Dead Money Run Read Free Page B

until I knew what was happening. Opening my eyes, I saw Hilary in a chair across the room with my bag opened on her lap. She was looking through it like a person who had searched bags before in a slow and methodical way.
    With one swift motion, I came off the couch and, swinging my right arm, hitting her on the side of the head, knocking her to the floor. She let out a scream and I hit her again. This time she didn’t make a sound. She just lay on the floor, looking up at me.
    “What the hell do you think you ’re doing?” I yelled. She kept looking at me without saying a word.
    “I’m not going to ask again.”
    “Trying to find out who you really are.”
    “I told you. I’m Lou Malloy and I am an ex-con. I don’t have much more to add to that. Now it’s your turn.”
    “I told you. I’m a student.”
    “Bullshit,” I said. “You have just one more chance then its lights out.”
    I waited as she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them like a school girl waiting for her turn on the trampoline. Finally her eyes dilated and, taking a deep breath, said, “Okay. I’m not in school, but the part about being a friend of your sister is true. She told me all about you. The robbery, your being in prison and that you were getting out soon. She even told me the day you were getting out. I figured there was an eighty percent chance that you would come to Jacksonville on a bus. A friend of mine works for the Greyhound Bus Company and they are just like the airlines. When you bought your ticket he gave me the heads up and the rest was easy.”
    “How could my sister know when I got out? I didn’t even know until after I learned of her death?”
    Nothing.
    “You better start talking,” I said.
    “I don’t know, she just did.”
    “What if someone was meeting me when I got off the bus?”
    “If someone was meeting you then they would have met you when you got out of prison. I figured the odds were pretty good that you would be alone. If someone met you at the bus station then I planned to move on. It was no skin off my nose. Besides, I figured I had nothing to lose.”
    “Yeah, you d id,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Your life.”

Chapter 7
    “S o what do you want?” I said.
    “I want to find out who killed Susan and why. I want what you want.”
    “Why look through my stuff? You could have asked me.”
    “You would have lied. You’re an ex-con, remember.”
    Well , she had a point. I decided to cut her some slack, besides I needed a place to hang for a few days. I also decided to play my next card.
    “Who’s Jake Lockman?”
    For a few moments Hilary just stared at me. When she spoke I caught a bit of anger in her voice.
    “He’s a bum. How do you know about him?”
    At least she was up to speed on something.
    “ He sent me a letter about Susan’s death. Just before I got out, I called him.” I then told her the gist of his call and about the condo and of my suspicions.
    “I’m not sure about the pimp part,” said Hilary. “I don’t think he’s that smart, but he’s a bum and probably one of the reasons why Susan is dead.”
    When I asked if she thought he killed her, she said, “No, but he liked to gamble and do drugs. He owes a lot of people money. I know Susan told him about you and the money. He probably used that to buy himself some time with whoever was holding his markers. He hung around the Casino where Susan worked from time to time. Always trying to make a score at the tables, but I heard he was barred from the place because of all the money he owed.”
    As Hilary told me the whole story about Lockman and Susan and how she had met Susan, her eyes started to water. By the time she finished her story, she was into a full cry out. I handed her a paper towel from a roll on the kitchen counter.
    “Thanks,” she said.
    “They’re your paper towels,” I said.
    We sat talking about Susan longer than I wanted to. I needed a set of wheels. Riding around on the back of Hil