“Sip it,” I told her. “Little tiny sips.”
She nodded, but looked freaked.
We sipped our drinks and munched on Chex Mix for a while. I noticed a tiny dog that looked like a Yorkie, tippy-toeing around the place every once in a while. I was surprised at how quiet it was. It hadn’t barked at us when we came in either.
Vincent walked through the front door and yelled, “I’ll be in the office. Send Dave in when he gets here.”
“Okay,” Miss Kitty yelled back. She looked at us and rolled her eyes.
“What, no ‘Hi, honey, I’m home’?” Tannya asked.
“No,” Miss Kitty said matter-of-factly.
Dave showed up about ten minutes later, and Miss Kitty opened the door to him. Tannya and I turned in our seats to see him. He was in a suit, briefcase in hand, and looking stressed.
“He’s drunk again,” Tannya whispered in my ear.
She was right, he was drunk, not stressed. Well maybe both.
“Hello, Dave. You look like shit.” Miss Kitty said to him as he stepped in and shut the door behind him.
“Thanks, bitch. Just what I needed to hear!”
He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her to towards the office hallway. I was in shock. What the heck was going on? Miss Kitty was being yanked down the hall, fighting and pulling back on his arm screaming that it hurt and to let go. Tannya grabbed my arm when I stood to get up. I looked at her, and she put a finger over her lips to shush me. Then she moved me behind the island counter and pulled me down with her.
“He doesn’t know we’re here. Let’s go listen and watch in the spa room.”
We ran to the room and leaned over the hand-held device. I wished the screen was bigger. We could see the three of them standing there. The view was from behind Vincent’s shoulder. Vincent was standing behind his desk, and Dave still had Miss Kitty by the hair. Her arms were behind her. I wondered if she was tied or cuffed. She was no longer fighting, or holding her hair.
Vincent said, “What the hell’s going on, Dave? Let go of her!”
“Oh, what’s the matter, Vincent. You don’t like it when men disrespect your woman?”
Dave laughed and tossed Miss Kitty towards him. She fell to her knees. I noticed a phone fall from behind her. Her hands were free now. She stayed kneeling on the floor half way between Dave and Vincent’s desk.
“What the fuck’s going on, Dave?” Vincent demanded and slapped the desk. “Get up, Elenore!”
I shot Tannya a look. She looked ready to kick some ass.
“Vincent, Vincent, Vincent … today is the day that your life changes,” Dave said. “Ya see, Vincent, I’m tired, so tired. Tired of pretending. Tired of pretending I’m your friend. Tired of pretending that what you do to these women doesn’t bother me. Tired of cleaning up all your messes.”
Vincent shot a look at Miss Kitty and then stared back at Dave.
“Dave …” Vincent tried to interrupt.
“NO! No! You don’t get to talk. For once in your pathetic life you’re going to listen! I’ve spent the last year of my life planning this day. Yes, Vincent, a whole year. You see ’cause it was a year ago that you fucked my wife!”
I covered my mouth. Tannya’s eyes shot out of her head. I leaned my head down.
“Derek! If you can hear me, you may want to come closer. This could get out of hand!” I said into my shirt.
“Dave, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do that!” he looked at Miss Kitty and repeated himself. “I didn’t do that!”
She just stared at him and stood up tall. Dave snapped back.
“Please! Don’t waste more of my life with your lies. I know you did! You see my wife, unlike you, confessed to me the next day. Then, even though I told her I wanted to work through it, she couldn’t get past it and left me!” He shook his head hard and started pacing the room. “I need to know … did you drug her?” he turned and faced Vincent. “Did you?”
“Whaaat?” Vincent asked.
“DID YOU DRUG HER?” Dave screamed.
“No.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me!”
Dave reached in his jacket and pulled out a gun. He held it point blank at Miss Kitty. She screamed and backed up slowly until she was sitting on the couch. Tannya grabbed my arm.
“What do we do? We should kick his ass!”
“Which one?” I asked.
