“And Sands said what?”
“Uh, Kyle was beginning to agree with me. I wasn’t the only one who’d said something to him about her, I’m sure. He told me he was going to take her out Friday night and end things.”
“Yeah, looks like he ended them all right,” Will replied. “Did you know he was going to kill her?”
“Do you know I’m about to walk out outta here if you don’t stop slandering my best friend?”
“Yeah, you’re a real big shot. A fucking law class or two under your belt and you think you can run the world. Okay, smartass, I’m sure your buddy had plenty to tell you about his date Friday night, huh? How long after the murder did you first talk to him?”
Lundy told him he’d been home most of the night with a wicked woman of his own. They had a disagreement and she left around one in the morning. He said he’d had a lot to drink and went to sleep shortly after she left.
He didn’t see Kyle until practice the next morning. There had been nothing unusual about his buddy’s behavior except he was probably a little depressed.
“Kyle said he’d had a nasty argument with Jessica, and he wanted to get in touch with her to straighten things out.”
“What do you mean straighten things out?’”
“Yeah, right. I wasn’t too thrilled about it myself when he said it. At first I thought he was going back with her and I got pissed. Real pissed. But he told me he was definitely over her. He just wanted the break-up to be more amicable. Kyle’s one of the last of the real good guys. It wasn’t ‘til you guys showed up at practice that Kyle found out about the murder.”
They talked about the reasons Lundy disliked Jessica so much. He told them she had two passions, “sex and drugs.” The detectives sat up immediately.
“Uh huh,” Lundy continued. “There was always jawing about her with some guy or another. I figured she was cheating on Kyle, and lately he was beginning to believe it as well. But nobody knew the specifics.”
“You already told me about her sex life. What about the drugs?” Will pushed.
“Settle down, man. I’m getting there. Jess looked stoned half the time. I heard somewhere that she was heavy into coke, and she sucked weed down like it was oxygen. When she was with Kyle, she stayed pretty much with just alcohol because she knew damn well he wouldn’t tolerate the drugs. But the little trick wasn’t always with Kyle, which takes us back to the main reason I wanted him to stop seeing her.”
He got quiet for a minute and looked from Will to Karen as though waiting for another round of questioning. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and pointed to his watch. “You about finished with me? I gotta get back to the field some time before midnight. Coach busted my nuts about coming here in the first place.”
“It’s over when I say it’s over, capish?” Will bullied.
His attitude didn’t seem to faze Lundy in the least. “Listen here, old man.” His voice had a treacherous edge to it now. “I don’t know anything but what I’ve told you. If I could give you names and places, I’d do it, whatever it’d take to get you off Kyle’s back. Why don’t you go find Feyzi and hassle him for awhile? He’s probably listed in the book. If not, call Crunch and find out when he’s teaching a class and get him there. Maybe he’s got more to say about what happened Friday night. He sure as hell could tell you more about what Jessica was doing on Thursday afternoon.”
Karen could tell by Will’s expression that he was considering dragging this scene on longer just because he could. But the player was right. Time would better be served elsewhere at this point. He’d clearly given up all he was going to for now.
“Okay. Let’s wrap it up,” she said.
Will made no attempt to hide his disdain for Lundy. He told him to make himself available for future questioning and the athlete assured him he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Make sure you don’t,” Will said for no other reason but to have the last word.
On the way back to the squad room Karen asked, “Next stop Feyzi whatsisname?”
He gave her a short salute and said, “You got it, babe.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
T he whirlpool droned in his head and Kyle finally felt relaxed. He had come in from practice ahead of the team and was taking advantage of the quiet. For a couple of minutes he had even dozed. Now that he was awake, his mind started twisting and turning again. He tortured himself with the same question he had been asking himself for days. Could I have stopped the murder?
