by W E DeVore
“No, Aaron. That’s not it.”
“Then what’s changed, Clementine?”
“You.” She paused. “You warned her, Aaron. You know that, right? You could have played it a dozen different ways, but you flat out told her she was a suspect back there at the hospital. There’s some part of you that wants her to get away with this. You looked so happy this morning when you were kissing her on your porch, and I ruined it for you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“How did you ruin it? She’s the one that’s been poisoning people. All you did was prove it.”
“How is this going to work? You arrest her for attempted murder, and she gives birth in prison? Then what? You raise the baby all on your own? A homicide detective?”
“Yes, Clementine. That’s how this is going to work. And it’s not attempted murder; it’s first degree. She fucking poisoned Savion Gerard on purpose,” he said.
“Come on, Sanger. You and me both know that no jury in the world is going to convict a pregnant white woman for first degree anything with the evidence you have,” she said, knowing the odds of Tori even getting convicted for attempted murder were slim at best, since Stanley knew what she’d been doing to him and hadn’t wanted to stop it.
“If she did it, I’m going to arrest her. She’s going to go to jail. When she gives birth, I’ll take the baby and raise it. She might walk for Savion, but I won’t let her walk for Stanley,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because, he’s dying,” he exclaimed. “All she had to do was wait. She tried to kill a dying man who loves her enough to let her get away with it, for money. Not to be with me, but because she has fucking dollar signs blinding her to what’s right. All she had to do was be honest with me and tell me to wait.” His voice broke. “I won’t live with a liar, Clementine. I won’t do it. I’ll raise a child for her, but I won’t protect her.”
“You don’t want to reconsider?”
He blinked back his grief. “No. Let’s do this.”
She reluctantly followed him up to the porch as he called in a Crime Scene Unit to Stanley’s house. Knocking on the door, he stood back, badge in hand. Tori smiled when she saw him through the glass and opened the door.
“Hey there, sweetheart. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Not here to visit, Tori,” he said. “I’m here to look for the reason your husband is in the hospital.”
She looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about, Aaron?”
“I think you’ve been poisoning your husband.”
“I think you’ve lost your mind,” she replied, folding her arms and leaning against the doorjamb.
Q desperately wanted to vanish into the shadow of the pillar she stood in, but Tori pointed to her. “What’s she doing here?”
Sanger replied, “Making sure I do the right thing.”
Tori opened the door wider. “Well, come on in, Detective Sanger. I have nothing to hide. Search the place. Jesus.”
Sanger walked in, followed by Q. Tori caught her arm, “What’s going on?”
Q tilted her head from side to side in a futile attempt to ease out of her discomfort. “You should know how small Southern Jewish communities are, Tori.”
Tori put her hands on her hips and asked, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe we should sit down,” Q suggested.
Tori sat on the couch, gesturing for Sanger and Q to sit on the loveseat across from her.
“I had dinner with my grandmother the other night. She invited the Rabbi from our synagogue to join us. She’s trying to get Ben to convert,” Q explained.
“So?” Tori asked.
“So, Rabbi Eller, he hands me this piece of paper with Rabbi Nierman’s phone number on it - that’s the rabbi at the Orthodox shul. He tells me to give it to Savion’s girlfriend. A woman from Memphis, Tennessee, whose father is a cantor at an Orthodox synagogue. Her Hebrew name is Tova. Ever heard of her? Seems like someone you or your father might know.”
Tori looked at Sanger. “Aaron, it’s just a weird coincidence. He probably misremembered what Savion said.”
He shook his head. “No, Tori. I don’t think that he did. Just tell me what happened.”
She stood up and walked to him, reaching for his hand to hold it on her lower abdomen. “What happened is we made a baby, Aaron, and I’ve never stopped loving you. Isn’t this what you want? For us to be a family? It’s a miracle. I’ve been trying to get pregnant for years and I couldn’t.”