“Tell me the truth! And I know the truth. You had better have the guts to say it to my face! I deserve the truth! YOUR WIFE deserves the truth! DID YOU DRUG MY WIFE AND THEN SLEEP WITH HER?” He screamed again.
“I … uh … I,” Dave pointed the gun closer to Miss Kitty’s head. “Jesus, Dave! Take it easy! Don’t point the gun at her!”
“ANSWER ME NOOOW!” he screamed.
“Okay, okay! Yes. I … I … I’m so sorry, Dave. It was an accident. It just happened. It meant nothing.”
Vincent was making a lot of hand gestures to try to calm Dave, but it wasn’t working.
“An accident? So you accidentally slipped something into my wife’s drink and then accidentally assaulted her?” Dave asked in a snide voice. “What about my daughter?”
“What?” Miss Kitty gasped and covered her mouth.
“I didn’t drug her!” Vincent said. “She came on to me.”
“Bullshit!” Dave snapped.
“No, it’s true! Kelsey came on to me. I didn’t drug her.”
“But still you slept with your employees daughter? Miss Kitty scolded.
“Dave, she’s of age! It was her decision,” Vincent stated.
“Really? So now other women get to decide who sleeps with you?” Miss Kitty asked. “Weird because I thought we were married. I thought that would be your decision to make, not some seventeen-year-old’s!”
“Yeah, and she knows, too,” Dave said referring to Miss Kitty.
Vincent looked at Miss Kitty.
“About what? Is there something I should know? I mean beside my husband sleeping with his assistant’s wife and daughter,” she asked Vincent.
“No, no there’s not.” Vincent said. “Dave and I have a meeting to conduct. I’ll talk to you later about that incident. Dave, lower the gun and let her out of the room so we can talk,” Vincent said.
“NO! I am in charge here! And this is how it’s going to go,” he said.
Keeping the gun pointed at Miss Kitty, he reached in his briefcase and pulled out a file. He threw it down on the desk in front of Vincent.
“Sign where all the red stickers are,” he demanded.
“What is this?” Vincent said looking through the files.
“Those are the deeds to two of the lavish properties you own. One is this house. Miss Kitty is going to live here, in her home town, with her dog and her friends. You’re signing over the house to her, and don’t worry … it’s already been paid off by the funds in your investment accounts.” He smiled at Miss Kitty. “You’re welcome.”
She stared at him, just as surprised as Vincent.
“The other, is your home in Bermuda. That one you’re signing over to me. It too is paid for. Thanks for that! It is, after all, the least you could do. In fact thanks for the substantial transfers to our new savings accounts too. That was nice. Wouldn’t you say Miss Kitty?”
Miss Kitty didn’t say anything, she just looked confused.
“You really think this is going to work?” Miss Kitty said.
“Oh, yeah it’ll work. Won’t it, Vincent? You see Vincent will still have a few dollars to get him by, and he’ll have the Chicago house. He’s not going to give us any trouble in this matter either because he knows if he does, his dirty secret, or shall I say secrets, will be out. We wouldn’t want those out, now would we?”
“Dave, this’ll never work. I’ll destroy you! You smug, son of a bitch!”
“I mean it, Vincent. This is your only option, or I go to the cops,” Dave said.
“You’ll rot too, as an accessory.”
> “No, I’ll kill myself first, before I’m ever brought in,” Dave told him. “I don’t care either way. You’ve already taken everything from me. My family included. My wife and daughter won’t talk to me and won’t even look me in the eye because of what you did and the fact that I still work for you. They wanted to go to the cops, but I told them not to because we’d be broke. She left me anyway. They both left!”
“Yes! And I made you a very wealthy man in the process!” Vincent yelled.
Now he was getting pissed.
“You were involved in all of it! In fact I think it was your idea.”
“No, that’s not going to work, Vincent. I have records, pictures, and a paper trail of those you’ve paid off. They’d all be willing to testify, too, since most have spent the money already and are looking for more. And Alexa can help with that part.”
“What?” Vincent asked.
