Karen started to respond, but Will cut her off.
“What makes you think she would file a complaint against you, or did you slug her too?” Kyle glared at him but said nothing.
“Well it’s for damn sure you won’t be smacking her around any time soon,” Will charged on. “She’s dead.”
Kyle did not move at first. He stared at Will as though trying to gauge his intentions. Then he looked toward Karen for confirmation. The tension was palpable and his face went slack when he realized it was true. He did a stutter step with his tongue and finally spoke.
“When I left her last night she was plenty pissed, but alive. I don’t…what happened? Was it drugs?”
Karen was livid at Will for his callous behavior. At times he was insensitive, but today he was downright cruel. As for Kyle, she felt sure his shock was genuine. He appeared to be blindsided by the news of Jessica’s death.
“No easy way to say it,” Karen went on. “She was murdered. I’m sorry to have dropped this on you this way, but we have to move quickly and have little time for the amenities. We need to know what time it was when you left her.”
Kyle sat still for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak a couple of times, but stopped. He looked from Karen to her partner as though waiting for more. Finally he said, “I guess it was around eleven. I wasn’t paying any attention to the time. Like I said, we broke up, and it wasn’t cordial, then, well….”
Karen could see he hadn’t yet gathered his thoughts and she stepped on his words. “Where did you go when you left her last night?
Kyle looked dazed. “Home. I just went home.
Karen prayed Will couldn’t gauge the anguish she felt for putting Kyle on the rack like this.
“Okay. Did you stop anywhere along the way? Talk to anyone? Make or receive any phone calls?”
“No. I was pretty steamed up. We had an ugly argument and I left there pretty angry. It’d been coming for a long time. When I got home I parked my own car to avoid bumping into anyone and took the service elevator up to my place. Everyone wants to, you know, talk about the team and the playoffs, and Jesus! Are we really having this conversation? Jessica, dead?”
“Will jumped back into the act. “Yeah, dead. Murdered, just like I said. You got a problem hearing? We can get someone to sign for you…. So let’s try to move along with this. When did you finally see or speak to someone?”
Kyle’s color was somewhere short of white. “Not until this morning when I got to practice.”
“Are you okay?” Karen couldn’t stop herself from interceding. He looked as though he was going to be sick.
Kyle nodded unconvincingly.
Kaufman jumped right back in. “You’re a pretty damn good actor, Sands. You must’ve been rehearsing your reaction all night long. But getting all dewy eyed doesn’t mean you didn’t kill her.”
Kyle looked at him and asked, “Do I need an attorney here?”
“Oh, I dunno. Do you?”
Clearly at a loss, Kyle turned to Karen and said, “Look, I don’t even know how she was killed.”
“She was beaten to death.”
He closed his eyes and slumped down in his chair. Then he asked, “Was she raped?”
“We’re waiting for results from the lab. I have to ask you this. Did you have sexual relations with Jessica last night?”
Karen gnawed on her bottom lip. All her old feelings about her brother’s handsome friend came rushing back and she was feeling more like a little girl with a crush than a police officer conducting a murder investigation.
Kyle looked as though she’d told him his fly was open. “Sexual relations?”
The short thread of patience Will had exercised until now broke. “My partner asked whether you got laid last night before you took off from Ms. Benson’s apartment. Did you fuck her? Maybe that’s easier for you to comprehend?”
Karen knew that she and Will were close enough for him to recognize she was off her game. Close enough, in fact, that he probably suspected that it was Kyle who was throwing her off. She tried to unclench her jaw and get her poker face back to preclude any further showdowns with him.
“No, it wasn’t like that. I had planned to break things off with her. I didn’t want to go to the party. But Jessica did, and she usually got her way. As soon as I got her home I ended things. There was plenty of arguing, but definitely no sex.”
Karen could not hold back. “You understand we have to ask you these questions. We don’t mean to be insensitive, but we have to move quickly to find out as much as we can as fast as we can. Time is critical.”
