The Knife Before Christmas

by Jamie Lee Scott

  “No track marks though,” Nick noted. He scrolled down the report. “It was ingested. Shit, the heroin was in her food.”

  “Does the report show any food in her stomach?” I asked.

  “Rice, beans, and tortillas,” Nick said as he continued to read.

  “Tortillas?” The hair on my neck stood at attention.

  “Yeah, so? They are Mexican, they eat tortillas,” Charles said.

  “She’s not Mexican, not that it would mean she didn’t eat Mexican food.” I was still thinking about her meal. “And what’s this thing about her being asleep in the middle of the afternoon have to do with anything?”

  Nick showed me a sheet of paper with the estimated time of death. “Whoa. That’s way off the original target.”

  “Amen, sister. Changed everything. Now Hector needs an alibi for the afternoon of Zhen’s death. But that’s no longer our problem. We were fired.” Charles grabbed his third piece of pizza.

  “We weren’t fired. We were finished,” I argued.

  We continued to eat, enjoying the pizza, even though we were all looking at pages in the report.

  I grabbed the photos, wanting to get a better idea of the actual crime. I was finished with my first slice of pizza, so I reached to the middle of the table and grabbed a few paper towels off the roll. As soon as I felt my hands were free of grease, I put the paper towel next to my plate. I pushed the plate aside and put the photos in front of me.

  “In Joe’s notes, Zhen worked a regular seven to seven shift. She wasn’t sleeping in the middle of the afternoon.” Nick looked up. “This entire murder was staged. I’d even bet her hands were staged to look like she was trying to get away. Someone thought this through.”

  “She was drugged, stripped and redressed in her night clothes, and put in bed. They wanted it to look like it happened at night, like she’d been assaulted in her sleep.” Charles leaned back in his chair, beer bottle in his hand.

  “It was made to look like a crime of passion.” I was looking at the crime scene photo of Zhen on the bed. “It was made to look like Hector killed her.”

  “Who would want to set him up?” Nick asked.

  The reasonable person, according to Hector, was Mario. But I didn’t see it.

  “When I was talking with Ester, she said something about there being no way Hector would be convicted. She sounded sure of it. Like no one would be stupid enough to put him in prison.”

  Nick and Charles were looking at me now. “Anything else?”

  Yes, there was. “When I was with Carmen, her phone rang. It was a text. And when she pulled her phone from her pocket, it was a blue cover with images of pigs in cop uniforms.”

  Charles snickered. Nick glared at him.

  “Even the ringtone was stupid. It was pigs oinking and a siren.”

  Now Charles was laughing. “Fucking thugs.”

  Nick laughed now, too.

  “It’s not funny,” I protested. “And besides, that’s not the point.”

  Nick sobered up. “Go ahead. What’s your point?”

  “When I was at Ester’s later, she got a call. Or a text, I mean. The phone was sitting on the kitchen counter. It was a large gold phone, and the ringtone was the Minions.”

  Charles looked at me as if I was boring him. “So?”

  I almost didn’t finish, but Nick needed to hear the rest, so I looked only at him. “I asked Ester if she needed to get it. She said she didn’t, and that it was Carmen’s phone. She’d have to call Carmen’s husband to let her know she’d left it there.”

  “She could have more than one phone. I do.” Charles reached in his pocket and pulled out two phones.

  “You’re not the norm, Charles,” Nick said.

  There was a silence as I continued to look at the photos, and Nick and Charles scanned the coroner’s report.

  “This keeps getting better and better. The knife found in the yard didn’t make the stab wounds.” Nick sounded worried. “What a mess.”

  Charles reached over and took the pages from Nick. “Did you see the word shallow?”

  “I did.”

  “So the twenty-seven stab wounds weren’t even what killed her,” Charles said. “They were too shallow to do much damage.”

  “What about all of this blood?” I asked, holding up the image of Zhen on the bed.

