JJ08 - Blood Money by Michael Lister

can’t remember where. You know how your mind plays tricks on you. Memory’s a funny thing. I thought I saw a glimpse of her in the house when I went to pee but I also think I remember seeing her outside as I was leaving. May not have been her. May not have been anyone. There wasn’t much moon. Thought I saw her across the field a ways. Seemed to be stumbling. Thought she was drunk. What if she was injured?”
    “Which direction was she headed in?”
    “ Toward the woods I think.”
    “Any idea what time it was?”
    “Sorry man, I don’t. Don’t even know if I really saw it. She couldn’t’ve been in the house and outside at the same time.”
    “It wasn’t different times?”
    “Well, not really. I went and peed and then left.
    Don’t think she could’ve gotten across the field by then.
    Let alone gotten beaten up.”
    “Unless,” I said, “it happened while she was in the house.”
    I made my way up the stairs and into the judge’s chambers next.
    Judge Cox was preparing to leave for the day but agreed to stay and talk to me––though not before asking me to close the door.
    “I have to be so careful,” he said. “And not just because of my position but my convictions. I do my very best to be an example of integrity and honesty, to truly live above reproach. Sometimes I’m too careful. This was one of those times. I could’ve driven. I wasn’t drunk, wasn’t even over the limit, but I rarely drink and I didn’t want to take even the slightest chance that I was even close to the limit, so I called my kids. I wish I would’ve never even gone into the little farmhouse to wait. I wish my name wasn’t even associated with any of this. Even so, I was long gone before any of it happened. Diane and Richie drove back out to get me. I felt bad. They hadn’t been home long after takin’ you, but . . .”
    “Did you see her at any point?” I asked. “Who?”
    “The blonde girl who was killed.”
    He shook his head. “Don’t think so. Did catch a glimpse of a girl in the back of the farmhouse but don’t think she was blonde. I was sitting in the front room and it was hard to see. And it was only a short while before the kids came to collect me and my car. We were home before the late local news was off.”
    “Notice anything out of the ordinary? Anyone acting suspicious? Anything at all?”
    He started shaking his head but stopped. “It’s probably nothin’. And if none of this would’ve happened, I would’ve probably never thought of it again. As we were leaving, Diane’s lights swept across the field and I saw Commissioner Stockton walking toward the woods. It’s probably nothing and I’m not accusing him of anything.
    It’s just . . . he had just been inside and to then to stumble out of the house and to be walking funny across the field toward nothin’.”
    “Not nothin’,” I said. “The woods.”
    I found Don Stockton in the hallway heading toward the county commissioner’s room.
    “Got a minute?”
    “Sure, pardner,” he said as if I were his best buddy. “What can I do for you?”
    “I’m tryin’ to figure out what happened to the girl who was killed at Potter Farm and wondered if you had any ideas.”
    “Ideas? About what?”
    “Who may’ve done it and why? Did you know her?”
    “I never even saw her,” he said. “Give me a name at least and I’ll try to come up with somethin’, but as it is . . . ’fraid I can’t help you.”
    “Anybody acting out of the ordinary? Suspicious?
    Upset?”
    “Not that I noticed . . . but wasn’t really on the lookout for that sort of thing, you know? I’s too busy takin’ your brother’s money.”
    “How much is he into you for?”
    “We’re square,” he said. “He owes me nothin’.”
    “ What were you doin’ when you weren’t doin’ that?”
    I asked.
    “That’s about all I did,” he said. “Winnin’ that kind of money takes more’n a minute or two.”
    “But when you weren’t at the table taking