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“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” said Chase.

“And why not? Are you protecting that crook?”

“Because Jona Morro is dead, Gene, that’s why.”

Once Gene Stooge had finally left the scene, after much grumbling, and Omar Wissinski had been taken to a nearby hospital, a crashing noise alerted us of a great work being carried out in the inner office. When we looked over, the car that had killed Jona Morro had finally been lifted from the poor man’s body. And I have to say that the sight of the guy wasn’t pleasing to the eye. He looked… flattened. And very dead indeed.

“Cause of death is pretty obvious, I guess?” said Chase.

But Abe was too busy examining the dead man to respond. Finally he said,“As far as I can tell he was hit over the head, then tied to his desk. The blow must have knocked him out cold.”

“Was he conscious when the car fell on top of him?”

“Hard to tell. He could have been. Which would make this a pretty gruesome way to go.” He directed a cross look at Chase, as if holding him personally responsible for the poor man’s death. “I’ll be able to tell you more later. But I have to hand it to you, Chase. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen a man killed in quite this fashion.”

“Hey, I didn’t do it, Abe!” said Chase.

“Hm,” said Abe, then addressed a member of his staff. “You can take him away now.”

And since there wasn’t anything keeping us there, we decided to take our leave as well.

“Odd, isn’t it, Max?” said Dooley as we followed Odelia out of the office.

“What is, Dooley?” I asked.

“We came here looking for a man who killed a little girl in a hit and run, and we find a man who’s been killed in a hit and run.”

“Yeah, only this hit and run is a little special.”

“Still—it’s a big coincidence, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, a bit too much of a coincidence, if you ask me.”

Chapter 7

We were in Odelia’s uncle’s office, where the Chief was discussing the case with his niece and Chase.

“Strange business,” Uncle Alec grunted as he pensively fingered the third of his chins. “One man knocked out cold, the other one crushed with his own car…” He turned to Chase. “Security caught these guys on CCTV?”

“Nope. Turns out there’s CCTV in the mall, but it doesn’t cover every single nook and cranny. And Morro& Wissinski is one of the businesses that aren’t covered.”

“Did they at least catch the robbers as they fled the scene?”

“Nope. The camera covering the particular section of the mall where Morro& Wissinski are located is broken. Has been broken for weeks and should have been fixed but hasn’t.”

“What are the chances the robbers knew?”

Chase shrugged.“We looked for them on the other feeds, but so far we’ve got nothing.”

“It’s a daring heist, to be sure,” said the Chief.

“I don’t know. That part of the mall isn’t exactly bustling, Chief. They’ve put plenty of the same kinds of businesses together: banks, insurance agencies, real estate offices…”

“I see. So not as much foot traffic as other parts.”

“I wonder if this robbery is connected to the hit and run I’ve been asked to investigate,” said Odelia.

“Oh, right. The Poppy Careen case,” said her uncle. He shook his head. “Sad business. I remember it well. Very frustrating that we never found the lunatic who killed that girl.”

“The Careens seem convinced that it must have been one of five men,” said Odelia. “And two of those men were targeted in the robbery this morning.”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure the Careens are right. We never managed to find any evidence placing the men they accused in their neighborhood that night. We did find several witness statements linking them to another hit and run in a different part of town the week before. Luckily no one got injured, though they did cause a lot of damage to the house they rammed.”

“They rammed a house?”

Uncle Alec nodded.“Drove straight in through the front door. Lucky for them no one was home at the time, but the structure all but collapsed. Had to be completely rebuilt.”

“Did you ever confront them with the accusations leveled at them by the Careens?”

“Oh, absolutely. Seeing as we didn’t pick up any other joyriders that night, it seemed likely it must have been them. But there were no witnesses placing them at the scene, and once the little boy woke up—”

“Rick Careen.”

“—he couldn’t tell us a lot more either.”

“So how did Kristina and her husband arrive at these five kids?”

“Well, like I said, they were the only ones caught joyriding that night. And also, there had been plenty of complaints on previous nights. And on one of those nights they’d come close to the street where Poppy Careen was killed. Two blocks, if I remember correctly. Which was all the Careens needed to blame them for the death of their daughter.”

“And what do you think, Uncle Alec? You talked to them. Do you think one of those five men killed Poppy?”

“It’s possible,” her uncle admitted. “But without any evidence, my hands were tied.”