by Tia Siren
He needed to get Eva back and get the hell out of there before anything more happened with Gracie. He grabbed his phone and hit Joseph’s number. He knew if he talked about what happened he’d come up with a solution.
“Hey man, you reached Joseph. Leave a message and I’ll get back to ya when I can. I’m out.”
“Damn voice mail.” He looked at the time and figured he was with someone of the opposite sex. “Hey, Joseph. It’s me. Listen, I may be in a little bit of trouble. Give me a call as soon as you get this. I’d like to talk this one out. Thanks.”
He threw his phone on the couch and was about to plop himself down next to it when a knock on his door stopped him. He hesitated, not wanting to deal with Gracie again, but needing to wrap his arms around Eva.
“Who is it?” He did remember to lock it this time.
“Saint Aldates Police Department. Open up please.”
“Saint Aldates? I guess she is stupid enough,” he murmured.
Edward opened the door to two police officers. “Good evening. Can I help you, officers?”
“Edward Caldwell?”
“That’s me.”
“I am Officer Sheldon. This is Officer Wheeler. Mind if we come in? We have a few questions we would like to ask you.”
“Please, of course. Come in. Can I get you something? Coffee? Water?”
“No, thank you,” they each said.
“What can I do for you?”
“We received a call about a disturbance at a residence on Sidney Street this evening. Do you know anything about that?”
“Sidney Street?”
“Yes, with a Miss Gracie Honor?” The officer read his notes from a small notepad.
Edward nodded. “Yes. I was just there. What can I help you with?”
“What can you tell us, Mr. Caldwell? Were you present during the altercation?”
“I was. I was contemplating on whether I should call you, actually.”
“You were?” The officer seemed surprised.
“Yes, sir. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but from what I found there, I knew it had to be dealt with delicately.”
“Mr. Caldwell?”
“What exactly did you find?” asked the other officer.
“Photos, news articles, things about me she shouldn’t have access to. Evidence against some of the department heads at the university. Things that will pin her to past cases that are still unsolved.” He noticed the officers glance at each other. “Were you there? Did you not find the same things? They were in her office….”
“There was nothing like that on the premises that we saw.”
“What did she tell you? Was she still there when you got there? She must have cleaned it all out, but I bet you anything she didn’t destroy it.”
“Mr. Caldwell. I don’t think you understand the severity of our visit to you this evening.”
“Why? What did she tell you?”
“Mr. Caldwell,” said the other officer. “Gracie Honor is dead.”
“As is her brother John Honor.”
“Uh.” Edward staggered backwards at the news.
“Are you okay?” The officer stepped forward to assist while Officer Sheldon put his hand on his gun.
“Yeah.” Edward shook his head. “She’s dead? Are you sure?”
“Quite.”
“How? What happened?”
“We were hoping you could shed some light on that part.”
Edward rubbed his face and walked toward the kitchen. “Do you mind if I grab a scotch?”
“Not at all.”
They watched as he went into the kitchen and poured himself a half a glass of the dark brown liquid. He downed it, letting the warmth flow through him before refilling it and rejoining them in the living room.
“A lot has been happening with Gracie, pertaining to me and my life.”
“Did you have a romantic relationship with Miss Honor?”
“No,” he said shaking his head. He kept his eyes down as he continued. “If it were up to her, we would be heavily involved, but I denied her advances and tried telling her I wasn’t interested. I heard the rumors about her and felt it best to steer clear of her all together.”
“According to our sources, you have been quite heavily involved in Miss Honor’s life.”
“At first, we were friends. She helped me around the university. I had just moved here and didn’t know anyone. She was my first acquaintance. I spent some time with her, as friends and she took it as more than that.”
He wanted to tell them about her brother and getting the shit beat out of himself by the guy, but he didn’t want to give them a motive for killing the bastard.
“I was seeing a woman from the university, until recently and I think Gracie had something to do with sabotaging my relationship with her.”
“And why is that?”
“Her track record, the way she works and the fact that I found the same pictures in her office tonight that were sent to my girlfriend. They were pictures of me with other women from my past.”
“I see. Did you kill Miss Honor and her brother, Mr. Caldwell.”
“No sir. I didn’t.”
“How were they when you left them this evening?”
“Son-of-a-bitch,” he said and sat down on the couch. He knew he looked guilty as hell. “I went over there to confront Gracie about getting involved in my relationship with Eva.”
“Eva, being your girlfriend?”