He was overwhelmed with guilt, going over that Friday night with scenarios of what might have been. He berated himself for being so callous, causing a scene at the party and walking out on her afterwards. He kept seeing her eyes welled up with tears and hearing her voice trailing behind him as he slammed out of her apartment. What ifs continuously tumbled through his brain.
Fingers brushed lightly across the back of his neck and he shivered from the touch. “Hey stud, how’re you doing?” It was Gloria DiAngelo, one of the team trainers. She began massaging his shoulders and he leaned back into her soothing hands. There was an easy silence between them. Although he wanted to fade into the oblivion of her touch, he finally answered.
“Gloria, hey. Feels good, don’t stop. Mmm. You don’t want to know how I’m doing. Hell, I don’t want to know. What’s going on with you?”
“I got no problems, handsome, but then I never dated Jessica Benson. Oops! My bad! Sorry, but I couldn’t help myself,” Gloria giggled. Kyle wasn’t amused.
“Nice. Glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor over my bad luck. Go ahead, have your laugh about what used to be my life.”
“Aw, come on sweetie. It’ll get better.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. It can’t get worse. Thanks loads. I’d smack you one, but then you might stop what you’re doing to me and that would really be a crime.”
“Ah, you like the pleasure my hands give? Or are you just sweet talking me here?”
She leaned into him so he could feel the softness of her full breasts. When he didn’t resist, she slowly brought her arms around him, and began provocatively massaging his chest. He savored the warmth for just long enough that Gloria took it as an invitation to move in for more. Her lips pulled him to her like a magnet and she quickly slid her tongue into his mouth. He moaned from the heat of it.
Kyle bolted away from her as though he’d been stung by a wasp. He pulled from her grip and turned to face her. She backed off for a second and then smiled and continued talking as though nothing had transpired between them.
Gloria DiAngelo was the color of dark honey with large aqua almond eyes and a full sensuous mouth. Her body was sculpted from rigorous workouts and excellent genes, but rather than having the sharp angles of a gymnast, she was all female, curvaceous and inviting. She was the product of a mixed marriage. Her mother was African and her father was a descendant of Northern Italians. The blend produced a woman who was as striking as she was sensual.
“So, really, how are you doing with all this? I’ve wanted to talk with you these past couple of days, but you looked so dark, and anyway, everyone else seemed to be in your face, so I thought I’d give you some space.”
Kyle tried to smile, but couldn’t quite make it. “Thanks, but with the exception of the media hoards, most everyone here seems to be lecturing me or steering clear of me.”
“They’re a bunch of wusses. When it’s all good, they’re all about you, but something happens and you need them, everybody’s got an agenda and you’re not part of it.” She shook her head and ran her fingers across his forehead, softly pushing a renegade clump of hair from his face. “It’s not you, Kyle. It’s them.”
“Thanks Gloria. You’re a good friend and that means a lot to me right now. I hope the police haven’t been hassling you too.”
“They are a little. The old cop thought he was pretty intimidating. He got a little tough with me, but I butched my way through it. You know I can handle myself okay. He left off after awhile, though, the lech.”
“Lech?”
“Hell, yes. He was practically drooling by the time we finished. He never took his eyes of my boobs. I could see his hard on, and the bastard knew it. I’m sure he would have asked me out if it hadn’t been for the other cop with him. She was all business.”
“Detective Brandt?”
“That her name? I didn’t catch it. What’s the other one, oh wait, yeah. He gave me his card. Kaufman. “He did all the talking. I’ll bet he’s making your life pretty miserable, right? But not to worry. As they talk to more people who knew her, they’ll find out that she wasn’t going to win popularity contests around here with anyone, either.”
“You know something I don’t?”
“Yeah, maybe. You can never tell.” She gave him a wink, and continued, “They’re gonna have to look under plenty of rocks before they get a clear picture of Jessica. My feelings probably aren’t much different from any other woman who’s had anything to do with her, and most of the men, too.”
“And those feelings are what?”
“She was a certified people-eater. I thought you were savvier than to buy into her act like you did. But then, Kyle baby, you give as good as you get, and that’s the bottom line here.”
