Page 40 of Pay Dirt

Nathan still hadn’t gotten anything useful from Michael by the time we’d unloaded all of our goodies. Both just pure stubbornness.

“Take his cuffs off. He needs to eat,” I said.

“Cassie, I’m not removing his handcuffs.”

I rested my hand on my hip. “He’s malnourished, he was trying to help his baby girl, and he needed money. Can’t you just for once give the guy a break?”

“And if Michael does it again and then someone gets hurt?” Nathan asked.

“He won’t. Will you, Michael?” I asked, unwrapping a burger.

“I won’t. I’ll figure something else out, I promise.”

“See.” Cassie smiled. “He won’t do it again, and if he does, then you know where to look.” I held the burger up to his mouth, and he took a bite. “If not for me, do it for Janet and Mary, please.”

Nathan sighed, rubbing at his temple and held up the hundred-dollar bills. “Why should I give him a break when he won’t tell me about the bills?”

“Nathan has a point,” I said, holding a drink cup up to Michael’s mouth. “Quid pro quo. You should tell him what you know if he promises to drop the charges and not haul you in.”

“Does he?” Michael turned to Nathan.

“Do you?”

“Fine.” Nathan sighed. “But it better be worth it.”

“I found them in a New Orleans gutter.”

Nathan’s brow rose. “If you’re homeless, what were you doing in New Orleans?”

“I found work as a ranch hand, and there was a competition two weeks ago. I traveled with the horse.”

Nathan unlocked Michael’s restraints, and I handed him the burger, which he scarfed down. I handed him three more.

“And the money was just lying in the gutter?”

Michael nodded. “Right next to the dead body. I made an anonymous call to the police.”

“Not before you took some of the money though, right?”

“What was the dead guy going to do with it? He couldn’t spend it,” Michael said.

“How much was there?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know how much, but it was a pile of it that was painted. I didn’t stick around in case the killer decided to return and finish him off with that knife sticking out of his heart.”

“Knife?” Nathan asked. “There wasn’t a murder weapon left behind.”

Michael wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I saw it with my own two eyes. It was one of those hunting knives, like in the window over at Carver’s Outdoor store.”

“That should be easy for you to check if you call the medical examiner. He can probably tell you exactly how Herbert died and they’ll be happy to hear that you got your evidence back and added to it.”

Nathan took my arm and led me to the other side of the room. “And exactly how am I supposed to explain that I caught the guy and then let him go?”

“You could say you found it. That’s not lying. We did find it.”

Nathan pointed at Michael. “Don’t leave town. I’ll have some more questions tomorrow for you.”

Michael crossed the room to Mary and picked her up, kissing her head. “I wouldn’t leave my family.”

“Come on, take me home,” I said, guiding Nathan to the stairs. I glanced back one last time. My heart ached to help these people. In that moment, nothing else mattered.

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