Twisted Game, Nora Kane [the giving tree read aloud .TXT] 📗

your story anymore.”

“Censoring the press? Not a big believer in free speech, are you?”

“Not when that speech is slandering me and making people like Harry Lee mad at me. Though, right now, he might be a little bit more upset at you than me. When he asks you to leave him off your show, he’s not going to ask nearly as nicely as I am.”

“You’re not being very nice.”

“Yeah, I am. Trust me.”

“I’m just trying to get a story out there.”

“Well, just make it about somebody else.”

“Like Phoebe Masterson, perhaps?”

“Maybe, pick a different one.”

“So, you are working on that?”

“No comment.”

“You know, if you want me to report what’s really going on instead of speculation, you could give me something. That way, I wouldn’t have to follow you around.”

“Sorry, I don’t work that way.”

“It’d make it easier on both of us if you did.”

“No, it’d make it easier on you. Keeping things confidential is part of my job.”

“And telling people things is mine.”

“Then we’re going to have to agree to disagree. You know what else we’re going to agree on?”

“What’s that?”

“You’re going to stop following me.”

“I am?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just following the story.”

“Follow the story all you want, just don’t follow me, got it?”

“I feel like I’m being threatened.”

“No, not yet. Right now, I’m asking nicely.”

“Okay, what if you gave me an interview?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, not about a current case or anything, just about the stuff from the past.”

“You want to talk to me or Viuda Negra?”

“You.”

“Okay, but the following stops. And I’m kind of busy right now.”

“No problem. Actually, I’m good for content at the moment. There’s a lot going on. Do you still have my card?”

“You didn’t give one to me.”

Cassandra gave Margot a card and said, “Call me when you’re ready.

Margot nodded and then added, “I’m going to need you to drive away first.”

“I said I wasn’t going to follow you anymore.”

“Then there’s no reason for you not to drive away, is there?”

“Alright, have it your way. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Margot watched Cassandra drive away. When she was out of sight she walked back to her car.

Chapter 7

It didn’t seem like a lot of Margot’s plans paid off, but this one did. She knew where Derek Helms worked, so she took a chance he would be working on a Saturday and he’d go out for lunch.

Both chances worked out. Even with Cassandra slowing her up, she made it there just before Helms walked out. Having him on foot made it that much easier since she wouldn’t be losing him in traffic. Even better, he picked up food at a taco shop with a patio and decided to eat out there.

“Derek Helms?” Margot asked the balding man sitting down to eat a Carne Asada burrito. The first thing she thought when she saw his picture was that he looked too old for Rita. He may have thought so as well. The gold earring he wore seemed out of place with the rest of him. Margot could have been wrong, but it looked like an attempt to look younger.

He glanced up and looked suspicious, rightfully so.

“If I told you no, would you believe me?”

“No,” Margot said as she sat down in front of him.

“If you’re a reporter, all you’re going to do is watch me eat. I’ve got nothing to say.”

Margot retrieved her Shaw Detective Agency card, and her Private Investigators license and put them on the table where Helms could see them.

“Are you working with Phoebe’s defense team?”

Margot took note of the fact he said ‘Phoebe’s’ with no trace of animosity. If he thought she committed the crime, he didn’t seem mad at her about it.

“If I say yes, are you going to refuse to talk to me?”

“No, so you work weekends too?”

“When the job requires it.”

“Does this qualify? I don’t think she’s even been indicted yet.”

Margot shrugged and told him, “You know the first forty-eight hours in a murder case are the most important and I’m already over forty-eight hours behind.”

“But you’re the defense.”

“It’s still a murder case.”

“I suppose that’s a fair point. I’m just not sure what I can tell you. I had no idea my wife was seeing Tim. If you're wondering, my whereabouts that night are well documented.”

She also noted there wasn’t a trace of sadness in his voice when he said, ‘my wife.’ Margot thought these two reactions were odd, but that didn’t mean much. People react to tragedy differently; there isn’t really a right or wrong way. It still made her wonder about Mr. Helms though.

“I was more interested in your business relationship with Mr. Masterson.”

“Well, that’s easy. We didn’t have one.”

“You used to, though.”

“Once upon a time.”

“You had a falling out.”

“I guess you could call it that.”

“What would you call it?”

“I’d say I didn’t want to use my business as a money-laundering operation for mobsters.”

“So you dissolved the partnership?”

“I sold him my share and started over without him. Turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Tim had trouble turning a profit even with free money rolling in.”

“That’s the problem with laundering money, you don’t get to keep it.”

“Yeah, though I guess none of that matters now.”

“It might.”

“You think mobsters killed Tim because he was screwing my wife?”

“Unlikely.”

Helms nodded as he reached the conclusion Margot was considering. “I suppose, if somehow Phoebe didn’t do it, an angry mobster could have killed him, but I wouldn’t know anything about that. I don’t even know if he was still in business with them.”

“If you had to guess? Since you were both still working in