by Nick Russell
Amanda Agosti appeared behind her husband, her eyes red, and said, "It's okay, Deputy. There was an argument and things got out of hand, but we’re all okay."
“Ma’am, how about you and me go in the living room and have ourselves a talk," John Lee suggested.
"What talk? There's nothing to talk about."
"I wasn't talking to you, Mr. Agosti. I was talking to your wife," John Lee said.
The woman turned and walked back into the living room and John Lee followed her. When they were out of earshot of her husband, who was still talking to the deputies in the foyer, John Lee asked, "What's going on, Mrs. Agosti?"
"Nothing’s going on," she said. "Vince and my sister got into an argument, that's all."
“What were they arguing about?"
"Vince has been pissed off ever since Darci said that stuff about how he would kill Lonnie if he found out he was cheating on her. He was telling her that after all he's done for her and Lonnie both, she had no right to say something like that."
"Why do you think she said it?"
Amanda rolled her eyes and said, "Because my sister is a drama queen. And you know how Vince is. Those two together, there’s bound to be trouble."
“Ma'am, do you think there's any chance that your husband had anything to do with whatever might have happened out there at that railroad crossing?"
"Of course not," she said indignantly. Then she took a deep breath and said, "I know how Vince is, and you do, too. That's just his way, all right? He didn't do anything to hurt anybody, and he never would."
"So why would Darci say those things?"
"I just told you, she's a drama queen."
“Is she still here?"
"Yeah, she's in the guest bedroom," Amanda said.
“Where is that?"
The woman waved her arm toward a hallway on the opposite side of the living room and said, “Second door on the right."
"Okay, how about you stay here on the couch while I talk to her?"
John Lee went down the hallway and knocked on the closed bedroom door. When there was no answer, he knocked again and said, "Mrs. McBride, it's Deputy Quarrels from the Sheriff’s Department office. Can I come in?"
There was a muffled sound that he took for consent and he opened the door. Darci McBride was wearing some kind of workout shorts and a T-shirt and was sitting on the bed, holding a pillow to her stomach.
"Are you okay, ma'am?"
“Yeah, I'm okay. Just go away."
"I'm afraid I can’t do that," John Lee said. “We had a call about a fight. Someone dialed 911. Was that you?"
“No, it was Amanda."
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Vince and I got into it and we were both being pretty loud. Amanda kept trying to get us to calm down and it just got worse, and then she called you guys, I guess."
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
She didn't reply but moved her legs aside enough for him to sit on the side of the bed.
“What did you get into it about?”
“Vince was still mad about what I said before, about he’d kill Lonnie.”
“Mrs. McBride, I know you're going through a lot right now, and I know it's got to be very hard on you. But I have to ask, why did you say what you did about Vince killing your husband if he found out he was cheating on you?"
"Have you ever listened to the guy? He's always threatening to have somebody rubbed out."
"Do you think there's any truth to that, or is he just blowing off steam?"
"I wouldn't put anything past that son of a bitch!"
“Has he ever threatened you or your husband before?"
“He’s always telling Lonnie that he better straighten up and fly right or else he's going to take care of business."
“And by taking care of business, do you think Vince meant doing something to hurt him?"
"How else would you take it?"
“Have there been problems in the past that would make Vince talk that way? I don't mean to be rude, but it doesn't seem like the two of you get along all that well. So why would he keep warning your husband about doing right by you?"
Darci shook her head and asked sardonically, "Me? Vince doesn't give a damn about me. He only cares about his money."
“Money? I'm afraid you lost me, ma'am.”
"Vince bankrolled some kind of real estate deal that Lonnie was involved in. I don't know the details, I just know it wasn't going the way Vince wanted and he was always telling Lonnie he better get his shit together and get it taken care of if he knew what was good for him."
“Do you know what the problem was with the deal?"
"No, I don't. All I know is at first Lonnie thought he was going to make a fortune, and then things weren't going the way either one of them thought they would and Vince was all pissed off and kept telling Lonnie that he trusted him and now he was getting screwed."
John Lee looked at her and then around the room, which was decorated with antique furniture that he was sure cost more than he made in the year. “I guess that thing people say about never doing business with family is true," he said.
"I told Lonnie not to get involved in any kind of deal with that prick," Darci said. “I'm sorry I ever moved down here!”
“Are you from New Jersey, too?"
“Yeah, the Garden State." She laughed sarcastically. “I hate that place. What garden? It’s nothing but pollution and losers.”
“When did you move down here, ma’am?”
“Do you have to keep calling me ma’am? It makes me feel like I'm 90 years old!"
“I apologize, Mrs. McBride.”
“Could you just call me Darci?”
“If that's what you want me to do. When did you move here?"
“Three years ago. Three very long ass years.”
“I take it you don't much care for Florida, either?"
“Oh, I like Florida. The part of Florida with beaches and nightclubs and things to do. Yeah, I like that. But I didn't know they were dragging me to the godforsaken middle of nowhere!"
