Weapons of Mass Distraction (Lexi Graves Mysteries)

by Chafer, Camilla

  The quiet in the small hospital room was significant as we each digested what we saw and heard. I sat on the edge of Marnie’s bed, who was tucked under the covers, one arm resting on top and the IV bag off to her side. Solomon leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his face thoughtful.

  Marnie broke the silence. “My mother should have taken this to the police months ago. She might still be alive.”

  “She was scared.” I took her hand and held it as we all retreated into our own thoughts again.

  I couldn’t imagine how Lorena Vasquez got through the past couple of years. Her story was long and detailed, but it gave us everything we needed to go to the police. She told us about the night she and two friends, Jim Schwarz and Karen Doyle, witnessed a murder during a Simonstech party that was in full swing. There was nothing they could do to prevent it. They were in a third floor corridor, looking down and talking about how nice the grounds were, and how lucky they were to work for such a great company that really looked after its employees. It was then they noticed their colleague Avril Sosa running across the garden, a man behind her. As they watched, he grabbed her, his hands going around her neck.

  Lorena told us that the killer looked up when his victim stopped fighting, and stopped clawing at him, and his hands loosened from around her neck, when he saw them in the window, looking down on him like judges. But she wasn’t sure until later that the three of them were actually seen. She described how they watched the killer take Avril Sosa’s body away. As she spoke, she wiped away tears and struggled to continue. "He ran away and then he came back," said Lorena, " and he just carried her away. We told each other Avril was drunk, that she just passed out. We were drinking too. Karen videoed it all on her cell phone."

  As the three friends were discussing what they saw, frightened and panicking, they decided they couldn’t be sure what it was, or if it had somehow gotten embellished. They finally agreed perhaps they hadn’t witnessed a murder at all. Maybe Avril just collapsed. Maybe she was drunk. After all, everyone had more than a few drinks that night and Avril was upset earlier. Karen recalled finding her crying in the restroom after Simons Senior’s speech. It could have been lots of things, they decided. They weren’t even sure whom they saw with Avril. But later, after they sobered up and were heading home, they saw Carter Simons Junior driving away in Avril’s car. Alone.

  When Avril didn’t come to work the next day, or the next, or any days after that, they knew. They were all sure they witnessed her murder and failed to report it.

  Carter Simons Junior approached each of them individually over the next couple of days. His threats were subtle. They saw nothing, or were mistaken, he said, or it would come back on them. They were accessories, now, and he would make sure they went down with him for it. They would never see their families again. He would make sure their names were permanently tainted. They would be unemployable. They would lose everything and everyone dear to them.

  None of it could bring Avril Sosa back.

  Lorena, Jim, and Karen could not live with their guilt and they gradually lost their affection for the company where they previously loved working. Jim took a lesser-paying job, Karen switched careers, and Lorena initially went on unemployment rather than continue working there. They kept in touch though, despite Junior's warnings. It was there, months later, that they started to discuss whether they should do something about Avril’s murder. They knew Avril was still considered a missing person. They wanted to give her family some peace by telling them where her body was, if nothing more. They figured she had to be buried on Simonstech land. Jim argued the evidence might tell the police who the killer was, but Karen thought it was too long ago, and any DNA would be compromised. Maybe they wouldn't be prosecuted like Junior had threatened.

  Lorena didn’t know what to do, so she made the video, just in case, insisting Karen gave her a copy of the cell phone video to include. They all agreed they should give Carter Simons Junior the opportunity to turn himself in. Perhaps, they thought, with the three of them as witnesses, he would do the right thing by Avril's family. Perhaps he was wrong that they would all be charged as accessories. Eventually, the truth had to emerge.

  Lorena looked forlornly at the camera as it cut out, making way for the cell phone footage which we watched silently.

  And now that we had the truth, we had to make the decision of what to do next. There were two choices: turn the evidence over or bury it, like Avril got buried for the past two years. I knew what my conscience wanted and what the right choice was.

