The lack of evidence extracted from the crime scene was exasperating. The statuette, as well as every inch of the apartment had been wiped clean. There were no prints from anyone, including the victim, left behind. Someone knew what they were doing.
Addressing the team, Garcia said, “The motherfucker didn’t leave so much as a spec of dirt behind. Had to be some kind of psycho to be that violent, yet stay cool enough to clean up the place like that. It’s as though he figured he had all the time in the world.”
Bill Benjamin responded with his usual irreverence. “Hey, it’s not like he had to rush or anything. The broad had a reputation as a screamer. All her neighbors agreed about that. He probably could have even skipped the duct tape. Most of the folks I interviewed said they just ignored her because it was nothing out of the ordinary. Nobody looked at their clocks or stuck their heads into the hallway. Fuckin’ amazing.”
“You keep saying ‘he.’ Is there evidence that I haven’t gotten to see, or what?” Karen asked.
Tom Grant chuckled at her. “Yeah, yeah. We hear you, woman. We’re just speculating here, understand? Lighten up a little. But in answer to your question—I don’t know—it just feels like male rage. I’m all about women’s rights and equal opportunity, but I’m going with a guy here, for now anyway.”
“I’m with him, guys, er, ’scuse me, guys and dolls,” Will joked. He paused while the group had a self-conscious chuckle. “From all accounts, she was playing around with numerous males. She dumped ’em when she was through. The unanimous consensus is she left the poor bastards crying in their beers or sniffing their cocaine. She didn’t seem to have any limits.”
Benjamin wove his fingers together and crunched his knuckles. “Yeah. Never looked back except to spit on them. What a gal.”
Karen winced. “Geez, Benjie. I liked it better when you were smoking. At least the sound effects were less grating. But in spite of my reluctance to genderize, I’m inclined to agree with you guys about the killer being a male. That woman specialized in breaking hearts and by the looks of things, she broke one too many.”
Will jabbed at his partner. “The girl who plays the game gets the name, right? Karen’ll buy a man for the job, so long’s it’s not sweet cheeks himself, Kyle Sands. She thinks he’s as clean as a newborn baby’s ass. Ain’t that the truth, babe?”
All the detectives were looking a little uncomfortable now. Karen glared at her partner. “Drop it Will, okay?”
Garcia cleared his throat in an attempt to crack some of the tension between the partners. “What’s with you two? You’ve been at each other’s throats since we took this case. Care to share? How about let’s have a good-and-welfare moment here and clear the air some.”
“We’re just having a little dispute about the way the law works,” Karen answered. “Will seems to think that we should bust the quarterback, just because we can, and then fry him without bothering to try him. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s convenient.”
“Yeah, right. My partner has her head half way up her ass on this one. Seems she’s star-struck. The big handsome lug sucked her in with a sob story and an academy award performance. You had to be there, the jock crying crocodile tears and Karen eating it up.” Will brought his fists up to his eyes and made a show of clearing his tears.
Tom Grant gave an uneasy laugh and said, “Tell me you two are kidding, right? You’re fighting over a suspect? Take a fuckin’ break, will you?” And then to Will with a wink. “What’s the matter? You jealous?”
“Fuck no, I’m not jealous, asshole. I just want Detective Brandt here to take a step back and see the whole picture. Just because he’s a pretty boy with nice white teeth and a decent set of pecs, don’t mean he’s innocent.”
“Aw, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Cut the crap you two!” Garcia shook his head. “Can’t you get past this or are you having too much fun jerking each other off while the case goes down the crapper? I don’t get you. You know Karen’s not gonna take up for some scum bucket because she thinks he has a cute ass…”
Karen cut in, “I’m not saying we ignore him. But I don’t think we ought to be locking the guy up without some good, hard evidence. Right now all we have going for us is a bunch of circumstantial garbage. Meanwhile, Sands isn’t going anywhere. That’s a sure bet. We arrest him now and it’s as good as giving him a Get out of Jail Free card. Any lawyer worth hiring would have him out in less time than it takes to book him. If we’re going to do this right, dammit, then we need a shit load more evidence than we have now!”
