The Alibi

A few seconds later the door was opened. He was naked except for a towel around his hips. “If you’re bringing the heat on me, so help me God, I’ll—”

“Don’t be absurd. The last thing I want is for the police to know I was ever associated with you.”

His eyes scanned the hallway. Finally satisfied that she was alone, he said, “I’m relieved to hear that, Alex. For a while today, I was afraid you had double-crossed me again.”

“I—”

Movement behind him drew her gaze beyond his shoulder. First one girl, then a second, appeared. He glanced over his shoulder and, when he saw the girls, smiled and pulled them forward, keeping an arm around the waist of each. If either was eighteen, it wasn’t by much. One was wearing a pair of thong underwear, nothing on top. The other was wrapped in a sheet that Alex assumed had been stripped from the bed.

“Alex, this is—”

“I don’t care,” she interrupted. “I need to talk to you.” She leveled an impatient stare on him.

“Okay.” He sighed. “But you know what they say about all work and no play.”

Shooing both girls back into the room, he swatted their fannies and asked them to give him a few minutes alone with Alex. “We’ve got business to settle. Then the party will really begin. Okay? Go on, now.”

With their whining admonitions not to keep them waiting long, he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door.

Alex said, “You’re stoned, aren’t you?”

“Don’t I have a right to be? Seeing cops at your front door wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I came to see you today.”

“Where did you buy the dope?”

“I didn’t have to buy it. I know how to pick my friends.”

“Your victims.”

He grinned, taking no offense. “These girls were well supplied. Quality stuff. Why don’t you have some?” He reached out and gave her knotted shoulder a squeeze. “You’re all tense, Alex. How about a little pick-me-up?”

She slapped his arm away.

“Suit yourself,” he said with an affable shrug. “Where’s my money?”

“I don’t have it.”

His smile slipped a notch. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

“You saw the policemen at my house, Bobby. How could I possibly bring you that cash now? I came here to warn you not to come near me again. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want you to drive past my house. I don’t want to know you.”

“Hold on just one goddamn minute. We agreed, remember?” He waggled his hand between his chest and hers. “We made a deal.”

“The deal is off. Circumstances have changed. They questioned me about Lute Pettijohn’s murder.”

“That isn’t my fault, Alex. You can’t blame me for your screwup.”

“I told you last night—”

“I know what you told me. That doesn’t mean I believe it.”

It was pointless to argue with him. He hadn’t believed her yesterday, and he wasn’t going to believe her now. Not that she cared what he believed. She just wanted to be rid of him.

“As agreed, I’ll give you the hundred thousand.”

“Tonight.”

She shook her head. “In a few weeks. As soon as this is cleared up. It