by Roy Glenn
“What was the because of death?” Marcus asked.
“The internal bleeding.”
“Wait a minute,” Carmen said. “Her sister-in-law told us that they hadn't assigned a because of death. That's supposedly was the reason Frank killed himself, because he was frustrated with the lack of progress in his wife's death.”
“The reason the investigation was going so slow was that her husband, Frank wouldn't allow her body to be autopsied. After he died, her family gave the police permission to exhume the body and perform an autopsy. They're not calling it murder because there isn't enough physical evidence to support it. No sign of forced entry. No sign of a struggle, no skin under her hairs or abrasions on her hands. Her clothes were folded neatly on a chair near the desk. So she was down for whatever was going on, at least the sex. They had no suspects, except Frank. They thought maybe Frank did it and that's why he wouldn't let them autopsy the body.”
“What about him? What's his story?” Marcus asked.
“He was the interesting one. Old Frank worked for Hudson Financial Corporation as an account manager. The only other thing I can tell you was that they found his body laid out across his wife's grave with a thirty eight slug on his head. And that it was ruled a suicide.”
“What makes that so interesting Garrett?” Marcus asked. He felt Carmen's eyes on him, but she looked away quickly when he turned to look at her.
“There were no records in the files. I talked to the detective assigned to the case and even the notes he made were gone from his desk. When he asked his lieutenant about it, he got a polite, 'I'll look into it'. I can follow up with him, see if he got curious enough to find the file own his own,” Garrett said as his cell phone rang. “Garrett Mason.” While he talked on the phone, Marcus and Carmen sat quietly looking at one another until Garrett got off the phone. “I gotta go people. That was Jamara. She's got something to show me.”
“Jamara Deneè, that's a pretty name,” Marcus said smiling. Carmen rolled her eyes and looked away. “I'm looking forward to meeting her one day.”
“I'll be sure to tell her. Anything else you need me to do?”
“I know you got something else going on, but see what you can dig up on Rasheed Damali.” Marcus glanced at Carmen. “Start looking into his relationship with Desireé.”
“I'm on it,” Garrett said, standing up to leave.
“We'll walk out with you,” Marcus said following Garrett out of the office. “Carmen are you ready?” Carmen gathered her things and followed them out to the parking lot.
“Goodbye, Ms. Taylor, I hope I get the chance to see you again,” he said and once again kissed her hand.
“Bye, Garrett, I'm sure I'll see you again.” Carmen smiled. Garrett got in his truck on drove off. Marcus opened the car door for Carmen; she thanked him, and got in. Once Marcus put on his seat belt, Carmen said, “So, here we are again.”
“Seems that way,” Marcus nodded.
“I guess you'll be going to take care of your unfinished business now?”
“I guess, but I'm hungry,” Marcus replied and Carmen smiled in anticipation of an invitation. “I haven't had a thing to eat all day. I guess I'll stop and pick something up on the way.”
“Hmm,” Carmen mumbled. She was hoping for an invitation to have dinner with him and the disappointment was apparent in her voice. “You don't cook?”
“Not at all. Best I can do is boil water for hotdogs. What about you, can you cook?”
“I love to cook, I just don't get a chance to cook as often as I'd like to,” Carmen said.
“Maybe you'll cook something for me before you leave.”
“Maybe.”
“What are you gonna do now?”
“You can take me back to my hotel; I'll find something to do.”
Marcus picked up on the tone of her voice. “Would you,—maybe you could have dinner with me?”
“Well?” Carmen played it. “I haven't eaten since early this morning either. But I don't want to get in the way of you taking care of your unfinished business.”
“Believe me, Carmen, I would much rather spend that time with you.”
“Are you sure, because I don't wanna be a bother. I mean, you've been very nice to me and I know you said you were going to take a vacation.”
“Carmen, really. I want to.”
“Okay.” Carmen's eyes lit up. “You talked me into it. Where do you wanna go?”
