Full Bodied Murder

by Christine E. Blum

  Are all the women to be deployed in your mission, N9063M?

  Hell no! They are under strict instructions to remain aboard the aircraft at all costs. Just the canine and myself will be in pursuit.

  I could hear talking and boos in the background. And then I heard:

  I’m coming with you, tell them! I’m the reason we’re doing this, if I hadn’t called by the time you realized Halsey was gone, she’d be halfway to Mexico!

  That was Marisol, have fun trying to stop her Jack.

  The transmission ended, but I could only imagine how the conversation was continuing off the airwaves. Jack had said he had three women aboard, I know Marisol was one and guessed that the other two were Peggy and Cassie. Aimee was probably working.

  And maybe Joe was driving Sally. With her shoulder, she would have trouble boarding a small plane.

  I listened longer and heard Jack in communication with the Coast Guard in the Marina attempting to explain the situation.

  I know exactly where they’re going to be, Ali Baba, er, our informant caved and came over to the good guys’ side. I’ll read you coordinates.

  I heard Jack say. It was time for me to get out of this car and into the Marina.

  * * *

  The buzzing sounds of driving and car horns that I’d been hearing were now gone and replaced with other ambient noises. It sounded like we were driving over wood planks; I could hear a bell ringing in the distance, a repetitive crashing noise, and the sound of the rain which had gotten heavier and was now accompanied by gusting wind. I smelled salty sea air.

  All of those stimuli brought my brain back to reality. The chloroform that I remembered being used to knock me out was finally wearing off. When the car came to a stop, I closed my eyes, afraid of what was coming next. I heard a woman say, “I’ll get rid of the car and bring the cash, you go ahead and look for them.”

  I know that voice.

  I heard a chirp and then the trunk door rose evenly on its hydraulics. I blinked several times to get my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

  “Good, you’re awake. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to carry you. You’re my ticket out of here and the fact that you’re mobile makes it much easier.”

  I could see that we were on the Playa del Rey side of the jetty. I was close to the Marina!

  She tied a rope around my waist and gave it about a five-foot lead, then tied the other end around herself and sliced off the extra length with her knife. When I saw a light blink twice just off shore, I knew that I was running out of options.

  Chapter 35

  “Inez, please, what about your kids? You said your mother is sick, who’ll take care of them?” I asked in my best Catholic guilt voice.

  “Hah! You believed that crap? Maybe I should take up acting, I had the whole street roped into my story and making donations to the cause.”

  That thought had dawned on me more than once but I’d pushed it back, ashamed. Now, I felt like an idiot and it was time to go on the offensive.

  “But you couldn’t sustain it, Inez, could you? Did Rosa catch you depositing drugs? Is that why you killed her?”

  “What? I didn’t kill her!”

  “Yes, you did, you and Ray needed her gone so that you could move into her house and deal out of your own backyard. She wasn’t budging, so you decided to take matters into your own hands. Is that another knife from the collection? Just like the one that you used to kill her?”

  I knew that it was.

  “And those red shoes, last time I saw them they were coming toward my head from the Chill Out’s roof.”

  “The shoes were a gift from Marisol, one of the few donations I liked. I was up there refilling my drug stash. A shipment was late so Zeke had to go out on the street to buy it. We’d let go of our shop so he left it on the yogurt place’s roof. We didn’t think that anyone would go looking up there twice. But nosy you just couldn’t resist.”

  “And this two-hundred-dollar knife you’re holding, was that up on the roof too?”

  “Hell no, I found a whole set of them in one of the trash bins on Rose.”

  “How convenient.”

  “Listen, Rosa was back on drugs, see, everything was just too much for her. That family got it bad. I’d tried to get Ray to help her, they were really close as kids, but he’s just as bad, spends money the minute he gets it. Both their parents had been addicts, it was in their blood. The two of them were ruining my little business.”

  “What business?”

