He gave me that wink again. I wanted to rub myself down with Clorox.

“What did they look like?”

He licked his lips. “Well, now, I didn’t actually see them. I heard one of them laughing. Just happened I was up. I get up three times a night to take a whiz.”

More information than I needed. “When was this?”

“It was that Saturday night. Sunday morning, really.”

“And you never saw who it was?”

He shook his head. “Nah. By the time I got to the peephole, they’d gone.”

“So you couldn’t say for sure that it was two women?”

“Well, I didn’t see ’em, but that laugh was kinda sexy, you ask me.”

For all I knew, a high-pitched guy’s voice might give the old man a hard-on. “Did you notice any strange noises before they left?”

“Before they left, I was asleep.”

“Something woke you up?”

“Told you. Got up to take a whiz, like usual.”

I wondered. What if a gunshot next door had awakened him? A gunshot could sound like a car backfiring. Late at night, people would be asleep and wouldn’t necessarily hear. In this neighborhood, even if they heard gunshots and knew they were gunshots, they wouldn’t necessarily do anything about it.

“Did he have any other visitors?”

“Nah.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was here all day. Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Thanks so much for talking to me,” I said. “I didn’t catch your name.”

He smiled, shook his head, and closed the door.

This put a new spin on things. Derry’s witness must be another neighbor. I had a witness who could testify that Garvey was alive when Melanie left him.

I went down to the mailboxes. The one for the old man’s apartment was marked with a skull decal. Cute. I know where you live, old man, I thought. I would tell Derry and Ray about him. I’d subpoena his ass, if necessary.

I left the apartment complex and backtracked to the main road. I was thinking about whether to check for Bruce at Aces High, when I heard a squeal of tires behind me. A quick look in my rearview mirror brought me an unwelcome sight. It was Stavos’ Lincoln, picking up speed and heading for me.