Brooklyn Body: The Madison Knox Brooklyn Mystery Series (Book 3)

by M. Z. Kelly

  “Mads is on don’t ask, don’t tell status,” Amy said. “My bet is she’ll eventually come around and talk to him.”

  I glared at her. “Thanks for your support.”

  “How’s the wrist?” Max asked, probably sensing my anger and trying to change the subject.

  “I’m scheduled for surgery next Tuesday. It’s a one day thing, followed by lots of therapy.”

  “You’re gonna miss the festivities at Blue. Word has it, Morgan’s inviting the press in to see us rejects.”

  Frank Morgan was the chief of police, someone who was rumored to have ambitions to run for the senate. “I heard he wants to make the precinct his showcase, use it for political gain.”

  Amy’s phone chimed. When she saw the call was from Mojo, she put it on speaker. “How did things go at the Mercy Hand Job Ward?”

  Mojo laughed, and I thought I heard someone giggling in the background. “I checked myself out, but before I left, I managed to make contact with Jonathan Raines. I mentioned that I had something he might be interested in, and made arrangements to go by his house tomorrow afternoon.”

  After getting some details, Amy said, “We’ll meet you there.”

  “There’s only one problem: I’m afraid I’m in need of another advance on me fees.” There was more giggling, and we heard female voices in the background.

  “For what?”

  “Just call it ‘incidentals’.”

  “Incidentals. I’ll bet. You’re with hookers, aren’t you?”

  “It’s for professional fees.”

  “You’re out of your freaking mind if you think I’m gonna give you another nickel before you get us inside Raines’ house.”

  Mojo went on for a couple minutes, trying to convince us that he wasn’t with prostitutes, even as we heard someone say something about him coming back to bed. He then said something that intrigued me. “I got a lead on that Holmes guy.”

  “What’s that?” I said.

  “I mentioned him to someone who sometimes has inside information.”

  “A snitch,” Amy said.

  “I’d prefer to call him a ‘tipster’. Anyway, he said he’s heard of Holmes. He lives in a house over in Queens that’s built into the side of a hill, like a cave.”

  “Did you get an address?” I asked.

  “No, but if you can provide those additional expense funds that I mentioned, I’ll follow up.”

  Amy went off, telling him he was crazy. I was more circumspect. “Get me an address, and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  After the call ended, Amy said to me, “You really gonna pay that little weasel?”

  “Maybe. It depends on what he finds out.”

  There was a knock on the door, and Thorndike came in, toddling over to us.

  “Thanks for letting yourself in, you little monster,” Amy said.

  “I be missing the boys at today’s service. Where are they?”

  I answered. “We have no idea. We’ve gone by their place a couple times, but they’re not home.”

  “I got me a theory that you murdered them,” Amy said, “just to keep Merrill away from your niece.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” He regarded Amy for a moment. “You feeling okay?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.” He began heading for the door. “Let me know if you hear from my employees.”

  Thorndike left, and Amy went on meltdown. “Do I look okay to you guys? I think maybe Dominika put another curse on me when I wasn’t looking.”

  “You look okay,” Max said. She leaned closer to Amy. “Except your eyes.” She looked at me. “Am I crazy, or are they starting to glow?”

  I went over to Amy. Max was right. Her eyes reminded me of the children I’d seen in an old horror movie called Village of the Damned.

  “What is it?” Amy demanded.

  “I think maybe you just need some sleep,” I said, trying not to alarm her. “Maybe it’s just eye-strain.”

  Amy got out her compact case, checked herself in the mirror. “What the fuwk! I look like I’m possessed. The witch cursed me again.” She stood and headed for the door.

  “Where are you going?” I said.

  “Since I’m possessed by the devil, I’m gonna go murder Dominika.”

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  “Do you think your mother will come through with the money?”

  Christina looked at Aaron. “Of course. She loves me. You just need to give her time.”

  “That’s the one thing I don’t have. Everything that happened at the bank has been all over the news.”

  Christina slumped down on the bed and tuned him out as he went on about getting the money from her mother and leaving the country. She closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind of everything that was happening. In the void of that moment when her thoughts went away, images of Billy Mercer came out of the darkness.

  She saw herself in the parking garage where Billy had died so many years earlier. She remembered using her phone. She had called Billy to say she was on her way. He had told her it didn’t matter, that he was going to end his life. She’d kept him on the line, hearing him becoming increasingly frantic.

  When she had finally made her way to the fifth floor of the parking garage, she found Billy teetering on the other side of the railing. He was standing there, crying, as he looked down into the emptiness beneath him.

  “Billy, it’s me,” she remembered saying as she came over to him. “Are you okay?”

  Billy had looked over at her. “Don’t come any closer.”

  “I just want to help.”

  “No one can help me now.” There were more tears, his voice filling with emotion. “I’m going to die.”

  Christina looked around, seeing that the parking garage was deserted. She looked back at Billy. “Tell me why you’re so upset.”

  Billy brushed the tears on the sleeve of his shirt. “You know.”

  “Tell me, Billy. Please, I want to try and understand.”

