Kill Shot (Romantic Suspense)

by J. D. Faver

  Oz set the rolodex back on a table. Maybe someone else would find something of interest.

  “Hey Aida,” he said, entering her cubicle. “I’d like to look at all the park photos Micki shot.”

  Aida flipped through a file drawer and pulled out a large manila file. “Knock yourself out, Oz man. What are you looking for?”

  “I don’t even know,” he said. “I keep hoping something will jump out.”

  He pulled out two photographs showing Laurel and Jason embracing and holding hands. He examined the rest with a magnifying glass to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

  “I’ve already done that,” Aida said.

  “This guy.” Oz stabbed his finger on the face of a man who appeared on Micki’s second memory card. “This guy is in this family photo in the Jobe’s chauffer’s room. Why would he be there on the same day Luka shot out Micki’s car windows?” He handed Javier’s framed picture to Aida.

  “And on the day his relative’s boss-lady was meeting her lover in the same park?” Aida said.

  Oz held up the photo of Lissa sitting with young Trey on a bench in the children’s section. “The only one missing was daddy.”

  Vinnie came into the lab and knocked on the doorframe to Aida’s cubicle. “Oz, you have a visitor,” he said. “It’s Mrs. Jobe.”

  Oz went to the front desk to meet her. She, too, appeared to be shrunken by the fact of her husband’s incarceration. She wore little make-up and her face was blotchy and swollen, attesting to a recent crying binge.

  “Officer Osmond,” she said. “I have to see my husband.”

  “I’m afraid that’s out of my hands,” Oz said. “He confessed to murder and is going to be arraigned tomorrow.”

  “But he’s innocent.” Her lips quivered into a grimace, forecasting an impending bout of tears.

  “Mrs. Jobe, if you know anything about the murder of Jason Best that will clear your husband, I’d be happy to take your statement.”

  “N-No, I don’t know anything about it.” She fumbled in her handbag, Oz thought for a tissue. Instead she brought out a plastic bag full of prescription medications. “My husband is a sick man. These are his medicines. Could you please see that he gets them on time? His doctor is very insistent that he take them precisely as ordered.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Oz said.

  She left the station house and Oz stared at the bag of medications in his hand. He took them to Lieutenant Qualls office.

  “What are we? A bunch of damned nurses now?” Qualls tossed the bag on his desk.

  Oz frowned and gestured to the assortment of pills. “We don’t want anything to happen to Hobart Jobe while he’s in our custody, do we sir?”

  Qualls ran both hands over his head and blew out a long breath. “No, you’re right. Call Jobe’s doctor and confirm the scripts. We can’t be giving out medicine on his wife’s say so.”

  Oz headed out with the medications, but Qualls called him back.

  “Tell the doc we need his diagnosis for each medicine.”

  “Yes, sir.” Oz called the doctor’s office and was told that the information would be faxed immediately.

  When Oz brought the paperwork back to Qualls he sent for Hobart Jobe. “Might as well have a friendly chat with him while he’s taking his drugs.”

  Oz and Lieutenant Qualls were waiting in the interrogation room when Jobe was brought in on the arm of a large officer who started to shackle him to a chair but Qualls waved him off.

  Jobe glanced from man to man. “I didn’t think you could question me without my attorney present.”

  “Mr. Jobe, we’re here at your wife’s request,” Qualls said. “She brought your medicine and we have your doctor’s permission to administer it.”

  Jobe responded with a thin-lipped smile.

  Oz passed him a large glass of water and lined up the medications in front of him.

  Jobe stared at the pill bottles.

  “Aren’t you going to take your pills?” Qualls asked. “Your wife came all the way down here to bring them to you.”

  “You need a little help, Mr. Jobe?” Oz asked.

  Jobe nodded.

  “Because you can’t open the bottles by yourself, even though these aren’t safety caps.” Oz opened one and shook a capsule into Jobe’s palm.

  Jobe put it in his mouth and picked up the glass of water with both hands.

  Oz shook another pill out and Jobe repeated the unsteady process.

  “Mr. Jobe,” he said. “We printed the photos you were so anxious to get your hands on. Guess what we found?” He placed another pill in Jobe’s hand.

  Jobe swallowed the pill without answering.

  Qualls slapped the photos of Laurel and Jason down on the table top.

  Oz craned his neck to look at the pictures. “Your wife is a fine looking woman, Mr. Jobe. I can see why you’d pay so much to keep these photos out of the scandal rags.”

  “But why did you use such a high-priced errand boy?” Qualls asked. “Phillip Luka is an assassin. How did he get involved in your plan to keep Laurel out of the gossip columns?”

  “Does it matter who I hired to facilitate the transaction for me?” He sipped more water.

  “No sir, it doesn’t,” Oz said. “What seems odd is that you paid one hundred thousand dollars for pictures of your wife and her lover when their liaison was common knowledge among your staff and the people who work in the spa. Mrs. Jobe isn’t exactly subtle with her trysts, is she?”

  Jobe swallowed. “My wife is a very young woman,” he said deliberately.

