Murder! (Parker & Knight Book 1) (6 page)

T
he following afternoon, Parker sat across from Mandy Kent in a room the size of a closet and stared at her until she squirmed.

The walls of the room were made of cinderblock and painted a stark white. The only furniture was a small, wooden table and two chairs without arms, they too were painted white and the floor and ceiling were just as devoid of color. The effect was a starkness that begged to be stained by something, by anything, such as the contents of a guilty mind.

Facing the table was a one-way mirror, behind which Detective Joanna Knight observed her partner; standing beside her was Chief Gabe Howard.

Mandy Kent nervously cleared her throat.

“You said you had more questions, Detective, why aren’t you asking them?”

“There’s only one real question remaining at this point,” Parker said.

“What is it?”

“Why did you kill Tiffany Grace?”

Mandy swallowed hard as her eyes grew wide.

“I didn’t kill her! I wasn’t even there at the time it happened, you know that.”

“What I know is that someone lured her into that house, turned off the alarm, and stabbed her through the heart. They then calmly rearmed the alarm system and left by the back door, leaving poor Tiffany lying on the floor like a bag of dirty laundry.”

Mandy shook her head vigorously.

“I was in Hamilton waiting to show a house.”

“Yeah, about that, I took the trip and that listing is only a six minute drive away from your home.”

The six minutes was a lie. The drive actually averaged fourteen minutes, and if Mandy Kent blurted that fact out in her defense, it could mean that she had previously timed it in preparation for an alibi.

“I don’t care how long it takes. I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill Tiffany because she was sleeping with Alex, if that were true I’d have done it the day I caught them together.”

“With your husband as a witness? No, I don’t think so, plus, this way there’s the added bonus that he might go to prison for your crime.”

Mandy Kent stared at him in incomprehension, but before she could respond to his accusations, Parker changed the subject.

“Steve Grace, how many times have you slept with him?”

“What?”

“You deny the affair?”

“No, I, no, once, we only slept together once,”

Parker let out a little laugh.

“Right, a young, good-looking stud like Steve? Only once?”

“It’s true! Why would I lie?”

“What’s a little lying after you’ve committed murder?”

Mandy slammed a fist down atop the table.

“I did not kill Tiffany!”

Parker sighed wearily,

“All right, let’s say it really was only one time, why is that? Steve lost interest in you?”

Mandy laughed.

“It’s just the opposite, he won’t leave me alone, but it’s never going to happen again, no, not again.”

“Why not?”

Mandy said nothing for a few seconds, and when she did speak, she was staring down at the table.

“I’m thirty-eight, Detective, I’m twenty pounds overweight, I’ve got a C-section scar on my belly from when I had Allie and I’m no stranger to stretch marks and cellulite, but, despite all that, Steve told me that I was beautiful.”

“If he can see past your flaws, then why end the affair?”

Mandy Kent looked up again and stared Parker in the eyes, and in those eyes, he saw embarrassment, pain, and tears.

“He was lying through his teeth. I know he was, in fact, I think... I think he found me repulsive.”

“Then why would he keep pursuing you?”

Mandy shook her head, perplexed,

“I think maybe he sees me as a replacement for his mother, and the thought of that, of being... motherly, to a lover? That thought, that repulsed
me
, and that’s why he’ll never touch me again.”

Parker stood.

“Stay here Mrs. Kent, and I’ll return in a few minutes.”

He opened the white door set beside the mirror and walked out into the hallway.

“She didn’t confess to murder, but you sure got her to open up,” Chief Howard said.

“Yeah, and she’s got me leaning more toward the husband now,” Parker said.

Jo turned and looked through a second one-way mirror across the hall, where Alex Kent sat in his own white room.

“Let’s see if we can get to the truth. I’m going in.”

***

J
o studied Kent as she sat across from him and saw that the man was nervous.

“How’s it going, Mr. Kent?”

“Fine, and you?”

“I’m not fine; I’m very upset that Tiffany Grace’s killer is still walking around free.”

Kent nodded.

“Of course, how can I help?”

“I’m told by my partner that you kissed Tiffany and that she didn’t want to play along. How did that make you feel, angry?”

