Free 4 The Killing Bee by Matt Witten Page B

feeling my reputation didn't impress him all that much. In fact, he looked straight at me with narrowed eyes while he said, "The suspect is ordered remanded to the county jail. Bail is hereby set at four hundred thousand dollars."
    Malcolm sputtered, "But—"
    Little Napoleon brought down his gavel. "Next case. The People versus Jacob Burns."
    As I stepped up to the dock, I had trouble focusing at first. Damn, four hundred grand. If I was really bankrolling Laura's defense—and it sure looked like I was—then I'd have to spring for ten percent of that, or forty grand, for a bail bondsman. Suddenly my three hundred K nest egg didn't feel quite so large.
    Forty thousand dollars . That was more than I used to make in three years as a starving artist. How much more dough would I end up spending on Laura's defense? And how much would I need to shell out for my own bail?
    The answer, as it turned out, was five thou, because the judge set my bail at fifty thou. He also gave me a stern warning to avoid any "shenanigans" related to Laura's case. Malcolm told me later that fifty K was way higher than the ave rage bail for B and E's in Saratoga County. Especially for a first-time offense. Okay, they were hitting me for obstruction of justice too, but still, what was the deal here? Was Little Napoleon buddies with Chief Walsh? Or maybe he saw my Gas That Ate San Francisco movie and didn't like it.
    Speaking of movie s, the way my finances were getting zapped, I might be forced to crank out another Grade Z flick after all.
    Laura and I were removed in separate police cars to the Ballston Spa County Jail. Meanwhile, Andrea feverishly set to work contacting bail bondsmen and imploring our mutual funds to wire emergency cash to our bank account.
    Fortunately, she managed to untape enough of the red tape that my fellow crimie and I were released at 5:27, just before the administrative office of the jail closed up for the night. Andrea was waiting for us at the front desk, and Laura and I took turns hugging her. My concussion-induced headache, which had held me tightly in its grip all day, began to dissipate.
    "God, Andrea, I don't know how to thank you," Laura said, tears streaming.
    "Hey, I had to make sure you don't miss bowling tomorrow night," Andrea replied.
    After we got into Andrea's car —a red Honda minivan that made me feel hopelessly suburban—I said to them, "Guess what, ladies? I have a couple of hot murder suspects for you."
    Laura leaned forward eagerly from the backseat.
    Andrea's hands gripped the steering wheel tight. "Like who?" she asked.
    "Hold on to that wheel. You ready?"
    "Come on, who?" Laura said.
    "Susie and Elena."
    Laura gave an explosive sigh and sat back again. "Oh, brilliant."
    "Hey, why not?"
    Andrea wasn't too joyful either. "Bad enough the cops are after Laura. Now you want them hounding all our other friends, too?"
    "Hey, Susie and Elena may be our friends, but I always liked Laura best."
    Andrea took her eye off the road and threw me a sharp look, almost running into the black Buick in front of her. "Jake, this isn't funny. Laura didn't kill Meckel, and neither did Susie or Elena. Get real."
    "They do have motives. We can't let ourselves be blinded by misguided loyalty."
    "Look, there's no way Susie or Elena could have done it, or Barry either for that matter," Laura said. "None of them was out of each other's sight for more than a minute."
    "Their time line isn't quite that clear," I said. "Susie and her two daughters got to the library at seven-fifteen. Susie could have slipped out and done the deed."
    Andrea said, "But—"
    I interrupted her. "And Elena says she went to her classroom for a few minutes. But maybe it was a little longer than t hat, and maybe she went to Meckel's office, not her classroom.
    This time it was Laura who said, "But —"
    I interrupted again. "And if we can think up a motive for Barry, he's a possible too. Maybe he didn't really go to the bathroom."
    "But none of them had