  “We need to turn this in,” I said, looking at Marnie, but the statement was really more for Solomon.

  “What if my mother gets implicated?” she asked.

  “She’s already dead,” I said as softly as I could. “Nothing can hurt her now. You asked us here so you wouldn’t have to make the choice.”

  “Plus, the circumstances of her death along with this DVD are enough to clear her of any wrongdoing,” Solomon added. He reached over and popped the DVD out of the laptop, tucking it into its plastic sleeve, and then inside his jacket. He turned to look at Marnie. “Do not tell anyone you saw this. Do not contact anyone mentioned on this video. Are we clear?”

  Marnie nodded. “Clear. He killed my mom, didn’t he?” Marnie said, looking at me. "And he killed Avril too."

  “I’m sorry, I think so.”

  Marnie closed her eyes and rested her head on the pillow. I wondered how great a toll this would be on her.

  “I’ll speak to the uniforms on your door and make sure no one comes in except your uncle. You’re not to discuss this with any of them either,” Solomon continued.

  She opened her eyes. “Just… catch that guy, okay? I hope he rots in hell for this.”

  “What do you think?” I asked Solomon as we exited the hospital.

  “I think multiple counts of murder one look pretty good.”

  “And Lorena? Do you really believe her name will be cleared?”

  “I think the so-called evidence hanging over her head, as well as Jim’s and Karen’s, was shaky. Fear was the main motivator for them not to say anything. They couldn’t know if what Simons said wasn’t true. They would never have been charged as accomplices or accessories.”

  “So they could have just come clean when Avril was killed?” That was depressing. They spent their last two years living in fear. Avril’s family never found closure. Ultimately, Jim, Karen and Lorena paid for their silence with their lives.

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t you ever want to go into a happier business?” I asked a few minutes later as we hit the road, heading towards the Montgomery police station. I felt tired suddenly, like I could sleep for weeks and never get enough rest.

  “Like what?”

  “Floristry? Balloon animals? Cake pops?”

  Solomon smiled and shook his head. “Cake pops don’t give closure to families that need it.”

  “Taste good though.”

  “You want to go into cake pops, whatever the hell they are? Investigating isn’t for everyone.”

  “I didn’t say that. Are you suggesting that?” I asked, studying him. “You pulled me off a case.”

  “And if you would check your messages, you would hear me saying that the surveillance footage you pulled from the gym was good. We cleaned up the images and we have one that bears enough likeness to Simons Junior to convince a jury to believe it is he who gained access to poison Jim. Maybe Karen too.”

  I brightened. “So I’m back on the case?”

  “I don’t think you were ever off it, no matter what I said. What I will ask is are you at some kind of crossroads here? This isn’t a job where you see people happy and at their finest. We deal with people who are sad, miserable, at the end of their ropes as to what they can do for themselves. It can be depressing, but also great. Can you continue to do this day in, day out?”

  I didn’t need to think about it. “Yes!”

  “Then let’s try and give some families a
sense of closure. Let’s help them lay their loved ones to rest. And after…”

  “After?”

  “After this is all over, we'll go to dinner and I’ll make sure there’s cake. Deal?”

  “I can go one better,” I told him. “I know a place where the food will be great and the dessert is wedding cake. Will you be my date to Lily and Jord’s wedding?”

  “Thought you’d never ask.”

  ~

  For the second time that night, I watched Lorena Vasquez’s confession. This time, I had the murder squad for company, along with Maddox, who returned to the station some time before, and my brother, Garrett. The moment it ended, the room exploded into activity. Lorena’s claims were checked and corroborated, but it was nothing new to Solomon and me. With Junior’s now shaky alibis covering the other deaths, the only thing left to do was find Avril Sosa’s body.

  “I don’t hold out much hope,” said Maddox as a team was dispatched to Simonstech the moment the warrant came through. Meanwhile, we were in the squad room, a map between us where we pinpointed the body’s location per Lorena’s description. It was the early hours of the morning and it showed on each of our faces. “Lorena saw this two years ago. She could have mis-remembered details, or maybe the body was moved after that. Even the local landscaping could have changed.”

