Murder on Edwards Bay (The Maude Rogers Crime Novels Book 2)

by Linda L. Dunlap

  The next morning Leroy picked up the boat where Spillar had left it and cussed a while about the size of the pleasure barge. Leroy vowed to take care of the screw-up later because that kind of guy could blow up a well-made plan.

  The killing crew loaded up on the barge at the last minute, not wanting anyone to see them on the boat for any length of time. Harry had run a check on the boat and knew the owners hadn’t reported it stolen. The morning dragged on, waiting for the marks to have their picnic. Harry and Ginger knew the details; the two lovers were going out on the lake. They even knew about Jenny’s toes wanting to skim the water.

  “I don’t know what made them special; but I never had that kind of deal before. There was a lot of money for the job. The Boss said it was important that the girl be raped in front of the man then killed. They must have pissed someone off real bad. We took pictures, her on the ground naked, legs spread from the loving. Me and Harry both had her, but Harry got the leavings, even though we both used rubbers. Then we cleaned her up while she was still screaming, and emptied the maintenance man’s juice in her with one of those things they use on brats noses.”

  “A nose bulb.” This from Joe, remembering his own boys when they were little.

  “So when did you kill her?” Maude asked, the machine recording the merciless words from the killer.

  Leroy hesitated. “I want a guarantee from the DA. Your deal ain’t nothing without he agrees. You get him in here and I’ll talk more. Right now I’m done.”

  Maude knew when a line was crossed and all the threats she could make wouldn’t budge the man from his silence. She agreed and left the interview room, Joe not far behind. They headed outside the building where Maude lit up her second unfiltered of the day. She took a deep drag, inhaling the cool smoke, feeling it fill her nose and throat, trying to pull it all in, not wasting any of it. So far the four a day she could live with, but who knew about tomorrow. The closest she had come to breaking her own rule was when Lilly Ann was abducted.

  Joe stood silently, looking out on the grounds as jail inmates marched in snake lines from their cells to the food service building. They were laughing and talking, as though they all going out to lunch with friends. He could never fully appreciate the desires of a criminal-the forensics of crime and personality disorder notwithstanding-the nut of the man that pushed him to acquire ‘stuff’ to be as good as anyone else. Leroy Thomas discovered early his own capabilities and used his brute strength to make a life for himself. Joe thought about the damage to society the man must have done over the years. He deserved the needle.

  “Maude, do you think we have enough on Leroy to get a conviction? You know, without his cooperation?”

  “Having hard thoughts, Joe? Want to punish Leroy, an eye for an eye?”

  “Something like that.” Joe said thoughtfully.

  “Can’t say I don’t agree, but we have nothing on his coconspirators. Without his testimony, they’ll walk.”

  “Unless we can break them before Leroy makes a deal with the DA.”

  “What do you have in mind, Partner?” Maude asked him, taking the last lungful of smoke.

  “Maybe we can pick the other two up, get Perla Suarez’s testimony, and use it against them. We could tell them Leroy is trying to make a deal.”

  “Sounds good, and in a crime novel it would work, but not here. Too many things to go wrong: Perla might not cooperate, Harry and Ginger could both be made up names and we wouldn’t find them before it was too late, a slick lawyer could find a way around the circumstantial evidence. The trade-off is that we can get them all off the streets now, where they won’t kill again.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Just wishing for proper justice for that girl.” Joe set his shoulders back, broke his far-off gaze and searched till he found his good humor. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get the phone call made.”

  Chapter 21

  Assistant District Attorney Janie Morris arrived at the Rhodes County Jail almost on time. She had promised to be there by 2:00 P.M., but schedules were her downfall. There was just too much fuss made about a few minutes one way or the other, meanwhile Leroy Thomas was getting antsy. “Are you sure he’s coming?” he had asked more than once. The rest of the cons were passing the room on the way to visiting or religious service and looked in the room at Leroy in his pink jumpsuit. One small thin blonde winked at him and gave him his puckered lips.

