by John Moralee
“To kill the other witnesses.”
“You see, that doesn’t make sense. He had no reason to kill them. He had his drugs back. It wasn’t like they would go to the police. What could they say? They stole some drugs off a drug dealer? That would put them in trouble. He’s guilty of false imprisonment and drug dealing – which he will be charge with - but he didn’t murder anyone. That was someone else. We found tyre marks from a motorbike at the scene. They match a bike stolen on Friday night. I had that bike examined, Jamey. Your fingerprints were on it. A friend of yours owned the bike. On-line he calls himself Darkman. He already told us you came to see him on Saturday morning, with your face all bruised up. You borrowed his bike, asking him not to tell anyone. You intended to bring it back so nobody would know you’d taken it, but for some reason you didn’t. He had to report it stolen when you didn’t return it. You rode that bike to where the van was parked, but you didn’t rescue your friends. I wondered why – until the DNA report answered that question. Greg slept with Holly and Candice on that night, but you didn’t sleep with either of them. He slept with your girlfriend Candice. You were mad at him, so you decided not to untie them. Instead, you killed them.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“The evidence proves you went back to the van.”
“Yes, I went back to the van. But only to release them. I was honestly going to untie them. But when I took the gag off Greg, the first thing he said was ‘Did you tell him where the stuff was?’ and when I told him I had, he gave me a look like it was all my fault. I decided to punish them – but not to kill them, I swear. I left them in the back of the van, tied up because I was angry at them all. Candice wasn’t my girlfriend. She was into Greg just like Holly. They used to have sex in front of me like I wasn’t even there. They wouldn’t let me join in, though. They didn’t like me. They had treated me like a fifth wheel for so long I decided to leave them tied up for a while. Payback. But when I was driving home, I lost control of the vehicle and it went off the road into the water. I managed to get out but the van sank under the water before I could save them. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill them. It was an accident.”
“Jamey, there were no skid marks. The van was deliberately driven off the road and aimed at the deepest part of the lake. The clothes you were wearing weren’t in that dirty water. There was a toolbox on the floor near the accelerator and the side window was open. You started the van up and steered it through the window while riding the bike you’d borrowed. You got the van up to the right speed, but then you let go. I bet you lost control of the bike, crashing it, breaking your ribs. You didn’t want to bike connected to the van, so you abandoned it later. It wasn’t an accident and I can prove that. You murdered them all.”
He glared at her then. “It wasn’t murder. It was justice. They all deserved to die.”
*
“Boss, he’s a cold-hearted kid,” Hollis said after she had formally charged Jamey with the the murders. “I hope he gets life.”
Boone nodded in agreement. It was getting late. She wanted to go home to her daughter and hug her and forget about her day, but she still had a ton of paperwork to complete. But then she remembered she was the boss now.
It could wait until tomorrow.
OTHER KINDLE TITLES
Cape Mistral – mystery novel
Thirteen: Unlucky For Some – crime stories
The Bone Yard and Other Stories – horror stories
Bloodways – horror stories
The Good Soldier and Other Stories – short stories
The Tomorrow Tower – SF stories
An English Rose With Thorns – crime stories
The Uncertainty Principle – SF detective short story *
* included in Thirteen: Unlucky For Some
John Moralee © 2012