Death, Deceit & Some Smooth Jazz

by Claudia Mair Burney

  He sighed. “I’m going to order us some food. Come back to me, okay?”

  “I will.” I didn’t think I could help myself. “Besides, this is my apartment.”

  He smiled at that, and he didn’t smile much anymore.

  chapter nineteen

  IZOOMED STRAIGHT OVERto Christine’s house in the Love Bug, and as before, a throng of women filled the place. The smell of patchouli and too many bodies scented the air. This time, fur skirt didn’t meet me at the door; I was able to walk in and go right up to Chris. She wore a black outfit that reminded me of Jackie Kennedy’s widow suit. She looked as elegant as before, even in her grief. “My condolences,” I said.

  She gave me a tiny smile, full of sadness. “Would you like to go somewhere and talk?”

  “Sure.”

  Predictably, we went back to the same bedroom. Again, coats were piled high on the bed. This time a chair sat in the room. She offered it to me, pushed the coats out of the way, and reclined on the bed. She looked exhausted. “I put my best friend in the ground.”

  “I can’t tell you how very sorry I am.”

  “I wish I could have gone with her. You know?”

  I nodded.

  “What will I do without my sweet Katie?”

  I sat silent.

  She pulled a silver parka over herself. “You wanted to talk to me. What can I do for you, Dr. Amanda Brown?”

  I leaned forward in the chair. “Actually, I thought you may want to talk. I thought you could use a listening ear.”

  “There’s not much to talk about now, is there?”

  “Tell me about Katie.”

  She hugged herself under the parka. “Tell you about Katie…” Her voice turned wistful. “I’d never seen a woman that beautiful. She looked like a doll baby.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  God, deliver me from being jealous of a dead woman.

  Chris smiled, a faraway look in her eyes. “When I got paired with Jazz, everybody thought we’d get together. Partners have that chemistry sometimes.”

  “Had you come out at that time?”

  “I didn’t know I was a lesbian then. I mean, all my life, I’ve been attracted to women, but I had always dated men——the few who could handle me.”

  I nodded. She’d be hard to handle.

  “The guys at the station teased me because they knew Jazz is a good-looking man, but he was a pro. He never approached me. I don’t think I was his type.”

  Although I burned to ask what she thought his type was, I resisted. “All that speculation must have made for an unpleasant work experience.”

  “Not really. Cops have an odd sense of humor. They talk a lot of trash, but they don’t mean anything by it. Jazz stayed focused. Did his job.” She thought for a moment. “He was no angel. He had plenty of women, but he didn’t take them seriously. He was a bit of a rascal.”

  I hated that she’d told me that. Rascals weren’t near the top of my list of personal favorites.

  “And then Kate came along. He didn’t take her seriously, either, which made her go after him more. We all thought it was funny. Next thing you know, they were married.”

  “They must have had compelling reasons.”

  Christine paused a long time, her eyes staring and unfocused. “She was pregnant.”

  “He told me that was why he married her.”

  She looked right into my eyes. “No. I mean she was pregnant when she got killed. Two months along. We always had our cycles at the same time. I confronted her about it. She wouldn’t tell me who the father was, but I think that was why she went back to him.”

  “To who?”

  “Jazz.”

  I tried to keep my jaw off the floor. “Why would she go tohim ? You don’t think Jazz got her pregnant again, do you?”

  “Kate had her regrets when it came to Jazz. When she’d get mad at me, she’d talk about wanting a do-over with him. She’d actually try to get him back at least twice a year.”

  “She told you this?”

  “When she was upset. But there was plenty she didn’t tell me.”

  “He wouldn’t sleep with her when she came back.”

  “Is that what he told you?” She laughed. “Of course that’s what he told you.”

  I told myself that Jazz didn’t lie to me, but it felt like she’d plunged a knife into my gut, then twisted it. I inwardly prayed a futilePlease God, don’t let it be true and blurted out a question that I knew would make me sound like a lovesick schoolgirl. I couldn’t stop myself. “Did Kate tell you she was still seeing Jazz…that way?”

