The Knife Before Christmas
Page 15
“She was a whore, Mamá, and you know it. She slept with Papá, and you knew it. Mamá, she had sex with mi esposo, too.” Now Carmen was crying. “Hector was too good for that bitch.”
“Please tell me you’re lying.” Tears rolled down Hector’s cheeks.
Now Carmen was crying and screaming. “She flirted with everyone. She didn’t care if they were married, as long as she was the center of attention.”
Nick now added another charge to the long list Carmen had racked up. He pulled his cellphone out and made a call.
Mimi was unusually quiet as she watched Hector and Mario closely. I didn’t think Hector had a gun, and I knew Mario’s gun was on the floor. But there could be others. The body language of the brothers was more resigned than defensive.
Nick leaned in to me and whispered. “I have unmarked cars coming in quiet. We don’t want to attract any more attention than absolutely necessary.”
I nodded.
“I want you two to go home as soon as the first cars arrive,” Nick said.
“You drove us here,” I said.
“Mamá, I’m not going down for this alone,” Carmen cried. “I’m going to tell them all about that unsolved drive-by.”
Ester sneered at Carmen but didn’t speak.
Carmen cowered.
Seventeen
MIMI
I was about to throat punch a bitch. This was the reason I checked to be sure I had my weapon with me in these situations. No way had I expected the night to turn violent. Watching all of the guns come out sent my adrenaline into overdrive. I wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot to kill in those moments. The two most important men in my life were in danger.
Quick thinking, and one strict mother who wielded an iron fist, kept the situation from escalating. I wondered what would have happened had Ester not diffused the situation by being the strong figure she was. That’s when I realized, she was pulling all the strings. Hector wasn’t the gang leader they all thought him to be, she was. She told him what to do, and he did it.
No wonder he wanted out but was too afraid to do anything. His every move was dictated by the matriarch of the family. Of course, this was all speculation on my part, but I’d bet if I sat Hector down and had a chat with him, he’d tell me all her dominant ways.
It was Christmas Eve, and Charles had invited Nick and me to his house for dinner and drinks. For a change, Nick wasn’t working.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something, but things have been crazy,” Nick said as he opened the door to the passenger side of my car.
“Those words don’t ever lead to anything good,” I said, my heart pounded against my chest.
I got in the passenger seat, but he didn’t close the door.
“I saw the pregnancy test in the bathroom trash,” he said slowly. “Why haven’t you told me we’re having a baby? I don’t understand why you didn’t share it with me.”
I threw my head back against the seat and laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.
“Mimi, what’s so funny? I feel blindsided.” He leaned on the door frame.
I caught my breath and said, “That was Cortnie’s pregnancy test, not mine.”
I could almost feel the relief as he let out his breath.
“You’d been acting so funny lately, and then this morning, I saw the stick when I went to empty the trash in the guest bathroom.”
“I’ve been acting funny?” I said.
“Distracted,” he said.
“I’m sorry. There’s nothing on my mind, other than Lola acting weird lately.”
I couldn’t think of anything I’d done differently, but I wondered if Cortnie’s pregnancy was making me rethink my stance on being a mom. Was I ready? Was I ready to talk to Nick about it? There were so many things I needed to talk to him about.
“Something’s going on. Is it the holidays?”
Then I knew. It was the holidays. And it was time to have a talk.
“Do you want to do this now? Or wait until after dinner with Charles?”
“Now. We can cancel dinner with Charles if we need to.”
We were going to be late to dinner because I suddenly had diarrhea of the mouth, telling Nick about the feelings I still had for Dominic; about how I was terrified that Lola was going to die, and she was my only connection to Dominic; how wrong it all felt. And as I blurted it all out, I felt the connection I’d been holding onto for dear life drift. I could feel it floating out of me then blowing away in the air.
All I’d needed to do was say the words, to share my fears and hurt.
Nick listened and didn’t once try to interrupt or respond.
“Okay, that’s it. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I feel like I’m cheating on you.”
I waited for him to turn around and walk away.
