Closed Door

by C. M. Okonkwo

  Part Five: The Deal

  We were back home after an eventful day with three inconclusive interrogations of Samuel, Lexie, and Mary-Kate. Samuel and Mary-Kate were free to go, but Lexie was kept in holding. The detectives weren’t going to let her or Benjamin go until they got to the bottom of the plot. They had also gone to look for Gregory Kindle, but they told us to go home, since they didn’t know when and if they would find him that night. At the same time, it was getting late and we were hungry. At least I was. I couldn’t speak for the others.

  Inside our house, the tension had almost reached the boiling point. Samuel had stormed into his room because he was mad at our folks. They had rained insults on him all through the ride back home, and I felt the harsh words pierce his skin. I wouldn’t have even been shocked if he opened the door of the moving vehicle and rolled out.

  When he entered his room and slammed the door, locking it, Mom turned to me and said, “And where do you think you are going to, Angela Hunter?”

  But being the teenage girl that I was, annoying to an extent, I ignored her and kept walking to the kitchen. I was going to answer any of her questions or endure her wrath only after I had eaten. I was starving, and I could hear my belly speak in different languages already.

  “Angela, get back here right now!” Dad ordered, commander style. “Don’t you dare walk away when your mother is talking to you. Is that clear?”

  “I’m hungry, okay? I just need to grab a snack before I pass out,” I said and kept walking.

  “You better not touch Aggie’s favorite snack,” Mom yelled.

  I laughed out loud and said, “Why? Are you expecting her to come back any time soon to eat them?”

  Just then, I realized I had said something really stupid and an unwarranted joke. I felt a rush of guilt flow through my body at that instant, so I looked down immediately. “I’m very sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean that.”

  “Of course, you didn’t. The same way you didn’t mean to record that video and send it out, making Aggie pay for it.”

  “Mom, c’mon. Why are you trying to make me feel bad? I didn’t mean to hurt Aggie.”

  “I don’t care what you meant to do or not do, don’t just touch her snack, period!”

  I grumbled as I opened the drawer. I needed sugar in my system. Agnes always had all the sweet snacks and I always had the salty ones, but I didn’t feel like eating any type of crackers at that moment. I wanted sweet. I gazed at my folks and they were staring at me, scorn in their eyes. I certainly hoped it wasn’t because of the snack that they were watching me like hawks.

  “Okay, fine. I’m not going to touch Aggie’s snack. Stop staring at me already.”

  “Good,” Mom said. “Because you don’t deserve to touch any of them.”

  “Mom. This has to stop. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that heard Mary-Kate’s confession when she said she set Aggie up. Besides...”

  Dad’s phone started to ring at that instant, interrupting me. So he turned around and walked away to answer it because of the noise Mom and I were making.

  I turned back to Mom and continued, “...Besides, Gregory Kindle was behind everything. I knew he was trouble the first time I saw him at a get-together. He is very good looking, but to a fault. He is the key to this mystery. We should be mad at him, not at each other.”

  “Speaking of Gregory Kindle,” Dad butted in, as he walked back into the sitting room. “The detectives have him in custody now. They want to start interrogating him.”

  “What, like right now? Can’t it wait? It’s almost...” Mom looked at her wristwatch. “Eight p.m.”

  “No, it can’t. I told them it was fine. So, let’s go, let’s go,” Dad replied, clapping his hands.

  “Sam!” I yelled, but he didn’t answer. “Sammy!” I yelled again. There was still no answer. He was still probably pissed off at our folks. “Sam, answer me, dammit.” No answer.

  “Samuel August Hunter!” Mom yelled. She must have been very impatient and angry at the same time. She only called out all three names whenever she was frustrated or angry.

  “The fuck you calling my name for?” he replied immediately.

  On a normal day, Mom would have reacted to his use of the F word, his raised voice, and his tone, but she couldn’t be bothered at the time. I knew her too well to understand why she didn’t say anything. Mom never forgot. She was just in a hurry, and she was certainly going to bring it back up after the interrogation, when Samuel would have forgotten about it.

  “Gregory Kindle is at the station now. You coming or what?” she yelled back.

  In less than a second, we heard him unlock his door, and he swung it open, jogging out to meet us. No matter how angry he was, he wanted to get to the bottom of the case, as well.

  “Let’s go, guys,” Dad said. “It didn’t sound like the detectives were going to wait for us.”

  We all ran outside, but not before I grabbed some of the snack. I wasn’t prepared to collapse in the viewing room. So I sat in the car, smiling as I crunched on my snack bar. Mom quickly turned back to look at me. She must have heard the crunching sound I was making.

  “Angie!” She yelled. “Didn’t I specifically tell you not to touch Aggie’s snack?”

  I looked at her, pop-eyed, speechless because my mouth was full, and I had no answer.

  She stared back at me before saying, “Let me have one. I’m starving.”

  Dad turned back as well, briefly glancing at my face and at my lap before saying, “Are you going to eat all of that? Let me have one, too. Give it to your mom for me.”

