Two-Faced (12 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Jess drove directly o
ver to the Beverly Hills police station. Parking her car in the large parking structure adjacent to the main building, she turned off her engine and sat, thinking. What if she was making a mistake? Maybe she was being too rash. Perhaps the smart thing to do was to keep quiet and not put herself at risk.

It wasn
’t too late to turn right around and go back home, pay off Maria and hope the whole thing went away.

No. She couldn
’t live with herself if she did that. She couldn’t let Ally get away with murder.

S
he got out of her car and slammed the door harder then she’d intended, then walked out onto the large complex that housed the library and police station. Her heart pounded as she walked up the stairs of the thirties deco structure.

Once inside the glass d
oors of the police station, she paused at the front desk and spoke to an officer sitting inside a booth of glass. "I need to talk to detective Sykes.”

“
What about?" he asked, looking up from the real estate book he was studying.

“
It’s...a case he’s working on. The investigation of my father’s murder. Raymond Banks.”

He picked up the phone and pressed a button. “
There’s someone here about the Banks murder,” he said into the receiver, then nodded to Jess. ““He’ll be with you a minute. Have a seat.”

A few minu
tes later Sykes walked out, coffee cup in hand. "What can I do for you, Mrs. Parks?”

"I need to talk to you,”
she said, steeling herself.

He nodded and led her through a door that opened onto a large room, full of desks. Jess was surprised by how quiet it
was, not at all like what she was used to on TV. It was clean with teal carpets that matched the teal trim on the walls. Leave it to Beverly Hills, she thought, where the biggest crime was probably jaywalking. Or celebrity shoplifting.

Sykes pulled a ste
el chair up to the side of his desk and motioned for Jess to take a seat. Then he went to the coffee machine on the windowsill. “Coffee?” he asked as he refilled his cup. She nodded. “We got some milk here and..."

"Black is fine, thanks."

He handed her the cup and she took a long sip, grateful for the excuse to gather her thoughts, acutely aware that he was watching her.

“
So, Mrs Parks, what’s on your mind.  I’m sure you didn’t come here for our wonderful house blend.”

Jess took a deep breath. “
I lied to you before. I wasn’t at home sick the night my father died.” 

She waited for a response. When there wasn
’t any, she looked down into her lap. “I should probably start from the beginning,” she said.

Over the course of the next hour, she told Sykes about
meeting Zach in Texas. And about the tape he'd made for Lars to use against her in court. When she touched on the nature of the tape itself she glanced at Sykes who was looking at her impassively. For once she was glad for those emotionless brown eyes.

"So
that was why you wanted the eighty thousand? To pay off the blackmailer?”

Jess nodded. Sykes took down some notes the notepad in front of him.

Jess continued on with her story, describing how Ally had helped her get the tape back from Zach. And that she’d gone to Mexico as a favor to her in return.

Sykes paused at her description of smuggling across the border and questioned her in more detail than she could answer, about the exact nature of the exchange.

“What made you think there were drugs in the hat?”

Jess shrugged. “
It was just a natural assumption.”

When she told him about Maria finding the tie on her coat, he sat up and began taking more detailed notes. “
She saw you there that night. What time was that?”

Jess thought about it. “
I’m not sure. But Maria usually leaves my father’s at around seven forty five–––just before his walk, so it was probably around then. She said she saw my car parked across the street when she left his house.”

Sykes tapped his pen on his desk. “
That would be right around the time of the murder.”

Jess nodded nervously. “
She said she saw me there too, getting out of the car...wearing my trench coat. The coat I’d worn to Ally’s that day. And that’s...” She shook her head, sadly. “…that’s how I know it had to be Ally that killed my father. Because I was in Mexico at that time, dressed in her clothes and driving her car, while she had my coat and car that I’d left at her house.”

Sykes looked at her, saying nothing.

“You do believe me, don’t you?” Jess asked.

He relaxed back in his c
hair. “It’s an interesting story Mrs. Parks,” he finally said. “The only problem is, your sister claims that she was in Mexico, shopping, at the time of the murder.” He laced his hands behind his head, never removing his eyes from Jess’s face. “Since one of you was there in Mexico and one was here committing a murder, we have a little problem. One of you is lying.”

Jess
’s face crumbled as she looked down into the cold remains of her coffee. “But...I wouldn’t have come and told you this...if...if it were me.” Her voice sounded weak and pathetic, even to her own ears. “I mean, I was worried that you might arrest me for the smuggling...”

