Page 129 of Nightshade

“I’m not giving you my phone,” Sneed said.

“I check your phone or we’re not having this conversation. You want the money or not?”

“Fine.”

Sneed opened the small purse that had been on the bar top next to her glass. She pulled out her phone and handed it to him. This was a move Stilwell had anticipated and planned a response for.

“Unlock it,” Crane said.

He held the phone up and Sneed typed in a password. Crane then started looking through her apps. The bartender put a glass of wine in front of him and moved away. Crane finally found the voice-memo app, opened it, and saw that there was a recording in progress.

“Amateur,” he said. “You think I’m stupid?”

He stopped the recording, deleted it, and put the phone down on the bar.

“You think you can play me like that?” he said. “Well, fuck you, honey. This conversation is over.”

He stood up and kicked his stool back with his foot.

“You leave and you’ll regret it,” Sneed said, expertly delivering the line Stilwell had given her.

Crane stayed standing but didn’t move toward the exit. He leaned down and in toward Sneed, a move designed to intimidate the younger woman.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I told you what I want,” Sneed said. “I want money. I decided I also want a job at the Black Marlin. I’m tired of waiting on tourists and sweaty golfers who think they’re funny. I want what Leigh-Anne had.”

“Or what?”

“Or I call up Stilwell, the sheriff’s guy who came and asked about Leigh-Anne, and tell him what she told me the morning before she got murdered. I sort of left that part out when he came around.”

“Which is exactly what?”

“That she was going to see you to get her money and tell you she was quitting the club… and quitting you.”

It was another line Stilwell had given her—a guess based on what he had learned during the investigation. How Crane reacted here would determine whether there was a case to be made.

“You’re full of shit,” Crane said. “And you know it.”

“Really?” Sneed countered. “She lived with me, stupid. I’m sure she told you that. And she was only letting you bang her so she could keep her job and hook one of those rich assholes like Easterbrook. That morning she joked about dumping you. She said you were disgusting and that you wouldn’t take the news too well. I guess you didn’t.”

Sneed had now gone off script. Stilwell wondered if the conversation she had just recounted had actually happened or if she was just riffing. Either way, she was good, and her words hit Cranehard. Even on an overhead camera, Stilwell could see his furious reaction and knew that staging the meeting in a public place had been the right choice. It was the only thing holding Crane in check. He was tensed and ready to lash out at Sneed.

In that moment, Stilwell knew that Crane had killed Leigh-Anne Moss.

“What did she say that set you off?” Sneed said. “That must have been so hard to take after all that time when you were thinking you were in charge. Hard to find out she was running you, not the other way around. You must’ve been scared about what she would do next, who she would tell.”

Crane leaned in again to return fire.

“You’re all alike, aren’t you?” he said through a clenched jaw. “The way you think you can destroy a man. Well, your little friend got exactly what she deserved and you will too if you think you’re going to take from me what’s mine.”

It wasn’t a full admission, but it was close. Stilwell felt a cold finger go down his spine. He almost had what he needed. Crane’s words also revealed that Leigh-Anne might have threatened him during their last meeting—threatened to expose him, which would have cost him his job and livelihood.

“Look, I’m not talking about this anymore,” Sneed said. “You know the town put up a reward. Ten thousand dollars—and the members of your club announced they’d match it. I figure I get that and then some from you or I get it after I turn you in. Which is it going to be?”

“You think I have twenty thousand dollars?” Crane shot back. “You’re the same as her. She didn’t just want her paycheck. She wanted more. She wanted everything I had, and I wasn’t going to give it to her. You’ve made a big mistake here, honey. Just like she did.”

“Don’t try to scare me. I’ll put you in jail.”