The small town of Somerton was the biggest community in its namesake county, and John Lee knew that it wasn't the Florida most people imagined, with white sand beaches and beautiful young people having nonstop fun in the sun. Located in the northern part of the state, just inland from the Big Bend where northwest Florida curved into the Panhandle, rural Somerton County was far less affluent and more of what Old Florida was like long before the neon tourist traps and theme parks further south appeared on the landscape. This was piney woods country, with lots of swamps, bayous, and marshland. Good ol' boy and girl rednecks, along with northern retirees looking for a more peaceful and cheaper way to live out their lives shared the county with alligators, a few black bears, and even an occasional rare panther. It was hot and humid in the summertime, but the rest of the year was just fine, and like folks around there were fond of saying, you don't have to shovel sunshine.
"So, what exactly happened here tonight, Darci?"
"I told you. Vince was pissed off at me because of what I said earlier about him killing Lonnie if he ever found out he was doing me wrong. He just kept bitching about it and I finally told him off. Told him exactly what I think of him. He didn't take that too well and we got into an argument. Next thing I know, Amanda's calling 911 and the cops are here."
“Was there any physical contact between the two of you?"
"Between me and Vince?" She shook her head vehemently. “No way! Not if he was the last man on earth!"
John Lee wondered why she would respond that way to his question, but simply asked, "I mean, was there any violence at all tonight? Did he put his hands on you or did you put your hands on him?"
“No, it was just words, okay? Don’t make a big deal out of it for my sake. Please?"
“You’re sure that nothing physical happened?"
"No, nothing. I already told you we were just arguing."
“Do you want to file a complaint
, Darci?"
"No, I don't want to file a complaint! Please don’t make my life worse than it already is. All I want to do is get through all of this and then figure out what I'm going to do from here."
“Okay, I understand,” John Lee said, then asked, “do you and Lonnie live here with your sister and Vince?"
“No, we've got our own place, out on Homestead Road. Amanda just wanted me to be here after what happened. She thought it would be better for me. Obviously not."
"All right then," John Lee said, standing up. "I'll get out of your way. Thank you for talking to me, Darci."
She looked up at him and asked, “Do they know for sure it was Lonnie yet?"
"No, ma'am, not yet. Hopefully, we’ll know something in the morning."
There were tears in her eyes and she said, "I loved him at one time. I really did."
John Lee wanted to ask her what she meant by at one time, but he didn't. Whatever the family dynamics were, at this point he didn't want to delve into them. He went through the living room, where he stopped and asked Amanda if there had been any physical contact, and she corroborated what her sister had told him. Just a loud family argument. Her husband and the other two deputies were still in the foyer, Agosti being just as rude and obnoxious as always.
When he saw John Lee, Patterson nodded his head toward the doorway and they walked outside, leaving Hudson inside with Agosti.
"What do you think, John Lee?"
"Sounds like a lot of arguing from what I can find out," he said.
“This guy is a real piece of work, isn't he?"
"That's one way of saying it," John Lee agreed.
"Do we need to take anybody in, or let this go, or what?"
"It's your call, Bob. I don't think there was any kind of violence, just a lot of screaming and hollering. If it was me, I would tell them to calm down and be done with it."
"Yeah, that's my thinking, too," Patterson said. "But I've got to say, John Lee, I don't think we’ve seen the last of this bunch."
“I'm sure you're right about that," John Lee said. “Let me get out of here so you can do your job."
"I appreciate you coming by, John Lee," Patterson said as he walked back to the doorway.
"No problem, I live right down the road."
Chapter 15
“We just got the results of the DNA recovered at the wreck,” Dick Schroder said the next morning. “It came back to Lonnie McBride and Audrey Rittenhouse, just as we expected.”
"Has anybody made a formal notification to the families yet?"
"No, Maddy, not yet. I was wondering if you and John Lee would do that since you've already been talking to them."
Nobody likes making death notifications, but it was a part of the job and John Lee and Maddy both knew that Lonnie and Audrey's families were prepared for what was coming. "We can do it," she said.
"Thanks, I appreciate that," Schroeder said.
“Any updates from the accident scene?”
“At this point, we still don't know if we have a simple accident or a homicide on our hands," the chief deputy said. “But accident reconstruction people from the state crime lab and railroad investigators are here, along with the folks from the NTSB. We hope to have some input from all of them. But from the way it's looking, personally I think someone did push that Corvette into the side of the train."
Deputy Manny Stengel asked, "Do we have any idea why, Dick?"
"Not yet. But I know there's a lot of speculation going on."
"Speculation? Care to elaborate on that?"
The chief deputy scratched his head and said, "We're all grown-ups here. Do the math. A good-looking guy and good-looking woman, both of them married to somebody else, and competitive in business. We all know what people are talking about over their back fences right now."
“When we were talking to Audrey's husband yesterday, he was asking us where her car is," John Lee said.
"Her car?"
“Yeah, Dick. She drove a white Impala and nobody seems to know where it's at.”
"Did you get a license number on it?"
“Sure did,” John Lee said.
"Put an APB out on it," Schroeder said, then added, “I know you and Maddy talked to the spouses and the bosses at both real estate companies where the victims worked. What did you find out there?”
