My First Murder
Page 20
I blew smoke away from him. He was trying to be nice. “Yeah.”
“So why are you really up here?”
“On a murder, I told you. The chief assistant DA knows about it. Doyle Proctor?”
“Since when?” He was a disbelieving so-and-so.
“Today? Yesterday? I’m confused, what day is it?”
He didn’t answer me. “You talked to him about it?”
“Yes, and to Miguel Mirales who Proctor assigned to it.”
“So what’s the victim’s name?”
“Victims. Plural. At first, it was just Elizabeth Reynolds. Now you can add Tammy Bradley and maybe Willard Thompson—if he dies.”
“Elizabeth Reynolds the lawyer?”
“Yes. Did you know her?”
“She used to come to the jail when I was assigned there. She disappeared a couple of years ago.”
“Last year. Somebody killed her in Houston. That’s where I’m from.”
“Humph.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Sounds like a fishy story.”
“It’s the truth. Call Mirales. Call Proctor.”
“I will, or my supervisor will, tomorrow.” He stared at me with apparent skepticism.
“I’m telling you the truth. Honest.”
“So who was trying to kill you? Who was in that car?”
“I have my suspicions,” but I wasn’t going to tell him. “I don’t have any proof. It might not even be related. For all I know, it could be someone out to get Mr. Thompson and have nothing whatever to do with me.” I was blowing smoke.
“Why would someone want to kill Thompson?”
“How would I know? I never met the man before a few nights ago.”
“What was he on parole for?”
“Drugs.”
“Shit, lady! You’re in a lot of trouble then. You better start talking while you’ve got the chance.”
It’s unnecessary to say that fear clutched at my stomach again. “Why do you say that?”
“Got some serious problems with druggies in this town.”
“What town doesn’t?”
“You don’t understand. I heard that—” he suddenly realized who he was talking to, I guess, because he stopped and looked at me again, suspicion peeping out from under his eyelids. “If you know something, you’d better spill it, that’s all.”
“Not to you. I want a grand jury.”
“What?” His voice went up a pitch.
“I’m not talking to anybody but a grand jury. You heard me.”
“Are you nuts?”
“No, and I’m not talking anymore. Can someone drop me back at my motel? I need a bath, and I’m awfully tired.”
“I could arrest you. Take you into custody.”
“For what?”
“Discharging a firearm in a public place.”
“Go ahead.”
“Come on, lady. Just cooperate.”
“Arrest me or take me to my motel.”
“Shit!” he said, and yanked on the handle of his door. He got out, slamming the door behind him.
I watched as he went back and conferred with the others. After a few minutes, Lou returned to the car in the company of another deputy.
“We’re taking you to your motel,” he said disgustedly. “Get in the back seat.”
“What about my car?” I asked as I got out and then back in again.
“It’ll be towed to the county lot.”
“Somebody going to change my rear tire first?”
“Somebody will change your rear tire first,” he said tiredly. “You can pick it up when the investigation is over.”
“Great,” I said, hoping he’d hear the sarcasm in my voice.
“Cooperate, Miss, and we’ll see if we can’t get it back for you sooner,” the other deputy said over the back of the seat.
“I said I’d cooperate. I’ll talk to a grand jury.”
“Why won’t you talk to us?”
“It’s inadvisable, that’s all.”
“What about the DA?”
“Proctor? No.”
“No, I mean the real district attorney.”
“I dunno.” I was tired. I couldn’t think. How did I know whom I could trust? “Can’t I decide tomorrow?”
“So long as you don’t leave town.”
“I thought cops weren’t supposed to tell people that unless they were suspects.”
“Wrong. We’re not supposed to tell people to leave town.”
“Oh.”
“We’re only going to take you back if you promise to come to the district attorney’s office tomorrow morning. We’ll send a car to pick you up.”
“Okay, I promise, but I can tell you that I’m not talking to anyone except a grand jury.”
“We heard you already,” Lou muttered under his breath. The rest of the trip they were silent. So was I. We arrived at my motel at about two-thirty.
“You going to be okay?” Lou asked as I opened the car door. The anger that had been on his face earlier was replaced with a look of concern.
“Yeah. I’m going to barricade myself inside and get some sleep. Thanks for the ride. Sorry I gave y’all a hard time.” I smiled and shrugged at them as I shut the door.
