Double Down

by De Leo, Vicky

  Delgado was waiting for me when I arrived home. With his help, I was able to disarm the new alarm system before it started screaming. Once inside and before I had a chance to yell at him about paying for it, he took me in his arms. For a few minutes, I forgot about everything except the feel of his lips on mine, his intoxicating scent and the security and warmth of his strong arms. Delgado was like a drug, and I was addicted. As usual, he broke the kiss, leaning back to look at me. I searched his face, checking to see if he had gotten enough sleep. He looked much better than he had this morning. His green eyes were clear again, and the purple shadows underneath were gone. He was looking at me and smiling. I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world at that moment.

  He brought me back to reality with, “Now that Rose has an attorney, the only way to see her is with his permission. I managed to get hold of him. He’ll meet you downtown at eight.”

  “Aren’t you coming with me?”

  He ran his hands lightly down my arms. “Sorry, I wish I could, but I work for the other side. I can’t be seen with the defense, besides I’m on duty tonight.” He leaned back in and gave me another kiss.

  This time I broke the kiss to whisper, “That gives us over an hour to kill.”

  He took a deep breath. “Right. Maybe we should get something to eat.”

  Unable to keep the shock out of my voice, I said, “You want to eat? That’s not exactly what I had in mind.”

  He opened his eyes wide, and gave me his best innocent look. “What? I’m hungry.”

  I stomped out of the room muttering, “Fine! I guess there’s no point in offering to slip into something more comfortable.” Fuming I turned back to ask him where he wanted to go. Bent over with his hands on his knees, he took several deep breaths. Concerned I rushed over to him, “Are you all right?”

  He straightened up and without looking at me said, “I’m fine. Go put on jeans or something so we can get out of here.” His voice was harsh.

  I went back into the bedroom, wondering if Delgado could be sick. Did he have some disease he was afraid I would catch? Surely, the way he kissed me meant that he felt something. There was passion and need in those kisses, but every time I felt the heat building, he pushed me away. Quickly stripping off my suit and throwing things around in frustration, I dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt. Not used to rejection, I decided to back off. He’d get no more invitations from me. I didn’t know what his problem was, but I was through playing his hot and cold game. If he wanted cold, I could do cold. In fact, I’d been accused of being an ice queen on more than one occasion.

  There wasn’t an opportunity to demonstrate my new resolution since we left immediately to eat at a nearby restaurant. Afterward he dropped me off at the house, giving me a quick kiss before leaving for work.

  When I got downtown to the Las Vegas Detention Center, Rose’s lawyer was waiting for me. Richard Canfield was a tall, thin, bald man and dressed in slacks and a polo shirt. He wasn’t at all what I expected a high-powered criminal attorney would look like. He introduced himself and shook hands, leading me to a small room with a rectangular table and four medal chairs. While we waited for Rose to be brought in, I briefed him on everything I knew about Monica and the other possible suspects.

  “They’ve settled on Rose because she’s convenient. Since we know that Monica threatened to blackmail Arnie Waters, the pit boss who was sexually harassing a dealer, it only makes sense that she did the same thing to others. Monica knew that Martin Sanders, the cook and union president, had a felony conviction. He denies meeting with her, but Rose saw him in her office. Jerry McCrae, the teamster’s rep, met with her as well. We handed the police a copy of an account page Monica had that looks as if someone was taking money from the union fund. So far, the police haven’t bothered to re-interview Jerry McCrae about the withdrawals from the fund. Darryl Collins, our VP of HR, had some kind of a relationship with her. Apparently, he has a solid alibi for the time of the murder, but I know that he lied to the police. Also, you might want to get hold of a Detective Franklin in St. Louis. He was supposed to be looking into the whereabouts of Joey Green, who was a childhood friend.”

  He took notes. “Thanks. I’ll get the investigator on it. I’ve seen the transcripts of the police interviews with the people you mentioned. I’ve already met with Rose. I have to tell you it doesn’t look good. She has no alibi for the time of the murders.”

