No More Birthdays (Carol Ann Baker Crime)

by Pelzer,Lissa

  ‘Don’t I get five more minutes of your time, for the cost of the ride?’

  ‘Ride for a ride?’ she smirked.

  Davis pushed her backward against the wall.

  ‘We need to get a few things straight.’ She lowered her voice. ‘It’s time to stop playing dumb. We need to talk about Lilly Lessard and what she did…’

  ‘She didn’t do anything.’ She heard the words come out of her mouth and crack. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I want to sort this out. I want to help you.’ Davis was almost groaning now, the frustration in her voice coming out clear on the deserted street.

  ‘Why don’t you go after Cassandra then?’

  Davis gripped her tighter. ‘Why would I do that, Carol Ann? You need to tell me.’

  Lilly didn’t want to be that girl, pushing her problems on someone else, but she needed to see Bobby. She needed that money. ‘Cassandra’s was…’ she avoided saying it. ‘She was that client’s regular. ‘She went to him at Sea Island…’

  ‘So you know who I’m talking about. You know what happened?’

  ‘I know…’

  Davis’s eyes twitched like she had dust in them, but couldn’t risk the moment it took to blink.

  ‘But Cassandra drove up here with Bobby.’ She said like that was meant to mean something.

  ‘Yes, she did! Doesn’t that tell you something?’

  ‘The person I want to talk to came by bus. The pre-paid card used to book the room at Sea Island is the same card that booked a return bus ticket up here from Miami.’ Davis swallowed hard. ‘Her name is Lilly Lessard or at least, sometimes it is.’

  Lilly stayed mute. She hadn’t seen Davis anywhere near the bus terminal or the bus, but then she had got there an hour late and they’d let her onto the next one. But still, she hadn’t seen her. The print off for the ticket was still in her bag and it tingled as if it wanted Davis to find it.

  ‘Carol Ann!’ Davis shook her. She shook her like she was fifteen years old and wouldn’t tell them where she was from.

  ‘I’m no snitch,’ she murmured,

  ‘No one will call you a snitch. Are you saying Cassandra is Lilly Lessard?’

  Lilly tried to pull her shoulders out of Davis’s grip, but it was no use. And besides, what good was it saying she wasn’t Lilly Lessard if she might need to tell her she was. It could happen, Bobby might just fuck her off. Then what? Was she just going to let him get away with it? Like hell she was.

  ‘Lilly Lessard was at Sea Island the night Judge Ramsey was murdered.’

  ‘I know.’

  Davis paused. Her grip loosened.

  ‘If you are Lilly Lessard, all you need to do is say that, Bobby Alvin sent you there, that you are who you are, just a kid caught up in someone else’s scam. No choices and no opportunities in life…. A poor kid from a deprived home. Let them decide the rest.’

  Lilly felt the streetlights around the hotel fading.

  Davis was saying they’d found two sets of prints on the murder weapon. She was saying they matched them with the in-room dining trolley that hadn’t been unloaded from the night before. She was saying, Judge Ramsey was a dirty judge. There was a list as long as her arm of favors he’d done for friends in high places and low ones, that Bobby’s name had always featured prominently on that list for ‘the phone box killing’. She said, ‘the-phone-box-killing’ like it was thing people talked about. For a moment Lilly’s attention swerved. She thought of Bobby killing The Judge, the man who had got him off for ‘the phone box killing’. He’d killed him for her, out of principle, for her honor, but then he’d cast her off. It didn’t make sense.

  ‘Can you hear me?’ Davis asked her.

  Lilly looked down at her hands. She saw them shake. ‘I’m tired,’ she said moronically and Davis sighed.

  ‘I wish we lived in a world where that got you out of doing what you needed to do.’

  ‘No. I’m dead tired. Seriously, I haven’t slept at all. Last night I sat up on a couch until five a.m. I took a bunch of crank, I don’t even know what I took. And I haven’t eaten except for that waffle you bought me. I can’t talk to you right now, don’t you get it? Anything I say is just going to be garbage.’

