“I wonder how Chloe’s keeping,” Carla said, a few minutes later. “It must be so hard to lose a sibling. Thankfully, I’m an only child.”
Merlene gave Carla that annoyed look again.
“Maybe I should give her a call.” I handed my cell to Merlene for her to do the honors.
“What’s the number?” she asked.
“It’s right there in my contact list under ‘Glenda’. I didn’t get her cell, but she might be at the house.”
“Didn’t she say she’s staying in Chadsworth for a little while?” Carla asked, as Merlene searched through my contact list.
“Yep. She has to get some things in order.”
“What a task she has on her hands! Had to bury her only sibling who has no husband or children to handle it,” Carla returned.
“I don’t blame Glenda for never getting hitched,” Merlene said.
“Know what you mean.” Carla took a sip of her coffee.
Suddenly, something came to mind that I didn’t bother to share right away with the girls. I wanted to be sure about it first.
Merlene handed the phone to me after dialing the number and Chloe picked up on the second ring. She sounded quite disheartened as we spoke. Her husband, John, had returned to Colorado which meant she’d had a lot of quiet time to think since the funeral.
“I have to say, I got very little done in terms of Glenda’s affairs,” Chloe admitted. “I’ve made some progress, but most mornings, I don’t even feel like getting out of bed.”
“I’m so sorry, dear. The trauma of losing your sister and in that manner must be so terrible to bear,” I said. “I would be happy to come over and keep you company whenever you’re up to it. I’d imagine though, in light of the circumstances, most days you’d want to be alone.”
“You’re right, Lucille.” She sighed. “Sometimes I do want to be alone, but I think having you over whenever you can come will be therapeutic for me. Glenda adored you, and just being in your presence makes me feel even closer to my sister.”
I was honored, to say the least. I spent a couple of minutes more chatting with Chloe before I rejoined the girls whose eyes were deeply buried within the pages of that little black book.
“How’s she doing?” Carla asked.
“Not so good. Has her good days and bad days,” I replied.
“That’s expected.” She nodded. “Time will heal all wounds.”
“That’s what they say,” Merlene chimed in. “I think it’s hogwash.”
“Will you girls, excuse me?” I said, picking up my cane. “I’m going to mosey on over to the restroom.”
I got up and headed for the door.
“You forgot there’s a restroom in here, Lucille?” Merlene looked up.
“I’m aware of that, but the one down the hallway is more spacious.”
“Whatever.”
After I got to the restroom, I made sure the coast was clear, then pulled out my cell phone again and made another call to a young man Glenda had once introduced me to. If my hunch was right, justice would be coming to Glenda sooner than any of us thought.
10
_________________
The next day, Glenda’s friend, Manuel, had emailed the documents to me from work, just like he said he would the day before. Of course, he used his personal email after taking the screenshots from his phone and included the documentation he was able to retrieve from his buddy at the car rental company.
I’d first met Manuel several years earlier when Glenda and I were on our way to Hawaii to bask in its goodness for a full week. She’d won a couple of tickets from her job and had asked if I’d like to go to Hawaii, which, of course, was an opportunity I would’ve never turned down. I still had my eyesight back then and had left my Donnie and Nilla at home to get into mischief while I was away. Glenda and I had an absolutely blast. I’d never sunbathed so much in my life, and oh!—the music and the food! The hula dance was mesmerizing and after a few lessons, I was gyrating my hips just as good as the natives were.
Manuel, now a married forty-year-old father of two, was the last familiar face we’d seen at the airport the day of our departure from Chadsworth to Hawaii. At the time, he’d been a reservations clerk for three years and had made sure we were well taken care of. Now, he was supervisor and still in love with his job as he was back then.
While Theodore and Anthony were at work, I downloaded the screenshots Manuel had sent and perused them. The travel dates covered a timespan of two weeks before Glenda’s date of death.
“Bingo!” I said, moments later.
I quickly contacted Manuel and asked for another favor. Afterwards, I folded the documents, stashed them into a letter-sized envelope and called Merlene.
She said I’d almost burst her ear drum when I gave her the news.
“Have you told Carla yet?” she asked.
“Not yet. Going to call her now. Be ready for when we get there.”
“I’m ready now!”
* * * *
Carla was clearly on edge as she drove and I was beginning to wonder if Merlene needed to take over the wheel.
“I’m fine,” Carla said. “Just stupefied by all of this.”
“We’re all stupefied,” Merlene said, reading the documents I’d brought along.
Carla glanced at me. “Suppose your hunch isn’t right, Lucille? Suppose we’re totally off track?”
“Then we simply continue down our now larger shortlist,” I replied.
I heard the collective sigh.
“What we’re doing now is worth a try, based on this new intel,” I told them.
“I agree,” Merlene said. “If only we can find that syringe.”
We could’ve only hoped. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
* * * *
We arrived at the airport car rental at around ten-thirty and I advised Carla to wait inside the vehicle until Merlene and I got back.
“I’ll be praying for y’all,” she hollered as we walked off.
