by Lolah Lace
Tami leaned into the table. “Matthew, how do you know Christy Toliver?”
“Christy lives next door to me. We go to the same high school.” Matt’s eyes became glossy.
“Did you visit her home today?”
“Yes.”
“What was the reason for your visit to her home today?”
“I go over there every day.”
She noticed he hadn’t answered the why in her question. “Why do you go over there every day?”
“I.” Matt paused to form the proper words. “We would fool around, make out.”
“What does making out and fooling around entail?”
Matthew hesitated for a moment. He took in some air. “We would have sex.” He confessed.
Tami noticed Matt’s father wasn’t shocked or surprised by this admission. “What time did you go over there today?”
“It was about four-thirty.”
“How do you know it was four-thirty?”
“I get out of practice at three forty-five.”
“Practice?”
“I play basketball.”
“Then what?”
“I come home and shower. I try to hurry, so we can have an hour alone before her mother gets home at five-thirty.” Matthew looked over at his father then back at Tami.
“Do you remember exactly what you did when you got home from practice?” Tami knew she was being redundant, but it was all part of the interrogation process.
“Yeah, I took a shower. I got dressed, and I went over to Christy’s house.”
“How’d you get in, into her house?”
“Christy always leaves the back door open for me.”
“What happened next?”
“I went upstairs to her room. The door was closed so I opened it and saw her … lying there.” A single tear ran down his cheek. He bowed his head to hide the tear. From what Tami could see, he was being truthful. His body language didn’t convey any of the telltale guilty signs. She could see the tears forming and wasn’t sure if they were guilt, but it seemed to be genuine grief.
“Matthew, are you okay?”
“No, not really.” Matthew looked up at Tami. “My girlfriend has been killed.” Matthew titled his head down. A second tear squirted from his reddened eyes down his cheek and splashed on the table.
Charles put his hand on his son’s back. “My son is pretty upset.”
“Understandably.”
“Our family doctor prescribed a sedative.”
Tami wondered if Mr. Mathers set it up, so later he could claim his son was questioned while he was under the influence of drugs. A thought she tucked away for later.
“I understand. Matthew, just a few more questions…Matthew?” Matthew peeked through his tears and answered yes with his eyes. “Do you know of anyone that might want to hurt Christy?”
“No, everyone loves her, everyone. If I—if I could have just got over there sooner she would still be alive.”
“Matthew why do you say that? What could you have done?”
“I could have killed that bastard.”
“It’s always best to never take the law into your own hands.”
“I was looking out my window. I saw her walking home from school. She looked up at me in the window. I will never forget that, never. Seeing her made me want to run over there that minute. But I didn’t. I took a stupid shower. A very long, stupid shower, and now I’m all alone.”
“Son, you are not alone.”
Matt disregarded his father’s words and hung his hands on his head. Lieutenant Meyers and Tami noticed Matt’s bandaged wrist at the same time.
“Matthew.”
Matt raised his head. “Yes.”
“What happened to your arm?” Matt had an injury. Tami had to ask about it no matter what she thought about his innocence or guilt. It was her job to question everything.
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember a cut that big?”
“No, I think I did it at practice. I cut it on something. I think.”
“You cut it?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Tami and her lieutenant exchanged a puzzled look. Tami wasn’t sure if she should put all her cards out on the table. It was now or never. She wanted to see Matthew’s reaction when she dropped the bomb on him.
“One more thing, there was a positive pregnancy test recovered from the crime scene. Do you know anything about that?” Tami didn’t have the autopsy report on the dead body, but she decided to throw a little fib into the questioning. “Christy was pregnant.” Maybe? One could assume the deceased took the test since it was found in her bedroom. That was good enough for Detective Johnson.
“She was pregnant?” Matt appeared surprised.
“Yes, it seems so.”
“I didn’t know. She didn’t tell me. I wonder why?”
“Could be many reasons, why do you think? Why would she withhold such important information from you?”
“She probably hadn’t decided what to do about it? It’s senior year, she really wanted to go away to college. If she had my baby she would have to stay here.”
“So you admit to being the father?”
“Of course. She’s only been with me.”
“Are you sure there was no one else?”
“We’ve known each other since Kindergarten. Christy is a really good girl. I mean was— is. Do her parents have to find out we were sleeping together and about the baby?”
“We can’t hide evidence from them. They’re her parents.”
“I know, but her dad still thinks she’s a virgin. A baby might hurt him. He’s a really nice guy.”
“I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“I love her so much. I don’t want him to think anything bad about her. Not like that. She is, was really a good girl, perfect.”
“How long have you two been a couple?”
“We had been together since junior high.”
“You have been sleeping together since junior high?”
“Yeah, she’s my girlfriend. I just want everyone to remember the way she really is … was.”
Tami felt for the teen. She thought he really loved this girl. She couldn’t think of a good motive for him to kill her, plus this murder fit the description of the mall murder. “So Mr. Mathers, I take it you knew about your son’s relationship with the Christy Toliver.”
