The Money Shot by Stuart Woods

Author:Stuart Woods
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

51

Mason Kimble looked up from the newspaper. “Did you burn his house down?”

“Who?” Gerard said.

“Billy Barnett.”

“No. Do you want me to burn his house down?”

“Someone already did.”

“What?”

“His house burned down last night. He barely escaped with his life. Are you sure you didn’t do that?” Gerard had been known to use forceful methods to deal with problems.

“Barnett escaped. Does that sound like my work?”

“No offense meant, but what the hell is going on?”

Gerard shrugged. “All of this is news to me. I don’t know anything about this Billy Barnett person, except he’s chosen to make himself a major pain in the ass. The last I heard, we have two weeks to deal with him. But rushing off half-cocked to burn the guy’s house down—that’s a messy solution, not my style. No way to make it look like an accident.”

“No, there’s not.” Mason pointed to the newspaper. “According to this, he was on vacation and just came home for a board meeting.”

“He came back just to fuck with us?”

“Apparently.”

“Why?”

“Why indeed. I guess he’s a friend of the Bacchettis’.”

“And this actress appealed to him for help?”

“Which she shouldn’t have done, as I have told her in no uncertain terms.”

Gerard frowned. “If he was just here for the meeting, why is he still in town?”

“Someone burned down his house.”

“He didn’t know that was going to happen. Why’d he stick around for it?”

“Are you saying he burned down his own house?”

“That’s probably what the police are wondering, based on the fact that he survived. You did say he got out?”

“Yes.”

“Was he injured?”

“Apparently not.”

“Then someone didn’t do a very good job. Assuming it was arson.”

“The police aren’t saying, but it sure sounds like it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The police refused to comment. You can practically hear the reporter saying, ‘The only reason I can’t tell you it’s arson is the cops are being hard-asses.’”

Gerard nodded. “So maybe he did burn it himself.”

“Why?”

“To frame us.”

“How? What connects us to the crime?”

“The fact that we’d profit from his death.”

“You and I know that. No one else does. It makes no sense.”

“Who else would want to burn down this guy’s house?”

“Exactly.”

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