  “Kate didn’t have to tell me she was seeing somebody——a man. I’ve been with men. I know how we do. She was definitely still sleeping with him.”

  I wanted to cry. “But could it have been someone other than Jazz?”

  “She carved his initial on her thigh.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “She used to cut herself. She always left little messages on herself. She’d put aB on her left thigh, and the word ‘bad’ just above her bikini line.B stands for Brown, doesn’t it?”

  I kicked myself mentally. I should have looked at the rest of her body. Carly hadn’t said anything specific about what she’d cut into her body. I tried to picture the crisscrossed marks on her arms. They’d been patterned, but not in a way that would have suggested a letter of the alphabet. Were there pictures? Surely Carly would have photographed that.

  I didn’t like the way Chris smirked at me. She had the upper hand, and I felt a need to upset the precarious balance between us. “Bstands for more than Brown. Do you know what that ‘bad’ thing was all about?”

  “I’ve upset you,” she said.

  I tried to shake it off. “I don’t think he killed her. And I don’t think he was seeing her.”

  Again that mocking smirk. “I’m sure you don’t.”

  She was getting on my nerves. I decided to splurge. “I don’t think you killed her, either, Chris.”

  She looked startled, but just briefly. Oh, she was a cool one. “You’re absolutely right. I didn’t.”

  “But you were there, weren’t you?”

  Her hard brown eyes stared me down, unblinking. Body language is a funny thing. Say a person lies. The defenses start at the top of the head, but the farther down you go, the more giveaways become apparent. Her eyes stared hyperdiligently at me, but her mouth lost it. Her bottom lip trembled, almost imperceptibly, but I caught it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

  “You covered her up, didn’t you? No woman should be seen like that. You loved her. You wanted to give Kate her dignity back.”

  Our eyes locked.

  Lord, let me get through to her, please.

  “I said I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You were there, Christine. You covered her. It didn’t make sense to me, that her killer would pose her like that and then cover her up. Somebody else had to do that. It’s a gesture of caring.”

  “I wasn’t there.”

  “Cops aren’t the only ones who can spot a liar. You wanted me to know you did that.”

  “You don’t know me,” she said, which let me knew I was right on.

  “Yesterday you kept implying your guilt to me. Bobby Maguire didn’t get it, did he? He came here and didn’tsee you at all, and you don’t like that. You are too regal not to be seen. It was like that when you were with the Detroit police, too. You had to fight for people to take notice of you because you’re a woman. Right, Christine?”

  She gave me a feral grin but didn’t speak.

  “You resented all the Bobby Maguires you’ve worked with. You resented Lieutenant Pretty Boy, too. Everything came so easy to him, didn’t it? Position. Women.Kate. ”

  “What’s your point, Brown?”

  “Bobby Maguire didn’t see what you did at that crime scene, and you wanted someone to see. You know that if he couldn’t even see something that clear, it leaves her real killer
out there.”

  Her hard stare fell first, and then, like dominoes falling, her shoulders slumped and her tough-babe exterior dissolved. Her eyes pooled with tears, and her voice became a whisper. “Who would do that to my Katie? What kind of person would hurt her like that?” Christine cried like a little girl.

  I went to the bed, sat down, and held her, remembering those church mothers who had rocked me many a day after I’d left Adam and come home a battered, broken woman. In my mind’s eye, I could see their Velveteen Rabbit–like Bibles, love-worn until the pages fell out, and the cheap leather covers softened and cracked around the edges. Romans 12:15, highlighted or underlined by ancient, shaky hands: “Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.”

  I wanted to stay with Christine, be a friend to her in her time of need, but she had a houseful of people for that. I needed to get back to the business at hand. I released her. “Be honest with me, Chris. You don’t think Jazz did that to her, really, do you?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t see it. Not the Jazz I worked with, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. I’ve been surprised before.”