Garcia nodded in agreement with Karen. He narrowed his eyes at Will and asked, “So can we put our differences aside now and move on? The longer we sit here pulling our puds over your he-said/she-said-ing, the more time it’s gonna take us to find out whether or not Sands did it. Understood?” He raised his eyebrows in question.
Karen clenched her fists and shot Will an evil stare. He rolled his eyes at her in response.
Tom Grant looked at Garcia. “I can’t fucking believe we’re wasting time with this two-year-old shit!” Then to Karen and Will, “Get with the program, both of you.”
Benjamin, who had busied himself with a stale éclair and a cup of the deadly glop the station called coffee, looked up at his partner and said, “Sounds like a plan to me. Do we take a vote or can we just get on with it?”
A dark silence hung for a few moments. Karen finally broke the mood. Poking at Will’s chest, in her best Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation, she barked, “I’ll be back!”
Will gave her a feeble smile and said, “I know. Okay, let’s get on with this mess. I told James Lundy we wanted to chat with him. He was a real treat, the little fuck. Said he had to fit us in to his busy schedule. I said I’d give him a busy schedule. Anyways, we ended up agreeing on 1:30 this afternoon. We don’t want to rattle the football players’ cages, though, right? He’s got a real chip on his shoulder and he’s Sands’ best friend. I don’t see him for being any help. He’s an honors graduate of Fordham, and if that’s not enough of a pain in our ass, he’s been going to law school at UM in the off season for the past two years. You can bet he’s read up on his rights and’ll dance over any landmines we plant.” Will stopped for a minute and looked around to be sure he had his colleagues’ full attention. Satisfied that the group was with him, he continued.
“His alibi for Friday night is solid. He was all cozy in his apartment with some broad. She checked out with his story. Didn’t leave him till after two or three in the morning, but she left pissed. Said the guy wanted her for her body, not her mind, like I give a shit. Can’t blame him, though.” He cupped his hands to his chest and added, “Her tits were out to here.”
“Come on, jeez!” said Karen who was used to the sexism but sick of it.
“Anyway, she woulda been real glad to cause a problem for him, but the upshot was he was still in bed and a little more than drunk when she left, and she was clear that he didn’t look to be getting out of it any time in the foreseeable future. Whoever killed Benson had to be sober and sharp enough to do a heck of a job cleaning. We gotta take a crack at him, though. Crowd him some and see what we can get. Being so tight with Sands, I figure he might give us a little more insight to the guy if nothing else.”
The detectives once again reviewed the information that had been gathered to date. All the tenants in Jessica’s building had finally been interviewed, and although all of them claimed to have seen nothing, every one of them had plenty to say. The women, for the most part, said she was a lousy neighbor, rude, crude, loud and otherwise inconsiderate. The guys, on the other hand, either thought she was the answer to their dreams or sounded like sour grapes — the straight ones, anyway — calling her cold, stand-offish and saying she usually kept her distance. Rafe Strickland and his partner, who had finally come back to town, were the only ones who seemed to actually like her.
No one knew the names of any of her male friends except, of course, Kyle Sands, who everyone knew she was seeing. They owed th
at to the fact that he was a high profile athlete. In a small building like that, news travels fast. The other men that she entertained were like phantoms…heard, but never seen.
Jessica’s background was another lost lead. She was from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Her childhood was a real hardluck story. Her father died when she was nine. She and her younger sister were raised by their mother. Her mother never went past the eighth grade and did odd jobs to make ends meet.
The officer from the sheriff’s office in Beaver Falls had a lot to say about the mother. She was intermittently on welfare and general relief. Her food stamps were usually pawned for cigarettes and cheap liquor. One of the ‘odd jobs’ he recalled — the Beach detectives had little doubt that he probably had personal knowledge — had to do with late night trysts, giving five dollar blow jobs to any and all takers.