  “It only takes a few well-placed jabs to make a lot of blood. But you’re wrong, Charles, she did die from being stabbed. But it was only one that did it. The killer sliced her carotid artery, and not on purpose. It was one of the stab wounds.” Nick looked at the image with me.

  Charles looked at the pages in his hand. “She’d have died of an overdose, if not for that. Did you see the levels of opiates in her bloodstream?”

  “And what about this? Is this good evidence?” Charles asked.

  He handed a piece of paper to Nick and pointed to a spot low on the page.

  “A blue fiber,” Nick said.

  Sixteen

  CHARLES

  The taste of the pizza was totally ruined by the conversation, but the beer helped choke it all down.

  I called Memo to find out if Hector had been released, and he said he was already at his mom’s house. This information had all three of us cleaning up the table and putting the leftover pizza in the fridge. We were in Nick’s Charger before you could say, “We have a suspect.”

  Mimi said Carmen had a streak of blue in her hair. Who would have considered that? But did they all have blue? Turned out, the blue fiber was colored hair, but Mimi said Carmen had very long hair. Our evidence hair was only six inches. That also matched the length of some of Zhen’s hair. But it was enough of a clue to get us in the car to go pay Hector a visit.

  On the drive across town, Nick got a text message.

  “Can you look at that?” he said to Mimi.

  She took his phone and read the message. “We’re going to have a baby.”

  Nick almost slammed on the brakes. “What?” He looked terrified.

  Calmly, Mimi said, “The text is from Gabe.”

  I could hear Nick take a deep breath. “Oh. Send back a congrats of some kind.”

  Mimi texted something, but I didn’t see what it was.

  “Good for them, and good for us,” I said.

  Mimi turned around in the seat. “What do you mean, good for us? We’re going to have to find a replacement for Cortnie. Not that I’m not thrilled for her, but still.”

  “I meant that Cortnie’s not sick, so we won’t be getting sick,” I said.

  Mimi could be so self-absorbed.

  Nick changed the subject to how much the violence had spread in the city. He didn’t seem to want to talk about having kids. I was good with that. He might start going on about what had been wrong with Mimi all week.

  When we arrived at the house, there were three cars in the driveway.

  “This was empty when I was here earlier today. Everyone must be here to see Hector and congratulate him for getting out.” Mimi was the first to open her car door.

  I looked around first. It was already dark, and we were in a neighborhood best not to be in after dark.

  Mimi knocked, and Carmen answered the door. “What do you want?”

  I said, “We’re here to talk to Hector.”

  Hector appeared behind his sister. “Let them in. I’d still be in jail if not for them.”

  I wasn’t about to tell him the real truth of the matter.

  Carmen stepped back and opened both doors. “Come in, please.”

  When we walked into the house, I could smell a strong odor of pine.

  “Please, sit down. We were just talking about my release,” Hector said. He was gracious, while Carmen and Ester looked like they wanted us to be anywhere but there. “Mamá, this is Charles and his partner, Mimi.” To Nick he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know you.”

  “Homicide detective Nick Christianson.” Nick reached out to shake Hector’s hand. They did some complicated shake. />
  “This is my mom and sister, Ester and Carmen,” he indicated to the women as he spoke. “I just got here a few minutes ago. They were asking me about my jail time.”

  Hector still looked tired but a happy tired. I expected he’d sleep well that night.

  As we were invited to sit down (which I had no plans on doing), the front door opened again. The room went silent as Mario walked in. I was standing where the linoleum of the dining room floor met the carpet of the living room and turned to look at him. I didn’t like people behind me in these situations.

  “Hey, Mamá, you dyed your hair,” he said and walked over to hug her.

  “What are you doing here?” The venom in Hector’s voice tainted the room.

  “I came to see you, bro. Heard you were out. Mamá called.”

  Hector turned to his mom. “Why? You know I don’t want to ever see him again.”

  Ester stood. She got right in Hector’s face. Low and slow, she said, “You don’t ever speak to me in that tone again, hijo. And definitely not in front of company.”

  Hector blushed.

