Progeny (14 page)

“I have to change and leave for work soon.” Angel held her palms up. “Why are you guys here?”

Marcy scoffed. “Are you serious? Carmen is wanted for murder. Your father and I want to know what you know about it.”

“I don’t know anything about it. I told you I haven’t seen or talked to her.” Angel grabbed a fingernail file from a small end table beside her.

Bruce stood and peered over at Angel. “That’s a lie, and you know it. Come on. We raised you better than that.”

Angel was silent. She held the file in her right hand to file the nails on her left. She froze when she looked down. One of her black-painted fingernails had snapped off. Her mind went into a panic as to where that could have happened. She couldn’t come up with anything.

“We know you were with her last month. Mrs. Gardner saw you two together?” Marcy said.

Angel said nothing. She continued staring at the missing nail.

“No response?” Bruce asked.

Angel looked up. “Sorry, what?” she asked.

“Your mother said that Chloe Gardner saw you with Carmen last month,” Bruce said.

Angel remembered seeing the old woman at a gas station. While she had tried to avoid her, they did make eye contact for a split second. Angel needed to deflect the question. She let out a puff of air in anger. “Your neighbor? With the four-inch-thick glasses? She saw me with Carmen? She should go get her eyes checked again. And what is she? Eighty?”

“This isn’t a joke. Your mother had to go to the police station and answer questions about Carmen. They want her for murder. Where is she?”

“First, Marcy isn’t my mother. Second, I don’t care that she had to go to the police station. Third, I said I don’t know where Carmen is.”

Bruce’s face went red with anger, and he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Then he ran his hand through his short white hair and put his glasses back on. “Where was Carmen last month, then?” He crossed his arms and rested them on his belly, waiting for Angel’s response.

“Look, I’m not going to get interrogated by you two.” Angel stood. “Your neighbor sure as hell didn’t see Carmen and me together. I need to get to work. You guys should go.”

Bruce shook his head. “We’re not going anywhere until you stop lying and tell us.”

“Well, then you can sit here by yourselves and wait because I’m leaving.” She turned her back on Marcy and Bruce.

Bruce took fast steps after her and grabbed her by the arm.

Angel ripped it from his grasp and spun around. “Don’t touch me,” she said through clenched teeth.

Marcy began to cry. “Honey, we’re worried. Don’t be like this.” Marcy stood from the couch and walked toward Angel. “Don’t protect that woman. She’s not your mother.”

“You’re sure as hell not,” Angel said.

“Don’t be like this, honey.” Marcy reached out to hug her.

Angel took a step back. “You can stop right there, Marcy. I don’t need a hug and don’t want to look at your pathetic, crying face. You two aren’t my parents, and I don’t owe you an explanation for anything. Now, get out!”

Bruce shook his head, his eyes welling up behind his glasses. “Come on, Marcy. Let’s go. Apparently, our daughter doesn’t care that we’re worried about her.”

“Oh, okay. Now you want to try guilt? Just leave.” Angel stepped to the side and pointed down the stairs.

Marcy paused as she walked past Angel. “Maybe you’ll have some answers for the police. I gave them your information.”

Angel shrugged. “Whatever. I already talked to the cop. I told him the same thing I told you. I don’t know where she is. What is so hard to understand about that?”

Neither Marcy nor Bruce answered. They walked down the steps and out the front door. Angel followed. She slammed and locked the door at their back. Angel leaned her back against the door.

They’ll come back.

Angel looked up the stairs. The only things she cared about were the photos already in the car. She walked into the garage and hit the button to lift the overhead door.

Hank and I stood in the doorway leading into the garage. We stared in at the couple hanging from the ceiling. I looked back over my shoulder at Captain Evans. “Has anyone been in here?” I asked.

“Glodek and Campbell. I’m not sure either of them got much further inside than you two are now. I know I haven’t been in there. A glance of whatever the hell that is, is more than enough for me.”

Rick and Pax walked in, approaching us from behind the captain. Evans turned to look at them.

“Rick, Pax, this is Captain Evans. Captain, Rick Daniels and Pax McLain from our forensics lab.”

