Free The Price of Innocence by Lisa Black Page B

beneficiary, but I can’t go get Marty’s stuff yet. It has to go to the probate court first or something like that.’
    ‘Well, that’s for lawyers to determine. It’s really got nothing to do with me.’ He sipped the coffee and tried to sidestep, but she moved more quickly and planted herself in front of him, bouncing her weight from toe to toe. She had put on jeans for her trip out of doors, with a thin sweatshirt and a zippered hoodie.
    ‘But it belongs to me now, so why do I have to wait for it? I’ve got a daughter in jail who needs a lawyer
now
. Marty would want me to have it,’ she added with solemn piety. ‘Can’t you hurry them up? You were his friend.’
    ‘I never met him.’
    ‘But you came to my house—’
    ‘I’m investigating his death. I was not part of his life. I’m sorry, Miss Simpson, but I have to go.’ He stepped around her and made for the revolving glass doors.
    She stayed on his heels, even gaining ground during the trip. ‘So you need to talk to me, if you’re investigating. I know more about Marty than anyone.’
    ‘You hadn’t seen him for over a year.’
    ‘I know what matters.’ She plunged through the glass doors ahead of him. Angela waited on the other side of the row of marked and unmarked police vehicles at the curb, causing a minor backup. He circled through the doors and prepared to run the gauntlet of Lily Simpson, hoping to do so without spilling coffee on his semi-good pants.
    ‘I’m just saying,’ she said as soon as he broke out of the pocket of glass, ‘that maybe whoever killed him came from way back, too, like me.’
    ‘Because of an old grudge? You got someone in mind?’
    ‘No,’ she admitted, drawing out the
o
.
    He studied her eyes, blue and jumpy. ‘Are you on something?’
    ‘No.’ This time with more firmness but less conviction.
    Frank would have bet his paycheck that Lily had seen a windfall coming and celebrated, the only way she knew how – not with champagne but with another kind of crystal. He could haul her back inside, do a DRE exam by making her follow his pen with her gaze to check her pupils, and then arrest her if she failed. But Lily would be out smoking more of it before nightfall and he needed the time to investigate a murder. ‘I really can’t help you with his estate, Lily. As far as I know, those things take time and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. He only died on Monday,’ he added, wishing he could use the impolitic but blunt phrase
his body’s barely cold
. He dumped the coffee cup – nothing without a lid could enter the pristine Crown Vic – and dove into the sanctuary of the passenger seat.
    ‘Horns are blaring,’ his partner informed him.
    ‘They’ll get over it.’
    Somewhere in the middle of this statement the rear door opened and Lily Simpson jumped into the back seat, just as the vehicle began to move.
    ‘Um—’ Angela said.
    ‘
Ma’am
.’ Frank still knew how to say the word with that voice of absolute authority, perfected during his patrol days, and he used it now. ‘Ma’am. You can’t
do
that.’
    ‘We don’t usually have people jumping
into
a cop car,’ Angela remarked. ‘They try to get out, yes, but not in.’
    Lily seemed quite at ease there, her face slightly screened by the metal mesh divider. She hugged herself with both arms and said, ‘I need a ride. My car died again, and I figure you guys are probably going to Marty’s place anyway, right? I need to talk to his landlord.’
    Frank said, ‘Lily, I can’t help you with the legal process, and we are not a taxi service. You’re going to get out at the next light.’
    ‘I can’t get out. This is a cop car, right? Handles don’t work in the back seat?’
    ‘You would know,’ Frank said.
    ‘What?’
    Perhaps he could annoy her out of the vehicle. ‘I ran your stats. They’re pretty impressive for the beneficiary of a cop. Four warnings and eight arrests in the past fifteen years, five for drug possession and