  And Davis looked her over. ‘You need to do this for yourself. Don’t let Bobby be the one to get arrested first. You understand the term ‘mitigating circumstances’?’

  Lilly didn’t answer.

  ‘It means that things will be taken into account, not only your age but what happened to you.’

  ‘If I say what happened to me?’

  ‘Well, that would be a requirement. You can’t expect the jury to guess.’

  Lilly looked at her. Davis was a different woman than the one she first met. Only four years older but it was something else. Perhaps it was because she’d been the kiddie snatcher and now she was after murderers instead. Lilly straightened her shoulders. How did that work exactly, how did you go from having the authority to send kids home from Florida to arresting people for murders in Georgia?

  Davis lifted her chin. ‘If you and I go down to the local department right now and if you make a statement…’

  And Lilly got it. She didn’t have enough to go on. She still needed her to tell her what happened, to spell it out, that she was in The Judge’s room and he attacked her, that she got away and that Bobby Alvin came in and finished the old bastard off.

  ‘Is this even your case?’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘I thought you were with child protection.’

  Davis nodded. ‘This certainly comes under child protection.’

  ‘But it’s not your case, is it. You are on vacation, aren’t you?’

  ‘I did say so already…’

  ‘But you can’t arrest Bobby, you can’t arrest me – not in relation to Sea Island.’

  Davis’s breath rattled. ‘A police officer can make an arrest for any crime at any time…’

  ‘But I’m not committing a crime right now. And neither is Bobby.’ And Lilly couldn’t help, but smile. ‘And it would be plain mean to arrest me on my birthday.’

  Now Davis got it. It was after midnight. Davis’s last card had fallen face up on the floor. Even with her wrong information. She would think Lilly was eighteen now. She couldn’t even bring her in for being an underage runaway.

  The light from the hotel showed up the tension in Davis’s face, her jaw was square, her eyes were a little too wide. Had that been her plan, to scare Lilly into ratting Bobby out? All that talk of playing fair. It took more than an ultrasound scan on the door of a refrigerator to scare her.

  ‘I’m willing to trust you,’ Davis said as if she had a choice. ‘I want to show you how much I trust you, so you can trust me.’

  ‘Then you can start by letting go of my wrist.’

  Davis did just that, releasing her grip as if she were a child just learning to walk.

  ‘I wasn’t joking about being tired,’ Lilly said. ‘I’m fucked. I truly am. I get it. You know everything but can’t we do this in the morning?’

  ‘Do I know everything?’

  ‘I was there,’ Lilly said slowly and she saw Davis’s chest rise. ‘I was at Sea Island. I was with The Judge. I know what you’re talking about but come on, just let me get my shit together. Let me get things straightened out. Let me go upstairs and go to sleep in a room I have a key for.’ She held the card up between her fingers. ’You’ll probably spend the night on these couches anyway and it’s not like I can get out of this town in the middle of the night. I can meet you tomorrow, right here in the lobby.’ She shrugged, tried to make it look like a concession. ‘Eleven o’clock. Just let me get some sleep.’

  Davis blew out air. ‘If you stand me up – I will come looking for you.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘If you stand me up – all deals are off. I will find you, wherever you go.’

  Lilly nodded. ‘Just let me go in here alone. if you come in too they�
�ll recognize me for yesterday.’

  Davis stepped back and Lilly moved, slowly at first expecting her to change her mind but she was through the door now and nothing had happened. Davis was still down on the sidewalk.

  And Davis would spend the night on a couch in the lobby and she felt kind of bad for her, but it was her choice. And Davis would know where to find her if she got away. She’d picked her up enough times in Miami to know who her friends were.

  Lilly crossed the marble floor, her shoes clack-clacking the whole hotel awake. She didn’t recognize the guy on reception, but he called out to her.

  ‘Miss. Excuse me, Miss.’

  She pressed the button for the elevator, cursing under her breath, but he got there before it came.

  ‘Oh, what now?’

  ‘Your friend called, left a message for you, asked that I ask you to call him when you got in.’ And he handed her a business card with the name ‘Gary Madison’ on it and a mobile phone number underneath.