  “The local dealership. I may as well tell you since we’ll be in Mexico before you can talk to anyone. I have drugs brought up to me here from my cousin and his friends in Mexico. I pay them with the money I’ve collected from my customers and then deliver the drugs.”

  “How?”

  “In recycling bottles, all over the neighborhood. They leave the cash in one bottle, I take it and refill it with the drugs.” She smiled, proud of herself.

  “We have that many druggies in Mar Vista?”

  “I’m spread out over the Westside. In fact Ray was a customer, that’s how I met him. He decided that he wanted in and introduced me to his guys who were great at getting new business.”

  “Hold on a minute, let me call Forbes, they’ll want to do a cover story.”

  “Very funny. The boat’s drifting in, as soon as it gets close enough, we’re going to wade into it.”

  I watched the seaplane descend at exactly the place Jack had described. When it stopped skimming the water, I saw Jack drop a small anchor down to the bottom to hold it in place. The water in the marina channel was dead calm. He cut the engine and stood by the door with Bardot on her leash, ready to go. They both jumped down on the plane’s pontoon and then ran up the jetty toward the shore.

  I felt the tug at my waist as she made a move toward the water.

  “Rosa tried everything, changing her will to use as an incentive for Ray to keep supplying her, threatening calling the cops, and just telling the whole neighborhood about us. She really didn’t care what happened to her anymore, she’d given up.”

  “So sad,” I said. “I wish she had told her neighbors, they could have helped, something you didn’t do.”

  “You need to exchange those rose-colored glasses for ones with dark lenses and UV protection. The world you’re seeing doesn’t exist, missy.”

  “I still don’t get why Rosa needed to be gotten rid of.”

  “You got a hearing problem? I told you I didn’t kill her and Ray didn’t neither. She got in someone’s way but it wasn’t ours.”

  Despite the unfavorable conditions, a light went on in my head sending energy up and down my damp body.

  “Do you remember which house had the bin with the knives in it?”

  “The Tudor, and some knives are still there, I only took the one.”

  Of course.

  “Inez, you’ve got to let me go, I know who killed Rosa.”

  “No can do, you see all these people swarming? We don’t stand a chance of getting away without you.”

  “Then let me make a phone call, okay?”

  She hesitated and weighed her options.

  “Make it quick,” she said and I reached in my pocket for my cell. It was already wet.

  “Hello, Peggy? Listen to me very carefully.”

  * * *

  “Okay, I’ve enjoyed our little chat and games, but fun is fun and now it’s over. Get deeper into the water.”

  We waded in, and I saw that the drug boat had cut its motor and was drifting toward us. It was not easy to walk knee-deep in the water, a strong riptide was pulling us over to the jetty. Her cousin’s vessel was having similar problems.

  “We can’t get any closer, Inez, or we won’t be able to get out. You got to swim to us,” her cousin yelled. “We’ve already dropped the shipment in the rocks for Ray. Just come closer and toss us the money and we’ll disappear.”

  “We’re coming with you. Toss me a rope, we can’t keep our balance in this current,
” Inez called back.

  I could hear commands being shouted and saw a spotlight from a Coast Guard boat hanging just outside the breakwater illuminating the jetty. I watched Ray being cuffed and saw that Zeke had also been apprehended.

  A spotlight swung over to the boat and us.

  “You in the boat, drop anchor, we’ve got you covered,” a voice broadcast from the Coast Guard boat.

  “Cut the girl loose, it’s too hard to pull you both in the boat,” her cousin yelled.

  “She’s the only way we’ll get out of here,” Inez said.

  The Coast Guard was getting closer.

  Inez held the knife up in the air so that everyone could see it. She then grabbed me from behind and held it to my throat.

  “Halsey!” I heard Jack call and saw Bardot and him at the base of the jetty where it met the water. Bardot was trying to jump in and he was holding her back.

  “Uno, dos, tres,” shouted her cousin while engaging the motor.

