Alive After Friday (Sandy Reid Mystery Series)

by Rod Hoisington

  “Is that a question?”

  “Have you seen him lately?”

  “I don’t believe any of this. Why do they have someone from Park Beach down her snooping around?”

  Sandy tried not to react. “Who says I’m from Park Beach?”

  “Your license plate.”

  That was enough; Sandy knew she had to get out of there. She didn’t like being on the defensive like that. Interviewing a neighbor is one thing. Confronting an antagonistic suspect is something else. The situation could only get worse. “I’m not permitted to say.”

  “You aren’t permitted to tell the truth, yet you’ve no trouble coming out with lies.”

  “Sorry I bothered you.” Sandy stood to leave.

  Tonya reached under her blouse and withdrew a handgun from her waistband. “Sit back down and empty your handbag out on the coffee table. Let’s see who you really are.”

  A gun was the last thing Sandy wanted to see. Much easier to bluff when a gun isn’t part of the scene. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and pointed to the gun. “Tonya, you just committed a federal offense.”

  Tonya’s face snapped into a frown. The hand with the gun fell to her side and she stepped back.

  June whispered, “What’s she talking about?”

  Sandy answered, “Felons are prohibited from possessing a firearm.”

  Tonya looked up and squeezed her eyes shut. “Shit! You’re the law. Jesus, I just pointed a gun at a badge!”

  “Put the gun down on the coffee table and sit over there.” Sandy didn’t want to push this. The woman had a criminal conviction for manslaughter in her past. That could mean anything from a borderline accidental killing to intentional murder pled down to a lesser charge. And who knew what else she’d been up to. A gun changes everything. Sandy had wanted to talk with her while listening carefully; trying to match up the woman’s strong aggressive voice with the false nasal accent used by Jane that night in the Everglades. But this wasn’t the time. Forget about getting information. She just wanted to get a safe distance away from this woman and her gun before something went bad.

  Tonya’s face was still pale. “Look, I’m sorry...really sorry. I didn’t know you from Adam.” She carefully set the gun on the coffee table and pushed it away. “I didn’t know your game. I was just a woman trying to protect myself. I’ve a right to protect myself, don’t I?”

  “Not anymore with a gun, you don’t.” Sandy stared at the gun, a large automatic. She had learned to recognize a Glock but didn’t know enough to tell if it was a 9mm, the same as the Myra murder weapon. When the guns come out, it’s a job for law enforcement, and she didn’t want to screw up anything for Detective Dominic. “I’m leaving now. Sorry, I bothered you.”

  “So if you’re the law then Cal is in trouble, isn’t he? That’s why you’re coming around. Sure, he’s got a hot head but he’s a good kid. Where is he? He’s been missing. I want to help him.”

  Sandy shook her head slowly. “Can’t talk about him.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t go. Please stay long enough for me to explain something.” The woman had somehow transformed into someone soft, gentle and helpless. She had committed a federal offense by having that gun in her possession. Maybe she didn’t want that information to leave the room. And if she thought Boyd was in trouble, Sandy didn’t want to do anything to make matters worse. She walked quietly over to the door.

  “I don’t know what agency or department you’re with, maybe FBI. Just give me a chance to explain. My dad started that truck driving school. I took over after he died.”

  “That’s nice but I’m not interested.” Sandy knew if a woman that size came at her with or without a weapon she’d be broken into little pieces.

  “But it’s about Cal,” the woman went on. “He comes in one day. My school is just scratching along trying to make it and he shows up without a dime in his pocket...wants to be a driver. I work out a payment deal, so he can start training. Then I find him sleeping in his pickup, so I take him home...like a stray puppy. Things had been pretty lonely for me up until then, but that’s a story I’m sure you’ve heard before. Anyway, I let him stay with me. He’s a little rough around the edges but a good kid. Not what you’d call ideal, but it was happy time. Two needy people just minding their own business not hurting anyone.”