She hoped he recognized what she was doing and felt better when he nodded to her.
But Will pressed on. “So your story is that you left her around eleven and didn’t speak to her again?”
“That’s right. I was planning to call her today after practice and well, you know, try to clean up loose ends.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘loose ends’?”
“It’s just an expression, Detective Kaufman. I don’t like burning my bridges with people.” He paused for a short moment, and then, as though he’d had a second thought, said, “It’s called manners. My mom taught me.”
Karen tried to suppress a smile as Will was boiling over. “You think you’re real funny, don’t you?”
“Not really, but I do think I’m being harassed, and I’m getting tired of it. My inclination is to call my attorney and let you deal with him. So we can handle it that way or just finish this up with the three of us, okay?”
Will grunted. “So, just how upset was she when you dumped her?”
Kyle remembered hearing that the less you say to a cop, the better your chance of not incriminating yourself. “We were both pretty upset, and hurt.”
Karen spoke his name and he looked at her. Their eyes caught and his heart did a somersault. She was ions away from the annoying little girl he had known, and she was clearly trying to buffer her partner’s bad attitude.
“I suppose if I hadn’t broken up with her, she would’ve eventually broken up with me. Our relationship had grown pretty thin.” He shook his head, and continued, “Anyway, when we got to her place last night, we fought and I was out of there. Pretty grim, huh?” He looked toward Karen for sanction.
She smiled at him and looked as though she was about to say something when Will came slamming back.
“Oh yeah, real grim, Mr. Quarterback, except Jessica Benson isn’t able to tell her side of the story. Convenient, huh?”
Kyle stood and said, “That’s it. If you don’t have any other questions, I’ll be going.”
Karen stood also and nodded to him. “We appreciate your cooperation.”
“If you need me for anything else, just give me a call. But if you intend to continue hassling me, give me a heads-up so I can bring my lawyer.” He watched as the detectives started down the hallway.
Will stopped and turned back to Kyle. “You can be damn sure you’ll be seeing us again so don’t make any long term plans. Hey! Mr. Q.B., you’re looking a little green around the gills there. You sure you don’t want to get something off your chest?”
Feeling more like himself, Kyle shot back, “I can’t believe you guys really talk like that.”
Karen glared at Will then looked toward Kyle. “Thanks again for your help. We’ll be in touch. Sorry we had to bring you the bad news.”
As the detectives left the Demons’ complex, Will turned to Karen. “That guy’s some actor. He’s guilty as fuck and that wide-eyed ‘golly gosh I’m such a nice guy’ theme of his is a crock of shit.
“And you, partner. That was a mighty convincing goodguy you played to my very convincing bad guy. Maybe you were a little bit too convincing, huh?”
She didn’t speak until they got into the car. She sat quietly for a short time and then turned to Will and said, “I try. I’m sure you’ll keep an open mind, though, right?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
K aren watched as Will showed s
igns of a slow boil during the ride back to the station. There had been an uneasy silence between them and she knew he had turned his anger inside. Now he’d begun mouthing words to himself as though framing a speech. That was a sure sign he was working up to a war with her, and she was getting that feeling of desperation that there was nothing she could do to stop it.
In a feeble attempt to lighten the mood, she spoke. “Penny for your thoughts, partner.”
Will scowled, giving no response. His mood, however, was oozing out and seeping through Karen with its intensity. But she could not stop herself from pushing.
“C’mon Will, you can’t believe Sands was putting on an act. He lost all his color when we told him she was murdered. If he weren’t such a jock, he might have even cried. You copped an attitude before you ever met him and I don’t get it!”
“Well now Miss Karen, so long as you want to discuss attitude problems, that jock Sands was playing you like the horses and you bought into him like a groupie meeting her first rock star. Even I could feel the vibes between you two, for Christ sake. I don’t know what your story here is, and I sure as hell can’t figure where you’re coming from.” His face was red and his volume rose as he spoke. “We’re trying to catch the scumbag who beat a woman to a pulp, and you’re playing coochie-coochie with our prime suspect!”
