Judgment Prey by John Sandford

Author:John Sandford [Sandford, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

At Lucas’s house, they trooped into the family room and turned on the television, went to Netflix, found The Old Pals streaming series, and went to season four, episode six.

One minute in, Maggie Cooper walked into the apartment set, where two of her old pals were obsessing over the possibility that another old pal was cheating on the old pal he was supposed to be dating. The story line was absurd, way dumber than Friends, but their interest perked up when Cooper’s character decided to stupidly disguise herself to spy on the possibly philandering old pal.

She did it by putting on a dark hoodie and black sweatpants. Hanging around a stoop outside the apartment of the man she was spying on, she was a dead ringer for the Sand killer.

Virgil: “Ah, man.”

“But she was in her car . . .” Lucas began.

“Or Melton was. Never could see who it was, on the garage and Whole Foods videos. Cooper leaves the U early, driven by Melton, who drops her off away from the house. Cooper walks to the house in the dark and waits. Melton goes back to the U, gets Cooper’s car, drives to the Whole Foods, buys some olives, to establish the alibi, then to the house and parks in the garage.

“Cooper has already done the shooting,” Virgil continued. “She walks off the porch, then around the house past the basketball net to the garage. Remember how you never see Sand and the boys leave the house through the garage access door? Because the camera in the garage looks the other way, down the driveway? In the garage, Cooper takes the jar of olives and finds the bodies. At the same time, Melton goes out that door, through the yard and disappears.”

“I don’t believe it,” Lucas said.

“But it’s possible. And it would explain a lot of stuff, like we can’t find any sign of the killer after he leaves the porch. There were people walking around the neighborhood when the rain started, but nobody saw him, nobody knows where he went. He’s like smoke, he vanishes.”

“But that leaves Melton here in St. Paul. Miles from her car at the U. What, she walked there?”

“She could have,” Virgil said. “Five or six miles, maybe? Maybe she caught a bus part of the way. I don’t think an Uber, that’d leave a trail . . . Or maybe she pre-positioned her own car over here. I mean, she really doesn’t have a perfect alibi.”

“Not perfect, but pretty good,” Lucas said. “Besides, I still don’t believe it,”

On screen, Cooper was back in the Old Pals apartment set, now showing a ridiculous bushy mustache and hexagonal steel-rimmed glasses. The camera switched to another old pal, then back to Cooper, by the door.

Virgil: “Look at her shoes.”

Lucas. “Yeah. They look big.”

“Maybe even size eleven,” Virgil said.

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