  “Well, Leroy, I see you have made at least one friend.” Joe had said, his face poker straight.

  The inmate had the decency to blush, a reaction that was unexpected by Maude. She noticed that the big man was sweating; the pink jumpsuit was wet under the arms, emitting an odor of musk that would soon become very unpleasant.

  “Yeah, someone will be here soon,” she had told him. “You can bet on it.”

  When Janie Morris finally showed, the three people in the interview room stared at her. Janie was overweight, no more than 5’3”tall and definitely out of breath.

  “Hi, I’m Assistant District Attorney Janie Morris; she introduced herself, picking the strongest chair in the room to hold her bulk.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” Leroy asked, trying to stand up but tripping on the chain on his ankles that was wrapped around the table leg.

  Maude shook her head and observed, “Leroy, you’re going to have to get up by yourself. That is unless Joe wants to give you a hand.”

  “There’s only one thing I want to give Leroy.” Joe said, still miffed with the circumstances of plea bargaining.

  Janie Morris was already busy opening her briefcase, looking for blank forms for the inmate to sign. She handed him one that said he had been advised of his rights and had chosen to speak without benefit of counsel. “Sign this before we get started-Acknowledgement of Miranda warning.

  “Read it, so you’re sure of what you’re doing.” Janie might be poor at clock times but she was on top of her game in being prepared for confessions.

  Leroy hesitated for only a moment then signed his name. He still thought the fat woman was some kind of plant.

  “Alright,” Janie said, resuming the taping. “Where did you leave off?”

  Maude told her that Leroy had described his coconspirators, but had stopped talking when she asked him about killing the girl, Jenny Marx. Janie nodded, the taped conversation already a picture in her photographic memory.

  Janie spoke into the tape, introducing herself, the date and the time, making it known who would be speaking and under what circumstances. There was a formality that had to be observed for chain of custody regulations. “Leroy Thomas you may begin speaking.”

  “I want to know what you’re going to do for me before I spill my guts,” Leroy countered.

  “Mr. Thomas, the best that the stated can offer you for the crimes of capital murder are life imprisonment or death by lethal injection. I offer no more. The state will not seek the death penalty for your cooperation, with the stipulation that your testimony is sufficient to charge and convict the person or persons you incriminate. In other words, Mr. Thomas, lie to me and all bets are off. We’ll seek the full punishment by law for your crimes.”

  Maude had to admire the girl. Her gun barrels were loaded. She was definitely worth what they paid her.

  Leroy stuttered for a minute and agreed on tape.

  “Well as I was saying, Ginger, Harry, and me had them two, the doctor and his squeeze, on the ground. I had to help Harry with the doc. When he saw his naked girlfriend he went wild. She tried to run away, but I caught her and brought her back after putting it to her. Then Harry put two bullets in the doc’s head and he put it to her too. She was a real fighter,” Leroy said, admiringly.

  The small room was quiet, imagining what had gone on, how terrified the couple must have been, especially the girl.

  “Go on Leroy. When did you kill Jenny Marx?”

  Leroy took a breath, shuddered at what he was about to say, and began.

  “I…I waited till I was
sure the doc was dead, that was the orders from the Boss. Then I cut her in a couple of places.”

  “What weapon did you use, Leroy?”

  “Well see I have a special friend I call Sharpy. It goes with me when I’m working. It’s for all kinds of work.”

  “Is this what you’re referring to, Mr. Thomas?” Maude said, showing him the bag with the sharpened chisel in it, then went on to describe it for the tape.

  Leroy looked stunned. “Where did you get that?”

  “It came from an inventory of the items in your tool box, Leroy. When your van was impounded an inventory of the contents was automatically done.”

  The inmate looked down, now fully realizing the quantity of evidence they had against him. “What now,” he asked.

  “Tell what you did to the girl.” Joe said.