  “Did they find any prints on the gun?”

  “No. It had been wiped clean.”

  After a few minutes, Rose came in. I half expected her to be in some kind of prison uniform, but she was still in the same clothes she had worn to work. Her eyes were red and swollen. I jumped up and hugged her. She clung to me sobbing, while I tried to reassure her that everything would be all right.

  The lawyer took both of her hands in his. “I’ve contacted a bail bondsman. As soon as you’re arraigned, we’ll get you out of here.”

  Desperately trying to compose herself, Rose said, “Mr. Canfield as I explained earlier, I don’t have any money. I don’t know how I can pay you, let alone come up with the money for bail.”

  He gave her a reassuring pat on the arm. “Don’t worry about that. Arrangements have already been made to pay my fees and expenses, including the bail. You just hang in there. I should be able to have you home with your family sometime tomorrow.”

  Rose looked confused. “Who would do that?”

  “There’s a foundation that helps people in need. I’ve been in contact with them and they’ve offered to pay for your defense.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder if the foundation’s major contributors were named Delgado. Our time was up, but before she left, I had one question. “Rose, did Danny ever tell you what kind of a car Monica was driving?”

  “He didn’t mention it, but once when I drove past her house,” she stopped, looking at her lawyer in embarrassment. When he shrugged, she went on, “I saw her get out of a brand new black BMW.”

  “Do you remember anything about it, the license plate, anything special?” I asked.

  “No just that it still had dealer plates on it. I remember wondering how she could afford a new BMW on her salary.”

  After Rose left, Mr. Canfield asked, “What was that about the car?”

  “It’s just that no one has located the car Monica was driving that night. I’ve got a hunch it could be important.” I considered telling him about the diaries, but I’d promised Mrs. Combs I’d read them first.

  I drove home slowly. Seeing Rose and speaking to her lawyer had shaken me. When I got home, I called Charlene.

  “I hate to admit it, but there is considerable evidence against Rose. She seems to be the only one who wanted both Monica and Danny dead. She has no alibi for the time of the murders. She had keys to the office. Not only was she tracking Monica’s appointments, but now she admits to driving by Monica’s home. The gun that killed Danny had been wiped clean, and left by the body. It was registered to Danny, so she’d had access to it. Danny was shot only a mile from her house. She had both motive and opportunity. The only thing missing is an actual eyewitness.”

  “I don’t care what evidence they have, I can’t believe she’s a murderer. In the heat of anger maybe, like the day she caught them in her bed, but not cold blooded, premeditated murder.”

  “I have to agree. She didn’t do this, and I’m going to prove it.”

  “Valerie, what are you going to do?”

  “Everything I can.”

  “Wait. Maybe Alan was right. You should leave this to her lawyer.”

  “Stop worrying. I’m not doing anything tonight. I’m just going to read and then I’m going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I retrieved Monica’s diaries from the trunk of the car and carried the box inside. If someone she met since coming to Las Vegas killed Monica, then nothing in them would exonerate Rose. However, I had promised Mrs. Combs I would read them. Inside the box were eight books and two tiny keys.
As I opened each diary, I sorted them into chronological order. Naturally, the oldest was pink with a heart shaped lock.

  After the first two years, Monica stopped writing in pretty diaries that locked, opting instead for a plainer version without printed dates. Each of the last six covered more than just one year, and the entries were further apart. After making sure the alarm was set, I settled into my favorite chair, started with the oldest diary, and began to pry into Monica’s past. That’s just how I felt as I read words I am sure the young Marcia never intended anyone to read. Especially someone she would come to consider her rival.

  She must have been hesitant to write down her thoughts in the beginning, because the first entries only had a few lines. Even those sparse lines made it clear Joey had been her lifeline. She felt lost without him.