Instead, he reached into the car, and hugged me. “If you didn’t have those feelings, I’d be worried about you. You’ve never gotten closure. It’s like a young boy I found murdered in an alley in San Francisco more than a decade ago. We solved the case, but we were never able to identify the victim. Imagine the mom, all those years, wondering if her son was still alive. I held it close to my heart, too, and then I got the call. We were eventually able to give the mom closure. You’ve never had that.”
It was exactly the same. Dominic was gone and presumed dead, but I’d never know for sure.
“You don’t hate me for holding on?” I started crying. “Oh, my makeup is totally going to be messed up.”
Nick laughed. “I’m not sure I could love you if you didn’t have those feelings for a man you loved and married. I just hope we get answers someday.”
He said we.
And with that, he got in the car and we talked all the way to Charles’ house. It was the most intimate conversation we’d had in a long time.
We were still talking when Charles came out of his house and knocked on Nick’s window.
Nick turned off the car. “To be continued?”
“Yes.” I leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
When Nick opened his door, Charles said, “Gross. Save the spit swapping for the bedroom.”
I got out of the car and said, “You’re just jealous.”
“You’re late. Dinner is on the table, just waiting.” He turned on his heel and stalked back to the house.
Inside, sitting at the dining room table, was Max.
“Max,” I said. “Charles, why didn’t you tell us?”
“He surprised me,” Charles said.
Max said, “I just got home fifteen minutes ago. Sorry to barge in on your dinner party.”
“The more the merrier,” Nick said.
Once we got settled at the table and were stuffing our faces with turkey, stuffing, cranberry salad, and the most delicious mashed potatoes and gravy, the conversation turned to the Varga family.
“What a crazy mess,” Max said.
“Oh, it gets better. Carmen did kill Zhen, and we matched the hair in evidence with Carmen’s. Her prints were on Zhen’s phone, and we determined she used Zhen’s fingerprint to get into the phone. She changed the settings and used her email to change the password and add her fingerprint.”
“Why?” Max asked.
“She was trying to make everyone believe Zhen was still alive. She hadn’t planned to kill her, just drug and threaten her. Zhen had no remorse, according to Carmen, for cheating on Mario or Hector. Apparently, she went on to tell Carmen what a dud her husband was in bed. She actually said, ‘Come here, I’ll show you where we did it.’”
“What the hell?” I said.
“Only she collapsed in the hallway and Carmen couldn’t revive her. She dragged her to the bedroom and spent the next hour trying to decide what to do. As she did, she got angrier and angrier, then she grabbed the hunting knife she kept in her purse and was going to wait until she woke up, then put the knife to her throat and scare the living crap out of her.”
“Did she ever come to?” Charle
s asked.
“Great Christmas Eve dinner conversation,” I said.
Max laughed. “What? This isn’t normal in your house?”
“Carmen said she did and started to fight. That’s when she lost it and started blindly stabbing her. She got angrier and angrier and kept stabbing.”
“I can totally see her losing it, especially after that night at Ester’s house.”
“Speaking of Ester, Carmen wanted to plead down and offered us information on another murder.”
“What does that have to do with Ester?” Charles said.
Nick drank some water and said, “Carmen said Ester killed their dad. When she found out about him cheating on her with Zhen, she killed him and made it look like a drive-by.”
“Is the DA going to cut a deal with her?” Max asked.
“We’re investigating. If she gives us anything that leads to an arrest and conviction, the DA might help her out. She’s pleading guilty. And she threw her own mother under the bus to get a lighter sentence. What a life.”
“And Hector? Is he getting out of the life?” I asked.
“He says he is, but seems he and Mario have something up their sleeves.”
“What a family,” Charles said. “And I thought my family was dysfunctional.”
Nick shifted around in his seat. “Speaking of dysfunctional, this wasn’t the conversation I’d planned on having at dinner. Saying that, these are the people I’d want to be here.”
With those words, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring box.
I caught my breath.
Charles said, “Oh. My. God.”
Max grinned from ear to ear.
Nick said, “Mimi, I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?”
About the Author
Jamie Lee Scott is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries.
Jamie is also an award winning produced screenwriter. No One Knows is now available online.
When Jamie isn’t writing, she’s riding. She lives on a small farm with her husband, three horses, a dog, and two cats. In her spare time she’s a competitive barrel racer and roper.
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