  It was perfectly clear who wore the pants in that house.

  “Here he is. You don’t even have to go find him to arrest him. He’s a pinche murderer,” Hector said, nearly spitting bullets at Mario.

  “Watch your mouth. You’re in my house, my rules,” Ester stood between the boys.

  “Actually, Hector, your brother has an alibi for the time of the murder,” Nick said. “There have been some developments in the case.”

  “We’ve come to ask you a few questions, Hector. Can we speak alone?” Nick asked.

  “You can ask me anything you like, right here. I have nothing to hide.”

  Nick looked around the room. “Where were you between noon and five p.m. the day Ms. Franks was murdered?”

  Hector thought for only a second. “I was at the mall, Northridge Mall.”

  “Anyone see you there?” Nick asked.

  “Sure. I was with Lulu. And there’s a lot of security cameras. I’m sure you’d see me on one of them. Why?”

  “What were you doing at the mall?” Nick asked.

  “I bought a new shirt. We were going to the bar that night. Oh, and I bought some wine glasses as a coming home present for Zhen’s parents. They’re on a cruise.” He looked around. “Has anyone been in contact with her parents? Do they know?” His voice shook.

  “I’ll check into that. I haven’t seen anything in the reports that her parents have been reached or interviewed.” Nick pulled out his handy little notepad. And by that, I mean a paper, spiral-bound notepad, not an app on his phone. That would be too high tech for Nick. He jotted something down.

  Mario wanted in on the action and didn’t care about Nick questioning Hector. “I love the new color. No more blue?”

  Ester smiled at her son, “It’s been this way for over a week. You haven’t stopped by lately, so you miss out.”

  Something in Ester’s words didn’t ring true. It was more of a warning than a response.

  I was pretty sure I saw Carmen give a slight shake of her head when Mario looked at her.

  This prompted Mimi to say, “Carmen, did you ever get your phone back from your mom? She said you accidentally left it here.”

  Carmen leaned forward off the couch and reached in her back pocket. “What are you talking about? I didn’t leave my phone here.” She showed us her police hating phone covered phone. “Mamá, why did you think I left my phone here?”

  Ester shrugged and walked into the kitchen.

  I asked Hector, “Remember we were talking about Zhen’s phone? What kind of phone did she have?”

  Hector looked at me like I was crazy. “Didn’t the cops find it?”

  “What kind of phone?” I asked again.

  “I bought her the new iPhone eight with that Mophie Juice Pack because she’s on her phone so much she drains…I mean she used to drain the battery fast.” Hector’s breath caught and he looked at the carpet.

  Nick followed Ester into the kitchen.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. “I don’t like people in my kitchen.”

  Nick didn’t back down. He understood exactly what was going on. “Don’t open that drawer.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do in my own house,” she snapped.

  “Ma’am, I’m going to walk over there, and I want your hands on the counter where I can see them.”

  As Nick took another step forward, I followed him into the kitchen as backup. We had to remember the people we were dealing with. It’s like a trained tiger: it seems tame but can turn in the blink of an eye.

  “Keep your hands where I can see them,” Nick said again, louder.

  I reached for my Glock.

  Ester put her hands on the counter.

  “Put your hands on your head and turn away from me,” Nick said.

  Carmen came up behind me, “What the hell is going on here?”

  Ester did as Nick asked.

  “Mamá, no.” To me, Carmen said, “Get the fuck out of our house.”

  Ester said, “Carmen, stop.”

  Mimi jumped up off the couch, following the commotion and the brothers. The dining room suddenly crowded. I saw her reach for her weapon. I nodded at her just as shit hit the fan.

  Carmen pulled a snub-nose thirty-eight from the back of her waistband and pointed it at Nick. I’m pretty sure she had no idea that Mimi and I were armed, too.

  I turned and trained my Glock on her just as Mimi pulled her own weapon. Of course, now Mario was reaching, and there was so much yelling, I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying.

