Code PINK_A Novel Of Suspense

by Erica R Stinson

  Joan’s face paled as Zach laughed and she realized that he knew more than she thought. In fact, he knew too much.

  “What do you want?” she finally asked.

  “A million dollars is not a lot of money these days, but it’s a helluva lot more than I ever had or will ever get.”

  “No.”

  “Um, yes.” Zach said, a wicked smile spreading across his face, the small awl screwdriver he’d hidden up in his sleeve sliding slowly down into the palm of his hand. “Your little girlfriend told me everything. And I’m sure that the police will want to hear what I have to say. Unless we can come to some sort of...arrangement, of course?”

  Of course, Joan thought as her eyes went dead and flat.

  “Carrie always did talk more than she should.” Joan revealed, quietly as she turned her back on him and put her hands on top of the dresser.

  Zach moved up behind her, the awl out now as he suddenly lunged. Joan dodged out of the way just as he crashed against the dresser she’d been standing in front of a moment before.

  In the infant-carrier, the baby screamed, startled by the sudden commotion.

  Zach grunted as the tool clattered from his hands, and before he knew it Joan had it in her hands, the needle-like steel gouging deep into the side of his neck.

  He gurgled as the blood gushed from him, his vision growing hazy as Joan stood over him triumphantly.

  “Like I said before, Carrie always talks more than she should. She already told me how you’ve been coming on to her, trying to cut me out of the picture.” Joan said, quietly, crunching her foot down into his nuts as he quickly faded, “But I’m more man than you’ll ever be. Prick.”

  ***

  “Last year, when your wife first got pregnant, her friend Joan sought help in getting your baby. She reached out to an old acquaintance of hers from high-school, some guy named Zach. He’s always been one of those shifty types, you know, the kind of guy that knew how to get things done. Always running with a bad crowd and that sort of thing.” Connie said, as she fiddled with a loose thread on the coverlet of her bed while Ryan sat on the other one, listening intently.

  “Well,” she continued, a heavy sigh expelling from her, “Joan called him, told him what she needed done and said that she could pay. Zach wanted two-hundred and fifty grand, and Joan told him it wasn’t a problem. She said she could pay. I guess she had money from somewhere...”

  “Her mother. She took out a life-insurance policy on her mother a few years ago, for like a million dollars or something. Doris just died about six months ago. She also sold her house, out of the blue.” Ryan said, starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, because he knew now that Carrie had to be involved with this as well.

  “So she paid.” Connie said, “Zach got a hold of some girl he was sleeping with, Morgan Pines, and told her what she needed to do. She impersonated a nurse at the hospital, a maternity nurse.”

  Connie paused now, obviously very uncomfortable with what she had to say next.

  “Carrie came to visit me at the hospital a couple of weeks before she had the baby, and Joan was with her. They approached me in the parking lot as I was coming in one day. Said they had been watching me.” Connie paused, shame coloring her face as she spoke, “They propositioned me, offered to pay me one-hundred thousand dollars to allow the abduction to happen. All I had to do was disable security from the fire-doors in the stairwell near the maternity ward so she could get out with the baby. All infants are fitted with an electronic bracelet that has an alarm feature that alerts hospital staff if they leave the area. With the stairwell open and cleared, Morgan got the baby out before anyone even knew what was going on.”

  Connie flinched as Ryan’s eyes widened and he stared at her, his body shaking with anger.

  “After that, you arrived at the hospital and Carrie acted like she didn’t know what was going on, but she knew. Joan created an alibi by going to the cafeteria, but she stopped in the stairwell on her way back to make sure that Morgan got out. She didn’t know about the camera there and I didn’t tell them, either. I wanted insurance in case things went bad.”

  “Why.” He said after a very long silence, almost in a whisper.

  “WHY???” he repeated, the anguish in his voice as Connie’s eyes filled with tears.

  “They painted you as a drunken, abusive monster....told me that you’d never give her up...then when I saw you hit Joan...”

  “Your job is to secure the fucking hospital!” Ryan thundered, “Not get into someone’s business when you don’t even know what the fuck is going on!”

  “I’m sorry....” Connie wept.

  “They were stealing my child!” he roared, leaping up off of the bed to pace the room. “Of course they would lie to you!”

  Connie nodded as the tears dripped off of her cheeks and fell onto her lap, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

  Ryan’s hands trembled as he paced the room. Of all the things he’d imagined Connie would say, he would have never seen something as outlandish as this coming out of her mouth. When the feeling of nausea passed and he felt it was safe enough to speak again, he faced her.

  “What else can you tell me about this. I know you’re not telling me everything.” He said, in a surprisingly calm tone.

  “Your wife, and Joan Addams....” Connie said, sighing as she shook her head. “They’ve been involved for years.”

  “Yeah, Joan started coming around right after we moved in...”

  “No, I mean for years and years.” Connie interjected, “They actually went to grade school together, high school too. It was no mistake that Carrie fell in love with the house you live in, because she already knew that Joan was only two houses away and wanted her close.”

  Ryan stared at Connie, finally comprehending what she was saying to him.

