First Murder (31 page)

“It is
so
good to see you.” She was dragged from her grim revue by Karen’s chatter. “Finally, someone’s brave enough to come to the house. Coffee?”

“Well, with the holidays and this weather...” Lakisha made her lame excuses. None of the other ‘Go Girls’ had apparently been burning up the phone lines or rushing to visit Karen either. Lakisha knew that Roxy and Tia had visited her in the hospital. They felt like they had to. She was in there for almost a week. She also knew that Ally was on the fringe of the legal issues Gary was still dealing with.

“So what’s new?” Karen poured mugs of rich smelling coffee and gestured for them to sit. “How’s the new book coming along?”

Lakisha studied the woman across from her. Karen was dressed in a festive red flouncy skirt and a white blouse with a Christmas patterned shell over it. Her makeup was perfect. Her hair had been done recently, cut shorter and highlighted. She looked like she was going out for the day. Actually, she looked turned out for holiday party or an evening out.

“I’m not keeping you from something am I?”

“Lord, no. I was just going to start digging out some of the Christmas crap today.”

“Ah.” Lakisha looked over her shoulder toward the stairs. “Is Gary around?”

“Oh no, he’s got a new project starting. He won’t be back ‘til evening. Why?”

“No reason.” She shrugged, wondering if Karen dressed this way every day. Maybe it was for Gary. She knew Karen didn’t go out much.

“So what are the other girls up to?”

It felt odd to Lakisha to be sitting in the warm cheery kitchen sipping coffee and talking girl talk just feet from where a young man had been killed. It was creepy. Rayford had warned her about that.

“Let’s see, Erika’s got a guy now.”

“Really? I haven’t talked to her since the incident.” A shadow seemed to cross Karen’s face just then, Lakisha thought. “Come to think about it, I haven’t talked to anyone since then.”

Lakisha knew that without being told. The other ‘Go Girls’, all but Ally, had talked a lot since ‘the incident’, as she called it. The general consensus was that they were all a little scared of Gary now and didn’t want to be around him for any reason. Lakisha had other reasons for avoiding her. Karen and Gary wouldn’t be getting any Christmas party invitations. There wouldn’t be any shopping trips or lunches. There wouldn’t be any phone calls.

Lakisha sighed and looked out over the bleak December-barren back yard. The potential for the group to establish some distance from Karen had been there without her prodding, but she knew she was responsible for some of it. It had been difficult, tricky even. By reinforcing doubts about Gary’s stability she had planted the seeds. It was almost childish the way she had encouraged Karen’s segregation; using back stabbing gossip and innuendo like a jealous high school girl trying to kick someone out of the clique.

The microphone clipped to her bra burned like a scarlet letter, but she was glad it was there.

“Earth to Lakisha,” Karen giggled. “You sort of drifted off there.”

“I’m sorry. It’s been like that lately.”

“Is something bothering you, girl?”

Lakisha turned and fixed a determined look directly at Karen. She didn’t speak for a moment. They had rehearsed this a dozen times and a dozen ways and it wasn’t working out like any of the scenarios she and Rayford and Tony had imagined. She was too nervous and too angry to ease into a conversation.

“I’ve got most of it figured out, you know.”

Karen looked puzzled, but there was a wariness behind it that didn’t escape notice. “Figured out what?”

“See, I know you recognized that boy. I saw him in the bar out in LA. I told the detectives that.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You were eye fucking that boy in the bar. Then you were for-real fucking him an hour later.”

Karen sat up straighter. The perplexed look had morphed into a frown, and the wariness was building to anger.

Lakisha bored in again. “But on film? What were you thinking?” There was a long tense pause. Lakisha watched as what she said registered in the other woman’s eyes.

“I didn’t know there was a camera,” Karen said evenly but the first blocks were tumbling from the wall.

“Bullshit. I’ve seen the tape.”

Karen’s eyes became slits. Her lips disappeared into a hard mean line across her face.

“What do you mean you’ve seen the tape?”

“I mean I’ve seen the tape. Whooee, girl. That boy had a bigun’.”

“Where? How? Is it on the internet?” Karen’s eyes began darting, searching for something. A way out? A better answer? A weapon?

“Probably. The detectives showed it to me.”