  “And a young woman has needs?” Qualls asked.

  Jobe nodded.

  “When did you first become aware of the affair?” Oz asked.

  Jobe sat back and gave him a long look across the table. “My wife’s chauffer, Javier first brought it to my attention. I asked where she was and the poor boy turned the brightest shade of red. I thought he was going to faint right in front of me. About a month later, Jason Best came to me himself and admitted the affair. He thought Laurel was in love with him and would leave me.”

  “And you don’t think she intended to leave you?” Oz asked.

  “Good heavens, no.” Jobe chuckled at that, triggering a coughing spasm. He sipped more water and sat back with a tight little smile on his lips.

  “Because, sir,” Oz said, “isn’t it true that your wife has had numerous affairs over the years?”

  “It’s entirely my fault,” he said. “I’m a busy man. I haven’t given Laurel the attention she deserves.”

  “And when Jason Best told you she was leaving you it didn’t concern you at all.”

  The old man shook his head. “Haven’t you ever heard of pre-nuptial agreements? Ours is iron-clad. If she leaves, she gets nothing, including custody of our son.”

  Oz and Qualls exchanged a glance.

  “So you knew she wouldn’t leave you for some boy-toy?” Qualls asked.

  Jobe coughed and nodded his head.

  “So why did you kill Jason Best?” Oz asked.

  “Because he threatened to sell his story to the highest bidder. I couldn’t have the Jobe name dragged through the gutter like that. I have my son to think of.”

  Oz nodded. “That makes sense. And you’re ready to drag the Jobe name through the mud and pay for your crime by spending the rest of your life in prison.”

  “I confessed,” he said. “There won’t be a trial. I am willing to pay for my crime.”

  “Even if it means that you won’t see your son again?” Oz gave him a disbelieving look. “If you love that little boy so much, how come you’re willing to rob him of his father?”

  Jobe leaned back in the chair and closed his lips firmly.

  #

  Micki was out of clean things to wear. She needed to go to her apartment for more clothes, or venture down to the laundry room in Oz’ apartment building. She reasoned that the laundry room was likely to be less crowded during the daytime than if she waited for Oz to
return in the evening.

  Sorting through her purse, she found a handful of change and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans. Since she had less than half a load to wash, she decided to add a few of Oz’ things to economize. Her mother never washed anything less than a full load and had drummed that into Micki’s head repeatedly.

  She located Oz’ laundry hamper, grinning to herself. I must really love this guy. She was separating his towels from the socks and boxers, when a familiar odor met her nostrils. It was hard to place, but she’d smelled it before. Her hand lit on a blue tee shirt, stained with black and red smudges and held it to her face. It smelled of stale cigarettes and loud perfume designed to reach through an ocean of rankness. Last night, she’d first met this particular combination. It was when Oz said he’d gone out and then denied it just this morning.

  An immediate image of Fawn jumped to mind. Fawn, of the big bosoms and pouty mouth. Had Oz really broken up with her or was he still sneaking out to meet her in the dead of night? A wave of nausea washed over her. Her gut twisted with pain that was physical and emotional. How could he deceive her?

  Micki stuffed everything back into Oz’ laundry hamper and rose to her feet. She washed her hands twice to rid them of the stench she imagined clung to them.

  She carefully dried her engagement ring and watched it sparkle in the bathroom light. Would Oz cheat? She’d heard lots of men did, but Oz was... Oz.

  But then, she’d broken up with him and he’d replaced her with a sex bomb. Maybe his tastes in women had changed. Maybe he wanted something more exotic than plain little Micki Vermillion from the neighborhood. A little something on the side.

  #

  “I have a match for you, Oz.” Aida hailed him as he was heading out. “The man in your chauffeur’s photo is a cousin with a rap sheet.”

  “That’s the guy.” Oz stared at the mug shot of a younger version of the man in the park photo.

  “Isn’t that what I just said?” Aida gave him an eye roll with her hands on her hips.

  “Forgive me, Aida,” he said with a grin. “I forgot who I was talking to.”

  “Your guy is Israel Soto and he’s been a bad boy all his life.” She pulled up his rap sheet on her computer. “His juvenile record was sealed, but I talked to a buddy in the gang task force and he said Israel was a tool. Mostly assault and those gang-related charges where nobody will roll over on the guy who shot you so your boys can do a drive-by on his family. Israel was given a choice of enlisting or serving time and he enlisted. No actual record of crimes as an adult.”

  “Sounds bad enough to me,” Oz said. “I wonder what he was doing in the park on the same day Laurel was having a get together with Jason Best.”

  “Laurel’s rendezvous with Jason was pretty out in the open,” Aida said. “I thought you told me she usually met with her trainers in the penthouse. Why would she go from a private, safe haven to a public place where their tryst could be witnessed by anyone walking by?”

  Oz looked at Aida. “You’re brilliant.”

  “That’s true,” she said.

