Stranger At My Door (A Murder In Texas) by Mari Manning Read Free Book Online Page B

money. At least not for Daddy. And Mr. Gerry’s a mean old cuss. He’d have done it just to raise hell. Teke and Lonnie probably went along with it for the money.” She shrugged. “We’ll never know for sure about Teke.”
    “Why’d your daddy do it? After what? Fifteen years on the force to suddenly go to the dark side?”
    “Not really. Some months before the robbery, Daddy arrested the county judge, Warren Flick, for drunk driving. Judge Flick was none too happy. He knocked Daddy down to dispatcher and took away his badge and gun. Daddy was fit to be tied, going on about how he deserved better and such.”
    Rafe wondered what he’d do if Swope turned him in. “So they suspected your daddy was involved in the robbery.”
    “Not right away. When the robbery went down, no one knew what happened. The money just disappeared, and Mr. Lonnie—he was the driver of the armored car—said he couldn’t recall anything about the attack. Then suddenly Mr. Gerry and Mr. Teke came forward and said Daddy told them it was him.”
    “What about Lonnie?”
    “His memory suddenly came back. If it wasn’t for him and the other two, the state couldn’t have made a case against my daddy since the money never turned up.” Her voice shook. “I guess you could say I have a great motive for killing Mr. Teke, if he was murdered.”
    He studied the slender, white hands resting on her lap. Dinah a murderer?
    “Did your daddy ever say anything?”
    “Never said a word. Not in court, not to Momma and me, not to anyone.”
    “What about the money?”
    She finally lifted her head and looked at him. “The money? Do you honestly believe if I had the money, I’d have come back here?”
    The money from “the Rodeo Robbery” had never been found. A cool quarter million in receipts for the Central Texas Rodeo just floating around out there. Or more likely, rotting in a shallow grave in someone’s backyard. “I was referring to your statement to me.”
    “Teke came to see if I had the robbery money. He said if I did, I was in danger.”
    “From who?”
    “He didn’t say. I figured he was delusional. Thinking someone was following him, then thinking I had the money from the robbery.”
    “Why did he think you had the money?”
    She shrugged. “Well, if you assume my daddy took the money and it was never found, it’s reasonable to think he told someone what he did with it before he died. I guess I’m candidate number one. At least by Mr. Teke’s reckoning.”
    “It doesn’t make sense.”
    “I told you it was complicated.”
    “If your daddy took the money, and the other poker players, acting as law-abiding citizens, turned him in, why was one of them looking for the money?”
    She tilted her head and offered up a Mona Lisa smile. “Good question, Rafe. Perhaps they weren’t law-abiding citizens. In fact, maybe they were in on it.”
    “But they didn’t get the money.”
    She raised her eyes to the leaky ceiling. “Seems like my daddy didn’t either. But he went to prison, and they’re living free.” She leaned back against the sofa. “I’ve told you everything I know. Now tell me what happened to Mr. Teke.”
    “He was coming home from the Beer Hut last night and fell off the walking bridge in the park. There’s some evidence he may have been pushed.” Only the killer would know about the lethal cut on his neck. His instincts told him to hold that detail back.
    A frown marred her high forehead. “I’ll have to write his daughter a note. Poor Mr. Teke. That’s a terrible way to go.” She grimaced. “Course my daddy died of cancer in prison while Mr. Teke was floating free as a bird.”
    There was a polite rap on the front door.
    “That must be Jamey,” said Dinah.
    Rafe slipped his phone back into his pocket and stood. He wanted to stop in and visit Lonnie and Gerry before any more time passed. See what they’d been up to at the time of the murder. “I better be getting along.”
    The new housekeeper was