Karen jerked up. Her chair almost fell when she stood. “What was on it?”

“You were the one there. You know what’s on it.”

“When did it cut off?” Karen shouted the question leaning forward, her fists on the table. Lakisha felt the first twinges of fear. They had talked about this too, had set up some code words. One of them was ‘afraid’.

“I’m
afraid
I don’t know. I couldn’t watch all of it. What were you
thinking
, Karen?

“I wasn’t thinking, okay? Jesus, you sound just like Deanna.”

“Did she get on you for fucking that boy?” Lakisha knew that she had, she’d seen the whole thing, suffered through the entire clip. She tearfully confirmed for Ray and Tony that it was Deanna’s voice in the background.

“I was just having a little fun,” Karen snarled. She crossed her arms over her chest and walked slowly away from the table and leaned on a cabinet near the sink, glaring at Lakisha. “You have
your
fun.”

Lakisha decided to send another message to Ray and Tony. “I’m
afraid
I do. But Mr. Marland is 85 and he lives in Greece.”

“So.”

“And I don’t do it in front of a camera, for crissakes.”

Karen leaned toward the table and shouted, “I didn’t know there was a fucking camera!”

Some of her hair had come loose. She had sweated enough her mascara had gone from a delicate line to a thick fierce accent around her eyes. She grabbed a pack of cigarettes off the counter and ripped the cover trying to get one out.

“Okay. Okay. Chill some, girl. You didn’t know there was a camera.” Lakisha didn’t feel sorry for her while she watched Karen fight with the lighter for a flame. “Did the boy follow you here?”

Karen’s head snapped up, the lit cig clamped between narrow tight lips. “No he didn’t follow me here and no, I didn’t send for him.” She took a lung burning drag and hurled the used smoke from her lungs toward the ceiling.

“Then how…”

“I just saw him one day. I mean, there he was over at Scotty’s.” Karen barked a nervous laugh. “What are the odds? What are the fucking odds?” She shook her head. Her lip curled in a disbelieving sneer.

“So you jumped him?” Lakisha watched Karen’s nervous eyes dart around the room. She was blinking rapidly and breathing fast and shallow.

“I think you should go.” Karen pointed toward the door. “Get out!”

“
Some help?
” Another code phrase. Lakisha prayed Ray and Tony were just outside the front door now.

“Help?”

“Help me understand, Karen.
Why did you kill Dee
?”

Karen’s agitation was in full tilt panic mode when Lakisha’s question slapped her. She struggled for words, struggled for air. “I never…if Gary…you don’t understand.” Karen’s voice wavered when she started crying. She turned away from Lakisha and leaned heavily on the counter. Lakisha stood and moved a quiet step from the table toward the archway and the front door.

“The boy never wanted any money did he? I think the boy just wanted to get away from you. Am I getting close?”

“Shut up!”

“But why did you kill Dee? She was your best friend.”

“SHUT UP!” Karen turned from the counter. A black handled knife appeared in her hand. “She was going to…”

“Now Rayford! Knife!”

Lakisha snatched her bag off the table and backpedaled as Karen stepped toward her. There was a crashing sound from the living room. The front door blew in. Lakisha tripped on the edge of a rug and fell backwards, sprawled on her back, the bag still in her hand. Ray appeared in the doorway, a black outline, snow white-bright behind him. Karen squinted into the dim room.

The back door crashed open, the window glass shattered when it slammed into the wall. Tony, off balance, stumbled into the room. Karen whirled. The knife slashed in a whirl of red skirt and red blood and screaming. Karen shrieked again and cocked her arm for another thrust.

A gun barked! Once! Twice!

Karen looked down at her chest. Two bright red stains blossomed on her white blouse. The knife fell to the floor. One hand was still raised, the other tentatively touching the stains. She looked up. Lakisha, lying on the floor in the doorway, was holding a small automatic pistol in both hands. A wisp of smoke curled from the barrel.

The three of them were standing close together at the door of the big white brick house by the lake. Ray and Sue Ellen each carried two bags of fresh produce and groceries. Tony had one bag, the one with the wine in it. The sling on his right arm got him out of the heavy lifting. A snow covered Jaguar was in the drive. She had to be home. Ray rang the bell again.