“Alexa. The one from Gold Diggers you’ve been chatting with? She’s my new girlfriend. Yeah, how does it feel to lose to me for once? I slept with the woman you wanted.”
“She’s an ugly, fat loser who’s using someone else’s profile picture you morons!” Miss Kitty yelled.
Vincent looked at her, in dismay, probably wondering how she knew that, and for how long.
“Shut up, bitch!” Dave warned. “That’s not the point. You might say you made us both rich. Remember that one girl, two years ago, the one that didn’t make it, the one that died from an ‘overdose’ they labeled alcohol poisoning? The one that you gave just a little too much of your ‘special cocktail’ drug to? Her mom, Alexa, was pretty upset about it. You see, her daughter was her meal ticket, and you ruined that for her. So, she did a little digging in to her daughter’s death and found out about you and your smug ways. She followed you one night and saw what you did. She found out who you were and started to bait you online. You still have my number as a contact number on the site so your wife wouldn’t find out,” he said turning to Miss Kitty.
She looked furious.
“Well, she found me. She came to visit me over and over and refused to give up on finding out what happened. She threatened me and my family! So, I finally told her the truth. I’m sick of you and your messed up life destroying mine. I’m done picking up your pieces when all you’ve done is destroy everything I’ve ever had.” He stopped talking for a minute to collect his thoughts.
“What did you tell her Dave?” Vincent asked him.
“I told her all of it. As it turns out, she just wanted a monthly payment, and she promised to keep quiet. In return I can live there with her since my wife took the house. Did you even know that? Did you know that for a year now I’ve been homeless because of you! That’s part of your problem, no conscience! You don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself! You’re a condescending jerk! Well this is where your path has led you, my king. With my ideas and her ideas, we put our heads together and came up with this plan. And it’s pretty good. We all get a great home and cash and no one goes to jail. You have no other options.”
I looked at Tannya.
“He’s never going to let this happen,” she said.
I shook my head. I didn’t think he’d go down without a fight either. But what am I going to do about it?
“You’re going to sign these papers. Miss Kitty will live happily ever after here, I’ll be with Alexa in Bermuda, and you can go on with your life in Chicago. It’s win-win. If you try to fight me on any of this, it’s just one phone call and you’ll go to jail. I have documentation of all of this, in multiple locations, left with multiple people, should something happen to me. You’re up against murder one and sexual assault counts of dozens of women, plus drug charges. You’ll never get out! If you kill me, the police will know for sure. I’ve covered all my bases.”
“Did you see that?” Tannya asked.
“What?” I looked at the screen harder.
“The shadow, someone else was in the hallway door. I saw a head peek.”
“Derek?”
“I don’t know?”
“Fuck you, Dave. I’m not going to jail and you’re not taking my money. As far as I can tell this is just a blip on the map. All I need to do is get rid of you, and Alexa, or whoever she is, and well … my wife. Then I can put all this behind me.”
“So your solution is to kill us all?” Miss Kitty asked Vincent.
Vincent looked at his wife.
“Baby, this is not how I wanted this to end. It’s just that someone got selfish, and now the game has changed.”
“Ha! The game? So my life, our marriage—it was all a game to you?”
“Huh, yeah, I guess it was. I mean you can’t tell me that you really loved me, can you? You were only in this marriage for the money. We both knew that. You can’t even look me in the eye when you tell me you love me,” Vincent told her.
“Maybe that’s because all I see is evil when I look in your eyes. I did love you. But it was for a short period of time, probably until the first time you cheated on me. I don’t love you now, and haven’t for a long time. And, boy, am I glad for that! You’re a waste of life. And now you’re a murderer, and rapist? Where’s her body? What was her name? Who is the girl YOU KILLED?” she screamed.
“I DON’T KNOW THEIR NAMES! THAT’S THE POINT!” he screamed.
I could tell he was losing his composure. He knew he was done.
“Screw you both! I’ll take care of things my way! I ALWAYS WIN!”