  I shook my head at both of them, because they were just about to crucify me moments ago. Well, it was a good thing I had thought of taking enough to go round at least five times, since I had grabbed four boxes from the drawer before running out. I gave Mom two packs, then I opened up two packs for Dad, before passing them to Mom to feed him while he drove.

  “Hey, give that back!” I snapped as Samuel snatched some of the snack packs. “Couldn’t you have asked before doing that?”

  “Well, it’s not yours. So I can have one or two if I want,” he replied, opening the first one.

  He was right about one thing: It wasn’t mine. But saying he took one or two was definitely out of context, given that he had grabbed six in his massive hand. I shook my head, guarding the rest beside me and watching out for him. I stayed like that until we arrived at the station.

  When we entered the building, Detective Slaughter offered us four medium-sized packets of juice and escorted us to the viewing room. Luckily for us, the interrogation hadn’t started yet. The detectives were nice enough to wait for us. When the lights were switched on, we saw the good-looking Gregory. He sat there with a smirk on his face, and with the look on Detective Pruitt’s face, I could tell they had had a tough time bringing him in.

  “Start talking!” Detective Slaughter said, as soon as he walked into the interrogation room.

  “Like I said before, I have no idea of what you both are accusing me of this time. But if this is about the dead girl, didn’t we already settle that?”

  Detective Slaughter turned to Detective Pruitt and asked, “Why do they always have to play around first before finally owning up? Do they think we have all the time in the world?”

  “I think they do,” Detective Pruitt replied. “I guess they also believe they are the smart ones and they know about everything.”

  “When in reality they are as dumb and stupid as shit,” Detective Slaughter added. “And they don’t—”

  “Hey!” Gregory interrupted. “I’m sitting right here. If you have something to say to me, tell it to my face.”

  “You are as dumb and stupid as horse crap,” Detective Pruitt said as he stamped both hands on the interrogation table and eyeballed Gregory.

  Gregory smiled. “Okay, now you have proven yourself to be a—”

  Gregory didn’t have the chance to complete his sentence. He was interrupted by Detective Dinosaur, in Benjami
n Clay’s words. He lifted Gregory up by the neck and slammed him on the interrogation table. Before anyone could follow the speed of the action, Detective Pruitt’s gun was already caressing Gregory’s forehead.

  “Were you about to say something, Gregory Kindle?” Detective Pruitt asked, as he cocked his gun.

  Our eyes lit up in the viewing room — Mom, Dad and Samuel in fear, shock and confusion, but me in excitement. I was already starting to fall in love with everything about the detective. He was my type of guy: tall, handsome, nice build, quiet, tough, and filled with action. Never mind him trying to choke people to death, he was just doing his job. Gregory’s coughing, and gasping for breath shook me out of my brief fantasy.

  “Yes, I was... I was about to say something,” he said, after Detective Pruitt let go of him. He took a deep breath and said, “I didn’t know Agnes Hunter, but her name came up while I was at a neighbor’s house.”

  “In what context did her name come up?” Detective Pruitt asked, as he put his gun away. “And what neighbor is this?”

  “Since I was relatively new in the neighborhood, my neighbors told me I could drop by at their place anytime. So one afternoon, I walked in through their back door and heard voices coming from their study. As I walked into the study, Luca, their only child, was just saying ‘Agnes Hunter’ to his mom as though he were asking her a question. I startled them when I joked and said, ‘Yes, Agnes Hunter.’ Luca immediately asked me if I knew who the person was, and I said yes.”

  “So you lied?” Detective Slaughter asked. “Because I doubt you ever met Agnes.”

  “No, I didn’t lie. I met Agnes once before at a house party. I drank a lot that evening, but I remember she said her last name was Hunter. Yeah, Agnes Hunter,” Gregory confirmed.

  “Are you sure it was Agnes, and not Angela?”

  “Umm...” Gregory stopped to think. “I’m not sure anymore. I think it was actually Angela she said. But wait a minute — so who’s Agnes?”

  “Angela’s identical twin sister, who is dead, thanks partly to you.”

  “No kidding? I never knew she was a twin!” he said. “And Agnes’s death wasn’t my fault.”

  “The hell it wasn’t. So why were your neighbors talking about her? Any idea?”

  Gregory gave a half-twisted nod, something between nodding and shaking his head.

  “What was that? A yes or a no?” Detective Slaughter asked, impatiently.

  “It’s a yes and a no,” Gregory said, before he started narrating the story:

  “I don’t know exactly what they were talking about before I walked into the study, but the minute I said I knew Agnes Hunter, Luca’s mom suddenly became interested in me. You see, I have always been afraid of Italian people in general because of all the movies I’ve seen, but I was soon to realize that an Italian movie was sitting right in front of me.

  “Luca’s mom went straight to the point. She said she would give me fifteen thousand bucks to get rid of Agnes. I laughed out loud, because it certainly had to be a joke. But her face was strict, and her gaze steady on me. She pulled open a drawer and took out three bundles of five thousand US dollars. I gulped when I saw them.

