by Gillian Zane
“I don’t feel good.” I wasn’t trying to not be her friend, I didn’t feel good. My head was spinning and I felt nauseous. I pressed my head against the cold glass of the passenger side window and tried to not look at anything. I noticed a girl walking from behind the dumpsters next to the store. She was scantily clad, her clothes barely covering her large body. She didn’t have the body for the clothes she wore. It looked almost indecent, they were so small. I guess it let men know exactly what they were getting. She turned her head in our direction and I gasped. I knew her.
“Isn’t that?” I managed to croak out.
“Beverly fucking Barnes, damn,” Lauren began to laugh.
Now I could pinpoint what those dark splotches were on Beverly’s aura.
“You saw Lauren and Cassandra the night Cassandra disappeared, didn’t you, Beverly?” I asked. Troy looked at me questioningly, but didn’t stop me.
“They surprised me, I didn’t expect them.” She was still avoiding looking at us.
“They caught you in a delicate situation,” I hedged.
“It was embarrassing.” Her cheeks flushed red. “If they told anyone, if it got back to Jerome’s father, he would take him away.”
Was that what had driven her to murder? But then, why Pete? Her secret career. All to keep it from her boy’s father?
“I’ve quit that life, I got out. I have a real job now.” She gestured to her glamorous surroundings with a frown.
“You were selling sex, Beverly?” Troy asked and Beverly looked like she had just swallowed a whole chicken. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hands had flown to her neck.
“Can we not do this here?” she pleaded.
“We can go down to the station,” Troy interjected.
“No, please, I get off in an hour. I have to pick up my little boy. Please, I need this job.”
“Is there someone that can relieve you? You know you need to tell us something, Beverly.” Her flushed cheeks drained of color as she blanched. She made a phone call and got someone from the back to relieve her. The man walking up the aisle looked astonished to see a police officer in his store.
“What’s going on?” His name tag read Vince the Manager.
“We think Ms. Barnes here has vital information in a homicide investigation, we would like to speak to her in private,” Troy said.
“Yes, of course. Beverly and I are the only employees here today. Take them to the break room, Bev.” He squeezed her shoulder to reassure her and Beverly shot him a grateful look.
“What aren’t you telling us, Beverly?” Troy rounded on her the moment I closed the door. She shot a panicked look at me, but I only shook my head.
“Snitches dig ditches,” she whispered, like a child.
“When Lauren and Cassandra spotted you at the gas station, what happened?” I asked.
“You think she’s really a hooker?” I asked frowning as my words came out slurred. My vision was getting a little fuzzy. What in the world had I drank?
“Oh Beverly, I can’t believe it’s you!” Lauren was out of the car, her voice all high-pitched and fake. “It must be my lucky day, because boy, do I have a job for you.”
“I’m not helping you with anything, Lauren.” Beverly’s voice was so low, or was my hearing going out? This was such a weird feeling. I felt quite detached from my body.
“She wanted me to help her with something.” A thin trickle of sweat dripped down Beverly’s forehead. I watched it with fascination as it pooled in her furrowed brow and then freed itself to dribble down past her eye.
“Help her with what?” Troy urged her on.
“I—I—I can’t.” Beverly’s hands were shaking, and she gripped the back of a chair to hide them, but I noticed. I seemed to be noticing everything.
“Why can’t you?” Troy asked.
Lauren had threatened her. Repeatedly. She would tell her ex. She would tell the cops it was her. I saw it all. Even the texts. Lauren would randomly show up here, not saying anything, only smiling at her like she would love to shout to the world that Beverly was a former hooker, and helped hide a—
“I think I need a lawyer.” Her voice shook with her statement.
“You helped her with Cassandra, didn’t you?” My voice came out scratchy and rough. My head felt tight, almost like I was about to get a headache, if that was possible. I tried to concentrate on Beverly, to get more from her, but my vision blurred as I tried to read her. It was usually so easy. Reading Liam’s father had been like second nature. I had delved into his soul and read his sins as if they belonged to me. This was like swimming through molasses.
“I didn’t want to; she said she would call Jayden. She knew. She knew he was Jerome’s father. She was friends with him. If I didn’t help her, she would call him and tell him I fucked guys for money.”
“Help her do what, Beverly?” Troy urged.
“No, I can’t. They’ll take Jerome away. I have to go, I have to get back to work.” She looked at both of us, finally meeting my eyes. She hoped we would let her go, let her insistence work. There was no way Troy was letting her go now.
“Did you know Cassandra was a police officer?” he asked in a low whisper. “If you did anything to her, they’ll throw you in a jail cell for the rest of your life. You’ll never see your kid again. But, if Lauren held something over your head, if she forced you to help her…the DA might want to make a deal.”
“A deal?” Beverly squeaked.
“Tell us who killed Cassandra, Beverly.”
“Lauren killed her.”
“Grab her legs, you dumb fuck.” I knew who the voice belonged to, but my brain wasn’t registering correctly.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong with her?”
“Just grab her legs, get her out of the car. She can’t hold her liquor.”
“Where are we, Lauren? I thought you said we were going to a party?”