Karen was taken back by his anger. They fought plenty throughout the years as a team, but he had never attacked her professionalism.
“You’re one to talk. I thought we were going to question the guy, not punch him into a confession. He should’ve tossed us out or called his lawyer and you know it. He sure as shit didn’t have to take the crap you were throwing at him! I was just trying to defuse the bomb before it went off and avoid the repercussions of having to deal with his lawyer when we had our suspect right there and willing to talk.”
“Yeah, well, we weren’t there for you to flash your bedroom eyes and give aid and comfort to the bastard,” Will shot back.
“So because I wasn’t whacking him with the butt of my gun, all of a sudden I’m getting sexual with him?
“Okay. So he’s a great looking guy and I’m not dead yet. So I noticed. So fuck me. It’s not like you’ve never lusted after some sleazy hooker who’d been brought in. So what’s the deal here? The old double standard?”
“Shit,” he spat. “You should’ve seen yourself, Karen. It was as though you were in the presence of God. You were ogling a freaking suspect during a murder investigation. Goddammit, Kar! What were you thinking?”
Karen smiled, once again hoping to take the hostility down a notch, and teased, “Why, Will, I think you’re jealous!”
“Fuck jealous. This isn’t a joke, Karen. What I am is pissed. You went for a walk on this one and now you’re dancing around it. You talk about me giving hookers a break. Hookers, for God’s sake! We’re talking murder here. Get a grip, huh? I suggest you butch up and get your head on right, or you’re going to find yourself off this case. “Remember, doll, I’m the lead detective here. Don’t think I would give a second thought to bumping you off the team. And you know me well enough to know I’m not bullshitting.”
Disturbed, Karen continued. “If you think I have such a problem with this one, have at it, Mr. ‘Lead Detective.’ We haven’t even begun the investigation and you’re looking to wrap it up and tie it with a pretty bow. Nothing about that guy says ‘guilty’ to me. If he’s good for it, he’s one dumb son of a bitch. He sure doesn’t strike me as being stupid. I think it’s a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She paused for a moment, looking as though she was trying to put all the pieces together in her mind, and then continued, “Sands is far from being an idiot and he didn’t come across to me as being insane. So why would he leave a trail of clues that were almost as blatant as a signed confession? There’s just too much coincidence here, and you know how I feel about coincidence, Will. Sands picks a fight in front of how many people earlier in the evening, then everyone sees him drag her out to his car. As if that wasn’t enough, he continues fighting for all her neighbors in her apartment building to hear. Then, to top it off, he leaves himself without an alibi. Did he really look that stupid to you, Will? So freakin’ stupid that you have to threaten to pull me off the case because we’re maybe not on the same wavelength?”
He winced at her words but said nothing. He sighed and looked as though he was about to speak, but did not. Finally, “How many times have you seen these piss-ants walk, Karen? He’ll hook up with his attorney, probably couldn’t wait till we left there today so he could call him, and then we’re shit outta luck. You’ll see. Kyle Sands is the hometown hero and the media people’ll do their little song and dance and make us look like the bad guys, again. I don’t need my partner working for him as well, promoting his ass for the media. They do just fine without our help.”
“I see. You want to take this guy down and anyone who has a different angle, including me, is off the case. That the bottom line?”
“Look at it any fucking way you want. All I’m telling you is to pull yourself together and stop making excuses for a suspect. Get with the program or get out of it!”
Karen was silent for a moment while she attempted to balance her emotions. She felt Will was being unreasonable, but she knew she was, in fact, biased toward Kyle. She wanted to make sure Kyle got a shot at a fair chance. If only everything wasn’t so damning!
“Okay,” she finally said. “I get your message.”
“That’s my girl.”
“I’m not anyone’s girl, Will. You try to remember that.”
They arrived at the station as they had been throughout the drive, sheathed in ice.
