A CORPSE BY ANY OTHER NAME by NEIL McGAUGHEY

Author:NEIL McGAUGHEY
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SCRIBNER
Published: 1998-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“He’s found standing

over the dead woman’s body,

her blood

on his hands.

As the evidence mounts against him,

why does he still refuse to

talk?”

—Stokes Moran, on Sophie Dunbar’s Behind Eclaire’s Doors

“Kyle, you’ve got to call the police.”

“I can’t.”

Hardly a minute had elapsed since the moment I had jerked open the passenger door and shouted, “Drive!”

Lee gunned the motor, made a U-turn in the middle of the street, barely braked at the corner to check for oncoming traffic, and then fishtailed out into the intersection.

“You don’t have any other choice,” she said, straightening out the wild turn and heading back north. “Kyle, you can’t run away from this.”

“Look.” I turned to face my wife, grateful that we had survived her Evel Knievel stunt driving. “It’s too late. I’m already guilty of leaving the scene of a crime, disturbing the body, removing evidence, and who knows what else. I’ve got to come up with some sort of explanation before I tell the cops anything.”

“Why can’t you just tell them the truth?” Lee accelerated through a yellow light.

I frowned. “Are you crazy? Who’d believe me? With Lockwood already breathing down my neck for one murder, what do you think he’ll do when he catches me in another?”

“I—”

“I’ll tell you what he’ll do,” I said. “He’ll lock me up and throw away the key, that’s what he’ll do.”

“You can’t be sure—”

I laughed. “Lee, don’t kid yourself. Lockwood is not our friend. He’ll arrest me in a heartbeat.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. And with me behind bars, he’ll be able to close the books on two murders, which will allow the real killer to get clean away.”

Lee frowned, emphatically shaking her head. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” I answered. “But I’ve got to do this my way.”

“Why?” Lee abruptly veered the Land Rover into the left lane, zooming past a slow-moving city bus. “Don’t you think it’s just possible you might be wrong about all this?” she said.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t. As I see it, the only chance I’ve got to clear my name is for me to solve these murders myself. And, believe me, that’s not something I can accomplish from inside a jail cell.”

“Then what are you going to do?” she demanded as she slammed on the horn for an out-of-state driver who had the temerity to obey the legal limit.

“As soon as we get back to the apartment,” I said, my decision already made, “I’m going to call Nolan.”

“And you’re sure no one saw you?” he asked.

This time I had told Nolan everything, even the omissions from my first little adventure with Amy. When he didn’t interrupt with his usual wisecracking asides, I knew I was in trouble. Normally Nolan’s a cross between David Letterman and Mister Rogers, but tonight I got Inspector Maigret instead.

“Is it as bad as I think it is?” I asked after I’d ended my recitation of the pertinent events.

“Well, it’s not good,” he finally admitted after a ten-second silence. “I can understand why you didn’t want to call the police, but unfortunately Lockwood doesn’t know you as well as I do.

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