  “Are you going to tell Maguire you were at the scene?”

  “Look. Katie and I had a fight a few months ago. I choked her. I hurt her badly. I didn’t mean to, but I did. She took pictures to the local police.”

  “Were charges brought against you?”

  “No. She didn’t go until a few days afterward. She filed a report, but she said we’d fought and I’d hurt her. She hurt me, too. I have my own pictures.”

  “Does Maguire know that?”

  “I don’t think so, but I don’t intend to volunteer that information. I didn’t kill her. We fought, but she would start it. Every single time. She was rough. Rougher than she looked. Kate was a little crazy.”

  I shook my head. “You seem like a strong, powerful woman. Why did you put up with her?”

  “Katie was a marvel. For the rest of my days I will never find another person as passionate as she was.”

  A picture of Jazz came to mind. I knew exactly what she meant.

  Christine crossed her arms and slumped back against the coats, putting distance between us. I accepted her signals and moved back to the chair.

  She glared at me. “I didn’t kill her. If Maguire finds out I was there, he’s going to think I’m good for it.”

  “I only want to find out what happened to her, just like you. Too much time is passing. If we don’t find out who did this soon, you know the chance that we’ll find him at all will diminish with each day that goes by.”

  She smoothed her long dreadlocks with one hand. “I know.”

  “Tell me about Kate’s day-to-day life. What kind of people did she hang out with?”

  “All our girlfriends are in this house. You can look around you to see who we spent our time with: fierce women. Beautiful, bold feminists. Then again, Kate tended to blend in with whoever she was around.” She fingered a dread. “She still favored the sense of safety she felt around cops, but she had settled down——as much as she was capable of. There was only me and one man in the end.”

  I nodded. “Who do you think would hurt her like that?”

  Chris shook her head slowly and swiped at nothing under her nose. “I can’t think of anybody who would degrade her like that. Not a soul.” She shrugged. “But how well do you really know anybody? I do things all the time and don’t know why. I took my partner’s woman, and my life hasn’t been right since.”

  I do things all the time and don’t know why…

  She glanced at the door. Twice. Our little chat would be over soon.

  “Did you follow her to Jazz’s?”

  “No. She called me. She was playing her games. She knew I was at my mama’s house. Mom lives over on Mount Elliott. I could walk to Jazzy’s loft from there. Kate wanted to make me jealous.”

  “What time was that?”

  “About nine o’clock. At first I wasn’t gonna go.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  She chuckled. “I was jealous. I left about half an hour or so later.”

  I stored the jealous-lover part in my brain to process later. “How long did it take to get there?”

  “About five minutes.”

  “What happened when you got there?”

  “I walked up to the building, and the door was wide open. Jazz never left his door open. You know how he is.”

  Mr. Lock All Three Locks and never answer the door without asking the knocker to identify him-or herself. “So you went in?”

  “Yes. She was in the bed, exposed and…” Christine cast her eyes down, and they filled with tears. “My Katie,” she whispered.

  “I’m sorry, Chris. I know this is hard for you. Did you see anyone?”

  She wiped her eyes with her hands and sniffed. “Nobody. But I smelled something.”

  “What?”

  “Lagerfeld.”

  “What?”

  “I smelled Karl Lagerfeld cologne. Jazz doesn’t wear cologne.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I was his partner.”

  “I’m sorry, I know Jazz doesn’t wear cologne. At least not usually. What I meant is, are you sure it was Lagerfeld?”

  Christine nodded “My daddy wears it all the time. I know Lagerfeld. It’s heady stuff.”

  I gave her my most sympathetic look. “Who could have done this to your partner?”

  “I don’t know, but I’d swear on Katie’s grave it’s a cop,” she said.

  “What makes you think so?”

  “Cops were her thing.”

  I inadvertently went into therapist mode. “Will you tell me more about that?”