“Nice to meet you. I’ll leave you guys to it. Can you guys just make sure we get a copy of everything found here?”

Rick nodded. “I’ll make sure.”

The captain walked from the house. Rick pointed into the garage. “Did you guys go in?” he asked.

“No. Leaving the scene for you,” I said.

Hank and I removed ourselves from the doorway so Rick and Pax could walk through.

Pax looked at the hanging bodies and grimaced. “Do you have this in here, Rick? I can probably get started with the rest of the house.”

“That’s fine,” Rick said.

Pax turned and headed toward the blood in the entryway. Hank and I took a step into the garage.

“Pax looked a little green around the gills there, Rick,” I said.

“I know.” Rick shook his head. “I’ve seen him like that once or twice before. You guys know how it is. After a while, you get used to seeing the evil that some people are capable of. Pax is young. His skin will thicken up.” Rick pulled his camera from his kit and started taking photos of everything. Hank and I watched from the corner as Rick snapped photos of the bodies.

After the photos, he bagged the couple’s clothing. We watched him bag and tag one complete outfit for a man and one complete outfit for a woman.

I looked around the garage. I had a car in the garage bay at the back, a couple hanging upside down from the ceiling, and two connecting blood pools. Something was missing.

“Where’s the skin?” I asked.

Hank squinted. “Yeah, where the hell is the skin?”

“It’s not in here anywhere that I can tell,” Rick said.

I walked from the garage to Pax in the living room. Hank followed. Pax knelt beside a pool of blood.

“Is the skin from the victims out here?” I asked.

Pax looked up, surprised by the question. “Not that I’ve seen. It might be here somewhere, though.”

Hank and I did a quick lap through the home, searching. I walked outside to find Captain Evans. He was standing just a few feet from the front door, observing the local coroners removing the body from the front yard. Both men wore blue jumpsuits with Coroner printed in yellow across the upper back.

“Captain,” I said.

He turned to Hank and me.

“Where’s their skin?” I asked.

“We didn’t do anything with it.”

“And no one else was in the house?”

“Glodek and Campbell said the place was empty. It’s not in the garage?”

I shook my head. My attention went to the vehicles parked along the street and the black SUV in the driveway. I looked around the yard and neighboring properties. “Can we get someone to run the tags on all the cars we have around here? And maybe get a couple guys to start searching the neighborhood?”

“What are you thinking?” Evans asked.

“Well, either she drove here in one of these vehicles and the skin is in there, or maybe it’s stashed around here somewhere.”

“Or she has an accomplice,” Hank said.

The thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

“Has anyone been door knocking to see if any of the neighbors may have seen anything earlier?” I asked.

“We’ve spoken with everyone in the vicinity here.” Captain Evans made a couple of circles with his finger in the air. “Nobody has had anything of importance to tell us. I’ll get a couple of guys on the tags and searching, though.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I saw an older woman pawing at the female officer running crowd control near the patrol cars sideways in the street. I could hear the civilian wailing.

“What’s this?” Hank asked and pointed.

“Yeah, let’s find out.”

We started toward the woman and officer.

As we neared, I heard the frantic woman yell the name Maggie, our assumed female homeowner’s name. “Let her through,” I called.

The female officer did.

The woman ran toward Hank and me and then tried to plow through us. Hank did his best to hold the woman.

“That’s my sister’s house! What happened? Where is she?” she screamed.

“Ma’am, please, try to calm down,” I said.

She pulled from Hank’s grasp and tried to run for the house.

I caught her in four strides and placed my arms around her in the gentlest bear hug I could manage while still keeping her under control. “You can’t go in there.”

“Is she dead?”

I said nothing.

The woman cried uncontrollably and went limp in my arms. Hank walked over. I jerked my chin at him to head back into the house. He walked toward the front door.

I held the woman for a minute before helping her take a seat in the grass. I knelt beside her. “Ma’am, what’s your name?”

She sniffed. “Katherine Forte.”

“And this is your sister’s home?” I asked.

She nodded. “Maggie and her husband.” She was quiet for a second. “Oh God, Chuck. Where’s Chuck?”

I couldn’t find the words to tell her where he currently was.

