Mike Sanderson stopped walking. He was rock-solid; Katie almost tripped when as she had been leading him along, he then pulled her back.
“I didn’t kill Tanya!” Sanderson said angrily. “And don’t kid yourself-I know exactly who you are, and I know that she stayed here just because she wanted to talk to you. I don’t think she was ever coming with me. Not once you had come back. But I didn’t kill her.”
“I really think we should get inside for this discussion,” Clarinda said. “That’s Jonas’s place, there.”
“It’s an inn,” David said.
“Yes, yes, but go up the stairs, he keeps the whole second floor of the main house for himself.”
As she spoke, Jonas came running back up to them, Mike’s donation hat in his hands. “Amazing, isn’t it? Crowd like that-not a soul touched his money. Sometimes, human beings are decent.”
No one answered him. He cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s get upstairs,” he said.
The outer door was open; it led to hallways with signs that indicated room numbers and pointed to cottages outside. They hurried up the stairs; the door in the hallway was locked and Jonas quickly opened it for them. They piled in.
Mike Sanderson moved first, striding across the room, tearing off the Velcro that held his Robert the Doll sailor outfit together in the back. He was wearing the costume over a pair of cutoff jeans and a simple white T-shirt. He folded it and put it at his feet. Katie realized that David was still holding the man’s cloth mask and sailor hat when Sanderson reached out to him. “Do you mind? I don’t intend to press charges, but I do make good money at this gig.”
“You make good money, standing in Mallory Square, pretending to be Robert the Doll?” Clarinda said incredulously.
“Four hundred bucks already tonight,” Sanderson said. “Beats selling vacuums, which I do to keep the family going.”
“But-you were supposed to be a big-shot football player at Ohio State!” Katie said.
“Knee injury. They loved me before it-I was yesterday’s news afterward,” Sanderson said.
She studied him. He was a big fellow with sandy-blond hair, light brown eyes and a pretty-boy face that seemed to be getting just a little fleshy at the edges now, as if he were a man who liked his booze.
“The police down here want to talk to you,” David told him.
“Yeah, I know, my wife called me,” he said.
“So why didn’t you come into the police station?” David asked him.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” Sanderson said with a sigh of impatience. “Don’t you get it? No one knows I do this. Hell, what, everyone’s life turns out to be what they want? I come down here. I see all the naked painted boobs for Fantasy Fest. I don’t go with any lowlifes, I don’t pick up any sexual diseases, I just do a lot of looking and drinking, and I make money to bring home by putting on a Robert the Doll costume and scaring people in the square. It’s a personal thing. What the hell is wrong with you, and what the hell business is it of yours that I do this?”
“It’s police business because you lied when they questioned you a decade ago,” David said. “And it’s police business because another woman was murdered.”
“Look-I do this for the money! I’m not hung up on Key West legend,” Sanderson said. “I loved Tanya! I wouldn’t have hurt her for the world. I was young. I waited for her-then I figured that she’d chosen you over me. When I heard about the murder, I panicked, and I got the hell out!”
“You will have to tell that story to the police,” David said.
Sanderson straightened where he sat. “Sure. I’ll be happy to do so.”
“When did you get here?” he asked.
Sanderson shook his head and winced. “Last Friday,” he said.
“Before Stella Martin was murdered,” David pointed out.
Sanderson stood, pointing hard at David. “Look, you bastard, you were the jilted lover. You owned the damned museum. You’re a fucking conch, for God’s sake-you’re the one all into the history and legend of Key West. They would have locked your ass up if you weren’t David Beckett!”
To David’s credit, he completely controlled his temper. He stood dead still without speaking for long seconds.
Sanderson took a step back from him. “Look, maybe you didn’t do it. But I know this much-I didn’t do it and you can haul me down to the station anytime you want.”
David looked over at Jonas. “Want to take a ride?”
“I-uh-sure,” Jonas said.
“What the hell? The sun has been down a long time now,” Clarinda said. “What a lovely evening out with friends!”
12
The night sergeant on duty was ready to bring them in. David had called Liam, and Liam, who had just left for the evening, called Pete Dryer, who had left just a bit earlier, and the result was that both men would be returning to the station.