  “Joey left today. What will I do without him?”“ I came home from school but he wasn’t there. I miss him soooo much.”

  I could still see where her teardrops had stained the pages. The despair and loneliness came through in all the entries. When she mentioned classmates, it was only because someone said or did something horrible to her. I noticed there was no mention of any outings with girl friends. Boys were interested in her, making the girls hate her even more, but she thought they were geeky. No one could hold a candle to Joey. Like most teenagers, she hated the way she looked, lamented that her clothes weren’t in fashion, and couldn’t wait to be older. Occasionally there was a comment about her mother and the man, presumably the senator.

  “He was here again today. I hate the way he looks at me. She is so glad to see him. It makes me sick.”

  Then, about two weeks after Joey left,

  “When I got home from school today, Joey was waiting for me!!!!!! I was so glad to see him. He says he has a job now washing dishes. I begged him to take me with him, but he says he doesn’t have a place to live. Sometimes when he closes the restaurant, he sleeps there. Other times he has to sleep in the park. I don’t care. I just want to be with him, but he told me if I left the police would come looking for me, and then he would be in trouble. He kissed me goodbye!!!!!! It was fantastic. I love him so much. Now I know he loves me too.”

  Every once in a while, Joey left her a note under the mat, asking her to meet him. Those were the good days in her life. As I closed the last page of the first diary, I felt a deep sadness for the lonely little girl, no friends, an indifferent mother, and only an old lady to turn to during the cruelties of adolescence. I felt a renewed love and respect for my parents and the haven they created for me. Good thing it was late. Otherwise, I might have been tempted to call Mom and get all gushy. It would probably freak her out.

  I picked up the second diary, and started scanning the entries. As meetings with Joey got farther and farther apart, Marcia, in desperation, decided to seduce him. Up to that point, they had only engaged in some rather passionate make out sessions. Apparently, she wasn’t very subtle, because it didn’t take Joey long to figure out she was trying to use sex to tie him to her.

  Crushed by Joey’s rejection, she accepted a date to the homecoming dance with the most popular boy in school. When she pulled the same seduction scene on him, trying to prove that she was desirable, he was more than willing to follow through. Only her mother and the senator arriving home prevented her from being raped.

  The next time she saw Joey, she told him about the date, hoping he would be jealous. He called her a stupid girl, and said what did she expect? However, he came by a little more regularly after that. Unfortunately, that incident would prove a turning point in her relationship with the senator, who began to see her in a new light.

  “Lately whenever that man comes over, he finds some way to touch me, stroking my hair, and insisting that I sit by him. Mom thinks it’s sweet when he hugs and kisses me hello or goodbye. It creeps me out.

  Then I found this entry, which explained how Marcia and Jimmy knew the code to the senator’s alarm system.

  “Mom says she is going away on a business trip. Ha Ha. How stupid does she think I am? I heard them talking. His wife is going away for the weekend and Mom is going to stay with him. What a slut! She even wrote down the alarm code so that she can be there waiting for him. Ewww. Really original. He’s used his birthday. At least that gives me our house to myself for the weekend. I won’t have to put up with Mom or her creepizoid boyfriend. I have to see if I can get in touch with Joey.”

  Joey didn’t come by, and since she didn’t know how to get hold of him, she ended up alone the whole weekend. In several entries, Marcia stated she intended to find out where Joey was working and staying. She tried following him. Either he caught her, or she lost him . . . until this day.

  “Today was a great day!!! Mrs. Combs wasn’t feeling well, so she asked me to go downtown and pick up her dry cleaning. She gave me directions and money for bus fare. The dry cleaner was in a part of town that I’ve never been to before. At first, it was kind of scary. Many of the buildings had bars on them. Then while I was waiting at the cleaners, I looked out the window and saw Joey dressed in a uniform going into Louie’s Restaurant. I almost ran out the door and called to him. Then I realized it would be so much better to surprise him. This is so cool. I know where he works.”