“I don't know. Where do you wanna go?”
“You know where I haven't been in years?” Carmen paused. “The Sundial. It used to be one of my favorite places.”
“That's one of my favorite places, too.”
So it was set. Marcus drove to The Plaza hotel on Peachtree and International boulevard. They valet parked his car and went inside of the hotel. “Wait a minute.” Marcus stopped to button the top button on his shirt and straighten his tie.
“Here let me do that,” Carmen said and proceeded to her task. Marcus tried to stand completely still while he looked at Carmen as she buttoned his shirt and straighten his tie. “There; pretty as a picture.”
“Thank you, Carmen.” Marcus stepped away nervously and headed for the glass elevator to The Sundial restaurant and lounge is located on the seventy-second floor. The building is round and the floor revolves slowly around so you can see the entire city from there. The hostess escorted them to a table and shortly thereafter their server arrived, took their drink and food orders and blended discreetly into the background. Carmen turned immediately to Marcus.
“Do you think there's any connection between what Garrett told us about how Suzanne and Frank died and Dez?”
“Not really, Carmen. What it sounded like is Suzanne was into whatever she was into, and it got out of hand. Frank fell apart when he found out about his wife and shot himself.”
“But we really don't know that. There could be a whole lot more to it. Think about it Marcus, the police try to investigate Suzanne's death, but Frank wouldn't let them autopsy the body. I know Frank, he probably wasn't very cooperative. They tried to talk to Dez and she throws them out. Then Frank kills himself, then Dez is killed and they arrest Roland for her murder.”
“I see where you're going with this,” Marcus said. “So if there was more to Suzanne's death, the two people who could have told them anything are dead.”
“Which leaves it right where it is, with the police not calling it murder and with them not having any suspects.”
“Okay, so let's speculate,” Marcus offered.
“Okay,” Carmen said as their drinks were served.
“Let's start with Frank. Suppose him and Suzanne were having rough sex and as a result, Suzanne dies. What connection does that have to Desireé?”
“Doesn't seem like any, but what if he didn't do it?” Carmen asked.
“All right, let's say Suzanne could have known whoever it was, since there were no signs of forced entry. Maybe she was seeing somebody else.”
“Dez could have known who it was, and that would have given him a reason to kill her.”
“That's true, it could have.”
“Or it could be something that Frank was into.”
“It could be Carmen,” Marcus said. “But how do we know it had anything to do with either of them? There's one possibility that you don't seem willing to entertain.”
“What's that?” Carmen frowned.
“That it could be something your sister was into. Her killer might have been one of her other toys.”
“But I think if something like that was going on, she'd tell me,” Carmen said.
“How can you say that? Her best friend might have been murdered and she didn't tell you. She could have been in denial about that, too.”
“All right, Marcus, alright,” Carmen said loud enough that the people at the next table glanced over at them. She took a sip of her Bacardi and thought that maybe there was a lot about Desireé that she didn't know. Although they talked everyday, Carmen hadn't be
en to Atlanta in two years. Prior to that, her visits were infrequent.
“I have to accept that maybe I didn't know her as well as I thought I did. It's just hard for me to do that. But I know I have to. “
“I'm glad you see that. Carmen, I know how important this is to you, but don't let it consume you. Believe me, that's something I know about,” Marcus said quietly. “I allowed it to take over my life.”
“You're not quitting on me, are you?”
“No, Carmen, I'm just getting started and so are you. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Hudson financial. Bill Hudson and I are members of the same health club. I'll try to find out what Frank was working on. What you have to do is get to know who your sister was. Find out the things about her that no one would tell the cops.”
“I know somebody who might know where to find Porsche.”
“That's a place to start. But you have to do more than that.”
“Like what?” Carmen asked.
“Since you and Roland are all friendly and sharing pain, find out if he still has her stuff and go through it. See if you can find any kind of address or phone book. Talk to all of those people,” Marcus suggested. “Did she ever send you any e-mail?”
