Page 29 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Polished Off

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“Lieutenant! I just obtained a crucial piece of information from
Linsey. That handyman, Pete Boggs, might have had a motive for
killing Mariana. Can you look at her bank accounts and see if she was
making regular withdrawals or writing checks to him for some
unexplained purpose? Or paying him extraordinary wages?”
She almost smiled. “You mean blackmail, Counselor? That’s a
serious charge.”
“Well, Linsey told me she couldn’t figure out why Mariana
tolerated him.”
“Really? It should be apparent that your late client enjoyed
keeping men around on any excuse in order to create the illusion that
they were romantically pursuing her. In Boggs’ case she had little
need to exert herself: he really was attracted to her. I suspect she
engaged in a brief dalliance with him years ago, establishing the
inevitably one-way affection keeping him around. Far from exacting a
high price for his services, I expect he received less than the
minimum wage. He must have been living in hope that he could
rekindle that fickle flame.”
I was crestfallen. “You found that out from his police record?”
“No. When he dropped his wallet, I saw a photograph of her in
his papers. It was a dog-eared picture of a much younger Mariana
than I saw dead on the floor this morning. The nitrobenzene
poisoning distorted her features slightly, but I would estimate that the
snapshot was at least fifteen years old. Given the victim’s vanity,
however, it cannot be ruled out that she gave him a rather early image
of herself more recently.”
I pigheadedly could not relinquish the notion of Pete Boggs’
culpability.
“What about that rare book? Do you think it’s out there in the
garbage? Maybe he’s been stealing the really valuable stock and
Mariana found out. After what I’ve learned about her today, I can
well imagine her blackmailing him just for the hell of it.”
Labelle’s eyelids crinkled just enough to give an impression of an
upper-face smile. Could she have found amusement in my fast
mental footwork, reversing blackmailer and victim? I found nothing

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