  “Then I asked her why she wanted Agnes dead. She said the less I knew, the better for all of us. Before I could tell her that I wasn’t interested, she said if I didn’t do it, she would have to kill me and get someone else to do it. So I collected the cash from her and went home. I was thinking of what to do when I saw Lexie waiting by my front door. I had totally forgotten she was supposed to drop by for a quick session. Umm, Lexie is a neighborhood slut who—”

  “We know all about Alexandra Smith,” Detective Slaughter butted in. “Just carry on with the rest of the story.”

  At the mention of “quick session,” I looked at Samuel’s face. He was furious, and I hoped he would finally see the true side of Lexie and forget about her once and for all.

  Gregory cleared his throat and continued:

  “I let Lexie in, and we went into my room to talk. From talking, we made out, and had some action. The session was longer than we had initially planned, because I wanted it to be. I had just remembered Luca’s mom’s threat on my life, so I reasoned with myself: If I wasn’t going to be able to kill Agnes, Luca’s mom was surely going to kill me instead. And before I died, I wouldn’t mind having one crazy session in my memory to accompany me to the grave.

  “After the session, Lexie was about to leave, but then she threatened to kill me if a random video of both of us popped out of nowhere. I mean, she didn’t think I’d video myself making out with her, then give it to my girlfriend to upload.”

  “Why your girlfriend?” Detective Slaughter asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you just send it to The Informant directly?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t send it to either one,” Gregory replied. “Because The Informant and my girlfriend have one thing in common: They are both Mary-Kate Pearson.”

  “What? Mary-Kate Pearson is your girlfriend?” Detective Pruitt asked. Gregory nodded.

  Detective Slaughter shook his head. “That smart soon-to-be lawyer somehow missed that interesting piece of information.”

  “Wait a minute,” Gregory said. “You spoke to her?”

  “How did you think we found out the connection between you and Agnes?”

  “That ratting bi...” Gregory stopped and clenched his fist.

  “Well, you made out with Alexandra Smith, and she couldn’t help but tell Mary-Kate about it after Mary-Kate gave up Agnes as her source.”

  “What?” Gregory exclaimed, surprised. “Why would Lexie even think of doing something like that? Mary-Kate will never take me back now, that’s for sure.”

  “Alexandra and Mary-Kate are the least of your problems right now, Gregory Kindle. Finish up the story, will you? We don’t have all evening.”

  “Okay,” Gregory continued. “So Lexie complained about how she lost everything because of the video, and vowed to kill whoever sent it to Mary-Kate. I asked her if she meant it, and she yelled, “Yes,” saying that whoever was responsible had to pay with their life. When I saw how serious she was about that threat, I seized the opportunity and waited for her to get dressed and leave. Then I called Mary-Kate immediately and told her that I had a deal.

  “Before I started giving her the main detail, she said she had another call and that she would ring me back. When she said the call was from Lexie, I told her not to pick it up yet because I had a deal and it couldn’t wait. Then I mentioned Lexie’s sex tape, but she told me there was no way on earth she was going to give up her source’s name.

  “I told her I wasn’t interested in the person’s name. I just wanted her to tell whoever came asking that it was Agnes Hunter. She asked why, and I told her because I had five thousand bucks to give to her. She immediately agreed, and said she wanted proof, so I sent her a photo of the money. After she had done her own part, I met her at a playground, and gave her the five thousand. She slapped me twice for no reason before she left, and now I know why.”

  “Wait a minute, five thousand US dollars?” Detective Slaughter asked, with doubt in his tone. “But Mary-Kate Pearson said you offered to give her one thousand US dollars from a sum of three thousand US dollars that you were hoping to win from a game you were dared to do.”

  “I don’t know what she told you guys, but that’s a pack of lies. There was no game. It was a job to be done. And everything happened so fast because two days later, Luca’s mom actually called me to thank me for keeping to my own end of the deal. I didn’t know what she meant at first, until I was arrested for killing Agnes. I thought Luca’s mom had set me up initially, but when the other guy — Bill something — was randomly added in the investigation, I knew she wasn’t behind it. So I acted clueless because I knew you guys didn’t really have anything on me, and I was free to go home.”

  Gregory concluded with that.

  “But here you are again, and not so clueless this time,” Detective Slaughter
said. “So who is this Italian mafia woman that paid you to do her dirty job?”

  “Her name’s Vittoria Ammirati. She lives next door to my house, by the right side.”

  “You sit here and stay put! We are going to get her now,” Detective Slaughter said, as he walked out of the interrogation room with Detective Pruitt.

  As the detectives closed the door behind them, I sighed because I knew it was going to be a long night. None of us had ever heard the name “Vittoria” or “Ammirati” before then, but we were very determined to know why an Italian woman was out for my sister’s blood. And I felt the mystery was going to end with her. So all we had to do then was to wait and find out!