“Yes, why?”
“If she's like everybody else, I'm sure she's forwarded you some jokes. See who it came from and who else she sent it to. E-mail them and see what you can find out.”
“I could tell them that I'm putting together a pictorial memorial to her and ask them to send me their memories of her.”
“That's a great idea, Carmen.”
“I was thinking about doing that anyway,” Carmen said sadly. “I was going to use some of the pictures my father has of her.”
“Do you know who her toys were?” Marcus asked.
“I think I remember some of their names, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything about Dez anymore.”
“Whatever you can remember would be helpful. You know, Carmen, if you had been here, you could have been a big help in the investigation a year ago. Did you ever talk to the police?”
“No.” Carmen sat back in her chair and exhaled deeply. Thinking that maybe if she hadn't left right after the funeral, the police would have talked to her. Maybe they would have looked into all the things Marcus had suggested. She took a sip of her Bacardi and gazed out the window. “I just love the view from here,” she said sensing the need to back herself off.
“Yes, the view is spectacular,” Marcus said looking at Carmen. But the spectacular beauty here is you, Carmen. He wanted to say, but didn't. “On a clear night you can see as far as Stone Mountain.”
“I used to come here to think,” Carmen said to him. “I'd sit here for hours, drinking cokes and looking out at the city. This is the first time I've come here since I first left Atlanta. The skyline's changed a lot in ten years. I'd almost forgotten what a beautiful city this is.”
“Why did you leave?”
Carmen looked away from Marcus. “I needed to get away from here,” she said, playing with her napkin. Then she at looked at him. “To be honest with you, Marcus, I had a big fight with my mother.”
“Over what?”
“It's a very long story. Nineteen years long, to tell the truth. So to make a long story short, she was very hard on us. It wasn't abuse. She didn't beat us any more than she needed to or any thing like that. And now that I'm older I can see that she was just trying to give her daughters all the advantages that she never did. But at the time, she seemed like the meanest woman in the world. So as I got older the more we'd bump heads.”
“I'll bet the two of you are a lot alike?”
“That's me, Dominique's baby,” Carmen said playfully. “I thought that was my name for the longest time. When you meet her, you'll see. I look just like her. Same eyes, same smile, complexion, hair, all from her.”
“Nothing from daddy?”
“I got my father's height and his wonderful disposition,” Carmen smiled brightly.
“You got along with your father a lot better.”
“How could you tell?”
“The way your face lit up when you mentioned him,” Marcus said and smiled at Carmen.
“We were daddy’s girls. He was our sanctuary from mom.”
“So what did you and Dominique fall out about?”
“In my quest to do everything she told me I couldn't I started hanging out.”
“Dominique doesn't seem like the type to let you do a group of hanging out.”
“She didn't. But me and Dez had it down to a science. By the time we got to high school, my mother stopped picking us up and driving us everywhere. But that was only after daddy told her she was embarrassing us. Anyway, we were involved in every extracurricular activity there was. And that gave us a reason to be out the house.”
“What'd you do with that new found freedom?”
“Get high. Me and my boyfriend, I had a thing for thugs back then, we smoked a lot of weed, drank a lot of rum,” she said raising her glass. “Sniffed a little coke sometimes. We went everywhere together. My mother couldn't stand him.” Carmen looked at Marcus for a second or two before continuing. “So one Friday night were hanging out, I was in college at Spellman, living on campus when this happened. That night we didn't have any weed. So my boyfriend says I know this guy, a friend of his Uncle and he always got weed. So we go to this guy's house and we're sitting around listening to music and getting high. As soon as we leave the police arrest us.”
“What for?”
“Turns out the guy sells weed. So we go to jail and I call my mother. Well of course you know she loses it. She said I oughta leave you there, it will teach you a lesson. And she did. I spent the weekend in jail. I called my father at work on Monday and he came and got me out. She never told him or Dez where I was. After that, things got worst between us, so I dropped out and moved to New York.”