  Sandy had a million questions none of which she dared ask. She crossed her arms and waited by the door.

  “Things changed when he finished training and took that job at Bristol. He started spending less time with me, didn’t come home sometimes. I suspected another woman. Shit, I knew there was another woman. But you know how it is. I’d be mad and swear at him when he wasn’t there but as soon as he walked in that door...well, you know. Then again maybe you don’t. I guess I’m a sucker, but what are you going to do? Normal for me lately is sitting around waiting for him to show up.” She relaxed back in her chair and crossed her ankles. She looked over at Sandy who appeared impatient with her hand on the doorknob. “I’m explaining about my arrest, okay?”

  Sandy nodded, her hand resting on the doorknob. She’d wait. Tonya was calm now, the gun out of reach; perhaps she’d reveal something useful.

  “A year after high school, I took an office job working for this man who sold equipment to car dealers or something. Single and good-looking, the kind of man you dream about if you’re eighteen and lonely. Maybe he’d want to settle down some day, and I’d be there all ready and waiting for him. My dream. You know, girls do marry their bosses all the time. At least that’s what I thought.”

  “Go on.”

  “One night there was a party and he asked me to go with him. Asked me! Unbelievable. The party was at his apartment. Can you guess? There was no party, only him. He’d been drinking and it all got freaky. He wouldn’t let me leave. He’d have been all over me, if I hadn’t fought back. It got rough. Once I made it to the door and opened it, but he yanked me back. And then I pushed him—and I can push pretty hard. Anyway, he fell back over a chair and hit his head on a heavy glass table. Someone saw me running down the hall and called the cops. If I’d been lucky enough to get out that door before he fell, there’d have been no crime. But a man was dead.”

  June almost screamed, “But Tonya it’s so wrong! They shouldn't have sent you to prison!”

  “You’re not free unless the jury says you’re free. If the jury says manslaughter, then it’s manslaughter. I got five years.”

  No one said anything for a minute. Then Tonya said, “You know, you could overlook this gun thing if you wanted. I’ m not giving you any problem, am I? Got nothing to do with your case and some stolen money. Give me a break, okay?”

  Without a word, Sandy turned, apologized for coming in under false pretenses and went out quietly closing the door behind her.

  “Who do you think she was?” June asked.

  Tonya shrugged. “Trouble.”

  “Five years. That must have been hell.”

  “Yeah, you could say that.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  This situation is ridiculous and makes no sense to me. My wife embezzles money, and now I’m the one sitting in an interrogation room at the police station. I hope this doesn’t take much longer. I have to get out of here. I’ve landscaping jobs I must get to. I’ve a business to run. I’d hate to see Myra locked up, still she’s the one who should be sitting in jail right now. Maybe she already is. I don’t know where she is. I’ll have to ask the detective when he comes back in.

  They must think I was in on the embezzlement that would explain why I’m here. I didn’t even know about it until she told me last night at Gail’s place. Neither one of us could believe it. Why did she do such a stupid thing? We asked her, how much did you steal, Myra? Three thousand...six thousand? And she wouldn’t answer. Wouldn’t tell us. I’d have given her money, if it were an emergency. On second thought, maybe I wouldn’t give her more money. She was spending like mad, and I was certain it was ending up in he
r boyfriend’s pocket. I didn’t intend to support him.

  My wife takes a lover. Is that embarrassing or what? I hope I don’t have to explain all that to the police. I guess I’m the one to blame. She had a chance at a young guy—can I blame her for that? Wasn’t getting what a woman wants, so she went after it elsewhere. I was no competition for the exciting stud half my age. Gail said maybe life does begin at forty. If it began for Myra, it certainly died for me. Gail said Myra should toss him out—and send him over to her place for a couple of nights. Of course, she wasn’t serious and I thought her little joke was in bad taste.