“Is he?” she asked. “Both of them?”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She cried, and her shoulders rocked back and forth. The woman looked up into my face, seemingly searching for answers. “What happened?” She shook her head. “I was just with her.”

I rested my hand on her shoulder. “We’re trying to figure out what happened, Mrs. Forte. You said you were just with her. When?” I asked.

She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “All day.” She pulled in a huge breath through trembling lips. “She left my house not more than two hours ago.”

“Can you just wait here for me?” I stood. “I’m going to send someone over to speak with you.”

She nodded but said nothing.

I walked toward Captain Evans. He was standing in a group of his men, giving orders. He gave me his attention as I approached. “We’re running tags now. So far, all belong to the neighborhood. I put a few guys out searching neighboring properties.”

“Okay. Do you guys have a grief counselor you work with?” I motioned toward the woman sitting in the grass. “That’s the sister of the homeowner there. I’d imagine someone talking with her would be a good idea.”

“I’ll make a call and go sit with her,” Captain Evans said.

“Appreciate it.”

I walked back toward the front door and into the house. I found Hank with Rick in the garage. Rick and the coroners were lowering the bodies.

“Rick, how long do you think it would take a person to do something like this?” I asked.

“Hell, I wouldn’t have the first idea. I can’t imagine it’s a quick process, though. Why?”

“There is a woman outside that said she was with this woman not more than two hours ago.”

Rick shrugged. “Like I said, I have no idea. Did you find the skin?”

“No.”

Pax walked into the garage with something black in a small evidence bag. He held it up so we could see it. “I found a broken fingernail.”

“Victim’s?” Hank asked.

I took the bag from Pax and examined it. “Black paint. Doesn’t sound like a color a woman getting on in her years would wear.”

“Body outside?” Hank asked.

“Maybe.” I looked over at the coroners, readying bags for the two bodies. “Is the woman from the front in the van outside?”

The smaller of the two looked over. “She is, yes.”

“Do you think we could see if this fingernail we found belongs to her?” I asked.

He nodded, walked past us, and gave a wave over his shoulder. Hank and I followed him outside to the van. He opened the rear door and stepped in. Hank and I stepped up into the back. The black body bag, with what we assumed was Carmen Simms inside, rested upon a shelf protruding from the wall of the van. The coroner unzipped the bag to the woman’s midsection. He reached in and took out her right hand. Her nails were short, dirty, and stained in blood. He positioned her arm back inside the bag and then removed her left arm—again, no painted nails, and none missing. Hank and I stepped outside again to the sound of the coroner zipping the bag back up.

“Accomplice?” Hank asked.

“Could be. Let’s see if Pax got anything else in the house.”

We headed back in. I spoke with Rick and Pax. Neither had uncovered anything we didn’t already know. Pax took some more prints from around the house to process back at the lab. Rick left with the local coroners for the Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office. His goal was to get the prints from the woman we suspected as Carmen Simms and get a positive identification on her by the end of the night. The officers searching the area formed a grid and spoke with every resident in a two-block radius, but no one had seen anything. We never found the missing skin. With nothing more we could do at the scene, Hank and I left around eight o’clock.

Angel poured the remaining ingredients into a blue fifty-gallon barrel in the back corner of the room. She used a broom handle to stir the liquid. Carmen had written the recipe for the tanning solution on a piece of paper and taped it to the wall. The skins that had been salted were ready to begin tanning. She grabbed the first piece from a tray and dropped it into the solution.

Angel shook her head. “I’m not sure if I’m doing this right, Dad.”

She heard no response.

Angel dumped the rest of the prepared skin into the barrel and glanced at the clock. Carmen’s instructions were to leave the skins in the solution for two hours—that gave her enough time to make a stop and get Ronald Braird.

Angel removed her gloves, grabbed her keys, and left the house.

She pulled up and parked in front of Braird’s address a few minutes after eight. The man lived in the end unit of a three-story luxury townhouse. The new construction complex was smack in the center of an older neighborhood. While each townhouse had a private entrance, the neighborhood allowed for a lot of potential witnesses. Still sitting behind the wheel, Angel stared at the place. All the lights were off inside. She looked at the front door and then up and down the street. She shook her head.