The door finally opened. Lakisha was wearing jeans and a maroon sweatshirt with a bright yellow M on the front. She wasn’t smiling. Neither was Ray. Tony had a big grin on his face though, and tried to break the tension.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas…” He was singing loudly and winced when he nudged Sue Ellen to join him with his bad wing. It worked. Lakisha smiled and stepped back to let them in.

“I know it’s a little early, but hey, what are holidays for?”

It was a week after the shooting, a week after the surgery to repair Tony’s slashed arm, a week after Karen Hewes, still in the hospital, had been charged with the murder of Deanna Fredrickson.

A week after Lakisha Marland had been arrested as a felon in possession of a firearm.

Ray hadn’t known about the pistol. Neither had Tony.

“You a fool, you know that?”

Lakisha took the bag from Tony and kissed his cheek, careful of his slinged arm. She shooed them into her kitchen and surveyed the bounty they began unloading from the Lund’s bags. Tonight would be Italian from the look of things, and Tony de Luca was in charge. They all agreed the boy knew his gravy. But first, it was decided, some wine and some conversation.

They sat in the atrium area, looking out over the frozen lake. New smooth ice was shiny gray-and-blue. Wisps of snow blew across it, dancing across it now and then in a small whirlwind, and after a pirouette or two the ballet disappeared.

“How you holding up?” Tony and Sue Ellen could see the affection in Ray’s smile when he asked Lakisha the question. She had taken the shooting hard, even though everyone assured her she had done the right thing, the only thing she could have.

“I’m still angry.” Angry was a surprise until she explained further. “I know between the tape and what she’s been saying that Karen’s going to prison for Deanna’s murder.” Everyone nodded. “But it’s not enough. I hear there’s a plea.”

Lakisha locked eyes with Sue Ellen. Karen’s fate was in the DA’s hands now, not the detective’s.

“I’ve heard that too. She’d be a fool not to try to finagle one.”

“That ain’t right.”

Tony and Ray stared out at the lake. They agreed with Lakisha, both of them. They had gotten into the lives of all the people involved, just like Ray said they would have to, to solve the crime. Deanna Fredrickson had been a good person.

“If it makes you feel any better we’re going after her on a completely separate charge regarding Stuckey. The premeditation factor…well, the charge is going to be murder in the first for Stuckey.”

Lakisha peered over the lip of her wine glass. “Will it stick?”

“We think once it’s reduced to murder-two it’s got legs. Karen Hewes’ life, as she knows it, is over. I have no doubt whatsoever that justice will be served.”

“Well then, I propose a toast,” Ray ahemed and raised his wine glass. “To rookie detective Anthony,
I shoulda’ zagged
, de Luca on solving his first murder. And his second, as far as that goes. This one’s in the win column, no matter how it turns out, and you did good, son. Real good.”

Fred Limberg

This book is dedicated to Kelley, the love of my life.

Pat and Ken, Sue S., Michelle, Patrick, and Alicia…thanks for the encouragement you gave me early on when I wasn’t quite sure I could actually write a whodunnit. Max, thanks for the keen eye, mate. Evan, thanks for the stunning artwork.

And thank you, readers…I hope I’ve entertained you.

Dear Readers,

I’d love to hear from you! Give me a shout at
[email protected]
and let me know what you think about the book.

Here’s a sneak peek at the first chapter of the next adventure featuring Ray and Tony, coming soon to an e-reader near you:

W
e were standing on a ledge overlooking a brackish oily backwater of the Mississippi River. Someone named it Pigs Eye Lake a couple of hundred years ago. They got it right back then, I was thinking—in a pig’s eye that’s a lake—Pigs Eye Swamp could work, or Pigs Eye Cesspool. Maybe it looked different back then. Maybe it was the garden spot of the whole Minnesota Territory.

I turned, drawn by an unfamiliar sound. The drop in front was steep. Ray and I were right at the edge, both of us a little jumpy. Behind us were six or maybe eight lanes of railroad tracks, some sort of switching yard or unloading yard. I watched a pair of hopper cars roll down the gentle incline that paralleled Highway 61. No engine—just a pair of gray domed rail cars clack-clacking along all by their lonesome, like they knew what they were supposed to do. Like trained train cars.

Creepy.

“There is exquisite beauty in the chaos and offal of industry,” Ray said.