  ‘Uh. Thanks,’ she said, waiting for him to say something more, but he just turned away and went back to whatever he’d been doing.

  At Bobby’s door, she pushed her hair back and drew herself up. It was silent inside and she knocked, her knuckles making hardly any sound and no answer came back. She knocked again.

  ‘Who the hell is it?’ Bobby shouted.

  She knocked again. So he was sleeping, good, she’d catch him off guard.

  ‘Cassandra?’ His voice was weak and raspy. ‘Is that you?’

  Lilly licked her lips and put on a southern accent. ‘Bobby. I can’t find that darn key.’

  She heard him swear, heard him knock something over. The door swung open and she stuck her foot right in there before he could close it on her face. That had been the look she was expecting to see yesterday, showing up out of the blue, his jaw hanging open in surprise and the skin hanging loosely from his jowls. He stood there, an old man in y-front underwear and a thin t-shirt, with a smell coming off him like something washed in cheap soap. All the time and effort she’d wasted trying to look sophisticated and all she’d needed to do was have his room number and wake him up without his dentures.

  ‘Why don’t you put on a robe and pour me a glass of wine,’ she said and he was still standing there, looking out into the hallway like he expected Cassandra to be there with her. ‘Bobby…. A bathrobe.’

  ‘God damn it.’ He went off half conscious to the bathroom, shut the door behind him and Lilly heard the sound of running water. She looked about the room, saw Cassandra’s Louis Vuitton bag on the desk, two pairs of Bobby’s boots by the door and his jeans on the back of the chair. She remembered that, sharing a room with him after the job was done, when all she wanted was to forget about it and have a door to lock behind her and all he wanted was to talk about what happened, reenact some of the details. She hoped Cassandra had some strong pills for tonight.

  The bathroom door jerked open and Bobby stood there, washed and combed, a robe pulled around him so tight, he was cut in two. He strode across the room and snatched his cigarettes off the bedside table. He’d done a wake-up line. That much was obvious. His hands shook as he lit up.

  ‘Can I get one of those?’ Lilly asked just to get him to look her way.

  He tossed her the packet. ‘Keep them.’

  And she would have, except she had a pack somewhere in her bag. She took one out and threw them back. ‘It’s not my regular brand.’ She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. It made her smirk. He wasn’t going to offer her wine. ‘What happened back there, that wasn’t very gentlemanly…’ she said.

  ‘We agreed on Miami. Why did you have to go and break our agreement? What was I meant to think?’

  ‘Don’t make me say it… Don’t make me say I didn’t believe you would pay up. Let’s just skip that part. I’m here now. I came for the credit card. But something happened. Do you mind if I sit down?’ She pointed to her shoes.

  ‘Do what you like.’ He turned his back on her and went to the closet, opening the door just enough to do what he needed to do in there.

  ‘I’m going to tell you something, Bobby.’

  ‘There’s a coincidence. I’m going to tell you something too.’

  ‘You’re not going to like it…’

  He let out a one beat laugh that shook his broad shoulders. ‘Neither are you.’

  Lilly pulled her purse towards her, felt her feet tuck under the chair. Her purse was open and her hand went in. She felt around in there like she was looking for a bottle of perfume at the bottom of her makeup bag, but she knew already, the pug gun wasn’t there. It was in her other bag still, in Gary’s room.

  Bobby turned around. He was holding a black sack, black like a trash bag but the size of a gun. ‘What is it you want to tell me?’ he asked.

  Lilly froze.

  ‘Well?’ Bobby lifted his hands out and the bag moved, it bent.

  He had money in there, not a gun. Cold hard cash. Lilly took her hand out of her purse. ‘You first.’

  ‘Here.’ He tossed it down on the bed. ‘That’s two thousand dollars. That’s all I can get and that’s all you’re going to get. I’m very sorry. But that’s it.’

  ‘Two thousand? I thought we had come to an agreement.’

  ‘The agreement was Miami…’ And he lowered his chin as if at some point she’d been genuinely in with a chance of getting her money.