“Angry? No, I wasn’t angry, I felt stupid, and to make things worse Mandy caught me in the act.”

Jo leaned forward over the table.

“You wanted Tiffany so much it hurt, didn’t you?”

“I was attracted to her, yes?”

“You were horny for her is what you were.”

Kent winced at the characterization.

“That’s a crude way of putting it.”

“But accurate as all hell, and tell me, what’s your net worth?”

“Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I think it’s the root of the problem. Prior to this past year, you’ve never made more than sixty grand, then, you hit a streak of fantastic luck and become a multi-millionaire, a somebody, and a somebody with millions of dollars should be able to score. Isn’t that right?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do, you made yourself into a millionaire before the age of forty and what’s the first thing you do? You replaced all of your stuff, everything new, new furniture, new appliances, a new car, make plans to build a new home and... make plans to replace the old wife, preferably with the hot young thing next door.”

Kent shook his head.

“No, you’re wrong,”

“You hit a snag though, didn’t you? Because the hot young thing didn’t want to play along, she didn’t want you, a man twice her age, she spurned you, you, who could buy and sell her. That must have hurt that middle-aged male ego, huh? In fact, I bet that made you mad enough to kill.”

“I didn’t kill Tiffany! Was I pissed when she didn’t want to kiss me, yes, but like I said, it was a stupid thing to do and I regretted it. That damn kiss may have cost me my marriage, and I, I love my wife, I love Mandy more than anything and I want her back.”

Jo sat up straight in her seat, looking surprised.

“Ah, I see, I had it all wrong, didn’t I?”

Kent stared at her with suspicion in his eyes.

“What do you mean? Are you saying you believe me?”

Jo gave her head a slight shake.

“Why didn’t I see it before? Tiffany didn’t turn you down. You two
were
having an affair, and right under your wife’s nose, but for you it was all fun and games, wasn’t it?”

“There was no affair; just the one kiss, I swear it.”

Jo ignored him and kept speaking.

“She was just a piece on the side to you, but she thought she would be the next Mrs. Kent, didn’t she? Hell, she probably made sure that your wife would catch you together, that way you’d be forced to choose, but it backfired on her, didn’t it? It backfired and you chose to stay with your wife and end it.”

“You’re crazy! None of that ever happened.”

“Now I see it plain as day,” Jo said. “She sees you come home unexpectantly, follows you inside and tries to start things up again, but as you say, you love your wife and you want her back. In fact, you love her enough to kill, don’t you?”

“You’re twisting my words,” Kent said, and watching him from the other side of the mirror, Parker thought the man looked scared, scared and obviously hiding something.

“Tiffany wanted you back, wanted to be more than just a piece on the side, and wouldn’t leave you alone. She was a threat to your marriage, a threat to your home and she had to go away. Now, I don’t think you planned to kill her, I mean I understand that it was a fit of rage, an accident even, but you killed that girl, didn’t you Alex, didn’t you?”

Kent had turned pale and was clutching the edge of the table.

“It was one kiss, one kiss, I swear.”

Jo laughed.

“DNA doesn’t lie, Alex,”

“What DNA?”

“The baby’s, Tiffany was pregnant when you killed her, and I’ve no doubt that the DNA of the fetus will match yours, no doubt at all.”

“Pregnant?” Kent whispered, and then he sent forth a half-hearted laugh, when the laugh left his lips he began to cry.

Outside in the hall, Chief Howard turned to Parker.

“There’s no baby, is there?”

“No.”

“She’s damn good, Rick,”

“You got that right, and Kent’s about to break.”

Jo leaned forward again, but this time she spoke in a softer voice.

“I believe it was an accident, but you still killed your own child.”

Kent wiped away his tears.

“I lied. Not about killing her, I swear to God in heaven that I did not kill that girl, but... we had sex. It happened when she came home drunk one night, mumbling something about her boyfriend dumping her. My wife and daughter were visiting my in-laws and I... I took advantage of her. I should have taken her home, but instead I got her even drunker and took her to bed. She woke up the next morning and blamed herself, and I let her, then, the incident on the couch, that was me going back for seconds, but she wanted none of it, and told me so. That’s when Mandy walked in and caught us.”