Here it comes, Kyle thought. Gloria and he had shared some intimate moments when she first came to the team a few years before. It had meant less to him than to her, but he hadn’t realized that until she reacted badly when he broke it off. Several months had gone by before the two were civil to each other again. Over the years, however, she had not missed an opportunity to bring up the romance that never was.
“Why not let’s drop that mantra for now,” he smiled.
“Well, okay, just this once.” She scowled and gave him a soft punch in the solar plexus. “You know, I really hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but something happened the other night that was really weird.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, Thursday night I was getting out of here late. When I got to the parking lot, Jessica was there arguing with Luke Arnold. They looked pretty heated up. I couldn’t hear what they were saying and left without giving it another thought. Shoot, Luke’s always having a problem with someone and Jessica didn’t mind getting into it when the chance came about, either. Anyway, I didn’t think they had even seen me, until this morning, that is. Arnold caught me in the training room when no one else was around and wanted to talk about what happened that night. I don’t know. He was even weirder than he usually is, if you can believe that! I can’t stand the turd to begin with, so I’m like, ‘we got nothing to discuss, man.’ And then he got all up tight and tells me ‘no, no, I just wanted you to know about me and Jessica.’ Him and Jessica? Now there’s a scary thought. Okay, but now I’m interested, right? Him and Jessica, ha! So I ask him what’d he mean him and Jessica? So he’s telling me how he knew I saw them talking the other night and he’s just making sure I understand that it was just a ‘misunderstanding’ they were having. So, you know, like I shouldn’t be getting any wrong ideas. Well, then I’m really interested, so I tell him, ‘why would I get any wrong ideas just because she was murdered the next night?’ And he tells me that’s nothing to joke about and then goes all quiet on me and gets to looking all sulky, right? Finally he tells me they weren’t really fighting. Yeah, right. I just have an active imagination. He says he was just talking to her about some shit he’d heard and she got nasty, and don’t we all know that she could get plenty nasty. Then she started yelling at him for no reason. I told him I got the picture and then he’s ‘Mr. Aw Shucks’ all over again and everything’s cool. Boy, don’t I wish I was a fly on a car that night.”
“Boy, don’t wish you’d been a fly on a car that night. You told the cops about that though, right?”
“Nah. I told you I didn’t even think about it again ‘til Arnold came to me this morning.”
“Damn it, Gloria!” Kyle stood, and wrapping a towel around his hips, splashed out of the whirlpool. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You have to tell Kaufman about that. I can’t believe you let something like that slide. It’s not just a little thing…”
Gloria’s eyes moved appreciatively from Kyle’s face to his feet. Then she apparently recognized just how angry he was getting and stepped back away from him. She blinked a couple of times and cleared her throat.
“Well, uh, actually, I meant to tell them about it, Kyle, but that asshole cop was banging on me about you and I just wanted him to get outta my face, you know what I’m saying here? I lost my train of thought, you know? He has a real bad attitude about you, Kyle. All he was asking me about was if I’d been social with you and Jessica. Social? What the fuck is that all about? And he wanted to know how well I knew you. Oh yeah, and he asked me what I knew about your bad temper, and did I know any other incidences where you might have been ‘abusive’ to women. Damn, I had to laugh about that one! Where’s he getting all this crap from, anyways? I stuck up for you, though. I told him we’d been together a long time ago and you’d never been anything but a gentleman always. I told him you were a regular knight on a white horse.”
Kyle was sorry he’d jumped at her. After all, who knew better about Kaufman’s nasty attitude than he? Not wanting to start anything up again, but not knowing how else to handle this, he put his arms around her and gently pulled her toward him. He was a good foot taller than Gloria, and he rested his chin on her head.
“I appreciate your support, Glor.” And then, as an afterthought—almost a consolation prize, he said, “So maybe when this is all behind me, you and I will have a drink or something.” Then he immediately felt regret. This was not the time, and she was not the woman to be sharing false hope with.
