Kent Conwell - Tony Boudreaux 09 - The Crystal Skull Murders (25 page)

On the way to the police station, Doreen informed
me that Buck admitted that had S.S. not killed himself
in the wreck, Buck was going to buy him out of the
partnership with lead. “That’s when I knew what he
had in mind for us.”

I nodded.

By 1 1 :00, we’d given Chief Pachuca all of the information we had garnered in the last five days: the fire,
the murders. Other than our word, we had nothing to
support the admissions that Abdo made were true, but
Pachuca did assign a man to prowl deeper into the jewelry heist.

“Towers wouldn’t be the first to try something like
that,” Pachuca laughed.

By noon, we found Getdown Joe, who as usual was
gobbling down cheeseburgers in the back of the Red
Rabbit. For the first time in my life, I saw him stop eating when we told him who torched his place.

The fat man gulped down half a mug of beer,
belched, then said, “You certain it was Buck?”

“Yeah. He told both of us. He even told Doreen he
planned to waste S.S., who was also part of the scheme.
But S.S. beat him to it when he got himself killed in
that wreck yesterday.”

He leaned back and glanced at Clay Renfield behind
the bar. “What about this place?”

I shrugged. “What about it? Buck won’t be back”

A sly gleam lit his eyes. “I don’t suppose it would be
much trouble for a man to find out, legal like, how to
take over something like this when the owner disappears, huh?”

Doreen and I laughed. “I don’t suppose it would,” I
replied.

We went to the office, did our reports, and by 3:30,
had cleaned up the case as much as we could.

Getdown was satisfied, Marty was satisfied, Doreen
was satisfied, but I wasn’t. Buck had beaten the system,
and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

Doreen and I took the elevator down together. As we
headed for our cars, she cleared her throat. “Tony.”

I glanced at her. “Yeah”

She hesitated, trying to find the right words. Finally
she blurted out, “Thanks for sticking with me. I
wouldn’t have blamed you for dumping me after those
first couple days.” She extended her hand. “I think I
learned a little about men”

“Or boys.” I grinned.

“Or boys” She laughed and leaned forward and
touched her lips to my cheek.

I studied her a moment, then hugged her. “We make
a good team, partner.”

Next morning, I slept late. The telephone awakened
me. It was Chief Pachuca. “Well, Tony, believe it or
not, Buck Topper turned up at Munkres’ Parking Lot,
cold as ice. Two bullet holes in the head.”

I sat up abruptly, my first thought of the skull. “Did
he have the crystal skull?”

Pachuca hesitated. “I guess so. There was a WalMart bag of broken glass beside him. Witnesses said
three men wearing suits looked in the bag, shot him,
dropped the bag, and drove away. We’re checking the
plate numbers right now.”

“What about the jewelry heist?”

He laughed. “A piece of cake. The one named
Sheffield. He broke like a piece of glass. We nailed both
of them”

When I replaced the receiver, I stared at the wall, trying to figure out what took place after we left the bus
station. Apparently, when he fell down the stairs, the
skull shattered.

But, not even Buck was dumb enough to try to pass
that off on anyone. All I could figure was that since the
buyers were in town, and he had no skull, he was trying
to evade them.

Without luck.

They must have caught him at the parking lot.

I lay back and stretched my arms. All of a sudden,
the day looked glorious. Strange how when all else
fails, Fate sometimes steps in with a helping hand.