  She was amazed Myra could keep the affair going. I disagreed. I believe Myra still has a lot going for her. I think she’s still attractive—at least physically. Yet, it’s as though she discovered a new woman in herself, and I don’t find that new woman attractive. To cheat on me is bad enough, but how obsessed must she be to bring her lover home and have me see the guy in the morning? Gail no doubt believes I’m a first-class wimp. I guess she’s right.

  Here comes the detective with papers in his hand and a stern look on his face. “How long is this going to take? I can’t hang around here all day, officer.”

  “Detective.”

  “Okay, how long...detective? I’ve already told you, I don’t know anything about any of this. Where’s my wife? She’s the one who should be sitting here answering questions.” Look at his face all screwed up. He doesn’t like me talking like that.

  “When did you last speak with your wife?”

  “I don’t know...a couple of days ago.”

  “Not yesterday?”

  Somehow, the detective knows I spoke with her yesterday evening. She texted me earlier in the day saying she was in big trouble, terribly shaken. Said she’d been discovered. The police were coming to take her away. What in hell was she talking about? She mumbled something incoherent about swapping accounts receivables around and depositing the difference into her own bank account. At first, I didn’t understand that she had stolen some money.

  “No, like I said, I haven’t spoken with her for a couple of days.” I’m not going to admit I had any knowledge about any of it.

  “You’re lying you not only spoke with her yesterday, you saw her yesterday.”

  Is he going to jump on every little thing? But he’s right. I was over at Gail’s place, when Myra called. Said she was coming over to talk to us. Gail told her she’d like to help, but what could she do. I was quite upset. I told her she was on her own.

  “Did you know your wife was about to be arrested for embezzlement?”

  “No, I was totally shocked.”

  “You’re lying. We know you did.”

  This wasn’t working out for me. What was I doing? This was getting me in deeper. “Look, detective, I’d nothing to do with her thievery, and you can’t prove that I did. Okay, I did know about the embezzlement. She told me last night.”

  The detective sat back in his chair. “That’s better. I can’t help you if you’re lying to me.”

  Yeah, like he’s here to help me. She begged me to help. I told her I didn’t know how to help, but if she wanted to confess, we’d get a lawyer and I’d stand by her. But she’d have to straighten up and stop all that foolishness with Boyd. At that moment, I didn’t know if I had it in me to just forgive and take her back. She was all distraught and I figured get her legal problem out of the way first, we could talk about what was going to happen to the two of us later. At the time she went home, she seemed uncertain about what to do.

  “You got life insurance on your wife?”

  Now is that any of his business? “Sure she has coverage under the group life insurance policy at work. Fifty thousand, I guess. What does life insurance have to do with embezzlement anyway?”

  “Ryan, you got a gun?”

  “No, I don’t. What’s that have to do with embezzlement?”

  “Why’d you skip town?”

  “I didn’t skip town. I drove up to our timeshare near Orlando. Things hadn’t been going well between us. I wanted to get away.”

  “Not going well, you say?” The detective leaned closer. “What’d you do then?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You must have been pretty angry with her.”

  “You’re damn right I was. I’m in business here and the publicity could ruin me.”

  “She’d just destroyed the business you worked so hard to establish. Man, that would be the final blow for me. No one could blame you for being mad at her.”

  “You can say that again. Even before stealing the money, she was ruining my life with her running around making a fool of herself. I needed to put a stop it.”

  “Tell me about that part, Ryan.”

  It really wasn’t any of his business. “It might be possible she was seeing someone else.”

  “Come on, she was out screwing guys. Real men wouldn’t put up with that.”

  “Not other guys. Just one man.”

  “So, the bitch was cheating on you, ruining your life and ruining your business.”

  “Calling my wife names is really out of line, detective. Are you permitted to talk like that?”

  “Well, look what she was doing to you, man. She really had it coming, if you ask me. No one could blame you for wanting to get rid of her.”

  “I should have done something earlier. I should have erased her like a bad dream.”