“So now you’re asking me questions?”
“Someone was murdered right next door to where you sleep. I just thought you would want to do everything to help solve the crime.” Tami sarcastically smarted. She knew his type—arrogant, pompous. He thought he was the smartest person in the room. She didn’t like him, but his son didn’t seem like a jerk.
“Yeah, I knew about them. I told him to be safe, and obviously he didn’t listen to me. Christy and Misty were like my own kids. They went on family trips with us. We took them to Italy last year, and every year we took them to Disney World with us. My wife and I didn’t have any daughters. The twins were real good girls—smart, nice. They are like family. They never gave their parents any trouble. Matt and Christy had been inseparable since the day the Toliver’s moved next door. I kind of knew they would get together. When Matt was five he could tell them apart right away, and he just gravitated to Christy.” One tear trickled from Mr. Mathers’ eye. “I don’t know why someone would do this.”
Tami had denounced Charles Mathers as a dick, but he was showing genuine emotion for Christy. Maybe his words were true. She had heard enough. She was done with her questioning. So this is what went on in this town. People’s kids grew up together and fell in love. People treated their neighbors’ kids like their own. They took them out of the country and vacationed with them. It must be nice to be rich. This was in direct contrast to Tami’s upbringing. It seemed these kids had everything. Tami remembered always wanting so much more as a child. She also remembered having this unplugged hole in her heart.
CHAPTER 7
Tami was beat by the time she made it home to her spacious two-bedroom townhouse. The décor was plain; an off white color covered the almost bare walls. There were Afrocentric accents carefully scattered around the rooms. The sound of the television was faint, just a little background noise fit for a person who lived alone.
Tami sat curled up on her loveseat watching a rerun of Shades of Blue. She had a thing for the cop shows that featured women.
The doorbell rang, and the cop in her made her always think of grabbing her handgun. She fidgeted on the loveseat and took her time getting up. As soon as she got to her feet the doorbell rang again. She was sure someone was ringing the wrong doorbell and had stumbled over to the wrong townhouse. Tami made her way to the door and peered through the peephole.
He was on the other side of the door, her ridiculously sexy ex. Tami didn’t want to let him in. She hadn’t seen him for a few weeks not since the breakup. In this case being a detective was her downfall. Curiosity forced her to open the door or was it his rugged allure? She could hate herself tomorrow. She was sure she would.
The door barely opened before he barged in. Detective Mike Crane was tall and more than good-looking. He was physically fit, and just like Tami he tried to play down his looks in order to be taken seriously. This meant looking scruffy and unkempt. Like Tami, he couldn’t really hide his attractiveness. His “I don’t care about my looks” attitude also made him a chick magnet. He just didn’t know it. Or maybe he did and chose to ignore it. Mike had clear blue eyes that made the women swoon and thick dark brown hair that held just a hint of a curl. Even without his perfect muscular body, he still had this mysterious crooked smile that made the women fall at his feet.
“Mike …” Something about seeing him in person left Tami without words.
“I saw your light on,” he said, as he made his way over to the couch with a black backpack swung over his shoulder. He looked like a bike messenger not a cop and certainly not a detective. Mike was the only investigator that carried a backpack instead of a briefcase or an accordion file. Tami hated that stupid backpack. She always thought it was juvenile.
Tami knew Mike’s sudden appearance was a load of crap. He lived in Oakbrook, and she lived in Hinsdale. He had no reason to be in her neck of the woods. Plus her townhome was not even on a major street. There was no way in hell he saw her light.
“Yeah and … ?” Tami waited for a better explanation for his presence.
Mike looked back at Tami as his sculpted ass hit the couch. “I thought we could work on the evidence, try to come up with a suspect profile.”
Bullshit, she thought. Sure Tami’s partner Detective Turner told her the same perpetrator committed the two murders in both towns; that was obviously true, but Mike worked for an entirely different police force. Who said that they would have to compare notes? Who ordered them to work jointly?
Mike dropped his backpack on the carpet. He unzipped the bag and began to pull out various files and crime scene photos that he urgently spread out over Tami’s coffee table.
“Mike, what are you doing?”
“Doing?”
“Doing here?”
“Can you get me a drink?” Mike didn’t bother to look up at her.
Tami took a brief minute to be pissed but soon realized Mike wasn’t going to care. He was a bossy man with little regard for anyone when he was in a zone. Maybe his reasons for dropping by were bogus, but there were two murders that superseded Tami’s feelings about the sudden intrusion.
“What do you want to drink?”
“What do you have?” he asked, as he studied the photographs sprawled out before him.
“Never mind, I’ll give you what I want you to have.”
Tami turned and stalked to the kitchen. Mike smiled to himself. He remembered how stubborn Tami was, and it was nice to encounter it again. He was fond of pissing her off. He was happy to get any reaction out of her. He missed their daily interactions. He wondered if she did as well.
