Free Busted by Karin Slaughter Page A

the post office died with him, so what’s the point?”
    Will had always thought being able to live your life was a good point. “There was only a thousand bucks in that cash register.”
    “A thousand twelve,” she corrected. “Never lie about money, son.”
    Will shook his head. He still didn’t understand, and he wasn’t too proud to admit it. “All of this for a little over a thousand dollars?”
    “Anybody ever tell you you’re just about as ignorant as a goat?”
    Will didn’t respond. Amanda often compared him to farm animals. “What’s in itfor you, Maw-Maw? I don’t get it.”
    “Well, let me walk you through it, boy.” She counted off on her fingers. “Wayne got fired, but he’s still got his pension and life insurance policy through the school. Doug-Ray has about the same, but Pete’s the jackpot. A hundred thousand dollars for being killed in the line of duty. And happened just in time, I guess, if those detectives were as close as you say to locking him up.” She seemed pleased with herself. “I’m next of kin with his mama and daddy gone.”
    “Pete’s not dead.”
    “Yet.” She shrugged. “If he makes it, he’ll get disability. The investigation will go away – let’s be real, the county doesn’t need another scandal on top of the pile. I guess I’ll have to take care of little Petey again.” The wink she gave Will suggested what kind of caregiver she planned on being. “Poor boy.”
    “What about Billie?”
    Maw-Maw’s face twisted in disgust. “She pulled a baby-daddy scam on Doug-Ray. I saw it coming a mile away, but he was blind to anything had more than one hole between the legs. That girl was about as pregnant as I was. I let her live with me so I could keep an eye on her. She spun some story about losing the baby. Of course, I couldn’t kick her out after that. I’m a Christian.”
    “You needed her as a witness,” Will realized. “The store really had to be robbed. She had to back up Pete’s line-of-duty death.”
    “Which she would’ve done if everything hadn’t gone to hell.”
    Will floated his theory. “Doug-Ray and Pete weren’t meant to survive the robbery. Shooting Pete in the chest wasn’t an accident. Neither was shooting Doug-Rayin the head.”
    “Wayne had one foot in the grave. The melanoma was gonna take him in a few months. I told you, he never much liked Doug-Ray, and Pete always got more poon than he did, which can grate on a man. I’m sure you get where I’m coming from. Every single one’a y’all walk whichever way your compass needle points you.”
    Will had to say, “For the mother of three sons, you really seem to hate men.”
    “What can I tell ya? I’ve known too many of them to think otherwise. Present company excluded, of course.”
    Will doubted he was an exception. Hate radiated off her like the heat lamp over the nachos at the Lil’ Dixie.
    He thought of something that hadn’t stuck out before. “The surveillance camera was angled to the back of the store. Billie’s testimony about the robbery would’ve been the only thing the police had to go on.”
    “Which would’ve worked great if the little bitch hadn’t run out the back screaming her head off. Took everything I had in me to keep her from going to the police.” She soured her face. “You don’t think I wanted to be up there this morning pretending like I saw the whole thing.”
    Will was fairly certain Maw-Maw had seen a great deal. He asked, “What kept her from turning all of you in?”
    “Money,” she said. “I threw the bag of cash on the roof of the store. Near about shocked me to death that y’all didn’t look up there.”
    Will could only imagine the words Amanda would have for the agents who missed this. “Billie was supposed to get the proceeds from the holdup.”
    “Now you’ve got it.”
    “And Gilbert?”
    “He’s the only one’a them ever added up to anything.” Her words were kind, but her expression said otherwise. “Not that