“Please do,” I replied, knowing we needed all the prayers we could get since this was a long shot.
Inside the building, an Hispanic man in his thirties with the name tag: Hector Gonzalez attached to his uniform vest greeted us as Merlene and I approached the counter.
“Are you Miss Lucille?” he asked. I assumed this was the guy Manuel had been in touch with.
“Yes, I am. Are you Hector?”
“Yes, ma’am. I understand a friend of yours would like to rent the blue Camry.”
“That’ll be me,” Merlene stepped forward. “It’s this licence number, right?” She showed him a sticky note with the number scribbled on it.
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded. “I’ve been told that’s the exact car you want and luckily, it’s currently on the property.”
“What’s the damage?” I asked him.
“Fifty dollars a day, plus insurance.”
“Fine.”
He turned to Merlene. “How long will you be renting it for?”
“One hour,” I interjected.
He looked at me curiously. “Pardon me?”
“You heard right—one hour.”
“Okay. Whatever you want. However, you will still be charged for the full day.”
“That’s quite fine,” I replied.
I paid the deposit and other charges, and we were directed to go outside on the compound where another young man met us and led us to the parked vehicle. He handed Merlene the key.
“The fuel tank is full,” he said. “And maps and brochures are in the glove compartment, so you’re all set.”
“Thanks,” Merlene replied.
As the man was leaving, she opened the driver’s side door and took a good look inside the car, careful not to get her fingerprints all over the place. She then opened the back door and did the same.
“Nothing!” she said, standing up again.
I was on the opposite side of the vehicle, having no intentions of going inside.
“C
an you see anything?” Merlene asked, eagerly. “We won’t be able to stand around here all day. People’ll think we’re stupid.”
“Give me a second. Will you?”
Merlene had always been privy to my secret that we both vehemently guarded—she a bit more than I did. It was comforting knowing I didn’t have to pretend with her like I had to with everyone else.
“Hurry up, old woman!” she barked.
In my mind, I could see every inch of the interior of the car, even inside the glove compartment and the trunk. The vehicle was absolutely spotless. I was certain for a minute there that our mission that day was all in vain until I spotted something under the front passenger seat on top of the sliding rail nearest to the door.
“I think I see it!” I said, excitedly.
“Are you sure?” Merlene’s eyes lit up.
“Hold on...” The image gradually became clearer. “Yes. It’s there under the seat!”
“Which one?”
“The one over here where I’m standing.”
Merlene shut both doors and immediately came over.
“Call the Sheriff,” I said. “We can’t take a chance with the evidence.”
She slid her cell phone out of her pocket. “Hopefully, they’ll find fingerprints.”
“Yeah. Without that, we’re doomed.”
I detested the very thought.
Sheriff Gerald Cooke had been on standby after I’d received the documents that morning from Manuel. I didn’t tell him anything other than, “Expect a call from me again very shortly and be prepared to come right away.”
I guess he took me seriously because ten minutes after Merlene had phoned him, he, along with Detective Lance Matthews arrived at the car rental company, and they both hurried over to us.
“You said Glenda was injected with a deadly substance. Your missing syringe is under the car seat,” I told Cooke. “We haven’t touched it.”
Merlene pointed out which side it was on.
“How do you know it’s here? What are you not telling me, Lucille?” Cooke asked, incredulously, as Lance reached into the car and peeped under the passenger seat.
“Just stay on standby, Sheriff,” I replied. “Everything will be self-explanatory soon.”
Merlene and I waited until Lance retrieved the syringe from under the car seat and placed it into a clear evidence bag before we headed back to Carla’s Suburban. Merlene, distrustful of the police, had started videotaping from her camera phone the moment Cooke and Lance had arrived on the scene.
“Where are you going, Lucille?” Cooke hollered.
“I’ve just made your job easy, Sheriff!” I cried. “I’m about to make it even easier—not for your sake, but for Glenda’s. Just make sure you get that thing to forensics.”
They both watched as we got into the Suburban. I could’ve only imagined what was going through their heads.
11
_________________
“Lucille, what a pleasure it is to see you! I didn’t expect you to come by so soon,” Chloe said, on opening Glenda’s front door.
Her hair was ruffled and she was still in pajamas. Merlene and Carla were with me and none of them had a smile on their faces.
“I stopped by because I have some news for you concerning Glenda’s death,” I told her.
“You do? Come on in!”
She stepped aside and as the girls walked past, she greeted them, but they barely uttered a word.
“Please, have a seat all of you.” She hurried ahead of us over to the living room. Merlene sat with me on the couch and Carla took the sofa.
Chloe made herself comfortable on the wing chair. “What have you found out?” she asked.
“Remember the police had said Glenda was injected with a lethal dosage of potassium chloride and barbiturates?” I started.
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Well, they’ve found the syringe that was used to kill her.”
“What?” Her facial expression altered to one of shock.
“She said they’ve found the syringe!” Merlene reiterated. “It’s on its way to the lab to get fingerprinted.
“Where…where did they find it?” Chloe asked.
“In the rented car you used when you flew down here just prior to Glenda’s death,” I returned.