  “They’ve been in a relationship for nearly twenty years.”

  chapter ten

  Carrie bounced the baby against her bosom gently as her daughter slept. They had been on the road for a couple of hours, heading up the New York State Thruway just after going over the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and heading towards Albany.

  That scene back at the motel had been nasty, but she hated to see Joan upset. The last thing she wanted was to start a fight, and they had been at each other’s throats a bit too much lately over this whole thing.

  She smiled as Joan got back into the car, handing her a Styrofoam cup bearing the pink and orange Dunkin’ Donuts logo.

  “Your latte, madam.” Joan said, smiling as Carrie did too and thanked her. Joan put her iced coffee in the cup-holder. She had decided they should leave Zach’s SUV on a side street somewhere over on Ditmars Boulevard. Eventually the police would find it, but they’d be long gone by then.

  Well on their way to Montreal.

  “And for you,” Joan said, running her hand gently over the baby’s back as she smiled, “More formula when you wake up.”

  Carrie laughed as Joan leaned in further to press a kiss against the back of the baby’s head, before settling back in the driver’s seat.

  “I think we should find somewhere to lay low for a coupe of days.” Joan said, as Carrie nodded. “Take a break for a bit.”

  She had been so relieved to get out of Queens, happy to see that Joan had handled that unpleasant business with Zach. She knew that it wouldn’t be long before someone called it in.

  Best of all, Zach had gotten their new identifications, and most importantly the passports, which she’d found in his stuff. Thankfully, he had also taken care of the old couple that Morgan had stupidly allowed to watch the baby, making their gruesome deaths look like a home-invasion gone wrong.

  But for that neighborhood, stuff like that happened all the time so she was sure it was no big deal, and definitely nothing new.

  The less people involved in this, the better.

  It had gotten hairy, but Joan had handled it.

  She always handled everything.

  There we
re no loose ends except for Connie, but they couldn’t do anything about it at the moment. She was sure that by now Connie had told Ryan everything.

  But there would be other times, because if she knew Ryan as well as she thought, he’d never stop looking for them.

  Ever.

  She tried not to think of her handsome husband, pining over them, but it had to be done. Guilt washed over her as she thought of the last time they’d made love, how into each other they’d been.

  They remained active with sex during the entire pregnancy, and she did crave his touch, but it just wasn’t quite right.

  She just couldn’t be herself around him.

  Joan had been so shocked when she decided to marry him, but she had tried to make her understand that she had feelings for him. He treated her like a queen, he was ruggedly handsome, loving and caring. Ryan’s charm had won her over, and she hadn’t been able to resist him, despite Joan’s anger and hurt feelings over the whole thing. It had been hard, the three of them in her marriage, but what could she do?

  Carrie had written a lot about her confused feelings in her journal, sometimes wishing that it wasn’t so hard to just be happy.

  She had cried many a tear over the past few years, hating that she and Joan were bickering more and more the longer Ryan hung around.

  Carrie knew that couldn’t be with both Joan and Ryan at the same time, and this killed her.

  She wanted them both, but it was impossible.

  So she’d chosen to truly follow her heart.

  Sadly, she had neglected to grab her beloved journal in her haste to get out of the house and away from Ryan before she could change her mind. This was something she really wanted to write about since she was still feeling weird about the whole thing.

  She’d start another one, one that reflected her new life with her true love and with her baby girl.

  There were quite a few hotels, nice ones, in the area to choose from. Carrie got out of the car and put the baby back into her car-seat.

  They hadn’t gotten around to naming her yet, but they would have all the time in the world for that.

  “Maybe the Hyatt Place up in Yonkers....” Joan muttered as they drove along and Carrie nodded. “I love how upscale that place is...”

  Carrie leaned over and kissed Joan, smiling at her lover as the woman took her hand, squeezing gently.

  Life was good.

  ***

  The NYPD was all over the scene at the shabby motor inn on Astoria Boulevard and seventy-first street, the Crime Scene Unit already there. This was the second murder to take place in this general area over a stretch of three days.

  The hotel was notorious for allowing prostitution to occur on the premises, and drug deals went down left and right, but murder was a bit unusual even for this area.

  Most residents stated that the area was quiet and tranquil, most likely due to the expansive cemetery located on the other side of the Grand Central Parkway, directly across from the motel.

  The coroner had now arrived, and was making her report, speaking into a small tape-recorder in a clear and concise manner as she surveyed the scene.

  “Caucasian-male, approximately thirty years of age, a deep cut, throat wound is present. Carotid artery. Initial impression is suggestive of homicide. Body is lying supine on the floor. There is pooling of blood just below and along the sides of the body. There is spurting of blood on the floor at a distance of one to two feet away from the site where the body is lying.” She said, leaning over to get a better look at the murder weapon that had been carelessly tossed aside. She pressed the button on the tape-recorder and continued her report.

  “A standard scratch awl screwdriver, having steel body and handle of length seven inches, was found at a distance of thirty-five centimeters from the deceased. All the things are properly arranged in the room and there are no signs of struggle.”

  There were no grossly visible foot prints or any trail of blood, ruling out the entry of any outsider into the room.

