Deadly Satisfaction (29 page)

Charlene watched the door as she listened carefully to her daughter recite her account of what happened the day of the shooting. She was amazed by how smoothly Lauren systematically rattled off each detail, just as she'd been instructed, no more and no less. Charlene knew that if Lauren ever had to take the witness stand she'd nail her testimony. “Very good,” Charlene said. Under any other circumstance, Charlene would have been proud of how Lauren had just performed, but her pride grew dim because she realized that most killers were efficient when it came to details.

“Mom, I'm so sorry about all this. I know you're wondering how I got mixed up with Johnny and why I killed him. It's a long story, and I'll tell you when you get out.”

Charlene shook her head. “I shot him, but Leslie killed him. Leslie Sachs is the killer.”

Lauren nodded. “Okay.”

“It's good to see you awake, Ms. Harris,” the doctor said as he entered the room. Charlene reached for Lauren's hand as they watched two police detectives walk in on the heels of the doctor.

 

A week after being admitted to the hospital, Charlene was released. Her injuries had been serious, but she'd miraculously bounced back. “She's got the heart of a fighter,” her doctor had said. The truth was Charlene wasn't fighting for herself, she was fighting for her children, and she knew in order to do that she had to stay alive.

Charlene had smiled with gratitude when Phillip and Lauren drove her home and then got her settled into her bed. “It's good to be home again,” she said.

Phillip nodded. “You've been through a lot, Mom. Get some rest.”

Charlene looked up when she saw Lauren enter her bedroom carrying a glass of water.

“Here, Mom,” Lauren said. “I thought you might be thirsty.”

“Thanks,” Charlene said.

Lauren turned to her brother. “I'm going to stay in here with Mom until she falls asleep.”

“Okay, if either of you needs anything I'll be down the hall.”

They waited until they were sure Phillip was out of earshot before they began to speak. Lauren sat on the edge of her mother's bed and held her hand. “I'm going to tell you what happened, and how I got involved with Johnny.”

Charlene nodded and lay in quiet shock as Lauren divulged the details of what had led her to become a killer.

“I was at a very low point in my life after everything that happened with Jeffery,” Lauren said. “I was hurt and humiliated, but I couldn't tell anyone I was pregnant because I was also embarrassed and ashamed. While I was at the clinic where I had the abortion I met a nurse named Candace, who volunteered there on weekends. We instantly bonded and she told me that I could call her if I ever needed anything. After I returned to school I kept in contact with her. We talked several times a week and she helped me through some dark days. I don't know what I would've done without her.

“One night I called her and I could tell she'd been crying. Candace was strong, like you, Mom, and she wasn't the type to shed tears easily. She'd had a really bad argument with Bernard, who was her fi-ancé. He'd been in a downward spiral for months after losing his job, and it was all because of his best friend, Johnny Mayfield. Johnny had come to Bernard's job talking junk about Candace. One thing led to another and they ended up fighting right there in Bernard's office. A few days later Bernard was fired and a few months after that his finances fell apart, and that's when the arguments, along with Bernard's heavy drinking started.

“A week later, Candace called me, and she was distraught. She'd gone over to Bernard's house and found him passed out drunk with a naked woman lying beside him. Candace called off the wedding and gave Bernard his ring back. I called Candace the next day to check on her and she was crying again, this time because Johnny had caused his estranged wife to miscarry in a bad fall. Candace had said that she'd been a really nice woman, and that losing her baby had devastated her.”

Charlene sat up and cleared her throat. “That woman was my stylist, Geneva.”

Lauren nodded. “Yes, I know that now.”

“That man hurt a lot of people.”

There was a silent pause, and Lauren wiped away a tear. “After losing a baby of my own, all because of a tangled web caused by a liar and a cheat, I lost it, and I wanted to rid the world of men like Dad and Johnny. I couldn't find it in my heart to kill my own father, but I didn't think twice about killing Johnny.”

Charlene bristled at the fact that her daughter had found it so easy to kill someone, but then again, Charlene knew that she'd done the same thing. She took a sip of her water and cleared her throat. “So you'd never met him? You just knew about him through your friend, Candace?”

“Yes, after our conversation I googled Johnny and found out everything I needed to know about him. A week later I rented a car and drove to Amber to kill him.”

“My Lord,” Charlene said, thinking about how she'd spent a week plotting how she would kill the same man whom her daughter had also targeted.