  The boat spun around and the motor just barely missed chopping our heads off. One of the crewmen grabbed a gaff and caught part of the floating rope that was tying us together. The others quickly grabbed onto it and yanked us up onto the boat.

  “We’ll never be able to outrun the Coast Guard,” her cousin said. “Our best chance is to slip back into the marina channel and try and hide around one of the docks. Then if we have to jump ship we’ll be close enough to land to escape.”

  That all sounded good unless you had a sharp blade against your throat.

  “Whatever you need to do, do it fast. I’m freezing,” Inez screamed back.

  When we were rounding the tip of the jetty, two things happened: I saw Bardot go airborne and land onto the deck of the boat. She didn’t skip a beat and tore into Inez, forcing her to drop the knife. And I heard a splash and saw Jack swimming toward us.

  A Coast Guard vessel appeared and blocked the boat from exiting the marina. It had the momentum and would clearly crush our fishing boat. I struggled furiously with the rope that was tying my hands together so I at least had a chance of swimming to safety.

  One of the Mexican crewmen abandoned ship. Inez’s cousin turned the rudder as hard as he could, sending us straight for the rocks of the jetty. I felt the boat dip down heavily on the portside, sending me down to the floor. Sliding on the sandpaper-like surface of the deck was enough to fray the rope around my wrists. I quickly got free and dispensed of the one around my waist as well.

  Then I saw the reason our boat had almost capsized. Jack had pulled himself up over the gunwale and had overpowered Inez’s cousin. The last of the crewmembers jumped off but were picked up moments later by the cops.

  That left Inez. I looked over and saw that she was being pinned to the floor by Bardot. I couldn’t help myself. I went over and did the knockout count. While down I saw Jack’s big shoe step on the rope around her waist.

  “Take it all in, Inez, and enjoy because you will be spending a long time in prison,” he said.

  He then pulled me up and kissed me. Long. In the distance I heard applause and saw Peggy, Aimee, Marisol, and Sally clapping and waving from the jetty.

  I fought to push him away and when I did his whole face dropped.

  “Jack, Inez didn’t kill Rosa, she’s a drug dealer but that’s it.”

  “What?”

  “We’ve got to get back to Rose Avenue,” I yelled to all of them. “I’ll explain on the way,” I said to Jack.

  * * *

  “Wow, you’re sure about this?” Jack asked.

  We were riding in the back of a cop car, having persuaded the driver at the marina that we had a murderer to catch. The girls were also en route in Joe and Sally’s car.

  “Absolutely, it all fits. She suddenly came into what she believed was a lot of money, her husband showering her with gifts. Not long into their marriage, she sees him spending time at Rosa’s house talking to her. She pretends that she hasn’t looked at the photos on his camera but acts very stoic when I show her one of Rosa in her bra. And she discovers that the money faucet is in danger of being turned off. And the icing on the cake is that she’s left proof that the murder weapon is hers right out on the curb.”

  * * *

  We crept onto Rose Avenue without sirens or lights, hoping not to announce our arrival. The car pulled up in front of Peggy’s house and Jack, the cop, and Bardot went in. Peggy had told me where she hid the extra key. I stayed behind to retrieve the evidence.

  I’d placed the knife set with its wooden block on the coffee table, and we were staring at it when Aimee, Sally and Joe, Marisol, and Peggy walked in. Two of the slots for larger knives were empty. I put the missing knife that we’d taken from Inez and bagged on the table next to the block. Augie was bringing the other one from Rosa’s murder evidence collection.

  “You sure they’re home?” I asked Sally.

  “I saw them both milling around a few minutes ago. Carl goes to bed early, maybe she has as well,” Sally explained.

  “Nonetheless, I think we should go over there; she could be halfway to Atlantis by the time Augie gets here,” Peggy said.