She quickly became agitated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lucille. I haven’t been to Chadsworth in years. I told you Glenda and I hadn’t seen each other for a long time.”
“I agree you two hadn’t before March 4th, but you made a special trip here that day to see her and left the next day after you’d killed her.”
“Preposterous! You have no proof of that whatsoever!”
Merlene tossed the papers at her showing her travel itinerary Manuel had kindly provided. She picked them up off the floor and viewed them, and it seemed like hours had passed before she said another word.
“What have you got to say for yourself?” Carla angrily demanded. “Why on earth did you kill your own sister?”
Chloe slowly refolded the papers, rested them in her lap and placed her hands on top of them. “Because she asked for it; that’s why,” she replied, softly. “She and my husband have been having an affair for years and she would not leave him alone…”
“What the hell?” Carla blurted.
“You’re lying,” Merlene told Chloe.
“I’m not! They knew each other before he and I had ever met. They were dating, actually, but after a couple of years, he fell in love with me and we got married. He didn’t want to marry her—that’s why he married me.”
I was sitting there in disbelief, stunned by what was being spewed out of this girl’s mouth about my good friend, Glenda.
“So, you killed her because she slept with your no good, two-timing man?” Merlene asserted.
“Yes…I did. Of course, I felt bad about it after I’d done it, but I couldn’t take it back.”
This girl was good—I must give it to her.
“Hogwash!” I said.
“I’m telling the truth, Lucille. I’ve already admitted to murdering her. Why would I lie about the reason I did it?”
“Because you don’t want the truth to come out which is that you actually murdered your sister for money,” I replied. “Glenda had no husband or children, so you were her next of kin. I know, for a fact, that Glenda loved you because she expressed that to me on more than one occasion, although I had no idea you two had not seen each other for years before all this. Knowing Glenda, she would’ve left you everything—this house, all the real estate she’d acquired, her bank accounts—including the Swiss account where she was holding more than a million dollars…”
“How do you know about that?” Her eyes widened? “Glenda hadn’t told a soul, except for me. She said that herself.”
“And she was being truthful,” I said. “The girls and I found out just days ago while we were trying to find your sister’s killer. How we did that is none of your bloody business. You’re going to jail for a long time, Chloe, and I hope you rot in there. What you did to my friend, who was like a real sister to me, was deplorable. I don’t care if she was sleeping with your husband like you said; you didn’t have to suddenly think of her as a cash machine and kill her. I don’t doubt that the hatred you had for her in your heart was your driving force, but her money was your real motivation. Glenda might’ve made a lot of mistakes, but her biggest mistake was trusting you as her sister.”
“You stole your sister’s man in the first place!” Carla interjected, “So what gives you the right to be mad at her anyway?”
Chloe didn’t respond.
“You might as well just say how you did it,” Merlene firmly suggested to Chloe.
A few moments of silence passed, then Chloe sighed deeply. She started nervously rubbing her hands.
“I flew in from Colorado, rented the car like Lucille said and I called Glenda and told her I was in town. Of course, she was happy to hear from me, so she in
vited me over to the house. I told her I’d come by the next day for lunch. Well, just before noon the following day, I called and told her we needed to talk and it would be better for us to take a drive somewhere, so we could breathe in some fresh air at the same time. And she agreed. I picked her up a little after twelve and we started driving. I immediately brought up the situation between her and my husband and told her I knew it was still going on. She denied it at first and then admitted what they were doing was wrong, but that she always loved him. Needless to say, I was enraged. I slid the syringe laced with the lethal drugs out of my shirt pocket and I quickly injected it into her neck. The medication took effect almost instantly.” She paused for a moment. “While she was losing consciousness, I called her all sorts of names and told her I hated her with a passion and have hated her for all these years. When I saw that she’d died, I pulled over to the side of the highway, then after the coast was clear, I reached over, opened her door, and pushed her out. When I did that, I still had the syringe in my hand and it fell. I drove back to the hotel and searched everywhere in that car and couldn’t find it; I figured it might’ve fallen outside when I’d opened the door, but I wasn’t worrying about it. I never thought for a moment it would be found. My return flight was for four o’clock that day. I made it to the airport on time and went back home.”
The house was in silence for a good minute after she’d spoken. It was a lot for all of us to digest.
“You dumped her outside like she was a piece of garbage!” Carla snarled. “She was your sister, for God’s sake! What I would’ve done to have a sister when I was growing up!”
“You got all of it?” I asked Merlene.
She nodded. “Every single word.”
Merlene’s cell phone was on record mode from the moment we’d pulled up to the house.
“You know what to do,” I told her.
Merlene made the last call to Sheriff Cooke that day and told him we’d gotten a confession in Glenda Risdal’s murder case. Afterwards, Chloe told us she was going to the bedroom to get dressed, but we made sure she wasn’t moving an inch before Merlene got the itinerary back. Merlene then took it a step further and accompanied her to the room in case she’d tried to make a run for it.
Lucille Pfiffer Mystery Series (Books 4 - 6) Page 23