Tami went over to her stainless steel refrigerator. She stood eye to eye with the freezer door. All her attention was focused on the lone photograph. The picture was held to the top with a Rosati’s Pizza magnet and a Family Video Store magnet. The picture was of Tami as a vibrant teenager. She was posing with another Black girl like they were amateur fashion models.
Tami’s mind wandered back to the time the picture was taken. Tami was lost in the moment, severe pain registered on her face. She abruptly looked away and opened the refrigerator door. She wasn’t going to go down the road that led to her tragic past.
When Tami returned to the living room Mike’s focus had changed. He was now completely engrossed in the plot of the cop show Shades of Blue. She wondered what his true intentions were.
Tami placed two opened bottles of beer on the coffee table. She took a seat on the floor near the table. She didn’t want to get too close to Mike. Being close to him could get her in trouble. She had distanced herself from him, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Mike looked at the cold beers. “You trying to get me drunk?” He smirked then took a drink from the beer closest to him.
“You wish.” She smugly added. Mike was sometimes so full of himself.
Mike ignored her slight attitude. He was used to it by now. “We have two murders in two months, and it definitely looks like the same killer.” Now he was back to police business.
“Yes, but do our victims have any similarities?” Tami asked. This was the part of police work she loved: the investigation, the hunt, the inevitable capture. This was where she excelled. She could use her brains.
“The vics were both young, Black, and attractive.” That was all Mike had at the moment. He was pretty sure they didn’t know each other.
“Black?” Tami shook her head no.
Mike was confused, he thought maybe he had said the wrong thing. He opted to try again. “African American?”
“Maybe not. I met the last victim’s parents. Her father is Black, and her mother is White. What about that other victim from the mall, your victim? What was her name again?”
“Kelly, Kelly White. It was vice versa. Her father is White, and her mother is Black. That could just be a coincidence?”
“Could be, but it’s hard to say. When you’re biracial you usually can tell who else is mixed. I’m sure it’s probably a coincidence. There are a lot of mixed race people in this area.”
“Yeah, but let’s not rule out hate crimes.”
“God I hope that’s not it.”
“You never know what goes on in the minds of murderers.” Mike shrugged.
“What about your victim? Did she have a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, Kelly had a boyfriend. He’s a senior at Southern Illinois University. He had a really good alibi. He was away at school and working at his on-campus job. There is no way he could’ve made the six-hour drive after he left his job. We checked him out. He’s even on video surveillance at his job. The college campus has video cameras all over the place. The boyfriend in my case is a dead end. He physically couldn’t have killed his girlfriend.”
“That’s good to know. After questioning the boyfriend of my victim today, I found him to be credible. He appeared honest. He doesn’t really have a motive. She could’ve been pregnant, but I have to wait for the toxicology and preliminary autopsy report. Even if my victim was pregnant, I just don’t know if he could have killed her. When I told him she was pregnant. He didn’t seem to care.”
“The pregnancy might be a sign he took care of her and the unborn baby.”
“No, he wasn’t moved. It was like he was down to be a teenage father if need be. I think the kid would have just married her and raised the baby. I think he was in love with her.”
“Could be an act. Your partner told me the kid was literally covered in her blood.”
Tami wondered why Mike was talking to her partner.
“My girl, she was probably stabbed from behind. She bled out from the front
torso, and it’s consistent with the location on the boyfriend’s clothing.”
“The report says he admitted touching the body and the shirt.”
“Yes he did. I hate to say this out loud, but I think we’re looking for some random crackpot.”
“Do you think the perp is Black?”
Why would he even ask that question? She was sure he had his theories. Tami hated to admit it. Most murders were usually committed by people who are the same race as their victims. “That would make sense.”
“You can’t use common sense when it comes to these whack-jobs. They’re operating on something totally inhumane and senseless.”
“Well, we have no leads. It’s like this guy is invisible.”
“No one is truly invisible.”
“What’s really weird is how he covered the victims’ faces.” Tami handed a gruesome 8″x10″ photograph of dead Christy Toliver over toward Mike. He took it and compared it to his photo of the deceased Kelly White.
“These pictures are almost identical.”
“He had to have stalked these girls.” Tami mused aloud.
“For sure, Kelly only closed the store in the mall at night by herself on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“Did you ever have any credible leads at all?”
“Sure, but they all led nowhere.”
“What about the employees of the store where she worked?”
“They all seemed to love her. She was a sweet girl. Past and present employees showed up for her funeral.”
“There was no video of her in the mall store?”
“The mall surveillance cameras just happened to be down.” Mike scratched the beginnings of a beard.
“Damn. We need a lead.”
“I’ll take a confession.” He groaned.
“That will never happen.”
“It’s been two months of nothing substantial for me, and then you get an almost identical murder.”
“Maybe something will come up at the Toliver funeral.” Tami was trying to be hopeful and optimistic.
“Maybe I missed something or someone. I can do what I did at the last funeral, observe the mourners and see if anything odd occurs. Someone might stick out.”