  “Well, after I got done with Sharpy, I cut her hair off. The Boss said to do that. Then we took their boat. It had a motor, made it easy to get out of that mosquito hole. We left that piece of crap tied up. Took the party barge back got the cars and left.”

  “What about Spillar?

  “I don’t work with screw-ups, so I shot him for getting the wrong kind of boat. Didn’t kill him though; he hid out at the lake that night, so I had to go back .”

  Leroy went on with more details about Spillar, but they had heard enough, and both detectives were content to sit for a minute. They left the interview room then came back.

  “Tell us about the Boss,” Janie said, the tape still running.

  “I never met him outright,” Leroy said, “like I told you before, just phone and email.” He rattled off phone numbers, the post office box number, and email contacts. The introduction of the chisel had broken the man, and Leroy couldn’t say enough.

  “Where is the gun? The one you used to shoot Spillar ?

  “Threw it away into the Gulf, in Houston.”

  “You’re lying, you wouldn’t carry a gun all the way to Houston to throw it away, so where is it?” Maude demanded.

  The inmate was done, refusing to say more, realizing that his life was over. If the Boss knew what he had told, Leroy thought, he was a dead man. He’d said too much already.

  The interview was over, the detectives gone from the cell block, and Leroy back in his cell alone. He heard it first, really low, then a little louder, ‘Snitch’. It came from different places in the day room, from the tables where inmates gathered to eat and play cards together, ‘Snitch.’

  Driving away from the jail, Joe was sitting in the passenger seat, pensive after the long drawn out session with Leroy Thomas. “I hope I never have to see that scum again,” he said. “What do we do now?”

  “Sounds like we’re going to go to Houston or we have to bring Houston to us. What you think about playing their game a little bit?”

  “Sure what do you suggest?” He asked , interested.

  “Let’s call Harry; say we talked to Perla and we’re wise to the couple scam they played on the victims. We’ll tell them we want our part of the money. When they ask what money, we can say that Aaron Dennis had several thousand dollars with him, it had to be them who stole it, and we want part of it. They’ll come because of the murders. If we know about the scam, there’s a chance we know about that too and they’ll want to shut us up.”

  “Then Sheriff Jack nabs them when they try to kill us.” Joe said, his listlessness gone, green eyes sparkling. “That’s great.”

  “Why Joe, you sound more like yourself. Haven’t been shot at lately?” Maude asked.

  “How about food?” he said, suddenly ravenous. “I’m starved.”

  The phone call came in as Harry was returning from the car and a fruitless search with Ginger, searching for the transport company. The company existed only on paper, with no oil holdings or equipment of any kind. The lot where B&G was supposed to be had a small building toward the back, with nothing identifying it. Thick cinder block walls in a rectangular shaped defined the place as a small Fort Knox.

  Harry had beat on the door, but no one came to answer. He went to one of the side windows that were covered in black, iron bars, with the window tint underneath shutting out all light. He beat on those with the same result.

  “What the hell?” Harry said to no one in particular. “What is this place?”

  “Looks like one of those import places, where they bring in big bags of coffee beans.” Ginger said, fixing her lipstick.

  “No coffee bean I know of needs that kind of security building. I think we may have made a mistake coming here. It looks like mob.”

  “Mob? Are you crazy? What would the mob want with a dinky little brick building?” Ginger was getting on Harry’s nerves. He had forgotten how irritating she was at the resort. He’d been forced to spend some time with her and hated every minute of it.

  “Listen you dumb skirt, this is Houston, the big city. They got stuff covered up right in front of the cops. Somehow Leroy has mob connections.”

  “Then let’s get the heck out of here,” Ginger said, “What are you waiting for? Drive.”

  When he heard the phone ringing, Harry began to worry that they were found out by the men with the iron barred windows. He didn’t want to answer it, but he didn’t think he could ignore the shrill scream.

  “Hello. Is this Harry?”

  The voice was male, not shaky or old. “Yeah. It’s Harry. What do you want?”

  “Funny you should ask. We know who you are.” Joe said, mysteriously.