  I don’t know what happened behind me with Nick and Ester, but I heard a sudden loud whistle, and the room went silent.

  When I looked, I saw Ester with two fingers at her lips. Damn, that woman could deafen a person with those skills.

  “Carmen, put that thing down. What is the matter with you?” Ester said.

  “Ester, put your hands on your head, please,” Nick said as he stepped forward to move her hands behind her back and put her wrists in cuffs.

  “I will kill you,” I said.

  “Fuck you,” Carmen said, still holding the gun but no longer pointing it at Nick.

  So quiet I could barely hear her, Ester said, “Open the drawer. The first one. There’s a gun in there, but there’s also a phone.”

  Nick finished cuffing Ester, and I stepped in and opened the drawer. I had to pull it all the way out, and move the gun to find it, but when I did, it was an iPhone with a gold case exactly as Hector described; it had a battery pack cover. So the phone could still have juice, even though it was possible it had been around six days since it had been charged.

  I used a paper towel from the roll on the counter to remove the phone.

  Nick said, “Ester, you’re under arrest for the murder of Zhen Franks.” He continued to read her rights to her, then said, “Do you want to talk to us?”

  Ester nodded.

  “Charles, please come stand with her,” he said.

  I stood near Ester as Nick approached Carmen. “Drop the weapon now.”

  Carmen spit at him.

  “You bitch,” Mimi said.

  Nick didn’t even flinch. He made a quick move to Carmen’s hand, and the move he made had her dropping the gun involuntarily. I knew that move well. But Carmen wasn’t going down without a fight. She tried to wrench her hand from Nick’s grip and turned to kick him in the leg.

  Damn, Nick was fast. I wanted so badly to step in, but Nick was doing a good job of handling the situation. And when I looked at the brothers, Mario’s gun was on the floor, and they both stood with their hands on their heads even though they hadn’t been asked. They obviously weren’t going to be a part of Carmen’s plight. This made me realize these guys were true to their word. They wanted out. If not, killing a cop would be high priority because it made them gods.

  Carmen, on the other hand, was kicking and flailing as if her life de
pended on it. As Nick tried to grab her hand, she swung it around toward his head. Then she must have seen Mario’s gun on the floor and she flung her body down, grabbing for it.

  As Carmen’s hand reached for the gun, Mario’s foot kicked it out of her reach.

  I looked at Mimi, and she looked at me. I think we were both shocked at the behavior of the brothers.

  Nick finally got the bitch to the ground on her stomach, and still she fought him.

  “Relax. You’re not going to win this fight.” He had his knee in the middle of her back.

  She tried to kick him, but her short legs didn’t reach to his body. She let out a string of swear words that I won’t repeat.

  “Carmen, stop,” Hector yelled.

  She relaxed for a half-second, and Nick was able to cuff her. By the time he was ready to stand her up, she was fighting again.

  Hector said, “Carmen, this is embarrassing. Just relax and stand up.”

  She listened to him and relaxed. She was breathing so hard, she probably stopped because she was exhausted. Idiot.

  Nick read her rights to her, then looked at the brothers. “Anyone else want to go to jail tonight?”

  Mario, with his hands still on his head, said, “What the hell is wrong with you, Carmen?”

  She still had enough air left in her lungs to tell Mario, “Shut up.”

  I still had the phone in my hand, and I held it up. “What’s the deal?”

  “You understand your rights?” Nick said as Ester started to speak.

  “I know my rights,” she said. “Carmen, I know you brought this phone into my house.”

  “I want to speak to Memo,” Carmen said.

  Hector stepped up and said, “Carmen, what were you doing with Zhen’s phone?”

  Suddenly, Carmen lurched forward. “Hector, you’re so stupid. Do you know what your whore did?”

  Hector reached out to slap Carmen across the face, but Nick caught his hand. “You don’t want to go back to jail.”

  Hector shoved his hands in his pockets.

  Mario said, “What are you trying to say, Carmen?”

  She shook her head.

  “Did you kill Zhen?” Ester asked.