He sat forward and looked her straight in the eyes. “
Look, I’m not interested in nailing you on the smuggling. I’m homicide, not vice.” He paused. “But I am very interested, in catching the person who killed your father.”

He sat back and studied her thoughtfully. “
But as to your coming to me with a made up story, you might do it if you were afraid that Maria was going to tell me the same thing she told you. That she saw you there that night.” He took a sip of coffee. “Though I have to admit, if it is a lie, it’s a pretty inventive one.”

“
So how do I prove to you that I was the one in Mexico?”

He picked up his pen and studied i
t. “Is there anything that happened there...something we could verify, that your sister wouldn’t know about?”

Jess paused. “
I don’t know. I’d have to think about it. The thing is, I pretty much told Ally everything that happened. I mean, she quizzed me in such detail afterwards.”

Jess remembered that night. How Ally wanted to know all about her trip. At the time Jess thought it had been out of sisterly concern, but now she saw that Ally had a more insidious motive.

“Okay. Well, if you think of anything, let me know.”

Jess stood up and tossed her cup into his trash. She was even more confused now. Granted, she wasn
’t going to be arrested for smuggling, but what if, in changing her alibi and telling him the whole story, she’d handed him the evidence that he needed to convict her?

Feeling sick to her stomach, she walked out to her car. There had to be something that she hadn
’t told Ally about.

Some small detail…

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Jess drove out of the parking garage and onto Civic Center Drive, nearly getting sideswiped by a police car that came roaring out of nowhere, sirens blaring. She told herself to focus on the here and now, but all she could think about was her trip to Mexi
co. There had to be
something.
One incident that she hadn’t told Ally about. Something that would prove that she was the one who'd been in Mexico and Ally wasn’t.

She took a right on Burton Way and thought back to man who
’d been watching her at the Flores café. The one who’d offered to help her with her car. Had she mentioned him to her sister? She didn’t think so, but it was doubtful that the police would be able to track him down anyway.  A random stranger on a crowded Mexican street? Finding him would probably be impossible.

As Jess stopped at a red light, heading onto Little Santa Monica, she noticed a handsome motorcycle cop in the lane next to her. He was giving her an admonishing look and she remembered her seatbelt, quickly buckling herself in. He loo
ked at her for a moment then turned and faced forward, obviously not intending to give her a ticket. Thank goodness.

Jess glanced at him again. He was right out of central casting with his square jaw, tanned skin and dark sunglasses. Were the cops in Bever
ly Hills really better looking than in other places? She couldn’t place who he reminded her of, but he looked like someone she’d seen recently. Probably some actor.

He zoomed off ahead of her when the light changed and she sighed in relief. Continuing more
slowly down Little Santa Monica she came upon the minor accident that the police had obviously been rushing to. The motorcycle cop who had just passed her was now standing by the rear-ended car. He really did seem familiar.

She drove on, still thinking a
bout Mexico but the motorcycle cop's face stayed with her. Then she realized why. The proof she’d needed had been staring her in the face all along!

"Of course," she said aloud, shaking her head. At the first opportunity she made a u-turn and headed back t
o the police station.

CHAPTER FORTY

"I need to talk to Detective Sykes,”
Jess said breathlessly to the policeman at the front desk. “I was just here. I just thought of something.”

He nodded and picked up the phone to dial Sykes. It seemed to take forever but finally he told her to go on back. Jessica approached and Sykes looked up from his phone call, then motioned for her to take a seat.

He covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Be with you in a minute," he mouthed.  He listened for a few moments more, then nodded. "Yeah. Okay, get back to me when you have it.” He hung up the phone, then looked at Jess. "Back so soon?”

"I thought of something. About Mexico.”
She was standing in front of his desk, too excited to sit down."On the way back through customs, I dropped my…er…Ally's purse. Her ID fell out and I didn’t realize it then. But as I was driving back, this cop––a highway patrolman I think––came up and gave me the license back."

Je
ss could see Sykes studying her.

"You never told your sister any of this?" he finally asked.

"No, I did. I mean…I told her about the license part," Jess paused to take a breath, "but I never told her the rest of it. That he asked me out on a date. That he said he'd show me around Mexico and then wrote down his phone number. I rushed through that part of the story because I was so tired and just wanted to get home. Besides I didn’t think it mattered."

Sykes nodded and made note on his pad.

"Do you still have his number?"

“
No. But his name was Bob...I think…” She frowned, trying to remember, then shook her head. “ I don’t remember his last name. He wrote his number down on a piece of paper....but I tossed it out the window after he left.”

