"Rain, Anthony Vincent - Three Palms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rain Anthony Vincent)

"It didn't happen like that," said KJ.

"I still haven't figured out how that gun got under my window," said Sunil.

"The killer must have followed KJ. He saw him go through the window and figured he'd help the police find a suspect," I said.

"Oh, shit," said KJ.

"What happened when the police questioned you?" I asked.

"They talked to me for hours about what I did that night. Pointless crap. They never mentioned I was under suspicion for murder. They just kept asking what I made for dinner, what I watched on TV. What teams I rooted for. Stuff like that. Pointless."

"Did you lie to them? Tell them that you hadn't been with Donny Jackson?"

"Yeah. That was stupid. But I didn't know they were going to throw his murder at me."

"They didn't tell him they found his clothes," said Sunil. "They had us wait outside the house, when they did their search. All of a sudden, they come out and they want to talk to him. But they never mentioned the bloody clothes. That's entrapment."

"No, that's police procedure. They gave KJ space to hang himself and he did. Go on."

"So after hours of talking about pointless stuff, then they suddenly started asking me why I killed him. They said lots of crazy shit. They said Donny probably had it coming to him. That I would feel better once I confessed. I kept saying no, I didn't shoot him. They didn't believe me."

"Then the lawyer arrived and they had to stop questioning him," said Sunil. "The lawyer said charge him or let him go. They let us leave."

After I finished talking to KJ, I stepped outside with Sunil. He lit a cigarette, the humidity keeping the smoke down about his face.

"When I first moved to Melbourne about twenty-five years ago, this whole area was a mosquito infested swamp," he said. "People avoided the place. They just drove on through to Cocoa, or Fort Lauderdale. I thought this would be a perfect location for a motel. People have to stop and stay somewhere, right? I had a swamp drained to put up Three Palms. But it's not like that anymore. Now everyone is moving to this area. Homes are going up everywhere and roads are being paved. We have a large technology industry now. We have all the fast food restaurants you could want. Times change." He shrugged his shoulders.

We stood in silence for a few minutes.

"I guess I'll call it a night," I said. "See what's on the local cable and crash."

"Ever since my wife died, I can't fall asleep," said Sunil. "So I read. Lots of things. I'm reading Stephen Ambrose right now. He's a historian. Have you read him?"

I shook my head no. "I stick mainly to magazines with lots of pictures."

He nodded and looked down. After a long moment, he looked back up. "Do you think my son is innocent?" he asked.

"Does KJ know his way around a gun?"

"No. I won't even keep one in the office for protection. A lot of the motel owners do that. Not me."

"Well, I know that whoever killed Donny Jackson put three tightly placed bullets into the center of his back. That takes skill. I don't see him controlling the retort of one .9mm shot, no less three perfectly located, unless he had lots of practice."

"So now what?"

"Now I find out who wanted Jackson dead."

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