“Just shut-up and help me, you know what’ll happen if you don’t help me do this, so help me, Beverly.”
I tried desperately to wake myself up. I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. There was pressure on my legs and I was yanked and pulled, my head slamming into something hard, shocking me into consciousness, my eyes flew open. A round face hovered over me.
“Bev," I groaned.
“Lauren, she’s awake.”
“Not for long.” There were footsteps, but my eyes were sliding closed again. A hard slap across my face and my eyes shot open. Lauren was looking down at me. Her face was stoic, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
I looked left and right, trying to get a bearing on where I was. I recognized where I was immediately. This had been one of our favorite places to go as teens. It was secluded, well off the road. No one ever went back there. We would sit along the river and drink beer that Pete stole from his dad’s stash.
“Why—" My throat hurt and I was losing consciousness again. The world was spinning in big rich circles.
“You fucked it all up, as usual, Cassandra. Couldn’t keep things the way they were…”
I barely felt the blow that ended it.
“It was Lauren who hit her? What did she use, a bat?” I asked. I placed my hands on the sides of my head and massaged my temples. Troy looked over at me concerned.
“Yes,” Beverly said, in a voice so low I could barely hear it. “She had it in her trunk. She hit her so many times. But her face never changed. I started to cry and she told me I was next if I didn’t shut up. Then she made me help.”
“Help with what? Did you hit Cassandra too?” Troy asked menacingly.
“Oh no! She made me help her carry her to the river. She made me strip her down. Oh God!" Her voice cut off and she braced herself on the chair. I wanted to feel bad for her. But anyone else would never have gotten in that car with Lauren. Anyone else would have seen what the hell was going on and called the police.
“You threw her in the river?” Troy asked.
“Yes, and she ma
de me take her clothes. I threw them away the moment she dropped me off. There was so much blood. It got everywhere.” Beverly was crying now, great big hiccupping sobs. Her face was red as an apple, and her eyes were all buggy. I felt sick to my stomach.
“You’re going to have to come down to the station,” Troy said. By Beverly’s own admission, she was an accessory to a brutal murder. She would be lucky if she got off of this charge, but she might. If she agreed to testify against Lauren, since there wasn’t any physical evidence and they wouldn’t find a body, Beverly could get a deal. They could maybe find the clothes, which would hopefully provide physical evidence to corroborate her story. Evidence that pointed to Lauren. My killer.
I finally had the answers.
I had been looking for these answers for so long, but instead of feeling like I had accomplished something, I felt empty. I leaned against the table and closed my eyes, taking deep breaths.
“Cas, you want to come down to the station?” He was asking because he would have to transport Beverly directly there.
“No. I can’t. This took a lot out of me. I have to go home,” I said in a strained, tired voice.
“I can’t just leave you here.” There was real worry in his voice, but excitement too. We had solved the case. We finally figured out who killed me- Cassandra Mercier. After all this time. And all I wanted to do now was rest.
“I’ll be fine, I’m going to call someone,” I lied, holding up my phone.
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure. I can’t, I can’t be around that much energy at the precinct,” I lied again.
“Let me wait for your ride, then.”
“No,” I said with more force than I intended. “Take care of her. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, alright,” he repeated and motioned for me to walk ahead of him out of the store. He had a grip on Beverly’s arm.
I watched him put Beverly in the back of the squad car, expecting to feel some charge of energy, some relief to this aching weariness that had overcome me. But, nothing. There was no karma being delivered. Tears were streaming from the woman’s eyes and a few passing pedestrians had stopped to gawk. The manager had come out. He had a look of pain on his face, as if he was torn about something. I couldn’t read him. I was too tired. Too overwhelmed with what had happened. I could only assume he was contemplating firing her. Troy had mentioned a homicide investigation and Beverly was being hauled out and put in the back of a police car. Didn’t take a genius to come to the right conclusion.
“She’s a witness.” I found the air to speak to him. He looked at me with eyes wide.
“He doesn’t think she did it?” His voice wavered. Not many people are confronted with murder. No matter how prolific it is.
“No,” I lied. The manager nodded and went into the store.
When Troy saw me talking to the manager, he walked over, confirming what we said. Again that guilt, the black and white that was really shades of gray. A gray that I couldn’t afford to even contemplate because of what it meant. Of what it could do to me if I didn’t deliver.
But dammit, this wasn’t something I wanted to do. Not after he helped me solve my murder. After he had so delicately handled Beverly.
“Troy, wait.” I caught his arm as he walked to the cruiser.
“You need me to drop you off?”
“No, it’s not that.” I touched my finger lightly to his harness, turning off the camera. “Your Lieutenant. He suspects. You have to go to him. You have to tell him what they have on you. You have to stop gambling.” His face went white.
“I don’t know what you…”
“Yes, you do. This is the last time I can help you. Now you have to help yourself. You have to stop the gambling. You have to tell them what they’ve made you do.”
I didn’t let him respond. I turned on my heels and took off in a fast run/walk, making a direct path to the closest crossover. It was time to go back to Karma and face the music.