Jessica had not been a great student, but was popular in high school. She sang in the choir, was a cheerleader, and hung with a nice crowd. In her senior year, however, there had been an ugly incident in which Jessica was caught in a compromising position in the gymnasium with two basketball players. She was ostracized by the kids she thought were her friends. More than one police officer was unable to resist commenting that she had better luck with basketball players than football heroes. She left Beaver Falls immediately after she graduated from high school. Her younger sister, Julie, had not escaped the fall out from the narrow-minded small town kids and was unable to live down her sister’s mistake. She dropped out of high school less than six months after Jessica left town. Her mother eventually introduced her to world of midnight blow jobs and she got pregnant about a year later. She eventually ran off with the skin-head she claimed was the father. That was the last time her mother or anyone else in Beaver Falls ever heard from or about her.
Karen had also interviewed Jessica’s mother who complained bitterly about her precious daughter running off to Florida like she did. She claimed to be devastated by the desertion and the fact that she heard from Jessica only on rare occasions, some phone calls and an infrequent FedEx’s stuffed with cash.
She cried hysterically when she learned Jessica was dead. “My baby! My sweet darling baby!” When she finally caught her breath, she asked Karen how long it would take to get all Jessie’s stuff, and did the detective think there was a lot of cash money coming to her.
The case was growing cold.
CHAPTER TEN
J ames Lundy arrived at the police station as promised, at 1:30 that afternoon. He came straight from practice and looked like a thug. The sleeves of the Demons sweatshirt he wore were ripped out, and his basketball shorts hung low on his hips. He wore flipflops on his feet, and a beat-up Marlins cap, bill to the back of his head. A fat unlit cigar jutted from his mouth. Karen mentally thanked the city for the ‘no smoking’ ordinance.
Will insisted on making Lundy wait. He told Karen he needed to speak with her in the squad room and escorted Lundy to the interrogation room, a small airless cubicle with the obligatory two-way mirror. The player made no secret of his impatience. Will just grinned/ “Relax, Lundy. Sit down. I’ll be back.”
He returned to Karen who, in an attempt to control her exasperation, had been working studiously on a hangnail. When Will appeared, she asked if Lundy was settled in. Will took a seat across from her and said, “Yeah. He thinks he’s a real tough guy. I’m gonna let him sweat it awhile.”
“You’re wasting time, Will,” she responded. “He’s not the type who’s going to sit for your shit. He’s got a basic grasp of the law, and that’s usually worse than having a papered attorney around.”
“I don’t give a fuck what he does or doesn’t know about the law. Captain Cruz is tearing my head off for a break in this case and I’m gonna get Lundy for it. I’d make book that piss-ant knows something, and I’m gonna make damn sure he shares whatever it is with us. Are you going to tell me that’s a problem for you?” Will glared at Karen, challenging her to give him the wrong response.
“How about we drop the petty bullshit between us and concentrate on the case?”
“Yeah, sure. Might as well. I just didn’t feel right about the chemistry I felt between you and Sands the other day. It’s not like you to be so passive in an interrogation. So maybe I got a little crazy.”
Karen shook her head and groaned. “God, you make me so mad sometimes, Will. It wasn’t an ‘interrogation.’ We were just questioning him, and because I didn’t jump to arrest him, you’ve got me swapping spit with him. Get over it, already.”
Will sat there, making no move to leave, a sour look pasted on his face.
“Tell you what, Will,” she offered. “I’ll be superaggressive with his buddy today and you can sit back and play good cop. Will that cheer you up a little?”
Will stiffened and rolled his head around on his shoulders. His bones crackled. Then, with a huge sigh, he shook himself out like a wet dog. He was quiet for a few short seconds more and then fixed his eyes on Karen’s as though trying to read her thoughts. Finally, he flashed a weak ‘thumbs up’ and gave her a feeble smile. “You drive a hard bargain, woman. But the only thing I want you to be is yourself. I’ll even back off Sands for now if it’ll make you happy. Let’s go see what his sidekick has to say. Sound like a plan?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she replied, feeling lousy about her deception.