Sanger slowly glanced sideways at Q and she flinched, knowing how bad of an opening volley that was for Tori. He pushed her away, standing up and walking to the other side of the room. “That’s because Stanley had a vasectomy and his son was sterile.”
Tori’s demeanor changed. “What are you talking about?”
“Why were you trying to get pregnant without your husband knowing? You thought you could get some of the publishing?” Sanger folded his arms and stared at her. “When that didn’t work, and he started to get sick, you thought you’d move on to his son? Maybe get pregnant that way?”
“What?” she asked. “No. That’s not what happened. Savion and his dad had a fight. Stanley changed the will. I didn’t need to get pregnant to get any publishing rights.”
“Did you kill Savion?” he asked.
“Of course, I didn’t. How can you even say that?”
Q looked down and said, “Charlie says he gave you some cocaine at the party, Tori. Did you share it with Savion?”
“No. He’d have a seizure,” she said. “I did a couple of lines and then went to clean up.”
Sanger shook his head deliberately and Q cringed.
Strike two.
He folded his arms and asked, “Why didn’t you mention you were doing cocaine before?”
“I don’t ‘do cocaine,’” she replied. “I did a couple of lines at a party. It just didn’t seem relevant.”
Distrust radiated off Sanger in a tangible orb and he said, “It didn’t seem relevant to you that you were doing cocaine the same night your stepson had a seizure after taking the same drug. I know you had an affair with him, Tori. Just tell me the truth. The more you lie, the worse it’s going to get.”
Tori closed her eyes and thought for several minutes. “It was stupid. He and Stanley had this big fight, because Stanley wouldn’t give him the money he asked for. I went to him to smooth things over. Stanley was being awful to everyone. Fine one day. On edge and raging for no reason, the next. I kept accusing him of drinking too much. We didn’t know he was sick.” She exhaled slowly. “So, I called Savion. We met for dinner. And he was so handsome and so young. He seduced me to get back at his dad and I let him.”
“How long did it go on?”
“I don’t know four or five months maybe. He called me ‘Goodness.’ He was so charming, and Stanley was so run down and wouldn’t go to the fucking doctor. But as soon as we found out he was sick, I ended it,” she explained.
He studied her face. “When did you find out that Stanley changed the will. To leave everything to you.”
“September. He had me meet him at the lawyer’s. Savion had been running his mouth to Walter. Bragging about stealing another man’s wife, practically telling him it was me. Stanley wanted to teach him a lesson.”
Sanger asked, “When did you end things with Savion?”
“The next day,” she said. “I realized how much Stanley loved me and I ended it.”
“It seems to me, you ended it because you didn’t want to lose an inheritance worth a minor fortune. Isn’t that right?”
She covered her face. “No. Of course not. How could you think that?”
Sanger bit back his retort and asked instead, “When did you pick things back up with Savion?”
“After Stanley found out he was sick, he wanted to patch things up with him. Make things right. He sent me. Can you believe that?” Tori laughed at the irony.
“What happened?”
“Savi
on wanted us to get married,” she said. “He said it didn’t matter who got what in the will. But I didn’t trust him. I didn’t know if I could believe him. Stanley loved Savion. There’s no way he’d cut him out. And Savion held the strings. All he had to do was tell Stanley and I’d be out and he’d be back in. He held it over my head, demanding that I marry him, that I keep seeing him. I told him we couldn’t get married unless he converted, as a test. He never told me he was doing it. I didn’t know what else to do…”
“That’s not quite true, is it?”
Tori looked up at him and said, “No. I thought, if I got pregnant, then either Stanley or Savion would have to take care of me. You don’t know what it’s like, Aaron. To suddenly have anything you want. All the time. I wasn’t ready to give it up. But I couldn’t seem to get pregnant. Then I ran into you, Aaron, and I thought it was a sign. There you were, after all this time.”
Sanger’s posture softened somewhat. “Tell me what happened at the party.”
