much of a kick out of Hamlet’s antics as anyone else, but murder is serious stuff. If you do accidentally stumble across Curt’s killer before Reese does . . . well, remember, there’s no rule that says a murderer can only kill once. Next thing you know, Hamlet might be dancing around in your blood.”
“Ladies,” James interjected in a conciliatory tone, “let us not lose sight of the goal here. We want to find Ms. Aguilar swiftly, and we want to bring Mr. Benedetto’s killer to justice. What harm can there be in approaching both problems from multiple angles and see where they intersect?”
“Fine time to play peacemaker, James,” was Jake’s wry retort. Then she sighed and said to Darla, “You win. Go on, let’s hear Hamlet’s list of suspects.”
“It’s still a work in progress,” Darla loftily informed her as she reached for her page. She gave Jake a two-sentence recap of Dumas’s tale—a skill she’d developed during her tenure working at the store—and then began reading her the short list.
“I figure we can leave off the musketeer names,” she conceded once she ran through those names, “but then we had Maria Theresa, as in Louis XIV’s wife. It’s a little too coincidental that Tera’s full name is—”
“Maria Teresa,” Jake finished for her.
“Then there’s the author’s first name, Alexandre Dumas, which is sort of like Alex Putin.”
“The Alex Putin? As in, the czar-father of the local construction business?” Jake considered this a moment and then shrugged. “His hands are clean, meaning no arrest record around here, but the rumors fly. The thing is, a run-of-the-mill bashing on the head is a bit understated for those guys, if you know what I mean. They tend to go for something more spectacular, lots of blood spatter, to send a message. But might as well leave him on the list. Who else you got?”
“Robert.”
“Robert? You mean, ex-goth-kid-who-works-here-now Robert? You really think he has something to do with this?”
Darla took a deep breath and reluctantly nodded.
“It’s possible. I can’t picture him deliberately hurting anyone,” she said, recalling the story of how he’d defended the girl at the porn shop, “but he is the only person so far who saw Tera after she left her mother’s house on Wednesday night. And then he was evasive about what he was doing there that late.”
“Well, he does live in the vicinity, doesn’t he?” was Jake’s reasonable reply. “And you know kids that age. They can stay out all night and still make it to work or school the next day. Loitering doesn’t equal murder, so I’d say that’s a bit of a stretch, too.”
“Sure. But how many kids his age are also best buddies with Alex Putin?”
Jake gave her a sharp look. “You’re saying that Robert is friends with that guy? Tell me more.”
“Well, maybe not best buddies,” Darla conceded, “but Robert told me he did construction work for this Putin guy on the side. And when a girl was being hassled at his old job, he said he threatened the harasser with Putin’s name. But remember the copper pipe stolen from Barry and Curt? If Robert was doing the stealing for the Russian gang people, that could be a tie-in.”
“Interesting, but a lot of conjecture, and none of it necessarily incriminating. Still, I’ll mention it to Reese. But you’ve left a few people off your list. What about Hilda, or your boyfriend, Barry?”
“Barry is not my boyfriend,” Darla shot back, feeling herself blush yet again, “but how can you suspect him? Curt’s been his best friend for thirty years. Besides, I was with him when we found Curt. No one could pretend to be that upset.”
“Guess you’ve never been to the movies, kid,” Jake said with a grin. “They give out awards for that kind of thing.” The she sobered. “And I don’t want to think about Hilda being involved, either, but she was not a happy camper when she hired me to dig up dirt on the guy. You talk about Mama Grizzly with these overprotective mothers? Well, let’s just say she rates in the Mama T-Rex category. She told me she would do anything to protect Tera, and I damn well believe her.”
“So who do you think killed Mr. Benedetto?” James wanted to know.
Jake shrugged. “Not my concern. My job is to find Tera. But here’s the reality: half the time the killer is someone the victim knows, but the other half of the time he—or she—is some random person that your victim had