Truth was, he knew her too well. She was very definitely getting hung up on Kyle Sands. Until yesterday, he had been a fixture in her life; one that had been lost forever, then suddenly returned. Her little-girl crush was growing into a woman’s heartache. It was hard enough for her to deal with the out-ofcontrol emotions without Will’s eyes on her soul.
When they stood, Will gave her a big hug and kissed her cheek lightly. She hugged him back and smiled a smile she didn’t feel. A growing sense of danger swept over her and she could not help but feel things were going to get a lot scarier before this case was solved.
The two entered the interrogation room to find a very angry witness. “Nice. Glad you could make it. You think I got nothing to do but sit here waiting for you to get around to visiting me in this sweat-box? We agreed on a time and I was here when I said. Then you toss me into this cell and go out to lunch? I got a good mind to dip and let you question each other. I got things to do and no fuckin’ way is this is one of them!” He flipped his lighter open and went to light up his cigar.
Will moved to grab it, but Karen interceded. “There’s no smoking in here. Let me take that for you.” She smiled and reached toward him to remove it from his mouth. “I can get you coffee or soda if you’d like, but this is a smoke-free building so the cigar’s gotta go.”
Lundy pulled back but reluctantly handed the stogie over. She thanked him and left the room to dispose of the stinky butt. Will stared sullenly at the football player until she returned.
Once the session got underway, it grew wearisome very quickly. Lundy began with the discussion he and Kyle had on the Friday of the murder. He clearly disapproved of his friend’s relationship with Jessica and had urged Sands to break it off with her, the sooner the better.
“Kyle had wasted too much time with her already. I used to give him about ten reasons a day why he should cut her loose. She was an unscrupulous bitch is what she was, not meaning to speak ill of the dead, of course,” he said, raising his hands up, as if to fend off whatever remarks the detectives might send his way.
“I saw Jessica at the beach on Thursday afternoon when I was hanging out with Angie, this girl I date on and off, but Jessica sure enough didn’t see me. In fact, she was so twisted up with some guy, I don’t think she saw anyone. Damn. She had it going on with the fruit who teaches abs at one of the local gyms. He’s also done some work with a few of the players at the Demons complex as well. She…”
“This fruit, he’s got a name?” Will broke in. “Yeah, he does.” James smiled, showing lots of teeth, but said nothing more. He seemed to enjoy pissing Will off.
“Don’t
be cute, asshole. What is it?”
“Feyzi. Feyzi something-or-other.”
“What the hell kinda name is Feyzi?”
“I heard he’s a Turk.”
“A rag head?” Will asked.
Karen rolled her eyes and kicked him under the table. She looked at James and mumbled, “He didn’t say that.”
James laughed. “S’okay, I knew what he meant. Naw, he doesn’t stand out in a crowd. I mean, you wouldn’t pick him up as a terrorist or anything. He looks pretty much like any other white guy to me. Maybe just with a better tan.”
“How well do you know him?” Karen asked.
“Not real well. I’ve seen him around a lot. He’s got a going concern with the women on the Beach, a real taste for models. Teaches at Crunch and does personal training for women in their homes. Know what I’m saying? He’s all about that spiritual shit — meditation, yoga — whatever pays the bills, I guess. The broads eat that stuff up, but he sure as fuck doesn’t bring the touchy-feely stuff with him when he works with the guys on the team.” He pursed his lips and nodded his head a couple of times to emphasize his point.
“Tell you the truth, ‘til I saw him with Jessica that afternoon, I thought he was a little sweet, but he was doing a damn convincing imitation of heterosexuality with her.” He winked at Karen who couldn’t help but smile back. Will glared at them both.
“So, you saw the Arab…”
“Turk.”
“Arab, Turk…whatever. They’re all fucking terrorists to me… And you went to Sands and said exactly what?”
“I told you what I said. I basically iterated my position on Jessica again. She was making a jerk out of him, and this time I saw it with my own eyes. Up till then it was just a bunch of hearsay.”
The Mystery of Jessica Benson Page 7