  She stood. “You’re the shrink. All I can tell you is she had a thing for cops and a thing for do-overs.”

  I took my cue and stood up. “Can we talk again?”

  She nodded. “Give me your number. I’ll call you if I think of something.”

  “Can I ask you just one more thing?”Sheesh! There goes my Columbo bit.

  “Of course.”

  “What about the diary?”

  “I don’t know where it is. I’ve been looking for it since she…”

  “If you think of anything——places she may have gone with whoever she was seeing——if you find a receipt or a scrap of paper with a phone number on it…”

  “He could have done it. Jazz could have killed her.” She went silent again. Seconds passed. “Sometimes Katie mademe want to kill her, but I loved her. I will never love anyone like that again. I died with my Katie.”

  I looked at her——this statuesque, regal woman. I thought about the pain she must have suffered to love Kate. It reminded me again ofThe Thorn Birds. Kate was Christine’s thorn tree——the one she had spent her life searching for——and when she’d found her, she’d pierced her heart on Kate’s sharp thorns.

  For a moment I felt afraid, and not for Christine. I realized Jazz may be my thorn tree. I was afraid of what lengths I’d go to be with him.

  “I’ll talk to you soon, Chris. Thank you.” I gave her my hand and cringed as she squeezed it unusually hard.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know my own strength sometimes.”

  I left the house, wondering if she’d inadvertently told me something else about herself and the case.

  How well do we really know anybody?The question kept popping up. I rode back to Ann Arbor with the Scripture riding shotgun.

  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

  I shrugged. “You’ve got me, Lord.”

  By the time I got home, Jazz was nowhere to be found. He’d left a note on my bed that read:

  Love of my life,

  I know you’re scared. I’m scared, too. Let’s remember the Scriptures say there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear. You are perfect for me. Let me love you.

  Will you meet me at 3P.M . in Mason’s office tomorrow? P
lease, Bell? He won’t let us have our honeymoon in there like you wanted——I remembered! heh, heh——but we can get married around all those books. See. I can make you happy. Dr. McLogan and Mason’s secretary will witness. It won’t be a secret. Bring someone else who loves you, and even more people will know. Let yourself be happy for a change. It’s okay to have what you want.

  Jazz

  There was one problem. Nobody else I loved would come.

  chapter twenty

  IDIDN’T SLEEP.How could I? I had to make a life-changing, potentially life-obliterating, decision in just a few hours.

  I’d given my heart before. And I knew what happened when you did. You opened yourself up for someone to destroy you. But I wanted Jazz so bad. I wanted a baby. I wanted Jazz’s baby. But what if he destroyed me? I couldn’t live through that again——especially from the man who had captured every part of me.

  Jazz kept calling me, but I didn’t answer the phone. I talked to Carly once. I told her that I’d gone to see Dr. McLogan and that he’d said I needed to get the procedure donenow. I hinted that I was considering Jazz as a donor. Carly got so furious she almost had an aneurysm. I thought I’d have to call 911. I figured if I added the tiny bit of information that I might marry him the following day, I’d kill her dead. And Carly’s reactions in general registered about two thousand degrees cooler than my mother’s.

  I didn’t have many friends to concern myself with. For once that was a good thing. Rocky didn’t even want me togo anywhere with Jazz, so I could presume he wouldn’t be among the wedding guests. Lisa was worried about me as well. She’d be relieved that I’d decided to marry rather than burn, but she’d prefer he be cleared of all charges first.

  Lord, have mercy!

  Did Ihave any other friends? I could count Elisa, but I still smarted from the jealousy I’d felt as I’d watched Rocky singing to her babymy baby’s song.

  Mybaby. I could have my very own baby. A long shot, yes, but a shot! With Jazz. And I couldmarry Jazz!

  Then why did I feel so sad?

  I shoved that question into an internal closet and locked the door, turning my attention to the only other friend I could think of——God’s little sheep He had asked me to feed: Kalaya.