  It was baffling, but whoever had done this knew exactly how to stage the scene. She doubted they’d get any prints from the murder weapon, but she knew that CSI would try.

  The seasoned coroner looked back at the victim in pity, his bright blue eyes open and staring into infinity as he lay in a pool of his own blood.

  Terrible.

  “Any identification?” she asked, as one of the officers shook his head.

  “Nothing. We asked the hotel staff and they mentioned something about two women with him, but the guy’s information is all they have and he used an alias. Cameras are busted of course.” He said, crooking his index and middle fingers on both hands to emphasize the word ‘busted’. “So we have no video at all.”

  “Damn.” She said, shaking her head. “Well, I’m done.”

  “Sure thing, Anita.” The detective on the case said, as Anita headed towards the door, “You’ll send us the report?”

  “As soon as I can check him out thoroughly, I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thanks.” The burly detective said as he looked at the corpse and shook his head wearily.

  Yet another unsolved murder in Queens.

  ***

  Millie was sitting at her desk when Ryan Ashby walked into the office. She did a double-take at seeing him, getting to her feet as he spotted her.

  “Detective Harvey.” He greeted, as Millie folded her arms across her ample bosom. “Detective Chandler here, too? I need to talk to you both.”

  “Come on.” Millie said, leading him towards the small conference room that they used to interrogate suspects. “Wait here.”

  She hurried down the hallway and rapped on Sandy’s closed door. It popped open a minute later, and Sandy held up his finger to let her know he was almost done with his phone call.

  “What’s up, Millie?”

  “Ryan Ashby just walked in the door. He’s in the interrogation room.” She said, as Sandy followed her back down the hall where Ryan had obediently waited for them.

  “Hey Ryan.” Sandy said, sitting down across from the young man, “What’s going on?”

  “I have something to say,” he said, as Millie came in and shut the door before taking the other seat next to Sandy. “And I want this recorded.”

  “Done.” Millie said, pressing a button on the small tape-recorder she took from the center of the long table.

  “I will tell you everything about this, only if you can promise leniency for my source.”

  “Who’s the source?” Millie asked, skepticism on her face.

  “Do you promise?” Ryan asked again, his expression serious.

  “We’ll do our best. “ Millie said dryly, as she wondered if he was for real.

  “Connie Brooks.” Ryan said as he hunched over the desk, “She’s the assistant director of security at the hospital and she reached out to me. I went to meet her last night and we both nearly got killed by some guy in a black SUV.”

  Sandy sat up more in his seat, and leaned forward. They already knew that the owner of the black SUV was Zachary Bronson. Guy had a rap sheet a mile long. They were still looking for him.

  He was hardly an angel.

  He was surprised to hear about Connie Brooks, though. They had checked her out and she was basically squeaky clean. According to Armbruster, she had gone through a nasty divorce recently and her finances were struggling, which could account for why she got mixed up in this crap in the first place, if what Ryan was saying was true.

  “Connie was involved in this,” Ryan was saying, as he paused uncomfortably, “But the bigger news is that my wife and Joan Addams paid her to do this. My wife was the one who actually planned it all.”

  Millie pursed her lips, for the first time since she’d met him, she actually felt sorry for him.

  It wasn’t every day that you found out the person you’d dreamed about spending the rest of your life with had betrayed you in the worst, possible way.

  “Joan and Carrie...are.....lovers.” Ryan
finished, sighing as he put a hand over his eyes and tried hard not to lose it in front of them. “They’ve been together since grade school. You’ve gotta believe me, I didn’t know.”

  Sandy nodded, as Millie got up and went to the door. She needed a breath of fresh air.

  “I’m sorry, Ryan.” Sandy apologized, sincerely, “I know it’s going to be tough, but we’re going to have to bring Connie in.”

  “That’s fine, but right now I need her help in finding Carrie and Joan.” He said, staring at them as he waited for their response.

  “Where is Connie right now?” Sandy asked as Millie came back into the room.

  “Somewhere safe.” Ryan said, as he got to his feet. “I stopped at my house before I came here and found some information that might help us find them. Connie’s going to try and initiate contact with them and we’ll see what happens.”

  “How is she going to do that?” Millie asked, shaking her head. “They’re probably long gone by now.”

  “Maybe, but Connie had a little insurance policy in place just in case something like this happened. I think it may work, so I need you guys to let this happen.”

  “I don’t think so, Ryan....” Sandy said, clapping a hand firmly on the young man’s shoulder, “I know it’s hard, but Connie is in a lot of trouble. We’ll get the information out of her.”

  “They’ll be long gone by then. We have to do this now.” Ryan said as he held his hands up, backing away from them and towards the door to the conference room.

  “Ryan....” Sandy said, shaking his head.

  “Trust me,” Ryan advised them, turning and walking towards the exit, “Just trust me on this. I’ll be in touch.”

  Millie watched him as he left the station and she looked over her shoulder at Sandy with a disbelieving look on her face.

  “Shouldn’t we tail him?” she asked when Sandy didn’t say anything, already moving towards the direction that Ryan had gone in.

  “Yeah.” He sighed in resignation, getting to his feet. “He didn’t leave us a choice.”