f_10841427_1
On account of Lennox checked out before it could get moving. Like I said —very convenient —for Harlan Potter and his family ." I straightened up and gave him a hard stare. "You calling the whole thing a fix?" He twisted his mouth sardonically. "Could just be Lennox had some help committing suicide. Resisting arrest a little. Mexican cops have very itchy trigger fingers. If you want to lay a little bet, I'll give you nice odds that nobody gets to count the bullet holes." "I think you're wrong," I said. "I knew Terry Lennox pretty well. He wrote himself off a long time ago. If they brought him back alive, he would have let them have it their way. He'd have copped a manslaughter plea." Lonnie Morgan shook his head. I knew what he was going to say and he said it. "Not a chance. If he had shot her or cracked her skull, maybe yes. But there was too much brutality.

 Her face was beaten to a pulp. Second degree murder would be the best he could get, and even that would raise a stink." I said: "You could be right." He looked at me again. "You say you knew the guy. Do you go for the setup?" "I'm tired. I'm not in a thinking mood tonight." There was a long pause. Then Lonnie Morgan said quietly: "If I was a real bright guy instead of a hack newspaperman, I'd think maybe he didn't kill her at all." "It's a thought." He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it by scratching a match on the dashboard. He smoked silently with a fixed frown on his thin face.

 We reached Laurel Canyon and I told him where to turn off the boulevard and where to turn into my street. His car churned up the hill and stopped at the foot of my redwood steps. I got out. "Thanks for the ride, Morgan. Care for a drink?" "I'll take a rain check. I ." "I've got lots of time to be alone. Too damn much." "You've got a friend to say goodbye to," he said. "He must have been that if you let them toss you into the can on his account." "Who said I did that?" He smiled faintly. "Just because I can't print it don't mean I didn't know it, chum. So long. See you around." I shut the car door and he turned and drove off down the hill. When his tail lights vanished around the corner I climbed the steps, picked up newspapers, and let myself into the empty house. I put all the lamps on and opened all the windows. The place was stuffy. I made some coffee and drank it and took the five Cnotes out of the toffee can. They were rolled tight and pushed down into the coffee at the side. I  with a cup of coffee in my hand, turned the TV on, turned it off, sat, stood, and sat again.