“Lucky us.” Joe glanced around the door frame into the kitchen, where Marsha was seated across the dining table from his empty place setting, looking perturbed as she sipped from a glass of iced tea. Into the phone, he said, “Bolden buys it near Tobias on Friday night, only three days after—”
“Tuesday. There’s got to be a correlation.”
“Are you certain or are you guessing?” Joe asked.
“Damn near certain. Jordie Bennett was on the premises when Bolden was killed.”
“Say again?”
“Jordie Bennett—”
“Never mind. I heard you the first time. Holy shit. Wait, you said, was?”
“She and Mickey Bolden were in the bar at the same time.”
“Together?”
“No. But they left within minutes of each other, she a few after him. But, here’s the clincher—her Lexus is still in the parking lot. Mickey was about three feet away from it when he was popped.”
“By her?”
“Unlikely.”
“Why?”
“If she killed him, why would her car still be there?”
Joe didn’t have a clue. “I’m missing pieces. Fill me in.”
“A guy in the bar was schmoozing Ms. Bennett. She asked him nicely to get lost and, when he didn’t, she told him to go to hell, grabbed her purse, stalked out, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.”
“Jesus. Please tell me that I’m not hearing this.”
“Sorry, but you are,” Hick said. “She’s unaccounted for.”
“I thought we had local guys surveilling her since Tuesday.”
“Guy. One. Well, two sheriff’s deputies who’ve been rotating shifts. The night shift officer logged her leaving her house at nine thirty-two. In no apparent hurry, she led him through town. But once out in the boonies, she hit the gas pedal and managed to shake him.”
“And goes to a beer joint?”
“Where she was last seen. Nobody at her house or place of business. Both locked up tight. Nothing disturbed in either. Security alarms still set. Sheri
ff’s office fears foul play—”
“No shit.”
“—and already have a BOLO out for her and the guy.”
“The schmoozer followed her from the bar?”
“Not that guy, the other guy.”
“What other guy?”
“Mickey’s friend.”
“Mickey had a friend?”