“Yes.” Edward closed his eyes as he remembered how Gracie walked in to his flat pretending to be Eva. How she had sex with him and then left. He left that part out too. “Eva was so upset. She wouldn’t even talk to me. When I went to Gracie’s I found the same pictures in her desk. When I confronted her about them she came unhinged and went crazy, screaming at me and jumping on my back. I didn’t know her brother was there. He didn’t give me time to explain, not that it would have done any good. Next thing I knew he was fighting me. I mean, I completely understand why he came at me. He thought I was hurting Gracie. He was defending her, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He was a lot bigger than I am so I defended myself the only way I knew how. I palmed his face and he immediately passed out. Blood spewed from his nose almost instantly. I knew I had to get out of there before she did something rash so I yelled for her to call the ambulance and as soon as she did I booked out of there. Came straight home. I didn’t know what to do from there. I didn’t think it was severe enough to get the law involved but I sat here and tried to figure out what to do. I knew she wasn’t stable and I couldn’t just let it go. I just thought I had more time to figure things out.”
“So, Miss Honor and her brother were still alive when you left?”
“Very much so.”
“Mr. Caldwell, we are going to have to ask you to come down to the station with us.”
“For what?”
“We have evidence that shows you at the scene of the crime up until and perhaps after their death.”
“But that’s not correct. That’s impossible. Get the recording when she called in. That has to tell you something.”
“We are working on that, but as of right now, you are our only suspect.”
“And with motive,” said the other officer.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Tell that to Miss Honor and her brother. Turn around, please.”
Edward turned around and put his hands behind his back.
“You do not have to say anything,” said Officer Sheldon “but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?"
“All too well,” said Edward.
They cuffed his hands and led him out of his flat, closing the door behind them.
Chapter 38
The holding cell was small and cold with just a single steel bench attached to one wall and a stainless-steel urinal behind a half wall made of concrete block.
The dull white paint that covered everything made it especially cold and lifeless. He made his one phone call to his lawyer and stood in that cell with hopes that he was on his way as he had promised. Edward had no idea how long they planned on keeping him there before he was able to talk to someone, but the place made him crazy and he knew he needed to get out of there soon.
He paced the floor in front of two other guys who looked more at home where they sat. He couldn’t stop his mind from turning. Did Gracie’s brother die at the fate of Edward’s hands? How did Gracie die? Was it suicide? What about Eva? Was she okay? Did she know?
“I have to get out of here,” he mumbled, wrapping his hands around the cold steel bars in front of him.
“Good luck with that,” chuckled the burly bearded man in the corner. He had his leg propped up on the bench, his arm resting on it as he leaned over toward the wall.
“I need answers.” Edward looked out through the bars, trying to get someone’s attention. “Hello? I need to speak to Officer Sheldon or Officer Wheeler. It’s urgent.”
No one seemed to care about Edward’s needs except for the burly man.
“Let me guess.” He put his leg down and stood tall. “You didn’t do it. You were framed. You need to explain.”
The guy’s words dripped with sarcasm and Edward knew that unless he made friends with the guy or at least leveled the playing field, he was going to have to deal with trouble of his own.
“Hey man.” Edward turned toward the man and nodded. “No, I won’t deny that I had something to do with why I am in here. But I’m not going down without a fight.”
“What the hell did you do anyway?”
“They are saying I killed a woman and her brother.”
“What do you say?”
“I might have killed him.” His words struck him as he said them out loud and he realized he might have actually taken someone’s life. “Jesus.”
“So, you’re a killer.”
“No! No, man. I’m not. I… I don’t even know what happened, but I didn’t kill Gracie.”
“Gracie?” The man’s face distorted upon hearing the name.
Edward straightened up and feared that the man might know her.
“Gracie Honor?”
Edward’s heart pressed against his chest. He didn’t dare answer the large man.
“That’s the bitch who put me in here. You kill her?”
“I… don’t know how she died.”
“She fuckin’ set me up. Convinced me to hide some shit for her then ratted me out. I got busted with a quarter pound of meth and as soon as I mentioned that bitches name, they threw me against the fuckin’ wall and cuffed me.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. She has an odd way of working her way into and out of some pretty messed up situations.”
“How do you know her?”
Edward was more than happy to chat over coffee with the man, but he turned toward the bars and looked down the hallway again.
“Hello? Can I get someone in here please?” He let out an exasperated breath when he wasn’t able to get anywhere and leaned against the bars. “This is not happening.”
“’fraid so. You have been conned by a con, my friend. She is just as evil even after death, but thanks to you she can’t do it to anyone again.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her.” Edward looked at the man and his curiosity got the best of him. “You seem to have known her pretty well.”
“Yeah. I met Gracie a couple of summers ago. Got to know her pretty well, if ya know what I mean.” The guy smiled. “Felt bad because of the abuse she got from her dad.”
“She was abused?”
The man nodded. “I wanted to find the asshole and kill him with my bare hands. He messed her up bad. I helped her out best I could but kept taking the fall for her.”
“Why did you keep going back?”