"So we can add
littering to your long list of crimes," Sykes said, his expression unchanged.

So unexpected was his stab at humor, that it took Jess a few seconds to realize the he was joking.

Sykes stood up. "Okay. I'll look into it. I'll be in touch."

Jess nodded and
feeling lighter for the first time that day. She smiled to herself as she walked out. All Sykes had to do now was find that cop and he would realize she was telling the truth. And that Ally was lying.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Jess drove towards home, wishing she had Danny that night. More than anything she wanted to see him, if only to give him a hug. She checked her watch and realized he was probably just getting back from little league practice. Without thinking, she turned
onto Lars’ street, but even from afar, she could see that his Mercedes wasn’t in the driveway.

Driving slowly by the large white Victorian house that had been her home for seven years, she remembered how she felt when she first moved in
––that this was a house she would live happily ever after in.

When she discovered the affair, everyone had counseled her against leaving. "Keep the house
––and kick
him
out," was the general consensus. But it had been in the Parks’ family for generations and felt too much like their house for her to ever feel comfortable there again.

Besides Lars would never have willingly left the house. It seemed easier at the time for her to move out.

Jess drove down Doheny and considered popping over to the park to say, hi, to Danny. Lars surely couldn’t have a problem with that, could he? Normally he wouldn’t want Jess around during
“
his
”
time with Danny, but he’d been acting so nice to her lately, maybe he wouldn't mind this one time.

It was strange. How accommodating he was being lately.
In fact the more she thought about it the less sense she could make of it. On the one hand he was acting all concerned and trying to get back together with her, while on the other hand he'd set up the Zach episode in Texas in an attempt to get the better of her in court.

It didn
’t make sense. But then again, maybe it was just classic Lars. Keeping all his bases covered.  He was probably still looking for another chance to screw her over––literally or figuratively. Well, she wasn't going to give him that chance. Not now. Not ever again.

As she drove by the park. She didn
’t see any sign of Lars, Danny or any of the other kids, so she continued on.

By the time Jess got home from the grocery store and the dry cleaners, it was dark and she had a slight headache.

She pulled her car into her driveway and cut the engine, wondering, as she got out of the car, just how long it would take Sykes to track down that highway patrolman. If only she hadn’t thrown away his note, or had at least remembered his last name.

As
she made her way up the pathway to her front door, she thought about calling Sykes to check on his progress. But she could just imagine how irritated he would be at her impatience. She would force herself to wait until he called her.

Walking up the steps
to the porch, she heard a strange rustling sound to her left.  She glanced over but didn’t see anything. Still, her hands trembled slightly as she fumbled with her keys. Of course, today of all days, she'd forgotten to turn the porch light on before leaving the house.

She turned the deadbolt, then quickly removed the key and began fumbling around on her keychain for the smaller key that would fit the bottom lock
––noting the irony that in her attempt at extra safety, she had inadvertently put herself at more risk.

Relax, she told herself, it was probably nothing more than a frog.

Then she heard it again. Wheeling around, keychain still in hand, Jess saw a blur of movement in the darkness. A tall figure was coming towards her.

She froze in fear, unable to scream. Without thinking, she felt for the pepper spray container on her keychain, held it up, and pressed down hard on the button.

A muffled scream came from the figure in black as he spun around and took off down the path.

Jess unlocked the lower lock with shaking hands and quickly went inside. Trembling and drenched with sweat, she locked the door behind her. Her legs felt like they were about to give out and s
he realized she was still clinging to her purse as though it were a lifesaver.

She hurried into the living room, grabbed the portable phone off the kitchen counter and dialed 911 as she rushed to check the back door and windows to make sure everything was
locked. Upon hearing the busy signal, she slammed down the phone. What good was an emergency number if you can’t get through in an emergency?

She found Sykes’s card on the refrigerator and quickly dialed his number. He might not be the one to call about something like this but she had to talk to someone. Right now. She dialed his pager number and sat rigidly by the phone, afraid to move, waiting for him to return the call.

Sweat was prickling her body and s
he wanted to change her shirt but she felt too afraid and vulnerable. What if he came back?

Sykes would probably tell her try 911 again, that he didn't deal with this kind of thing. But what if it had something to do with her father's case? What if the ma
n who'd come after her tonight was part of the drug smuggling ring she'd betrayed, and was trying to shut her up before she could go to the police?

Ally had warned her that she'd be a fool to report it to the cops, was it possible that this is what she'd
been warning her about?