  “No,” I said, jabbing my finger at a map of the building. “This is where they saw Avril’s murder. The only parking lot is out front, and carrying a body there is too risky, especially with people all over the place, thanks to the party. But here, this area is earmarked as a wildlife reserve. It’s unlit at night and there’re plenty of trees for cover. With the party being held on the other side of the building, this would be where I would hide a body. Plus, it was supposed to remain untouched while the landscapers replanted the rest of the gardens.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “There was a display in the main lobby. I saw it before we interviewed Joseph O’Keefe.” Another thought occurred to me. “The night Lily and I went to Simons’ house, O’Keefe had to be reminded to take his medicine. Want to bet he’s taking Warfarin and that's what they used as poison?”

  "I'm a step ahead of you there," said Maddox. "Jim Schwarz's tox panel came back with aconite. It's a fast acting poison. Death can be instantaneous once it hits the bloodstream."

  "That explains the thumb tacks on the spin bike's handlebars." They had puzzled me and I was glad to have an answer. "Wait, I've seen aconite before."

  "Where?" pressed Solomon.

  "At Simonstech. That model in the lobby of the wildlife reserve. They grow aconite on the land, something to do with lab testing. They even had little painted flowers representing it. No one would go on an area overrun with aconite if it's that deadly. I'll bet that's where Avril Sosa is buried."

  "That's another tie to Junior." Maddox took a deep breath. “We still have to sit tight until the body is found.”

  “Shouldn’t we just go and arrest Junior? Right now? If he gets wind of this, he might run.”

  “We have eyes on his house. He’s not going anywhere.”

  So, we sat tight. We waited and drank coffee and tapped our fingers impatiently, and when I thought I couldn’t take the waiting any longer, and my eyelids were starting to droop, the call came in.

  We met the morgue van as it arrived and I had to look away when the body was unloaded. “You can’t see anything,” said Maddox. “She’s bagged. They found her near aconite. Good call, Lexi.”

  “All the same,” I said, facing the wall because I didn’t want to see it by accident. I don’t know why. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen a dead body before. Maybe I just didn’t want to see another one. Maybe I didn’t want to see what happened to a body after a person spent two years beneath dirt and grass. Maybe it’s because Avril would almost have been the same age as me now, if she had lived.

  “Come on. We’ll wait outside,” said Solomon. He gave me a push in the small of my back and we were gone, beyond the claustrophobic walls of the morgue.

  “Several possessions came in with her,” said Maddox, joining us a few minutes later. He had them on a metal tray and poked at them with a pencil. “Cell phone, some jewelry. I checked her missing person’s report and the same jewelry is mentioned, but due to the advanced state of decomposition, we’ll need dental records to confirm it’s her. She had this in her hand.” He poked his pencil into a small object and held it up.

  “Is that a ring?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s too big for a woman’s hand,” I said, taking the pencil. “Avril was a small woman.” I knocked a little dirt off it with the back of my hand and it swung on the pencil for a moment. Something was scratched on the inside and I squinted at it. Writing. Writing that made my eyebrows rise as my mouth dropped open.

  Maddox had his cell phone in his hand and was dialing. “We’re ready to make the arrest,” he told the person on the other end of the phone. “What do you mean, he left already? Follow Carter Simons Junior, and do NOT, I repeat, do NOT lose him.” He looked up at me as I waved my hand to get his attention. “What is it?” he asked, frowning.

  “A curve ball,” I said, holding the ring to Maddox so he could read it. When his eyes met mine, I knew he was just as surprised as I was.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Carter Simons Junior was yelling at a bunch of uniformed officers in the parking lot by the time we arrived at Simonstech at seven a.m. Unfortunately for him, he also managed to attract a mob of bystanders, employees all arriving to start the day. They stood around looking helplessly bewildered while he went red in the face, pointing, and yelling. That there was a Bobcat digger parked in his reserved parking space probably didn’t help matters a whole lot, but that was the least of his troubles.