They waited while I got my key in the lock and opened the door, and I waved at them as they drove off. I closed the door behind me and pulled a chair up and put it under the knob. I went over and dropped my purse on the dresser. Then I heard someone clear his throat. My heart went pitter-patter and flitting through my brain was the wish that I’d kept Willard’s gun. Then I turned around slowly to see who was there. It was Ben, big as life, standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
“I thought you said you were going to Austin to visit a friend,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I threw myself on him. Honest to God, I was so glad to see Ben, that I forgot my pain, ran to him, and threw myself on him. He wrapped his big arms around me, and we stood there until I was almost feeling secure again. Then he released me.
“You look like hell, Mavie,” he said as he led me over to the bed where we both sat down. “What’s going on? Someone been beating on you?”
I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to be held, to feel safe, to curl up next to him and go to sleep, drift off into unconsciousness. But he wasn’t going to let me do that, and I knew in my heart that I had things I was going to have to take care of in the morning with which he would be able to help.
I tugged off my shoes and sprawled out on the bed, leaning against the headboard, facing Ben. Now was the time to spill my guts, as Carl would say. Ben was the reinforcements, arriving in the nick of time. I told him the story from beginning to end, leaving out only the parts that weren’t really relevant but which might only serve to get me into unneeded trouble.
He listened attentively, making appropriate facial expressions when I mentioned the parts about the physical abuse to my body, and didn’t interrupt me unless I didn’t explain myself well.
When I was through, when I had told him who I thought was responsible, we discussed a game plan. With his help and his contacts, it would all be over the following day. I set my travel alarm for seven o’clock. My first priority was Elizabeth’s murder, and there was somebody I had to call to meet me for breakfast.
Then I took a hot bath, curled up in Ben’s arms, and went to sleep.
The next morning I made a phone call that confirmed my suspicions. Next, I phoned the sheriff’s department to tell them I had a ride to the courthouse. Then I made my breakfast-date call. We agreed to meet in the Tandy tunnel at nine o’clock. I had extracted a promise from Ben to do things my way, so he phoned some honest cops he knew for backup, and drove me downtown.
Before approaching the table at the Japanese Beef or Chicken Bowl, where we had agreed to meet, I went through the serving line for tea and a doughnut. And courage. Then I approached the murderer.
“Good morning,” I said.
/> “Good morning.”
“Sorry I had to meet you like this on such short notice, but I have to be in the district attorney’s office in a little while.”
“That’s all right. What can I do for you?”
“Give yourself up.”
“What?”
I narrowed my eyes like Ben does when he’s angry. “May I see your key ring?”
“My key ring?” Her eyebrows drew together. “Sure.” She pulled the string of keys from her purse and handed them to me.
I glanced down at her keys. The one I was looking for wasn’t there. “What’d you do with the safe deposit box key, Madge? Throw it away after you removed the evidence against Spencer?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said defiantly.
“Yes you do. You’re the only one who would know what I was talking about. You removed whatever it was that Elizabeth had taken to protect herself and her family against Vernon Spencer.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s probably hidden in your house, Madge. Some papers or files or something.” I hadn’t expected to get a confession out of her. I don’t know what I expected. She just sat there, staring at me with a deadpan look on her face.
“When you found out recently that Catherine had been writing to Elizabeth, and where, you staked out the post office until you finally saw her go to see if she had a letter from Catherine. Then you followed her bus home. She let you inside in spite of the fact that she was surprised to see you. You went up the back stairs. That’s why Carl, the owner of The Rex Cafe, didn’t see you.”
“You’re crazy, Mavis.”
“You probably told her some lame excuse for coming to see her, and she didn’t want Carl Singleton to know anything out of the ordinary was going on, so she went down and had dinner with him. Right?”
“I haven’t seen Elizabeth in a year. I don’t know why you think I could be involved in such a thing.”
“Because of the baby, Madge. I’ll lay you odds that you can’t have any more children.”
Her complexion paled. The skin on her face grew tight, like it was stretched back to her ears.
“Did you tell her that she couldn’t go home again because you had her protection, her proof that Spencer, and whoever it is in the district attorney’s office, are involved in drug trafficking? Did you ask her if she had made a copy of the files or whatever it was?”
“No, because I don’t know anything about any files.”
“Well, if she did, you got them,” I said, answering my own question. “You told her that you wanted her to divorce Robert and never come back to the Fort Worth area, right? Or else you’d tell Spencer where she was and that she no longer had any evidence against him. She didn’t know Catherine had told Robert. And Robert, being a trusting soul, had told you and probably Spencer. Am I not correct, so far?”
“You’re being ridiculous. Why would I do such a thing?”
“Because you want Robert, Madge, that’s why. He had a ready-made family for you. You told me yourself that you were more of a mother to those girls than Elizabeth was.”
