Maria tried to recall the gun but couldn’t conjure up the necessary detail. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It looked real to me.”
“That’s not surprising. Same color, same size, it was dark out, and you were terrified. Who knows? But it might explain why Lester never raised it. Because he thought you may have noticed that the muzzle was too small.”
Maria thought about it before finally shaking her head. “It still doesn’t mean that Lester’s gun wasn’t real. He could have bought it at a gun show. Or bought it on the street. It’s not impossible.”
“True enough,” Margolis conceded. “As of now, I’m not ruling anything out.”
“And how do you know that Dr. Manning was telling the truth about his gun in the first place?”
“Because he showed it to me after the interview, when he was leaving. And yes, it was in a locked case in his trunk.” When Maria didn’t respond, Margolis went on. “There’s something else you should know.”
“What’s that?”
Margolis reached into the file and pulled out an admission form from Plainview Psychiatric Hospital. He slid it across the table to Maria.
“Lester Manning was in the hospital the night your tires were slashed. I received this fax from Plainview this morning. You can see the date he entered the hospital.”
Even as Maria stared at the document in front of her, she didn’t quite believe it.
“Are you sure this is real?”
“Yes. Dr. Manning made the request while I was there, and the fax arrived a few minutes later, directly from the hospital.”
“Couldn’t Lester have sneaked out? Like he did yesterday?”
“Not that night. According to their records, he was in his room all night. Staff checked on him every thirty minutes.” Maria said nothing. In the silence, Margolis took a sip of his coffee. “Which is part of the reason I wanted to meet with you. If someone else slashed your tires, who could it be? When I posed that question to Dr. Manning, he told me to look into Mark Atkinson.”
“Why?”
“Because Atkinson might be trying to frame Lester.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe… unless Atkinson knew Lester and had a possible reason. And it just so happens that it might be the case. Lester was the one who introduced Cassie to Atkinson in the first place.”
It took a few beats for Maria to absorb this. “Lester and Atkinson knew each other?”
“They both work for the same janitorial company. Or used to, anyway. According to Dr. Manning, after Cassie died, Lester and Atkinson had a falling-out. Lester confronted Atkinson about failing to protect Cassie when Laws showed up, called him a coward, and they got into a fight. There’s no record of it, but that doesn’t mean anything. Most of the time, in situations like this, the police are never called. Long story short, according to Dr. Manning, Atkinson was pissed.”
“And you know that for certain?”
“Not about the fight. But it’s true that Lester and Atkinson worked together. After we talked yesterday, I spoke to Atkinson’s mother again, and then a supervisor at the janitorial company. That’s what I meant, by the way, when I said that I was looking into different angles. Because something about the way Atkinson just up and left town bothered me as soon as I learned about it. I can kind of accept the idea that he ran off to meet the woman of his dreams or whatever – guys can be stupid like that – but no contact with his mom except for a couple of letters? That had been printed from a computer? No calls or texts to his mom or his friends? When all this with you just happens to be going on? It didn’t sit right with me.”
“I still don’t understand why Atkinson would come after me, though. Like I told you, I’ve never met the man.”
“Is it possible that he’s angry for the same reason you think Lester is? Because Laws got out of prison and killed Cassie? And he blames you?”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “But… Lester’s been the one following me. He sent the flowers and sent over the drink. Lester’s the one who showed up at my house last night…”
“Exactly,” Margolis agreed. “And all of this has made me wonder whether Dr. Manning was wrong about the relationship between Lester and Atkinson. If he’s right, and Atkinson is trying to frame Lester, then how did he get Lester to play along so perfectly? Especially when you take last night into account? If you throw that idea out, however, it leaves us with a couple of other possibilities. The first is that Lester somehow knew that Atkinson was going to go after you, and he decided to join in. Of course, that raises the question as to how Lester would know what Atkinson was planning, which opens a whole new can of worms. If we put aside that idea, too, however, there’s also a third possibility.”
Maria looked across the table at Margolis, almost afraid to hear what he was going to say next.
“What if,” he finally offered, “Lester and Atkinson are working together? And they’re providing alibis for each other?”
Maria, trying to absorb Margolis’s questions, said nothing.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Margolis said. “And it sounds crazy to me, too, but of the three explanations, it’s the only one that seems to make any sense at all.”
“I’m still not sure why you think Atkinson might be involved in the first place. Maybe Lester had some homeless guy or kid slash my tires and leave the note because he knew he’d have the perfect alibi. Because everything else points to the fact that Lester’s probably working alone.”