Page 131 of Dead Man's List

Shoemaker did, stopping to take deep breaths when his hands shook so hard that the pen ripped the paper. Finally, he’d listed the names.

They were the same names that Daly had provided.

“So what happened when you were called to Hugh Smith’s home?” Connor asked.

“He said that we’d all been victims of Munro’s blackmail. He said he didn’t know what we’d done and wasn’t interested in finding out, only that we work together to make Munro stop. ‘By any means necessary.’ ” He used air quotes. “Those were hisexact words. We discussed how to do that without giving ourselves up to the police. My issue wasn’t going to bring jail time, but I got the impression that the others would be in legal trouble. Mine was only a case of my wife finding out and cutting me off financially.”

Poor baby,Kit thought. Having to bear the consequences of his actions.So sad.

Shoemaker ran his fingers through his hair. “It was insane. We were sitting around talking about killing a man. About hiring ahit man, for God’s sake.”

“Who brought up the hit man?” Connor asked.

“Hugh. He said he knew a guy who knew a guy. I just wanted to go home.”

“Why didn’t you?” Kit asked.

Shoemaker’s eyes flashed. “Because first Munro held my life in his hands, and then Hugh did. I didn’t want him to either blackmail me or tell my wife.”

Ah.A possible discrepancy. He’d said that Hugh didn’t know what they’d done. “Do you think he knew why everyone there was being blackmailed?”

Shoemaker looked startled. “He said he didn’t. It’s possible he knew why, although I don’t know how he could have. But him just telling my wife I was being blackmailed would be catastrophic, even if he didn’t know why.”

“Okay,” Kit said. “Who was on board with the hit man?”

Shoemaker hesitated. “I don’t want to say.”

Kit shrugged. “Then we’re done.”

“Detective,” the lawyer snapped. “He’s doing his best.”

Kit leaned forward, so happy to be the bad cop. “Heisn’tdoing his best. He’s protecting his friends.”

“They’re not my friends,” Shoemaker said bitterly. “Not a single one of them is my friend. They only cared about themselvesand they never spoke to me at the club. My wife was part of the social circle, but I wasn’t. I don’t play golf. I don’t dance. I am an assistant principal. I was beneath them.” He paused to suck in a deep breath. “Sorry. It’s just that the club put me on Munro’s radar. I didn’t even want to go after he started blackmailing me, but my wife insisted. She’s part of that world. I’m not. That’s why I had an affair. I was just looking for affection that didn’t come with a price tag.”

“Who was on board with the hit man, Mr.Shoemaker?” Connor asked, repeating Kit’s question.

Shoemaker closed his eyes. “Fucking hell.” He took another deep breath. “The women. Especially Juanita. Hugh was gung ho, of course. One of the other men, too. Bert.”

Bert Ramsey, Kit thought. One of Daly’s friends. “What happened then?”

“We took a vote. Everyone voted for the hit man. I left and didn’t even get to my car before I was throwing up. It was a nightmare. Itisa nightmare.”

Kit bet Shoemaker wished he hadn’t cheated on his wife. She wondered if the “affection without a price tag” was worth the price he was paying now.

“And then?” Connor asked.

“I went home. Went to work. Tried to forget it had ever happened. Tried to believe it was just a bad dream. That lasted a week, and then Hugh called us back to his house. He said we needed to organize. When we got there, he said that the hit man he’d considered hiring was ‘hinky.’ That was the word he used. Hinky and creepy. He got cold feet and didn’t go through with it. Said he knew that sometimes undercover cops posed as hit men and he didn’t want to go to jail for that, too.”

“Smart,” Kit observed. “And then?”

“We talked about other ways to get back at Munro, to makehim stop. We talked about finding a way to expose his dirty business dealings in the city council. We all knew he was dirty.”

“Did you come up with an idea?” Kit asked.

“Not a good one. Hugh mentioned the Agatha Christie novelMurder on the Orient Express. That we could all stab Munro and none of us would know who’d truly killed him. I couldn’t take any more. I left. I figured murder was a lot worse than being financially cut off. I decided to take my chances that Hugh wouldn’t tell my wife because then his crimes would be exposed, too. I didn’t hear anything more from any of them. The next thing I knew, I was reading online that Munro was dead.”

“What did you think happened to him?” Connor asked.