  “Sir?” said Maddox, approaching him. “Sir, if you could calm down please.”

  “Calm down?” yelled Junior, redirecting his anger at Maddox. “Are you kidding? I got here and there’s a friggin’ digger in my space and the gardens are all torn up, with holes and tracks everywhere and crime scene tape. What the hell is going on?”

  “I think you know the answer to that, sir,” said Maddox, his voice smooth and strong enough to be heard over the bystander noise.

  “Come on inside, son, and let these people deal with it,” said Simons Senior. “They’ll inform us soon enough.”

  “They can’t do this. Where’s your warrant?”

  “It was served on your night security several hours ago. I assure you, sir, the search and excavation were done legally,” Maddox replied as the night watchman walked over, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Junior snatched it away from him, reading it.

  “Excavation?” asked Junior, looking around as if he truly had no idea. “What the hell for?”

  “The warrant authorizes them to search for a body buried on the land,” said Simons Senior. “It’s a damn shame. Poor person. It's an outrage someone would do this!” There was a ripple of shock and disbelief through the bystanders as the information was hastily retold. “Carter, son, let these people do their job.” To Maddox, he said, “Anything you need, officer, you just let us know. I’ll be with my staff in the boardroom. Son, we have to help these fine officers do their jobs.”

  Junior seemed to admit defeat with a fall of his chest and an angry shake of his head. “Fine,” he said. “Fine.”

  “Actually, sir, we can’t let you go inside,” said Maddox, stepping forwards as the two Simons turned to leave.

  “What? Don’t you even think about telling me there’re bodies in the building too! Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve torn up the land and turned my family’s company into a circus spectacle?” Junior pointed to the one lone reporter on the sidelines, making frantic notes.

  “No, we don’t believe that there are any more bodies here,” said Maddox. His shoulders squaring off as though preparing for battle, which, seeing the fuming Junior, might well have happened. “Carter Simons Junio
r, I have to inform you of your rights. You are under arrest for the murders of Jim Schwarz, Karen Doyle, and Lorena Vasquez, and the attempted murder of Marnie Vasquez.”

  “You’ve got this all wrong!”

  “Not even slightly,” said Maddox, standing his ground. “Your plan was complex, but it wasn’t good enough to remain unsolved. You poisoned Jim Schwarz." Maddox looked over at Joseph O’Keefe, who had just pushed his way through the crowd to stand behind the Simons.

  "What's going on?" he asked, looking from the two men to Maddox. O’Keefe looked so utterly perplexed, I wondered if his nephew was successful at hiding everything from him. Could he really not know what was going on right under his nose?

  “Your nephew used powdered aconite from the land, and his research knowledge, to poison your former employee,” Maddox said, taking in O’Keefe’s shocked looks as the crowd resumed their incredulous whispering. He returned his steely gaze to Junior. “You knew Karen Doyle was fatally allergic to peanuts, and all you needed was peanut oil, something you could buy at any supermarket, and access to something she would ingest. So you bribed a member of her gym for access. All you had to do was pick the lock to her locker and lace her water bottle. You also tried poisoning Lorena Vasquez, but unfortunately for you, she sprained her ankle and stopped running, and wasn’t drinking the coconut water you laced with Warfarin. Unfortunately her daughter drank some. It's the same Warfarin your uncle takes for his heart medication. Isn't that right, Mr. O'Keefe?"

  "Well, yes, I do take Warfarin but my nephew would never... he would never..."

  Maddox cut him off with a wave of his hand, returning his attention to Junior. "You knew it was only a matter of time before she contacted the police after hearing of her friends' murders, so you opted to stab her instead. The officers searching your house found blood on your sneakers and I’ve no doubt that it will be an identical match to Lorena’s. We have other evidence linking you to her murder.”