“That was kinda cold. Her leaving you in jail I mean,” Marcus said quickly.
“That's what we fell out about. Maybe I just need to forgive her so I can move on, because now I can see all the things she was trying to teach me. If I wanted to be honest with myself, I know I wouldn't have done half the things I've done, wouldn't have felt the need to graduate if it wasn't for her. She told us to get an education because you can't live on your looks. But here I am, living on my looks. Seems like neither me or Dez listened to that one,” Carmen said sadly.
“I thought you said you dropped out of college?” Marcus asked.
“I went back a year later.”
“What school did you go to?”
“Cornell University, Bachelor Of Economics,” Carmen said proudly.
“Impressive.”
“What'd you think; I graduated from the Barbizon School of Modeling?”
“Yes, I mean no. Well I just,—what I meant was,” Marcus stuttered and smiled.
Carmen smiled back. “Do I make you nervous, Marcus?”
“Very.”
“Why?”
“It's your eyes, Carmen,” Marcus said and stared into her eyes.
“My eyes? What about my eyes makes you nervous?”
“Carmen, I'm sure you know this, but you have very beautiful eyes. They're piercing.”
“How do you mean, piercing?”
“It's like they cut through me.”
Carmen smiled playfully at Marcus and leaned toward him. “Does it hurt when I look at you?”
“No,” Marcus answered nervously. “It's like your eyes reach inside me and demand my undivided attention. You're beautiful, Carmen. I mean look around us. Everywhere we've been; everybody is looking at you.”
“That's because I'm a model.”
“A super model, you mean.”
“No I'm not, I'm just a model.”
“What's the difference?” Marcus asked.
“The difference is nobody knows my name. It gives me a certain animosity and I like it that way. They recognize me; I look familiar to them, because they've seen me befo
re. People stop me all the time and say they think they know me, but they just can't figure out from where.”
“That's not it, Carmen it's your eyes. Like they're speaking a language all their own.”
“My eyes do all that to you? Well,” Carmen said and began digging in her purse. She pulled out her sunglasses and put them on. “Maybe this will help you feel more comfortable.” Then she started moving her head like Stevie Wonder and singing Isn't She Lovely. Marcus laughed, hard, almost to the point of tears. “Oh, so you do laugh.”
“Yes, Stevie, I do laugh, just not like this, and not in a long time,” Marcus said, still laughing. Carmen took her shades off and returned them to her purse, as the server arrived with their meal. Grilled Cervena Venison Loin for Carmen and Fire Roasted Ribeye of Angus Beef for Marcus.
“So why haven't you laughed like that in a long time?” Carmen asked picking at her meal.
“I guess I haven't had anything to laugh about.”
“And why is that?”
“I’m a workaholic.”
“So am I,” Carmen said. “And I still sneak in a good laugh every now and then.”
“I know you're right, Carmen and all I can do is make excuses for not having fun. And to be honest with you, I'm not having any fun. But I have been working on the case.”
“The case is over, Marcus.”
“It was until you came along.”
“Oh, so I am bothering you? Why didn't you just tell me? Oh yeah, it's my eyes, my piercing, demanding eyes,” Carmen laughed. “Well my eyes demand that you relax, be yourself. Don't be nervous around me. I promise I won't bite you. I only bite when the moon is full. Once you get to know me you'll find out that I'm just people.”
“That's what Garrett said.”
“He's right. So get to know me, Marcus. And give me a chance to get to know you. Not Marcus Douglas the lawyer, but the real person.”
From that point on Marcus tried to relax, no longer intimidated by her beauty. Well maybe just a little. While they enjoyed their meal they talked and got to know each other. Marcus did tell her that he was going through a divorce, but he resisted the temptation to pour his heart out about it. But talking to Carmen caused him to realize that the only way he was going to move past it was to talk to Randa.