“He heard us arguing and asked me if we were having an affair. I lied to him and told him he misunderstood what he heard, then he started begging me to leave Stanley, telling me that he’d do anything for me to come back to him, threatening to tell his dad everything,” she continued. “I was late. Not by much, but more than usual. You and I hadn’t been seeing each other long. I thought it had to be Savion’s. So, I told him, thinking it would help. But he laughed and called me a whore. Said it had be yours because he only shot blanks.”
“And the cocaine?”
“I freaked out after Savion and I spoke. I came upstairs. I didn’t know what to do, then I found Charlie and Lorene doing some coke and I asked if I could have some for later.” Tori rubbed at her eyes with her palms. “I was tired. I was upset. I wanted to get fucked up. So, I did a line and put the other in a shot.”
Q looked wide-eyed at Sanger and he said, “You mixed some cocaine in a shot of tequila. Why?”
“It’s mellower that way. I was already keyed up,” she said. “I was sipping on it while I was clearing out the courtyard, then Savion came over. I yelled at him and told him I didn’t want to fight about it anymore, then he said, let’s have a drink and we did and I guess he picked the wrong glass.”
“You guess or you know?” Sanger asked.
“I knew. As soon as I tasted mine, I knew. Savion gets amnesia when he has a seizure. He usually can’t remember three or four hours before. I thought if he had a seizure, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. He’d forget what he heard, and he wouldn’t go to Stanley.”
“Did you see him go down?” Q asked, already knowing the answer.
Tori nodded. “I was walking up the stairs and saw Aaron on the back porch. When he turned towards the kitchen, I heard Savion fall. I kept walking. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“And Stanley?” Sanger asked.
“He wouldn’t take his meds. He’d suffer and hurt and be mean and irritable and so I started slipping them into his drinks, just to keep him comfortable. Savion was an accident. He wasn’t supposed to drink that smoothie. It had three pills in it. That’s what Stanley needs to stay comfortable during the day. Three pills. Not one. Three. And he wouldn’t take them. I freaked out when he let Savion drink it, but I couldn’t tell him why. Oh, god. I killed him. It was my fault. I didn’t mean to.” Tori started to cry.
Sanger didn’t react. He watched her for a few minutes before pulling his phone out of his pocket and calling the hospital, asking to speak to Stanley Gerard’s doctor. When she came on the line, he said, “This is Detective Sanger, NOPD. How much of Stanley Gerard’s pain management meds does he need to take to stay comfortable?”
He nodded to whatever he heard and thanked her before hanging up. He looked at Tori, who was still sobbing and said, calmly, “His doctor begs to differ, Tori. Says he needs three total. All day. One during the day to function and two at night to sleep comfortably. But he’s pretty hooked on larger doses. She thinks he’s been abusing it. Is there a reason you’ve been turning your husband into a drug addict?”
Tori stopped crying and stared at him. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s my job, Tori.”
“You could stop this right now, just let it go,” she said.
“I can’t,” he whispered. “It wouldn’t be right. Tell me the truth, all of it. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth.” He sat next to her on the couch and took her hand. “Let me help you, sweetheart. Just tell me the truth.”
“When Savion and I started seeing each other again in January, he wanted me to leave Stanley. He told me the money didn’t matter to him. Not anymore.”
“Did you believe him?” Sanger asked.
“No. Not really. It seemed pretty convenient, him suddenly wanting to settle down with me after Stanley changed the will to leave everything to me.”
“Did he know Stanley was sick?”
She nodded. “I told him I couldn’t leave Stanley, not with him dying. It wouldn’t be right. Savion hated his dad. They were too much alike and not in any of the good ways.”
“Did you kill Savion?” he asked.
“He heard everything you said. He figured out I was seeing both of you. He threatened to go tell his dad everything. I’d be ruined. When Charlie gave me the blow, I mixed into a margarita and brought it to Savion. We went to this hidden spot on the side of the house to talk. I begged him to forgive me. I waited until he drained his glass, then we had sex. He said his heart was racing. I told him it was the excitement of fucking his father’s wife while he was listening to his first lover sing to him. Told him to wait a few minutes and come find me in the courtyard. I saw you watching from upstairs. By the time he got to me, he was already sick. Sweating. I told him you were watching. To act normal. Told him I’d end things with you and leave with him that night. To wait for me downstairs in the courtyard. I went upstairs and picked a fight with you so you wouldn’t see him go down.”