  #

  Micki had been upset all afternoon. After finding the shirt with the suspicious odors, Micki had spent the rest of the day in a stew. She thought there must be some plausible explanation, some reason that Oz would sneak out in the middle of the night and return smelling like a cat house, or how Micki imagined a cat house would smell. There might be some explanation, except that Oz had lied about it.

  If it was innocent, why did he lie?

  Maybe it wasn’t Fawn. Maybe it was some other woman who rubbed up against him. He was a cop. But he wasn’t working the streets any more. He was assigned to the case that had started with her car windows being shot out. But that had been Luka’s doing and he was gone, wasn’t he?

  Micki paced around Oz’ apartment and fretted. Her gaze kept returning to the diamond ring on her finger, and her thoughts to the one unanswerable question. Why did he lie?

  When she heard his key in the door, Micki stood waiting with her arms folded across her chest. “What have you been doing today?”

  “No kiss?” He smiled and approached her, planting a kiss on her upturned face.

  She watched him shed his jacket and loosen his tie.

  “Why didn’t you answer me about what you did today?”

  He turned and gave her an appraising look. “I thought that was just something to say. I didn’t think you wanted a blow-by-blow replay of my day.”

  She felt her jaw twitch. “I’m just interested in how you spend your time now.”

  Oz came back to stand in front of her. “Okay, what’s up?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “Do you have any change?”

  “Sure, Babe.” He dug all the coins out of his pockets and poured them into her palms. “Is this enough? If not, there’s more on top of the dresser.”

  “I need to wash clothes. I’ll get your dirty laundry and put it with mine.” Micki headed for the bedroom.

  “No, wait,” he said. “We don’t need to do that now. Let’s go out to dinner.”

  “I could just run a load before we go,” she said. “I’d hate to be doing this late at night.”

  “I’ll do it later. I’m really hungry so let’s grab a bite first.” He shrugged into his jacket again.

  “Right now?” Micki felt a knot forming in her stomach.

  “Sure, we can beat the crowd.” Oz wore his worried frown.

  “Whatever you want,” she said.

  She allowed him to draw her out into the hall and lock the door behind them. She gazed into Oz’ eyes as he managed a smile.

  He really sucks at this lying thing.

  #

  Oz tried to make small talk in the diner, as they waited for the waitress. He was sitting beside her in the booth, but she wasn’t looking at him. Most of the time, her gaze was fixed on her engagement ring. That wasn’t a bad thing, but she looked sad. He wanted to know what was wrong, but then again, he didn’t.

  He promised himself that he’d get rid of the stupid shirt with Fawn’s perfume on it and never lie to Micki again. He’d only done it to spare her feelings. No, he’d done it to keep her from raising questions about his foray into the night.

  He’d been kicking himself ever since he’d answered the phone to Eddie. Why had he felt compelled to rush to Fawn’s rescue, anyway? Oz knew the answer to that. He’d felt guilty about dumping Fawn so unkindly when Micki reappeared in his life. He’d never told Fawn he loved her. He’d never led her to believe there would be a future with him, but still, he knew she’d fallen for him and he hadn’t meant to hurt her. He knew how that felt.

  Micki ordered a cup of soup.

  “Is that all you’re eating?” he asked.

  “I’m not very hungry,” she said.

  “Oh, well, me too, then,” he said.

  She turned to him with a disbelieving look on her face. “I thought you were starving?”

  “Yeah. Give me a cheeseburger with the soup.” He handed the waitress the menu and stretched his arm around Micki’s shoulders. “Hey,” he said, giving her a little squeeze. “I love you.”

  She made eye contact with him and her lips twitched in something that was supposed to be a smile.

  No, I absolutely can not go through losing her again.

  Once back at the apartment, Oz headed for the bedroom. “Let me get my laundry and we can go to the basement.”

  He stuffed the shirt behind the dresser and brought his hamper with him.

  She was looking at him funny when he came back into the living room. He thought she looked angry, but then again, she looked sad.

  He kissed her forehead and inclined his head towards the door. “Let’s get it over with.” They rode down in the elevator in silence.

  When they entered the laundry room only a couple of dryers were spinning.

  Micki threw her clothes in a washer and stood back. “Here, let me help you.” She reached for his hamper and opened the lid. She spread e
verything on the sorting table. “Let’s see, you can toss your jeans in with my darks and what else? Oh, yes, where is that blue shirt you wore with these jeans. Don’t tell me it got lost.”

  Her eyes were filled with sadness when she looked up at him. No, it was disappointment.

  “Maybe it wasn’t dirty,” he said. “I probably stuffed it back in a drawer.”

  “I forgot the detergent,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” Micki headed out the door, stopping to look back over her shoulder at him.

  “Wait,” he said. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Stay here with our stuff,” she said. “I’ll just be a minute.” She turned and ran out of the room.

  Oz waited and after twenty minutes returned to the apartment.

  Micki had taken her purse and she was gone.

  Oz stared at the bathroom mirror where she’d left him a message in lipstick.

  Liar.

  #

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Oz was in a state of shock. She’d left him. Micki knew about Fawn and she knew he’d lied about seeing her.