“Don’t be stupid!”
I took a sip of my tea as I watched her angry face. “Maybe you killed her because you’d found out that Robert had her life insured for two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollars and you wanted a part of the good life.”
“That’s absurd. I don’t care anything about money.”
“Right. Why would you when you’d been blackmailing Spencer.”
“Blackmailing Spencer! Me? Wha—”
“Let’s not play games, Madge. I know all about the blackmail bit. But, that wasn’t your motive for killing Elizabeth. Maybe you really thought you loved Robert and it had to do with his telling you that he could never marry as long as he knew Elizabeth was alive. Or maybe she simply refused to divorce him.”
Madge sat there before me, her arms crossed. The expression on her face was not getting any friendlier, I must say.
“I’m not real clear what your reasons were, Madge, but I figure it this way: Elizabeth told you she was supposed to eat dinner with Carl, so you saved the heavy-duty stuff until she came back. Then, for some insane reason, you killed her. You got a pair of stockings from her lingerie drawer and strangled her. You’re strong; you work out; you could do it.”
Madge’s eyes cast about, as if seeking out the exits, and then came to rest upon mine. “How did you know?”
“Several things, but mostly the cruise.” I was trying not to sound as smug as I felt, but it was hard.
“The cruise?”
“Yep. You’re the only one with the opportunity. You shouldn’t have told me that you’d stayed a day in each port. Robert told me it was a two-week vacation. And I called a travel agent who explained the workings of a cruise to me.”
“Damn!”
“And I knew that Elizabeth wouldn’t have let just anyone into her apartment. Carl said she was real secretive and careful, so it had to be someone she knew. She would have freaked if Spencer appeared at the door. Besides, he was in trial and didn’t have the time to stake out the post office. It had to be Robert or you. And then there was the key. Carl had seen two safe deposit box keys, but later only one turned up. I knew she must have sent the other one to someone she trusted. Sort of back-up protection. Right? If she couldn’t find help before she was found, you’d have the evidence to take to the authorities.”
“You think you’re so smart. Why didn’t she give the key to Robert?”
“Robert wouldn’t have had any part of it. He would have insisted she stay home. She couldn’t tell him and have him and the kids in danger. It was only logical that she’d send the key to her best friend,” I said, and frowned at her. “Some best friend.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it all too much, Mavis. You can’t prove any of this.” She pushed her chair out from the table.
“Wait, Madge. I’m not finished. Did you kill Tammy, too?”
She looked at me sharply. “No!” Her voice came out like a hiss.
“She went on the cruise with you, didn’t she? If I’d asked her, she would have known you’d have had the opportunity to kill Elizabeth.”
“Yes, but she took Elizabeth’s place as my best friend. Besides, she didn’t know anything about the rest of it.”
“You mean the rest of what you were doing? Blackmailing Vernon Spencer? If you didn’t kill her, then he must have thought it was Tammy. He probably suspected all along that she knew something more than she was saying. What were you doing, feeding him the evidence a little at a time? Extorting money for each document? You got Tammy killed, you know that, Madge?”
“Shut up, Mavis!” She stood and picked up her purse.
“Where are you hiding what’s left, Madge?” I almost shouted at her. “In your house? And how’s Robert going to feel about you when I tell him what I know?”
Madge sank back down, her purse in her lap. “You aren’t going to tell him anything, Mavis. You’re coming with me.”
“The hell you say.” I’d always wanted to use that line.
“I’ve got a gun, Mavis,” she said in a low voice. “I killed Elizabeth, and it won’t bother me much to get rid of you, too. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just another obstacle in my way.”
“You admit you killed her then?” I asked with a smile.
“Yes, I did. She was coming back, she said. She was waiting on the Texas Rangers to make their move, and then she was coming back. She was going to take Robert away from me, and my babies, too.”
“The Texas Rangers?”
Madge made a little movement and so did I. I was hoping she wasn’t going to shoot me right then and there. I have to admit to one thing: butterflies—huge swallowtails—flapping their wings madly in my stomach.
“Don’t move, Mavis. I’m not too good with guns.”
My stomach lurched, but I was cool. “Tell me about the Texas Rangers.”
“Who gives a damn,” sh
e said. “Let’s go.”
“It’s no skin off your nose, Madge. I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“Shit! I guess it won’t hurt to tell you at this point. They’re the ones who helped her get to Houston. They’ve got a man in the DA’s office, she said. Of course she told me all this before she realized why I went to see her.” Madge chuckled then, and I got some small inkling as to how far off her rocker she’d fallen.