“How much cocaine did you give him?”
“Too much, obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “I put it in white go-cup, it was hard to tell. And I didn’t know how much to give him.”
“What kind of cup?” Q asked, already knowing the answer.
Tori looked at her in confusion. “I don’t know. One of those souvenir cups we had made a couple of years ago when Stanley headlined the last day of the Fest. We had a ton left over. What does it matter?”
Sanger studied Q’s face and she shook him off. “Tell us what happened with Stanley.”
Tori replied to Sanger, not Q, “When Stanley started pain management, his doctor went on and on about how dangerous his medicine was and how he couldn’t take more than the recommended dosage. But I started slipping him a little extra here and there. It made it easier for me to slip out at night to see Savion… and then you. And after I found out I was pregnant and knew it was yours, I wanted it over.”
Sanger flinched. “Why today?”
“I heard him on the phone with his lawyer when I got back from your place this morning. Leaving everything to her.” Tori glared at Q. “So I figure, what does it matter if he dies today or in six months? He’s going to die. All I did was speed it up. He wouldn’t give me a child. He ran around on me with other women and expected me to be this loyal little wife. He used me as leverage to get his son to act like a man. Then he leaves everything to the Toledano Foundation?”
Sanger folded his arms and stared at her in growing disbelief. “You could have left.”
“How? You tell me how,” she demanded. “I leave Stanley Gerard, the fucking Stanley Gerard while he’s dying of cancer, after I’ve made a baby with another man. You tell me how that fucking works. I spent seven years of my life with that old man and I’d get nothing. I’d lose my business. I’d lose everything.”
When Tori saw the look of horror spreading across Sanger’s face, she realized she’d miscalculated. “Please, Aaron,” she begged. “Stanley is going to ok. Please. We can be toget
her, just like we were always supposed to. I’ll leave him. It doesn’t matter now. None of that matters.”
“No, Tori. That’s not how this works. You should have stopped talking as soon as you opened the door.” He exhaled slowly and said, “Tori Gerard, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of Savion Gerard and the attempted murder of Stanley Gerard.”
“No!” she screamed. “I won’t sign a confession. I’ll recant everything. You won’t find anything. You’re too late.”
Q stood up and left the room, jogging down through the courtyard to the side of the house. She moved aside the shrub she’d dislodged on the day of Savion’s funeral and found her addition to the landscaping still in place. Picking it up, she carried it back into the house.
Sanger was trying to reason with Tori. “I’ll take care of the baby. It’ll be ok. But you can’t run from this. You can’t. It’ll poison everything, you have to do the right thing.”
“Fuck you. Get out of my house,” Tori exclaimed. “You don’t have any proof.”
Q cleared her throat and held up the white cup in her hand. “You should have looked harder for this, Tori. It was dark when we cleaned up.”
Sanger began reading Tori her Miranda rights as she collapsed in his arms. He fell to the floor with her and Tori pushed him away. Q finally knelt next to her, watching Sanger’s eyes plead with her to do something. “Tori, I’ll call Lucy Hadron, if you want. She’s the best defense attorney in town. She’ll help you through this. It’s ok. A good lawyer and a sympathetic jury and you’ll be home before the baby’s walking. But you have to confess. It’s the only way this works. Lucy will talk you through it.”
Tori looked up at Aaron. “What about the baby?”
Sanger’s eyes met Q’s and he said resolutely, “We’ll both be waiting for you. I promise. We’ll come visit every chance we get. We’ll be a family when you get out.”
Tori eyed them both with suspicion and inhaled the remainder of her grief and guilt. Standing up, she dried her eyes and said, “Can I at least go change clothes and freshen up? If I’m going to spend a few nights in jail, I’d at least like to be comfortable.”