“Both these men were unarmed?”
“Yeah,” Nutsy said. “No guns, no knives, no nothing. At least none I could see. Plover squeezed off another round at the second homeless guy, and the guy turned and ran and slammed into me in the dark. He said, ‘Fuck this,’ and he shoved the bag at me, and he took off. So, I’m standing there like a dope again, and I see Plover walk up to the guy on the ground and shoot him two more times. The guy’s body kind of jumped a little and that was it. Then Plover looked out the door and saw me standing there with the bag. He fired two shots at me, and I ran to my bike and drove off as fast as I could. I swear I was a mile away before I realized I was still holding the bag. I was in such a freak-out that I didn’t even know I’d been shot. I got home and saw the blood when I got off the bike.”
“You were shot?”
Listening to this story, I was pretty freaked out now, too. I hadn’t expected anything like this. I wasn’t even sure that I believed any of what Nutsy was saying.
“He got me on my arm.” Nutsy took his sweatshirt off and showed me the wound on his upper arm. “I’m lucky Plover isn’t a good shot when he’s more than three feet away,” he said. “The bullet tore through some flesh but it missed bone and muscle. I went to the ER and got it stitched.” He grinned. “That’s one of the good things about being Nutsy. The ER is used to me coming in with weird injuries. They don’t ask a lot of questions anymore.”
“So, you’re in danger because Plover knows you saw him kill someone?”
“That’s part of it. He also knows I have the bag of jewelry.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“There’s no body. There’s no proof that any of this happened. The police would just as easily think I was part of the robbery and I scooped up the bag of jewelry. I’m already a person of interest. They would think this was another one of my stupid stunts.”
“Has Plover been in touch with you?”
“He called but I didn’t pick up. Then he texted and said he wanted to arrange a meeting. I figured he wanted to kill me like the homeless guy, so I didn’t reply. Then he started calling my parents. That was when I moved out. And then their car blew up.”
“Is that when you and Duncan decided to go to Thailand?”
“That was just talk,” Nutsy said. “We don’t have any money. We can’t go to Thailand.”
“You have the bag of jewelry.”
“It’s all fake. I wondered about the blackmail attempt, so I had the jewelry checked out. It looks good but it’s junk. Plover wasn’t upset that he was robbed. He was in a panic because if the jewelry was found and turned over to the insurance company, he’d be exposed as a fraud. He’d be ruined, and he’d go to jail. The diamonds in the safe were probably fake too, so he had to get rid of them in case he was investigated.”
“Wow.”
“Exactly,” Nutsy said.
“What are you going to do if you can’t afford Thailand?”
“I need to find the second homeless guy. He’s my witness to the murder, and he can testify to the fact that I wasn’t involved in the robbery. Duncan dropped the bag just like he said, and I think the homeless guys immediately grabbed it.”
“That’s why you came back here? To find the other homeless guy?”
“Yeah.”
“What about Duncan? Why did you have to get him out of the hospital?”
“I made the mistake of crashing with Duncan when I vacated my parents’ house. It was stupid of me because Plover found out and decided that Duncan and I must have worked together on the robberies. I guess he figured Duncan was the weak link, because he hounded him, demanding that he return the jewelry, threatening to kill him and his family if he went to the police. I moved out after a couple days. Another bonehead move on my part. If I’d stayed with Duncan, he might not have tried to kill himself.”
“Maybe you should have given Plover the jewelry.”
“That’s what Duncan said. Duncan wanted me to give Plover the jewelry, but I thought the jewelry was our insurance policy. Plover needed the jewelry. He couldn’t kill us as long as we had the fake jewelry.”
“So, Duncan cracked under the pressure and decided to end it all,” I said.
“Maybe not so much the pressure from Plover,” Nutsy said. “We talked about it in Maine. I think mostly it was the failure. For once in his life Duncan took a chance and went bold and it was a complete screwup. He was crushed.”
“He didn’t seem crushed when I talked to him.”
“He had an epiphany. He almost died and when he came out of surgery, his first thought was that he was happy to be alive. He told me he didn’t need to be a slick jewel thief to feel alive. He said he just needed to breathe. Pretty fucking profound, right?”
“Tell me about the hospital.”
“I got a call from Duncan. He was barely coherent. Babbling. I could hear the terror in his voice. He was out of the ICU and had been moved to a private room and he told me that Plover had walked in. Plover was dressed in scrubs like a hospital worker, but Duncan knew it was Plover. He said Plover never said anything, and he didn’t know what Plover was going to do because a nurse came in right then to check vitals. Plover told her he was in the wrong room and left. I guess I panicked, but all I could think of was getting Duncan out of there and someplace safe. So, I got Sissy and her van and we rolled Duncan out and took him to Maine.”
“That’s quite a story.”
“Yeah,” Nutsy said. “Nutsy Manley pulls off another harebrained stunt.”
“This time it was probably a good idea,” I said.
“I guess,” Nutsy said, “but not as spectacular as some of my others.”
Nutsy had gathered up all his belongings. He checked his watch and looked toward the door.
“We should leave,” he said. “Sissy will be home soon.”
“Where are you going now?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I have to keep looking for the homeless guy, and I’m sure you don’t want me in your apartment. Next thing Plover will be after you too.”
“Get rid of the bike so you aren’t so easy to spot, and you can stay with me. I’m going to help you. I don’t know why. I’m not sure I even believe you.”
“It was our intimate moment when we were at Louise Kutka’s party in eighth grade,” Nutsy said. “We have a bond.”
“I’m helping you in spite of our intimate moment,” I said. “I have to go to the bail bonds office now. Try to keep a low profile and pick up when I call you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lula and Connie were finishing lunch when Bob and I walked in.
“We got all my problems solved,” Lula said. “Except for my clothes. I need to go to the mall and get some essentials.”
“Have you had lunch?” Connie asked me. “There’s some pasta salad in the fridge.”
I got the salad and pulled a chair up to Connie’s desk. “Have you been in touch with your neighbors?” I asked Lula. “Maybe one of them rescued your clothes.”