Kill Fee by Barbara Paul Read Free Book Online Page A

anything to do with UltraMedia Corporation's plans for
Summit
after the takeover?"
    Fran Caffrey smiled a slow, sad smile. "Yes, indeed it would, Lieutenant. That's exactly what it has to do with. Do you know what UltraMedia was planning? They're not going to admit it, but I have a friend who works there and I
know.
They weren't just going to get rid of Leon Walsh—everybody'd seen that coming for months, he and Mr. Sussman were barely speaking. But the Ultra-Media powers-that-be were going to let the entire staff go and bring in their own people. Every single one of us would have been fired, right down to the last file clerk."
    "So you could say Jerry Sussman's murder was quite timely," Murtaugh mused. "A whole lot of jobs were saved. Now I wonder who's job meant the most to him?"
    Fran laughed in a jittery sort of way. "No, you don't. You don't wonder, I mean. And you can forget it—Leon Walsh never killed anybody. Leon's as nonviolent as they come."
    "Ah, but many a man who shrinks from violence up close often finds a solution in hiring someone else to do the job for him. Someone who doesn't faint at the sight of blood."
    She was shaking her head. "You're on the wrong track. Leon—hiring a, a
hit man?
That's absurd. He wouldn't know how. Forget about Leon. He's not behind it."
    "You don't think much of him, do you?"
    She shrugged. "Leon's all right as long as he stays in that office.
Summit
is his whole world—it's all he cares about, it's all he knows. He's a little short-sighted, but he
junctions
when he's editing. But negotiating with a hired killer? Unh-uh. He could no more arrange for a murder to be committed than I could fly to Saturn. Forget Leon Walsh, Lieutenant. He's not your man."
    Murtaugh examined her closely, trying to read her face, her body language. A lot of tightly controlled anger there. Her position at
Summit
had been saved by whoever put a bullet into Jerry Sussman (a .45 caliber, shattering the spine: Dr. Wu had been right). But
Summit's
fiction editor had thought she was in line for something bigger, not for dismissal. Sussman had promised her something she'd wanted, perhaps the editorship, perhaps something else—and then had betrayed her just as casually as he'd betrayed Leon Walsh. That might be motive enough in Walsh's case; but Fran Caffrey was a young woman—she still had years to go and heights to scale. Her career would not end with the loss of this one job. She didn't have the investment in
Summit
that Leon Walsh had.
    "When did you learn Sussman had sold you out?" Murtaugh asked her.
    "Just this morning."
    "Your friend at UltraMedia called you?"
    "No, I called him. He wasn't going to tell me." Her voice was curiously flat.
    So Fran Caffrey would have no motive since she didn't know of Sussman's doublecross until after his death.
If
she was telling the truth about when she found out. But she had made no effort at all to shift suspicion on to Leon Walsh, the person with the most to lose. In fact she had stated flatly, several times, that Walsh couldn't have done it.
    Murtaugh was inclined to agree with her. Besides, she sounded so
certain.
    Leon Walsh watched the two police investigators leave the
Summit
offices with a distinct lifting of the spirits. That hadn't been too bad. It wasn't over yet, he knew—but it hadn't been too bad.
    Of course they're going to suspect you
—
it's only natural,
Leila had said.
You've got to prepare yourself for that.
    How do you prepare yourself for being suspected of murder?
    Tell the truth,
Leila had advised.
Don't try to pretend that you and Jerry Sussman were friends or even that you had an amicable working arrangement. They'll find out how it was from other people. Just tell the truth.
    So he'd told the truth, even to the point of confessing his shameful pleasure upon hearing of Sussman's death—which was probably going farther than Leila meant. But it had felt
so good
to tell that police Lieutenant what he really