“Her sweet ass. She had a way of doing things to me I never felt before.”
“Okay,” Edward interrupted, putting his hand up. “You don’t have to go into detail.”
“Just sayin’.”
“I understand. She could be quite manipulative.”
“Did you get her in the sack?”
Edward shook his head and closed his eyes. “No,” he lied. “Not by choice.”
“Not by choice?”
“Never mind.”
“Anyway, I told her, this last time was it. I told her I was done with her. Who’d have thought it was the truth?”
“I guess.”
“So, you didn’t kill her?”
“No. I didn’t.”
“How’d she die then?”
“I have no idea. That is what I am trying to find out.”
As if on cue, a guard clinked his key into the holding cell door and slid it open.
“Caldwell.” He nodded toward the open hallway and Edward got up.
“Thanks for the chat,” Edward said.
“I’ll be seein’ ya.”
“Hopefully you won’t.”
Edward followed the guard out of the room, down the long hallway and into an interrogation room where he was met with his lawyer.
“Bernard. It’s so good to see you.” Edward shook the man’s hand heartily before he sat down across from him. “You’ve got to get me out of here.”
“I’ll do the best I can, but a double homicide does not look good on you Edward. What the hell are you doing here anyway?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m all ears, and don’t leave anything out,” he warned.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything. What is it?”
“Call Eva Brooks, or go and see her. I need to be sure she is okay.”
“Why wouldn’t she be?”
“I don’t trust Gracie. I don’t know how she died, but I want to be sure she didn’t involve Eva in any way. Please?”
“Of course.”
He gave him her number and sat back.
“Why the hell am I being charged with a double homicide anyway? When I left there, Gracie was very much alive. She was on the phone with emergency when I left her.”
“According to the police report there was no phone call made.”
“What? Yes, there was. I stood in her doorway and watched her call them. She was talking to them when I left.”
Bernard shook his head.
“What do you mean no? She did! It’s 999. How hard is that? She couldn’t have misdialed.”
“There was no call made from her phone at all that night.”
“What?”
“And another thing… there was a gun on the scene, Edward.”
Edward looked up at Bernard.
“It had your prints all over it.”
“Fuck,” he said as he buried his head in his arms.
“So, as you can see, I need something to work with here. I need you to start from the beginning and tell me everything that happened.”
“Wait a minute.” Edward stood up, his face brightening. “You said the gun was found with my prints on it.”
“Yes. That’s what the police report said.”
“So, she was shot?”
“Yes. What are you getting at?”
“How was her brother killed?”
“He was shot also.”
“Ha!” Edward spun around. “I didn’t do it! I hit him in the face with my hand!” He held up his hand to show Bernard the palm of his hand where he contacted John’s nose. “I drove his nose into his head and made him bleed but I did not shoot him.”
“How do I explain the gunshot wounds with the gun you had in your hands?”
“I found it when I was rummaging through Gracie’s desk. I used it to defend myself against him when he came at me, but it wasn’t loaded! I chucked it at him. At… at… at his forehead.” Edward was getting worked up with what really happened. “He was bleeding when he came at me. Check the gun for blood!”
Bernard made a note. “I’ll do
that.”
For the next hour, Edward told his lawyer everything he could think of from the moment he laid eyes on Eva in Paris to when the police were pulling him out of his flat in cuffs. He told him all about Gracie and her threats, the rumors about her and why he thought she kept getting cleared on the charges she was up against. He told him about Gracie’s sexual advances on him and about the pictures he found in her office.
“When I left her house, she was next to her brother, crying on the phone. As soon as I heard her telling them… or someone… what happened I left.”
“Why didn’t you call them yourself?”
“I needed to get out of there. She was crazy and I didn’t know what she was capable of. I didn’t know how to handle it so I went back home and called Joseph.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Not much. I left a voice mail. Just told him I was in a situation that I needed to talk my way through.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes. Question the bearded guy in the holding cell. He has had to deal with Gracie too. In fact, she is the reason he is in here too. He says she set him up and let him take the fall for her.”
“What’s his name?”
“I didn’t get his name, but he was just talking to me about it.”
“Okay,” said Bernard as he quickly wrote while Edward was talking. “Anything else?” He looked up from his note pad.
“Not that I can remember. I think that is everything.”
“Sounds to me like you are in a sticky situation,” said Bernard. “But it’s nothing I can’t fix.”
“That is good news.”
“I’m going to need some time.”
“Can you get me out of here in the meantime?”
“I don’t know.” He pulled a piece of paper and set it on the desk. “According to your charge sheet, they have stated they want to keep you detained until your court date.”
“No. Absolutely not. I have to get out of here. I can’t stay here.”
“Edward. I will work on getting you out, but I can’t guarantee anything.”