  “Yeah. So what?” Harry decided to play along, pretending it was someone else at B&G Transport besides him.

  “I saw you.” Joe said, “I know where you were, know you been where you shouldn’t have been.”

  “Hey, what the hell you want. I made a mistake. How did I know B&G was something else, that they were connected?”

  “What did you say?” Joe asked him, confused by the response from Harry.

  “You need a sign says: Mob. Stay the hell out.”

  “What?” Joe said, even more confused. “B&G. Mob? Jerk-wipe, I’m talking about money, the money you owe us. The money you took from them people you murdered. We want some of it.”

  It was Harry’s turn to be confused. “What the hell are you talking about? What money, what murder?” By that time, Harry was yelling, the relief of knowing the mob wasn’t on the phone replaced by the icy fear in his gut that something entirely worse was stalking him.

  “The murders, little Perla told us all about you and your lady friend, about the scam, the girl’s jewelry, the five thousand dollars. No more talk, you got two hours to get here. Come to the lake, to Jackson Park, you and Ginger, plus two thousand dollars. Or I go to the cops.” With that, Joe disconnected the pay phone outside the motel.

  “Joe,” Maude said, “I think you missed your calling. What was that all about, B&G , the mob?”

  “Danged if I know, Maude. He thought I was mob; that I worked for B&G.

  “The company that told us they sold the vans to someone else?”

  “Yeah, that one. Harry thought he was in trouble with the mob. Sounds like he made a trip to B&G, found out it wasn’t at all what he had thought, no warehouse. He sounded scared.”

  “Can’t blame him, if it’s true.” She said, reflectively. “They scare most people. It’s like a whole group of armed Leroys on speed or PCP. I ran into some in Chicago.”

  “We have two hours to get to Jackson Park. Do you have any suggestions about what to do when they try to shoot us? “Joe asked.

  “Shoot back.” She said. “I’m calling Jack. I wouldn’t want him to miss this. He loves a good fight.”

  Chapter 22

  Harry checked his phone hoping to see a phone number that could be traced, but nothing came up on the screen. If the guy who called wasn’t a wiseguy, who the heck was he, and how did he find out about him and Ginger? He said that girl Perla told him. That little Mex who cleaned the rooms, she must have been the one.

  “Ginger, Harry here. Get ready and pi
ck me up. We gotta go right now.

  Someone knows about us, about the resort, the scam. They think we stole some money from the doc. Its blackmail-two grand they want.”

  “Harry, I ain’t got two grand. My rent’s due and I can’t pay that. Where would I get two grand?”

  Harry gritted his teeth. God he hated this stupid woman. “I didn’t say you had to get it, I said the knuckle-head on the phone wants two grand. We’re not going to pay him; we’re going to kill him.”

  “Oh, that’s different. I’ll be right there.”

  Ginger showed up within fifteen minutes in the black SUV, the big doors and windows opening to reveal a plush seating area and lots of bells and whistles on the dash. Harry climbed in and the vehicle shot forward, the GPS loaded with the quickest route to Jackson Park on Edwards Bay. It seemed like karma to Harry, going back to where they had started the job, although, Harry didn’t believe in luck, he thought people made their own opportunities.

  What he was doing was thinking about how they were going to draw this guy out in the open to kill him and who else might be a part of the deal. He wondered about Leroy, and where he went with the money. It was all Leroy’s fault. If he had paid his debt, Harry would have been in Florida, and wouldn’t have got the call. Now he had this and the mob to worry about, but that would be after he killed Leroy.

  Ginger drove hard, the big vehicle taking the curves in the road at roaring speeds as worry took over her thoughts. She hoped she got the money to make the next car payment, because the way things had been happening, she would be walking soon. Harry wasn’t a friend, but he was the nearest thing she had to one. He had found her in Houston, looking for work at Burger King, offered her a quick job. All she had to do was drive her big car to Edwards Paradise Resort, pretend a little, and then she was done. But it hadn’t happened that way.