She stayed very still and held tight to him for a minute longer. Then she pulled back, lifted her face up at him and smiled. “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kyle slammed his locker shut and was about to leave the Demons complex when Lundy came bounding into the room. “Hey dawg,” he called. Then, seeing his buddy’s face, he slowed and said, “You not lookin’ so good today. This murder business getting to you, huh? You got a lot on your plate, I know.”
“Nah, man, I’m great. Just chillin’.” Kyle grinned at his friend.
“Sure. Now cut the crap and tell me what’s happening. That fat fuck cop been steppin’ on my last good nerve all afternoon. He gotta be making your life miserable.”
“Well, since you mention it, I don’t see any quick fixes shining down on me, that’s for damn sure. Did you at least behave yourself a little during your official visit with the gendarme?”
James sat down on a bench and motioned to Kyle to sit as well. “Set yourself down here awhile and relax your bones.”
Kyle sat and yawned deeply, letting his breath out in short spurts. “Relaxing would be a good thing. I hope to try it again some day real soon.”
“Listen up, man. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but that jerk Kaufman really pissed me off. I got him on his own turf today, though. I was as big an asshole as he was.” A selfsatisfied grin broke out on his face.
“That couldn’t have been much of a reach for you, dude.” Kyle joked.
James raised an eyebrow and pointed his finger at his friend. “I’m just saying that so long’s you got friends like me, you’ll be fine, white boy.”
“Stop beating your chest and tell me what happened.”
“That dick put me in one of those fuckin’ little interrogation rooms and left me sitting. I must’ve waited half an hour for him to get his raggedy ass back in there. I mean, how much more obvious could he have been about trying to sweat some answers out of me. By the time he and his cute little sidekick got around to coming back to me, I was damn ready to fuck around with them some.”
“Cute little sidekick. That would be Detective Brandt?” Kyle asked. “I hope you didn’t jerk her around. I think she might be my only ally over there.”
“Nah, I didn’t mess wi
th her. Why would I bother taking her on when that partner of hers is so much fun? Anyway, I made a few good points and then got my ass outta there.” He motioned with his thumb toward the door.
“And those good points you just mentioned were what now?”
“Since you ask, my good man. I made it clear that Jessica was a slut and you were not.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Great. I’m sure that bought me points with that prick.”
“And I might have mentioned the scene I lucked into at the beach last week, when she was getting it on with that muscleman of hers. Now that he liked. Gave him someone to think about besides you for a little while. Give you some breathing room here.” He gave Kyle a wide grin.
“Shit, Lundy, what are you thinking, huh? You’re in law school, man! Doesn’t that go to motive? My motive? I’m thinking that information isn’t as much a plus for me as you seem to think.”
“It gives ‘em someone else to annoy for awhile. Your shit hemorrhage the night Jess was murdered gave ‘em enough motive to go after you, so don’t be barking at me ‘cause I told them about another guy. What I’m trying to do here is divert their attention a little, get ‘em to maybe look past the noses on their ugly faces and check out some of the other possible solutions. They gonna be on Feyzi Batan like flies on shit, man. Ha! And I only gave ‘em his first name, so they gotta do some sleuthing just to find out who they’re looking for.”
Kyle furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “You don’t really think Batan could have done it do you?”
“Shit no. But then he is a little kinky — preaching to all those hungry women about ‘ohm’ and all that Buddha crap, twisting himself up like a pretzel. Ain’t natural. When you really get to thinking about it, he’s not much more than a paid whore. All his rhetoric about fitness and health, but you know what the ladies are really paying for. Anyway, he might know something that we don’t and lead them in another direction, away from you.” His smile was brilliant.
“You’re the man, James.” Kyle smiled back at his friend. “Hey, I heard an interesting story myself today.”
The Mystery of Jessica Benson Page 8