10
Pay the Piper
“What’s wrong?” Drake fell to his knees next to me. I had barely made the crossing. There was something wrong with me. My head pounded and I felt weak. It was like all the energy had drained from me. I could barely lift my arms. I fell the moment I crossed, the act of crossing over taking the last little bit of energy out of me.
Drake’s hands were on me, pulling me up and I felt the wash of his energy flowing over me, allowing me to get to my feet. Throwing my arms around his neck, he lifted me and began to carry me. I didn’t know where we were going. I didn’t care. I was finally feeling somewhat steady. Back to somewhat normal, even though I knew the moment he found out what I did things would blow up again. We couldn’t let Lauren get away with what she did.
A door slammed, and I smelled the woodsy aroma of Drake’s domain. The leather of the sofa, the musty scent of the books. We were in his office. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know this. He lowered himself on the sofa and I curled into him, my head on his shoulder, my arms around his neck.
“What happened, baby?” It was the first time he had used a pet name. Even though I felt like shit, I could have purred.
“I know who killed me, I know who killed you.”
“Damn, Cassandra, what did you have to do to find out? You look like death. Real death.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I’m drained. I just want to sleep.”
“What did you do?”
There was a commotion near the back of his office, and Drake’s body stiffened. I wanted to look, I wanted to see what was going on, but I couldn’t lift my head.
“She used up every ounce of her energy reserve,” a cold voice I knew too well said. “Pursuing her own selfish agenda. Like I suspected.”
“Technically she shouldn’t be able to do that as a Karma Operative.” Another voice joined the conversation. I didn’t know who this was, I had never heard this man’s voice before. I wanted to sit up, I wanted to confront Persephone, but it was beyond me. I had nothing. I felt like I was dying again.
“Well, she did it. She’s gone against her orders and investigated her own death, instead of pursuing the case assigned to her.”
“That’s not accurate, Persephone, the case she was assigned correlated with her own murder.” Drake held me closer.
“Oh, you don’t have a say in this, you’re screwing her, you have no perspective. If I would have known you would use this position to fool around with the operatives, I would have given it to someone else. And she should have maintained some self-control, even if her case correlated with her past. It’s her own fault, her own selfish pursuits.”
Drake didn’t reply. I wanted him to defend us. Defend what we were. That he wasn’t just screwing around with one of the operatives.
“When I get rid of this one, I better not catch you screwing another one of these operatives.” Her cold voice had gotten closer. My body shifted as Drake laid me gently on the sofa before getting to his feet and facing his mother. There was the sound of muffled words that I couldn’t make out.
“You ungrateful pig,” Persephone’s voice shot off.
“You aren’t taking her anywhere.”
“You forget who’s in charge here.” There was humor in her voice like this entire situation was funny to her. “Wake up, Cassandra.”
She finally got my name right as I felt a jolt of energy hit me, a jolt I assumed was from her. My body came back to life, my eyes shooting open and I sat upright on the sofa. Warm tendrils wrapped around me, rejuvenating me but holding me in place, it felt like a rope had formed around me.
“You have been caught not following protocol, pursuing information that has been deemed unauthorized, and not accomplishing your assigned tasks. You intentionally let your case subject go with a warning. You intentionally used your position on that case to investigate your own death. You lack self-control and common sense. Just like I predicted. You are to be demoted.” Her smile was cruel. Drake looked from her to me, panic f
lashing across his face.
“Like you predicted?” I asked, but the suspicion I felt deep in my gut knew the answer.
“Who do you think put you on that latest case? I knew you would be tempted to break the rules. I knew you did not have the good intentions of this department in mind. If this is not proof of a bad employee, I do not know what is.” She looked to Drake like he would agree with her. He only shook his head like he couldn’t understand what her angle was.
“You set me up to fail,” I accused.
“And fail you did. Now you will take your demotion with grace, or suffer the consequences.”
“I won’t let you do this, Persephone,” Drake said.
“You have no choice,” she snarled and looked at the man accompanying her. And while she was distracted, Drake lunged for her. All it took was a wave of her hand and he froze in place, his entire body rigid like mine. His eyes were wide, his face drained of color. He was powerless against her. She was a goddess. There was nothing he or I could do.
“Don’t, Drake,” I mouthed at him, shaking my head. I didn’t want him to get in trouble either.
“I want her as far down as you can get her,” Persephone told the man. He nodded and stepped forward, pulling a device from his pocket. He held it up to my eye and there was a beeping sound. He frowned at his scanner device.
“What’s wrong?” Persephone asked.
“I can’t send her too far, she’s a Class E.”
“That’s ridiculous, she’s a human, like the rest of the operatives here.” Persephone grabbed the device from him, walked to me and tried to scan me again.
“That’s what it says here.” The man was looking over the goddess’s shoulder and pointing at something on the device.
“Well, you have to do something with her. I want her out of Karma right now, and I don’t want her to go to anywhere nice. She needs to pay for what she’s done. I need to find out what in Hadean is going on here!” Her voice was booming, and I winced as the decibels went a little too high.
“The Hall of Records is the only place I can think of,” the man shrugged.