Last Chance (Liar Liar #3) by C.A. Mason Page B

person with the audacity to ask that question, and I was sure he wouldn’t be the last. “You’d have to ask my accountant. I don’t add it up. I just cash the checks.”
    He laughed, revealing chipped, yellowing teeth. “You want a beer?”
    “No, thanks.” It wasn’t even noon, but I was pretty certain he’d already had a beer breakfast. No wonder he couldn’t find work. He was probably half in the bag all the time. “I don’t have a lot of time, Jim. Like I said on the phone, I was just hoping to ask you a few questions about Maura.”
    “I don’t know what I can tell you about her. I didn’t know her all that well.” He grabbed a pack of cigarettes off a nearby table and offered me one before he extracted one from the pack and lit it, sheltering the lighter’s flame from the wind with his hand. “My crew and I worked on a project for her parents.” He frowned. “A pool house, I think.”
    I threw an envelope stuffed with bills on the table beside him. “Maybe this’ll help jog your memory.”
    He tipped his head as he looked from me to the money and back again. “Why’s some big-shot like you wasting your time on this? You bangin’ her or what?”
    I crossed my arms, trying to keep my temper in check. “Maura’s my girlfriend.” It felt so good, so right to say that. If only it were true. “She told me what happened to her, said the guy who went down for it is on the run.”
    Jim chuckled. “Yeah, Matt Cooper. He always was a sly son of a bitch. I’m not surprised he’s been out-smarting the law all these years.”
    “You knew this guy pretty well?”
    “Matt?” He tipped his head back to blow a smoke ring into the air. “Yeah, we were real tight back in the day. He was a good guy.”
    “Hmmm.” It was so strange to talk about myself with someone I used to know, someone who knew the old me better than most. “You think they got the right man?”
    “You don’t?”
    “I don’t know.” I was trying to play it cool, but it was more difficult than I’d expected. “Maura’s said some things that made me wonder if they got the wrong guy. Either way, the guy who did that shit to her is still out there, and that doesn’t sit well with me.”
    “I can understand that.”
    “You said you and this Matt guy were tight. Has he tried to contact you?”
    “Nope.” He took a long drag off his cigarette. “Not a word.”
    “When he went down for it, were you surprised? I mean, did you think he was capable of something like that?”
    “No way.” He shook his head. “Not Coop. He wasn’t the type. Sure, he liked to fight, and he messed around with a lot of girls before he met Maura, but I can’t imagine him forcing himself on any of ‘em.” He chuckled. “Not that he had to. The girls loved him.”
    I braced my elbow on the post and watched Jim carefully. “How about the other guys on your crew? Do you think any of them could have done it?”
    He frowned at me. “Hell no. Why would you ask me that?”
    “I’m assuming, if Matt didn’t do it, maybe someone set him up, someone close to him who might have had an axe to grind. That would narrow it down to his co-workers, friends, and the guys he fought against.” I couldn’t tell him I knew it was one of the guys on the crew because those were the only ones I’d confided in about what Maura and I did in the bedroom. “So you’re sure none of them could have been responsible? No one acted strange or said anything to you about Maura’s attack after Matt was arrested?”
    The way he shifted in his seat and his eyes darted down the street told me he was hiding something. I wasn’t leaving until I found out what it was.
    “No, uh, no one on my crew said anything to me.”
    “But?”
    He swiped a hand over his face before scratching his chin. “Shit, I don’t know if I should say anything about this. I could be way off base, but I’ve always felt like shit knowing Coop may have gone down because I couldn’t keep my big