He reached in to his desk and pulled out a gun of his own. He pointed it at Dave. Dave moved his gun and pointed his at Vincent.
“Oh, shit!” I yelled.
I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and called Rex’s cell. I was still watching the screen waiting for it to connect. Pick up! Pick up!
“Did you see it that time?” Tannya asked. “The head in the door, it was back!”
The next second there was a strange noise and everyone in the office turned and looked at the door.
“Did you HEAR that?” Tannya asked still starring hard at the screen.
I looked hard too. Oh, shit.
“It’s Rex! I just blew his cover!” I told her and quickly hung up my phone.
Tannya and I took off for the office as fast as our legs would carry us! When we rounded the corner, we saw Rex just stepping in. He had his gun pointed into the office and walked in slowly, out of our sight.
“Oh, my God!” Tannya yelped.
“Shhh!” I said and pulled her back against the wall.
We crept along the wall to the office and waited outside, a little ways down from the door. We listened hard.
“Rex!” Vincent yelled. “Thank God you’re here! Arrest this man!”
“Gentlemen, put your weapons down. No one’s getting shot tonight. We need to calm down and talk about this,” Rex said slowly and calmly.
“No. You put him in cuffs or I’ll shoot! We are not talking about anything! He’s full of lies!” Vincent said desperately.
“It’s all true! I have proof, lots of it, and tons of witnesses! Yeah, I helped cover it up, but I didn’t do it, and I didn’t know it was happening until after the fact. I was never with him! I have proof in lots of locations. I’ll show you!” Dave yelled.
“Both of you lower your weapons!” Rex yelled. There was a clanking noise I assumed was a gun dropping. “Good, Dave, now get on your stomach on the floor, and shut up!”
“Miss Kitty is going to leave the room while we figure this out,” Rex told them.
“NO! She stays,” Vincent yelled. “Sit!”
“Vincent, drop your weapon now! She doesn’t need to be here.” Rex yelled.
The tension was building. My heart was pounding hard. Tannya’s was too. She was panting next to me.
“She’s going to get away with my money! It’s my money! Neither of them is going to get it!”
His voice was panicky and irate. I thought for sure he was going to shoot someone right then. It seemed Tannya thought the exact same thing becau
se we both covered our ears and crouched down. BANG! BANG! Two gunshots fired at almost the exact same time. There was no way that one gun could have fired again that quickly. Two guns must have gone off. There was the sound of broken glass hitting the floor. I needed eyes in the room. Why didn’t we bring the hand held screen thingy with? We were such amateurs!
Miss Kitty screamed and came running from the room. She saw us in the hall, and fell on the floor into our laps. She was bawling and shaking. I moved her more on to Tannya, and carefully walked to the office door way. Dave was still on the floor. Rex was cuffing his hands behind his back. Vincent was on the floor behind the desk. He was moaning, and barely moving. Rex spoke into his radio on his shoulder and said he needed an ambulance. Then he went to the shattered window behind the desk.
“He’s alive. Nice shot!” Rex said to the window.
“You too,” a voice from the window said.
“Derek?” I asked quietly.
Rex turned around and looked at me. “Yes, Derek. I met him a few minutes ago outside. I got a hang-up call from Miss Kitty and came out here to make sure everything was okay. I found Derek lurking around looking in windows.”
I turned around to Derek who was walking into the office door.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked and wrapped his arms around me.
“Yeah, we watched it all on the video thing upstairs. I came down after Vincent pulled out the gun. Tannya and I waited in the hall. We didn’t know what to do.”
Derek stepped closer to Rex and shook his hand.
“You pompous jerk,” Dave said to Vincent from the floor. He was still face down and cuffed. “I’ll see ya in hell. The only advantage you have over me now is that you can kiss my ass, and I can’t!”
Derek let out a snort. Vincent didn’t respond. He just closed his eyes. He was struggling to breathe, but his color was still good, except for the two red spots in each shoulder.
Found and Destroyed: The Second Sarah Martin Mystery Page 27