  Marcia was learning the power of secret information. An outsider at school, she was a keen observer, often recording some of her impressions. In one entry, she concluded that one of the girls who regularly tormented her was doing drugs, the next time she caught the girl alone, Marcia hinted at that knowledge. It worked even more successfully than she had hoped. From that point on, the girl avoided Marcia. This must have been her first foray into the world of blackmail.

  A few entries later, I read about the confrontation with her mother:

  Today was my sixteenth birthday. I tried to get Mom to let me stay home from school but she refused. She said she was planning something special to celebrate tonight. Last year on my birthday when I got home from school, there was a new diary sitting on the top step of the porch. I haven’t seen Joey for two weeks and today there was no new diary. But, that was only the beginning of what turned out to be one of the worst days of my life. Mom brought that man home with her. “We were going to have a nice family dinner just the three of us.” Her words not mine. I was hoping she and I could go out to dinner but nooooooooooo. I guess, when you have a creepy married man for a boyfriend, you can’t be seen in public. She was going to order pizza because it’s my favorite, but He said it wasn’t special enough. He said it would be so much nicer to have a homemade dinner. Of course, then Mom had to go to the store, leaving Him home with me. As soon as she was out the door, he was all over me, trying to kiss me. When I pushed him away, he laughed. He had me pinned against the wall when Mom came back, saying she forgot her wallet. She just stood in the doorway, looking at me like she’d never seen me before. He made some excuse, and then was out the door. As soon as he was gone, she started yelling at me, calling me names. She called me a slut, and accused me of trying to steal her boyfriend. I kept trying to tell her that he attacked me, but she wouldn’t listen. She pushed me into the bedroom, threw my backpack at me, and told me to pack my things and get out. I thought, fine now I can go and be with Joey. No one will come looking for me.

  Mrs. Combs had given me some money for my birthday so I took a bus down to Louie’s Restaurant. Joey wasn’t there. Louie, the owner, told me that Joey hadn’t been around for at least two weeks. The last time he had seen him was right before the hit and run accident that happened right in front of the restaurant. I asked him if Joey was hurt, but he said no, it was some other guy. When I told Louie I had no place to go, he said I could stay there. He has some rooms above the restaurant. He said we could work out some arrangement for me to pay.

  I couldn’t help thinking that this was only the beginning of what would turn out to be the first of many worse days. I laid the diary aside for a few moments to rest my eyes. Two hours later, I awoke with the book on my chest and a creak in
my neck. Stacking the books back in the box that Mrs. Combs had sent them in, I stowed them at the bottom of a basket of laundry on my closet floor. Then I went to bed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Shortly after I got to the office the next morning, Delgado dropped by on his way home from work. He came in, closed the door behind him, and enfolded me in his arms before I had time to remember my resolution. Even if I could have made my brain think cold, my body would have ignored it. I held him close and let the warmth spread. Cliché though it may be, one kiss from Delgado lit my fire.

  “I just had to see you before I went home.” He brushed his hand down my cheek. “You didn’t get much rest. Worrying about Rose?”

  “No. I stayed up and did some reading.”

  “I know you’re busy. I won’t stay. I just wanted you to know that the stakeout was a success. We arrested the leaders of the gang responsible for the downtown parking lot hits. I’m going to sleep.” He tapped me on the nose. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Fresh from my Delgado fix, still flushed and breathing hard, I decided if Delgado ever dumped me, I’d need serious rehab.

  A look at my watch told me I was late for the regular executive committee meeting. I rushed upstairs and took the only available seat at the table, which was right across from Alan. Evidently, he was still mad, because throughout the entire meeting, he never once looked at me. After the meeting, he rushed out without speaking. I thought he was being childish. Even if he didn’t want to be friends, we were still co-workers. After the meeting, I stopped and talked to Tony. I knew Alan had already informed him about Rose’s arrest. I briefed him on my meeting with Rose and her attorney.