CHAPTER EIGHT
E xhausted by the end of the second day of the investigation, Karen’s mind raced with the facts as they now knew them. Although Will continued his ranting and was stalled on Kyle Sands as ‘the most feasible lead, if not the perp,’ nothing they had learned so far closed the case.
God , Karen thought, he actually said ‘perp!’
Tenants in Jessica’s building were still being questioned, but no further leads had been uncovered. They were also following up with everyone who was in any way connected to the Demons.
Several guests from Tyrell Utley’s party had already been interviewed. It had apparently been a casual gathering, invitation by word-of-mouth. Many of those who had shown up, according to the host, were ‘friends of friends.’
Utley looked to be a dead end. He was a creep and not the least bit concerned with his teammate’s fate. If anything, he was buoyed by what Sands’ loss to the team would do for his own career. He bragged about having been home all that night, promising there was more than one woman who could corroborate his story, gladly relating the intimate details. And one for one, each of the women backed Utley up.
The parking ticket Kyle brought up in his interview with Karen and Will was recorded. It was written shortly after 11:00 p.m. as he claimed. The meter maid, a short plump brunette named Antonella Perez, confirmed that he had shown up just after she signed the violation. She said he looked “pretty riled up over something,” and he attempted to talk her into ditching the ticket. Ms. Perez confided to Karen that she was very tempted to rip it up for him because he was “one hot piece of carne,” but because it was already documented, there wasn’t anything she could do.
Garcia had yet to come up with anything useful from the crime scene. Everything in the apartment had been wiped clean. He hadn’t even been able to recover any of the victim’s own prints. The homicide investigation was one of the most intense ever for the Crimes Against Persons unit of the Miami Beach Police Department. The Versace murder had been a cakewalk in comparison. Urgent, Confidential and Urgent Confidential memos flew around the squad room like confetti. The brass insisted everything be handled by the book. Screw-ups would not be tolerated. Everyone was under the looking glass. It had been years, but the Simpson case was still the standard for fucked-up high profile cases.
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But Kyle Sands was not O.J. Simpson. There had never been 911 calls about abuse. In fact, as far as they could determine, the quarterback had lived his life as a model citizen, a leader in the community. He was loyal to his family, his friends and his team. A regular Eagle Scout. But mass murder Ted Bundy was also an Eagle Scout, and Will pointed that out every chance he got.
Mixed messages were everywhere. After all, Kyle was a star, an icon in the community. All ‘t’s would be crossed and all ‘i’s dotted, but the media would be treated with kid glove. News conferences would be held twice daily and all questions would be addressed.
As far as Karen was concerned, any one of the witnesses with whom she had spoken so far could be guilty. Anyone but Kyle Sands. Memories of her youth haunted her, and she found herself easily distracted and at least part of the time obsessed with their past. Kyle giving her her first tennis lesson; yelling for her to hurry up so she could go to the park with him and her brother; bringing her balloon bouquets when she was sick; teasing her about her first date and then comforting her when the little prick stood her up.
When her brother Brett died, she was inconsolable, but Kyle had been the one there for her. Until he started college and got involved with the rigorous schedule of quarterbacking at that level, Kyle was always there for her. She now felt she had a chance to reciprocate. She wouldn’t break any laws, but she would bend whatever rules she had to in order to make sure he wasn’t railroaded and made the scapegoat for Jessica Benson’s murder.
Her partner sure as hell wasn’t making matters easy for her. He did not try to hide the fact that he was keeping tabs on her every move. She looked for a chance to work alone every time it was possible, which wasn’t often. Will Kaufman’s gut told him that Karen had an agenda that was not on the books and made sure she had precious little time to address it.
To her relief, Garcia was more in tune with her thoughts on this case than with Will’s. He, too, recognized that Kyle Sands was far from the standard good time, bad boy football player that Will continued to insist he was. He assured Karen that he was examining everything with an open mind and had urged her not to succumb to Will’s bullying.
The Mystery of Jessica Benson Page 5