  “That’s exactly what you did, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You want to make a statement?”

  “I thought I had been making statements for the last hour.”

  “Ryan, did you kill your wife?”

  “My wife isn’t dead. Why would you say something like that to me?”

  “You gave her three shots from a 9 mil. And left her to die in a pool of blood. You think she survived that?”

  Ryan Cramer fell forward collapsing across the table.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  On the same evening that Ryan Cramer was being questioned by the police, Sandy was sitting on the edge of her hotel bed in West Palm Beach sipping a can of Coke from the vending machine down the hall and waiting for his call. Her tablet was open beside her. Her shoes were kicked off, but she was still dressed—waiting. That was the deal. He would come back from his timeshare near Disney, and she’d go with him to the police.

  Sitting there, she had tried to sum up the investigation so far and had reached the conclusion that everything was going to hell. Certainties had become questionable and the questionable had become unlikely.

  Myra had been her best guess for Jane. She wished they had met. Then she’d have known whether the woman had the nerve to be Jane. If her husband’s description was any gauge, it was doubtful. Behind the phony nasal voice used by Jane that night in the Everglades, was a strong, aggressive woman. A woman who thought things out and did things her way. “Pay up or don’t even think about your boyfriend living past Friday,” she had said. Sandy also remembered the woman didn’t take any crap from Dick. None of that sounded much like Myra. Boyd had called all the shots for her according to her husband. Except some person thought the extortion money was hidden in her house and was willing to kill for it.

  What if Myra had been lying to her husband and Gail all along, and she was actually the main culprit cleverly manipulating Boyd? What if she were actually Jane but now someone had taken her out of the action. Someone who knew what she had been up to with Boyd, searched her house for the four hundred grand and killed her when interrupted.

  Now Tonya had to be considered. To hear her tell it, she would have done anything for Boyd and would passively wait for him to show up and favor her with some attention. Was that consistent with such a strong, aggressive woman, one who had gone to prison for killing a man? Perhaps she was lying about her relationship with Boyd and had just been using him. So many questions and so few answers.

  Her phone buzzed. Chip said, “Hello, sweetheart, you okay down there?
I was hoping you’d be back up here by now.”

  “I’m fine. You know, when I heard your voice just now, I got a warm and cozy feeling.”

  “Well, bring all those warm and cozy feelings back up here. I really miss you. Why don’t you give it a rest for one day?”

  “I am, I am. Everything down here can wait. Tomorrow, I’m coming back up there. I was waiting for a phone call before phoning you.”

  “Perfect! Tomorrow is my last day on the FBI task force. I’ll be home early.”

  “Tomorrow it is. What’s happening tonight?”

  “Lonely around my house. Nothing to report from here. Just routine stuff. Sounds as though all the excitement followed you down there. How about you?”

  “Just now I was waiting for a murderer to call me,” she said.

  “Nice that you’re making new friends. You are joking aren’t you?”

  “Remember I told you about the guy whose wife was cheating on him? Well, now she’s dead and he’s suspected of killing her. He skipped town. He called me earlier. I told him to come back and I’d go with him to surrender. He agreed, but now it’s too late tonight, so I’m giving up and going to bed. The problem is they have an APB out for him and I didn’t tell the police I knew where he was and had talked to him.”

  “That’s serious, Sandy.”

  “I know, I should never have stuck my nose in and agreed to meet him. Geez, I could have been up there with you right now. I should have just called the police and told them where Ryan was. But that didn’t seem right. Anyway, the guy promised to come back in two hours...and here I am waiting for him. I don’t know what happened to him.”

  “Well, clear it up with whoever’s in charge, first thing tomorrow.”

  “That would be Detective Walt Dominic, West Palm Beach police. You know him? He’s the one in charge of the cheating wife's murder. He’s a real hard head. I’ve been trying to get close to him and he wants to swat me away like a pesky fly.”

  “Don’t know him. Are you getting any closer to Jane?”