  “So she’d told you about her senior year college Greek adventure?” I asked. “She told me when we made our photo study of the Marina. I remember thinking to myself, ‘who are you and what have you done with Cassie.’ ”

  “She told us all, we were captivated when she first told us the story at Wine Club, as I’m sure you were,” Sally said. “But then I had the wine store order a bottle of Gavalas for her birthday, it’s from one of Santorini’s best wineries. When I gave it to her, she didn’t say a thing, she’d clearly never heard of it.”

  “But she talked about the great wineries on the island, how could she not have known it?” I think I know why. . . .

  “Because she never went there. I did a little checking and it seems that she’s said she did a lot of things that she really didn’t do,” Peggy said.

  “We thought that she just craved the attention, you know how she likes to be in the spotlight,” Aimee said to me.

  “Well, this is probably the one occasion when she doesn’t want to be the star.”

  Ironically it was at that moment that Cassie walked into Peggy’s house.

  “Good evening everybody,” she slurred. “Van Cleef, Arpels, and myself thought we’d drop in.”

  The dogs were dressed in identical silk lounging robes and Cassie wore the kimono I’d seen on the mannequin in her living room.

  “Have a seat, Cassie,” Peggy said, getting up and locking the front door.

  I saw Jack go in the other room presumably to tell Augie that we had Cassie with us.

  “We’ve been wondering about a few things, Cassie, would you mind providing some clarity?” I said.

  “Color, cut, carat, and clarity, the four important Cs of diamonds.”

  “She loco in the cabeza,” Marisol whispered to me. That was the first time I’d heard her speak Spanish.

  Sure, she’d had a few but something else was going on, maybe pills or some kind of meltdown.

  “You want some water, Cassie?” I asked, motioning with my head to Aimee to get some.

  “I want some wine!”

  “Not tonight, honey, you’re going to be asked a lot of questions later and you’ll need to think straight,” I cautioned.

  “Should we get Carl?” Sally asked.

  “Hah! Good luck finding him, I couldn’t. He’s cheating on me again!”

  This was getting sloppy.

  “This is the night he rehearses with the barbershop quartet, dear. I can see his car pulling in now,” Joe said, opening a few slats of Peggy’s shutters.

  “Cassie, did you really think that Carl was having an affair with Rosa? You saw the photos of every house in the neighborhood and then the flyers,” Sally said.

  “Yeah well, by then it was too late. I thought that I’d landed in wonderland when I married Carl. I sure worked like hell to get there. But a year and a half later he�
�s running around with the single woman across the street and suddenly I can’t buy whatever I wanted. I knew Carl had money, I assumed that he was spending it on that bitch.”

  I winced at her words. Poor Rosa.

  “So did you plan this, Cassie?” I asked.

  “No, I went over to tell her to keep the hell away from my husband!” she shouted, scaring the two dogs in her lap.

  “But then I saw these sweet, sweet, sweethearts, and I knew that they needed the love and attention only I could provide. She took someone I loved from me and I decided to take something she loved from her. Quid. Pro. QUO!”

  Van Cleef and Arpels, or whatever they were called before, jumped off Cassie and ran and hid behind Bardot.

  “Honey, have you taken your pills today?”

  I gave Sally a questioning look.

  “Bipolar.”

  “So is that when you killed her?” I asked. I had turned on the recorder on my cell and placed it beside her. She hadn’t noticed.

  “Well, what would you do? You know, that was one of the knives in the set that I’d never used.”

  “And the fire in Peggy’s house?”

  “That was me, she was starting to get suspicious of Inez and I wanted to push her further in that direction.”

  “The rats in my shop?” Aimee asked timidly.

  “I figured that you’d pin that on Ray and Inez. I hated leaving a perfectly good bag of weed up there.”

  “Halloween night, my pool?” I asked.

  “It was just fake blood, don’t be such a wuss!”

  We saw the lights from a couple of police cars as they approached.

  “Cassie, I’m going to get Carl now, you just sit quietly and calm,” Sally soothed.

  “Yes, Daddy; bring my daddy.”

  “Can I have the Chihuahuas?” Marisol whispered to me.

  Epilogue