Read Rebecca Schwartz 05 - Other People's Skeletons for Free Online Page A

covering the police story, and if you tell me anything that gives me the slightest bit of hope, I’m doing my own investigation. With the blessing of the powers that be, I might add.”
    Chris sat straight, and she was at least two inches taller than Rob. She spoke in staccato sentences, the way I’d seen her do in court: “I never met the man. I didn’t kill him. I appreciate your confidence.”
    “Good. Then let’s work together on this.”
    “Why should we?” I asked. “I don’t mean to be rude, but that’s a serious question. What’s in it for us, and what’s in it for you?”
    “I have access to things you need— that little piece of information I just gave you, for instance. And Jason McKendrick’s Rolodex, for another thing (Xeroxed, of course— the cops probably have the original by now.). Would you find that useful?”
    “We certainly would. And what can we do for you?”
    Chris blurted, “Am I in it?”
    Rob smiled. “If you had been, the cops wouldn’t have got the original.” He was a charmer, and he knew Chris well, but I didn’t quite believe it; I thought it more likely he didn’t suspect her because he hadn’t found her name there. He turned to me. “As for what you have that I want, it’s information, of course. You have the one piece I need.”
    “And what’s that?” I asked.
    “The name of the person or persons who’d most like to frame you.”
    “I can’t think of anybody,” said Chris disconsolately. “Everybody frickin’ loves me.”
    Rob mentioned the obvious: “Not exactly everybody. Look. Even if you don’t think you know, you know. We just have to be patient and let it surface.”
    “I don’t get this. Rosalie says I don’t have any enemies.”
    “Goddammit, Chris, how does this stuff work? How could she know that?”
    Rob looked confused.
    “I’m just letting off steam,” she said. “It’s not the most reliable thing in the world. Obviously I have an enemy.”
    “Where were you parked?” I asked.
    “A couple of blocks from Rosalie’s— I had trouble finding a space.”
    “So somebody must have followed you, stolen your car, and deliberately used it to kill McKendrick. Who they happened to know had your name and address in his pocket.”
    It was a truly malevolent thing to do, to plan so carefully, snare her so thoroughly. Somebody had it in for her in a big way. And it had to be someone who also wanted to kill McKendrick. Suddenly I had an idea: “I know. I’ve got it.”
    “You’ve got it?”
    “Look, he was a critic, right? It was probably somebody whose career he ruined— somebody who didn’t even know him.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because what have you and McKendrick got in common? You also get your name in the paper occasionally and also have a job that could be perceived as giving you the power to destroy people. Maybe it was someone you went up against in court who wasn’t all that stable. So he decided to kill McKendrick and frame you for it.”
    Both Chris and Rob looked excited.
    “The down side is, it means you have to look at everything McKendrick ever wrote and see if you recognize any names.”
    “It beats being a convicted psychic.” She glanced at Rob uneasily, but he didn’t seem to be listening; he had other things on his mind.
    “So what do you think?” he said. “About working with me. Think of the money you’ll save.”
    “How’s that?”
    “You won’t have to hire an investigator.”
    I said: “Your call, Chris.”
    “He’s got conflicts right and left.”
    I assumed the lawyer role: “What about it, Rob?”
    He spread his hands, all innocence. “Well, technically I do, but who cares about technically? What I want is a story, and you two look like the quickest way to it. There’s no conflict there.”
    I knew Rob as well as I knew Chris, and six words he had just spoken summed up his whole personality, indeed his raison d’etre (and incidentally, the main reason we were no longer