  “It’s because of Jeremy. He calls me stupid and makes fun of me.” His voice broke again, as more tears came. “He makes me feel bad. I don’t want to live anymore.”

  Christina took a few steps closer to him, seeing that they were still alone. “What he did was wrong, Billy. I’m sorry that he said those things.”

  “I want to die.”

  Christina watched as he teetered on the edge of the garage again. She thought he might jump, but he didn’t. She sensed that he was changing his mind, losing his nerve.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  Christina remembered seeing Billy turn as his stepbrother came running out of the darkness in his direction. Billy had almost fallen, but regained his balance at the last moment. Aaron had stopped when he reached Billy’s side.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Aaron asked him.

  Billy’s eyes were full of tears. “I...I don’t want to live.”

  His brother smiled. “Then let me help you out.” He reached over and pushed Billy off the side of the building. A death scream split the air, as Billy Mercer died.

  Aaron came over to Christina. “It’s too bad he didn’t have the guts to jump on his own.”

  Christina looked at him and nodded. “At least it’s finally over.” She walked over to the railing, seeing Billy’s dead body on the pavement below her.

  Christina’s shattered mind surfaced from that long-ago day. In this moment, everything that had happened was finally clear to her. She had been involved in Billy Mercer’s death and had spent years hiding from that fact. It was time for her to come out of the shadows.

  “There’s something on the news about what happened at the bank,” Aaron said. He went on about the newscast, his voice growing increasingly alarmed. She rose and walked over to the television.

  “Do you think they’ll ever connect us to what happened?” Aaron asked her.

  She looked into her Aaron’s eyes. “It’s been over five year
s since you murdered Billy. No one will ever know the truth.”

  “And the money?”

  “My mother will pay us a whole lot more than I had in that rotten little trust fund. Soon we’ll be rich.”

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  The next day, Max headed off for the opening ceremonies at the new Precinct Blue headquarters, while Amy and I drove to see Effie Blaze. On the way, Amy asked me about her physical condition.

  “Tell me the truth: Do I still look like one of them crazy kids with the glowing eyes from that old horror movie?”

  I tried to be diplomatic as I glanced over at her. “I think maybe you just have an infection, sort of like pink-eye.”

  “Pink-eye? It’s more like I got devil eyes. People will think I’m some kinda freak.”

  “Maybe you should give it a couple days. See if it goes away.”

  “No way. I got Ola coming over tonight. She’s gonna de-curse me and put a reverse whammy on that witch Dominika.”

  “What makes you think she’s behind what’s happening?”

  Amy turned her glowing eyes in my direction, like two headlights. “You ever seen me with this condition before?”

  I turned into the parking lot at Parker Towers and said, “There was that time at Hayden Ralph’s party in high school when you came out of the bathroom looking like your head was on fire.”

  “That’s cuz I made the mistake of eating his mom’s tamales and got food poisoning. Not only were my eyes glowing, I spent the next week making love to my toilet.” She sighed. “At least it was a relationship, sort of.” She looked at me again. “You given any more thought about trying GuySwatter with me?”

  “I not only haven’t thought about it, I haven’t thought about men, period. I think I’m done with the opposite sex...for a while.”

  “You’ll come around. Hormones got a way of sneaking up on your girl parts when you ain’t looking and saying, ‘Open wide.’”

  I laughed as I parked the car. “You probably do have a point.”

  After being let into her apartment, Effie Blaze led us into her kitchen, where she’d been working on a piece of pie and drinking tea.

  “I’m trying to drown my sorrows,” she said, as we took seats at her table. “Care to join me?”

  Amy shook her head as we settled in. “I need something stronger for my sorrows. Have you heard from Benedict?”

  She nodded, started to answer, then fixed her eyes on Amy. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course. Why you asking?”

  “It’s nothing.” She broke eye contact. “I told Benedict I could only get three million and would have to deliver it in person. He got angry, but finally said it would work as a down payment.”

  “How you gonna get him the money?”

  “He wants me to drop it in a trash can on 65th and Columbus in Manhattan at nine tomorrow tonight.”

  Amy looked at me. “Perfect. Mads and me will be waiting for him.”

  “He told me I have to come alone and threatened to kill Christina if I told anyone what was going on.”

  “We’re professionals and we’ll be discrete. You deliver the dough. Let us worry about everything else. Tell me something: Why do you think Billy Mercer’s stepbrother was in on everything with Jeremy Halsey?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe they learned about Christina’s trust fund and came up with the plan to steal it. When that didn’t work out, he came after my money.”

  I’d studied Effie Blaze as she spoke and again had the sense she hadn’t told us everything. “I need to tell you something,” I said to her. “This situation with your daughter feels wrong to me.”

  She cut her eyes to me, then looked away. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I’m talking about the situation with your daughter and Billy Mercer. Have you left anything out about what happened when he died?”

  She shook her head, but didn’t look at me. “Of course not. I’ve told you everything.” She began crying. “I want my daughter back, nothing else.”

  I went at her a couple more times, but got nothing more. When we were back in the car, I told Amy my concerns. “Blaze is holding something back.”