“Depending on who you want to believe, either Lonnie McBride and/or Audrey Rittenhouse were wonderful salespeople or cutthroat pirates who would do anything to make a sale," Maddy said.
"Did either outfit give you an idea of why they might have been together in a car?"
“No, the owners of both companies seemed surprised they would be together at all. I guess there's been some animosity between the two over different deals, things like that."
“If you're going to have an affair, making the world think you hate the other person is a good way to keep it covered," Schroeder said.
"Yeah, that crossed my mind, too,” John Lee said. “Something else, Dick."
“What’s that?"
“Patterson and Hudson responded to a call last night for an argument at the home of Vince and Amanda Agosti, which is down the road from my place," John Lee said. “I went down to see if they needed any help. They are the sister and brother-in-law of Darci McBride, Lonnie's widow. According to Darci, she thinks Vince might be involved in whatever happened out there at the railroad crossing."
There were murmurs from the assembled deputies and Schroeder held up his hand to quiet them down. “Okay, tell me what you know about that."
After he was done relating what Darci had told him, Schroeder asked, "What do you think, John Lee? I know you've dealt with this guy before."
“I don’t like him. Not one little bit," John Lee said. “Yesterday we ran a background check on him and the victims, and we didn't see anything that would indicate he's ever been involved in anything illegal. But at the same time, I wouldn't put anything past him."
“All right, let's work on that angle, too," Schroeder said. “In the meantime, we've got three more reports from Columbia County about phony money floating around. Not a lot of it and we think it all happened a week or so ago, but more stores are coming forward reporting bad bills. And here's a crazy thing, most counterfeits are either $20 or $50 bills, even $100. These are all tens.”
"I don't think I’ve ever heard of anybody passing bad $10 bills," Samuel Garrison said.
"Neither have I," Schroeder replied. "So far nothing has turned up here in Somerton County, but we need to be aware of it. I’ve got a feeling it was someone passing through heading north or south who jumped off of Interstate 75 long enough to spread some cheer around."
With nothing else to cover, Schroeder assigned the on-duty deputies to their patrol areas and the meeting broke up.
***
Darci McBride yawned and stretched, not wanting to get out of the comfortable queen size bed in her sister’s guest bedroom. She was reluctant, not just because the bed felt so good, but because she knew that when she woke up, she was going to have to face her sister and brother-in-law again. After last night's ugliness, she really didn't want to do that.
Maybe she could just stay in bed all day. Stay there and not think about Vince or Amanda or most of all, about Lonnie. She wasn't sure how she felt about Lonnie at that point. She knew the son of a bitch had been cheating on her, no question about that. All those mysterious calls and texts, the sudden need to go show a property at odd hours. And while she felt betrayed, if she were honest with herself, she had to admit that she didn't feel any real sense of loss. She had rushed into the marriage, impressed with Lonnie’s good looks and his southern charm, but it didn't take her long to find out that it was only on the surface. Underneath the veneer, he was a petty, arrogant prick. He never cared about her or her needs.
The first few months their lovemaking had been amazing. Absolutely amazing. Lonnie was blessed in the equipment department and he sure knew how to use it. But before long that all
ended. Yes, they still had sex. Lonnie had an active libido and she was always willing to accommodate him. But for some reason, he no longer cared about satisfying her. He got his rocks off and rolled over and went to sleep or got up and pulled on a pair of shorts and went out to the living room to watch TV without saying a word to her. Meanwhile, she lay there frustrated and unfulfilled. She had tried talking to him about it and his only response was that it wasn’t his fault she had not had an orgasm and suggested that maybe she was frigid.
And the problems weren’t just in the bedroom. Lonnie hardly ever talked to her except to complain about something, usually that she wasn’t aggressive enough in bed or open to things he wanted to try, or to brag about some big deal he was working on and how much money he was going to make from it. Like he thought that would impress her. Looking at Amanda's life, Darci knew full well that money was never going to bring you any happiness when you are married to an asshole.
She heard the doorbell chime, and a moment or two later, footsteps in the hallway and a soft knock on her door.
"Darci, are you awake?"
She wanted to pull the pillow over her head and not respond, but there was another knock and then the door opened.
"Darci, the police are here. They want to talk to you."
The tone of her sister's voice and the look on her face told Darci everything she needed to know. For a moment an overwhelming wave of sadness clenched her heart, but then it was gone just as quickly. She sighed and sat up and said. "I'll be right there."
***
John Lee and Maddy stood uncomfortably in the living room of the Agosti house, waiting for Darci. They had not seen Vince, and when Amanda opened the door, she appeared to already know why they were there. Before they could say anything, she just said, "I'll go get her."
Darci came into the living room wearing jeans and a pullover shirt, her hair tangled and her eyes still puffy from sleep. She looked at them and said, "It was Lonnie, wasn't it?"
"I'm afraid so, Darci," John Lee said. “We got the DNA results back this morning."
She sat on the couch and pulled a pillow across her belly. John Lee studied her carefully, never knowing how someone might react at a time like this. He had made notifications where family members cursed him, he had them break down and cry, and had them remain stoic and act like they had not heard a word he said. In her case, Darci just shook her head and said, "I knew it had to be him. Thanks for telling me."