“You lied about the sex, why shouldn’t I believe that you’re lying about the murder?”

Kent stared at Jo for long seconds before saying four words.

“I want a lawyer.”

T
he chief smiled at Jo as she walked out of the room.

“That was damn fine work, Detective.”

“Thank you, Chief,”

“Way to go, Partner, it looks like you were right about him.”

Jo nibbled at her lower lip.

“The funny thing is, I’m not so sure anymore. I saw guilt in his eyes, but the moment he confessed to the sex it went away. I think he felt guilty about taking advantage of Tiffany, so guilty that he lied about it to two homicide detectives, but murder, maybe, yeah, maybe, but the guilt is gone from his eyes.”

“In any event, he’s lawyered up, so that’s that,” Parker said, and turned to Chief Howard. “What’s the call, Gabe? Should we charge him?”

“Charge him with suspicion of murder, and let the wife go, and guys, excellent work, both of you.”

They thanked their boss and then explained to Mandy Kent that her husband was being arrested.

She defended him vehemently until she heard that he confessed to all but raping Tiffany Grace while she was drunk, then she became silent, as tears welled up and began running down her cheeks.

***

P
arker and Knight spent the rest of the day investigating a missing persons case that took them to the bar named
Taggart’s
, where Heather Jones worked, Heather Jones, who had been Tiffany Grace’s friend.

The man they were trying to locate was a
Taggart’s
employee. They were hoping to find a clue as to where the man might have disappeared to, and were speaking with the manager and staff.

Taggart’s
was located on the southwestern end of town in an area that was still wooded.

Nathanial Taggart, the bar’s founder and owner bought the land at the end of prohibition. The bar was built with money he had earned as a teenaged bootlegger.

Taggart’s
was a huge, red, barn-like building and had a bandstand in the rear of it. There was also a private lake and picnic area.

Jo stepped out of the car and looked around.

“Wow, there’s nothing else here. All this land must be worth some money, hmm?”

“I heard that it’s over fifty acres, but old man Taggart refuses to sell. He’s nearly a hundred by the way.”

“Could there be a connection with the Tiffany Grace murder here?” Jo asked.

“No,” Parker said. “You’ll find yourself here quite often for all sorts of things. Half the town drinks here and there has been some illegal activity, but nothing too heinous.”

“All right, it just struck me as a coincidence that Heather Jones is on the peripheral of both cases.”

“Speak of the devil,” Parker said, and watched Heather Jones stride toward them. The young woman was even more beautiful than Parker remembered and he felt his heart speed up. Jones was wearing her work uniform. All the waitresses at
Taggart’s
wore the same outfit, very tight, black shorts with a red, sleeveless T-shirt that displayed their midriff, but on Heather Jones the effect of the sexy clothes was doubled, and her red hair sparkled as much as her green eyes.

When Heather reached them, she stood up on her toes and kissed Parker on the cheek.

“That’s for catching Tiff’s killer. I heard that Mr. Kent was under arrest for her murder.”

Parker smiled, and also looked a bit embarrassed.

“I thank you for the kiss, but that case isn’t closed yet. Alex Kent is charged with suspicion, but we’re still investigating.”

“Oh, well, keep the kiss anyway, because I know you’ll solve it, and drop in sometime when you’re not working, okay.”

“Okay, and thanks for the vote of confidence,”

They spoke with Jones about her missing co-worker, but she had nothing to add that could help them find him, and so they left the club and climbed back into Parker’s Mustang.

When he looked over at her, he saw Jo smiling.

“What’s that smile for?”

“Heather Jones, you like her, don’t you?”

“Biologically I’m crazy about her, but I’m no Alex Kent. Hell, I couldn’t even hold on to my wife, and she’s only ten years younger than me.”

“Jones would take your mind off your wife though, and I think she likes you too.”

“Are you trying to play matchmaker, Partner?”

“No, but I do want to see you happy,”

“Thanks for that, I appreciate it, but I think I need time alone, at least for now,”