  Amy was studying herself in her compact mirror. “Like what?” She looked up at me. “Even Effie saw there’s something wrong with my eyes. Maybe they’re gonna bug out of my head, and I’ll go blind. I gotta get some help.”

  “You’re fine.” I told her what had been on my mind since leaving Blaze. “I want to stop by Gail Walsh’s place and talk to her.”

  “What for?”

  “Something’s rotten with your case, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

  ***

  We went by Gail Walsh’s apartment and learned, from a neighbor, that she was at Mercy Hospital, where her father was being treated for complications due to his recent heart attack. After checking in at the hospital, we found Walsh in a tenth floor waiting room with her mother.

  Walsh recognized us and came over. “Why are you here?”

  Amy answered. “We’re sorry to bother you, but we need to have another brief conversation with you about Christina.”

  “I heard she was at a bank where some people were killed, but I’ve been busy with my dad and don’t know all the details.”

  “Is your dad okay?” I asked.

  “I think so. He’s probably going to need some surgery, maybe some stents.” She glanced at the woman she’d been sitting next to. “Let me tell my mom I’m going to take a break, and we can talk.”

  Gail let her mother know she would be back in a few minutes, and the three of us found an outdoor terrace, where we took seats. Amy took a couple minutes to update Walsh on everything that had happened with her best friend, including the shooting of Jeremy Halsey.

  Walsh was apparently still processing what she’d learned as she said, “So this Benedict person shoots Halsey when they were at the bank, and you think he was there trying to get Christina’s trust fund?”

  Amy nodded and looked at me, a signal for me to give voice to my concerns.

  “We know that Christina was involved with Halsey when she was in college, and he was responsible for harassing Billy Mercer,” I said. “But there appears to have been some ongoing relationship, maybe between Halsey and Benedict, that we’re not clear about. Do you know if Christina might have known Aaron Benedict when she was in school?”

  Walsh took a long time to answer, drawing in a deep breath and fixing her brown eyes on me. “I don’t know anything about this Benedict person, but there is something you should know. I didn’t want to say anything before, because Christina swore me to secrecy. She said if I ever told anyone about her condition, it would ruin her career, and she would end our friendship.”

  “Her condition. What do you mean by that?”

  “I take it her mother never told you?”

  I shook my head. “What exactly is going on with Christina?”

  Walsh ran a hand through her long brown hair and sighed. “My friend has a mental illness. Over the years, she’s managed to control it, but there are episodes when she doesn’t take her medication and relapses. I’m afraid what’s been happening might be related to that.”

  “Is there a name for what she has?” Amy asked.

  “From what Christina told me it’s related to a condition called ‘dissociative personality disorder’. I remember her saying something about being severely abused by her father as a child and developing what her therapists called a ‘permeable ego state’.”

  Amy looked at me, then asked Walsh, “Are you talking about her having multiple personalities?”

  “No, it’s more like she has just two personalities, each one vying for control. Christina once told me that when the alternate personality takes control, she has no memory of what she does. I’ve seen her in that altered state once and, believe me, it’s not pretty. The one that she suppresses can be manipulative, violent, and dangerous.”

  “Does she have a name for this second personal
ity?” I asked.

  She nodded. “It probably sounds strange, but Christina described this altered personality as being like another person who comes out of the darkness. She said her name is Melissa.”

  FIFTY-NINE

  After leaving Gail Walsh, Amy and I stopped by the hospital’s cafeteria to get something to eat and discuss what we’d learned. Being in the hospital brought the Jessie Walker case to mind. I asked Amy about Mojo’s meeting with Jonathan Raines.

  Amy checked the time on her phone. “If all goes as Mojo said, they should be meeting in the next few minutes. I just hope the idiot remembers to call me.”

  I took a bite of my sandwich then discussed what we’d learned from Gail Walsh. “Do you think it’s just a coincidence that Billy Mercer’s mom told us he had a girlfriend whose name was Melissa?”

  Amy worked on a muffin. “Yeah, about the same coincidence as me having crazy eyes after being cursed by Dominika. Shit. Why can’t I get a normal client, somebody who just wants to find a cheating spouse?”

  I’d heard only half of what she said because I was still trying to piece together what Walsh had told us. “So, if Christina was Billy Mercer’s girlfriend when she was in her altered state, maybe she had something to do with his death.”

  “You think she and Jeremy Halsey were both harassing Billy, and that’s why he killed himself?”

  “Maybe. It would explain why Christina’s had deep-seated feelings of guilt about Billy’s death all these years. She would have repressed everything that happened and was paranoid someone would eventually learn the truth.”

  Amy scratched her head. “But how does her kidnapping fit into everything?”

  “Maybe Halsey and Benedict were aware of everything that happened. When they found out Christina had a trust fund, they used what happened to extort money from her.”

  “Until Benedict turned on Halsey.”

  “Probably, but I think we’re still missing something on Benedict.” Some nurses had taken seats at a nearby table and were talking. They distracted me for a moment before I went on. “He’s the key to understanding everything.”