“I parked several blocks from his house and walked to his back door. It was ajar so I let myself in, and you know the rest.”

Charlene nodded. “What are the odds of both of us trying to kill the same man on the same night?”

“Beyond that, throw in the fact that Leslie Sachs crept up to kill him, too, just in time to see me leave. I guess because at the time you and I were the same size, and because we look so much alike, she thought I was you.”

“Plus . . .” Charlene hesitated, but then decided to speak her truth. “I'm sure that after Leslie went through the blue box searching for her tape, and then stumbled across mine, she matched things up and started plotting. This feels like a bad dream.”

Lauren let out a heavy sigh. “It's been a nightmare, Mom. From the moment I stood over Johnny's dead body my life started slipping away, and I didn't care about anything anymore. It was as if my life was moving in slow motion.”

“That's why you walked slowly out of the house, as if you didn't have a care in the world.” Charlene said with new understanding.

“Yes, and it's also why I gained all the weight and changed who I was. I wanted to distance myself from the person who'd killed a baby and murdered a man. The last two years have been hell. When I came home last week I was angry and afraid, but you showed me that I was still worthy, and that meant the world to me.” Lauren smiled, and then became serious. “Then, while we were snowed in I watched a replay of Leslie Sach's interview online and I felt like everything was going to fall apart all over again. I didn't know what to do.

“But miraculously, you scheduled a doctor's appointment for me on the same day you went to meet with Leslie . . .”

Charlene nodded. “If you hadn't been there, I wouldn't be here right now.”

“I remember growing up you used to always tell Phillip and me that everything always works out the way it's supposed to, and not a minute before or after its proper time. You were right, Mom, it does.”

The two women looked at each other for a long time, each thinking silent thoughts about what the future might hold.

E
PILOGUE

 

C
harlene Harris had been forced to resign from the Amber City Council and was sentenced to one year in jail on aggravated assault charges stemming from the fact that she'd shot, but not killed, Johnny Mayfield. Charlene had gotten lucky, though, because the judge had reduced her sentence to time served, and she was free to help care for her new granddaughter while her daughter, Lauren, attended medical school at ASU. Charlene also enjoyed visiting DC and spending time with her new grandson, whom her son, Phillip, and his wife, Donetta, had adopted after they'd gotten married last year. She did all this in between her adjunct professorship at the university law school, where she taught Criminal Defense 101, or as it had been aptly nicknamed: How To Get Away With Murder.

As for Geneva, the calm, mild-mannered hairstylist and business owner became a
New York Times
and international best-selling author after penning her memoir which detailed her life and times with the man behind one of the most infamous and deadly webs of murder the country had ever seen.

Even Shartell and Joe ended up smelling the roses. After Samuel had thrown Joe out of his and Geneva's house, Joe had immediately called Shartell and told her that he had another juicy story that he could give her if she came by his hotel. In reality, the only thing Joe had was loneliness, which turned into horniness once Shartell got there and was snowed in with him. They'd been holed up in his room through the snowstorm, and that was why Joe hadn't called his family and Shartell hadn't responded to Charlene's e-mail. Eventually they moved to California together and opened a detective agency that specialized in catching cheating spouses.

There was one person who faded into the background, and that was Vivana Jackson. After she was released from prison, she'd tried to sell her story for a book deal, like the one Geneva had gotten. But Vivana had been such an unmarketable and despised figure that her would-be publisher walked away from the deal after she cursed out the CEO, along with the entire editorial staff, during negotiations. It didn't help that she'd made public threats to each of them and then was arrested, spending three months in jail for the offense before moving back to the rural South Carolina town where she'd been born.

But there was one other person who'd faded into the background even deeper than Vivana Jackson, and that was Leslie Sachs. The gunshot wound to her throat had left her a quadriplegic in a vegetative state. After Charlene and Lauren Harris gave their sworn statements, detectives combed through every detail of Leslie's life and all of her grimy criminal activities came to light, including the other murders she'd committed over the years. Now she spent her days in a nursing facility run by the Alabama Department of Corrections. The only person holding on to hope that Leslie would regain consciousness was her sister, Camille Sachs. Camille had never believed Charlene and Lauren's story, and she prayed each day that Leslie would open her eyes so the real truth could come to light.

Thank you for reading
Deadly Satisfaction
! I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, please spread the word and tell your friends to get their copy, too!

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