  ‘None of that matters now anyway. The situation has changed. I mean really changed. Don’t you want to know what I’ve got to tell you?’ She took a puff. The cigarette tasted foul on an empty stomach. ‘I need ten thousand dollars. The costs have gone up.’

  Bobby didn’t say anything.

  ‘I found something out. Davis isn’t here to watch you pimping. She knows about Sea Island, that we were there.’

  Bobby took another hit of his cigarette. ‘I know all this Miss Lilly. Don’t think you’re telling me something new.’

  ‘Well, she’s sitting downstairs ready to talk to me about it right now.’ She waited to see if he got what she was saying. ‘She’s waiting for me to go with her down to the local department to make a statement. So, I need to be gone. I need that money.’

  Bobby held out his hand towards the bag on the bed. ‘Then take it Lilly and get out of here!’

  It was like she was speaking French. ‘That’s not enough to go on the run with – to start over with.’

  ‘That’s all there is.’

  ‘Are you joking? I just said, I need ten thousand, at least.’

  ‘Miss. You better take the two and think yourself damn lucky!’

  Lilly stood up. ‘Is that all you can say? Is that all you’re willing to offer for your freedom, possibly your life?’

  And he pulled the cigarette from his mouth and threw it out of the window. His voice sunk. ‘You dare say that to me after all I’ve done for you?’

  Lilly felt a pain in her chest. She knew bringing that up was a low threat to make. He’d killed The Judge for what he did to her. She hadn’t asked him to do it, but she wasn’t sad it had happened either. Bobby was right, she had no place threatening him with it, but he had to think straight. In Georgia, he’d get Life or he’d get a lethal injection and she’d do time for sure. Mitigating circumstances or not, she could go to jail.

  ‘It’s not a threat! Do I have to spell it out for you? If I can’t get away and start over, I’ll have to talk to Davis and the cops. Then both of us are fucked. If you just give me enough to see me straight, I’ll be out the back door and Davis will never see me again. Without me, what’s she going to do to you? The room was in my name, right?’ She held her purse close. ‘If I take that money on the bed, I won’t get very far. You’ll have made the decision for both of us and the next time you see me we’ll be in the courtroom.’

  Bobby’s fist balled up and he took a step towards her. ‘I swear. You better take that money and go and hope I never see you again.’

  ‘Where am I going to go?’


  ‘Lilly. I’m not fooling around.’

  ‘Neither am I.’

  ‘You think I believe you’d go down for this just to take me with you?’

  Her eyes were attracted to the money on the bed. It was him who was bluffing, trying to buy her out with two thousand dollars. She sat back down. He came towards her, his fist still tight and Lilly leaned back but stayed put. If he hit her, she’d just have to take it. There wasn’t anywhere she could run to and even if there were, she’d be giving up the money and any chance of a future. His fist hovered there, coiled and taut. Perhaps he knew a punch wouldn’t drive her away and he turned his back on her, hit the wall instead.

  ‘Let’s just stay calm and talk about this. Another eight thousand is all I need…’

  ‘I don’t have eight thousand.’

  ‘So get it off of someone.’

  ‘It’s three o’clock in the morning. Who am I going to get eight thousand dollars from at this time of night? What’s your plan? Are you going to stay here all night with me?’ He rested his eyes on the bed. ‘Cassandra probably won’t be home until nine. Is that what you want to do?’

  She couldn’t stand to spend a night with him. He wouldn’t sleep and she wouldn’t sleep. They’d just sit here and it would drive her mad until she ran out the door.

  Lilly stretched her legs out. ‘But you can get it. You could call people and arrange to have it delivered.’

  ‘Sure. Tomorrow, I can get it.’

  Lilly pulled at a thread on the arm of the chair. Had it come to this? Her putting Davis off and now Bobby putting her off. But she was in the same position. She didn’t have much choice either.

  ‘What time is check-out here?’ she asked. ‘Twelve?’

  ‘We check-out at three, late check out, on account of Miss Cassandra being out tonight.’