Stand

by Becky Johnson

  The detective opened the questioning turning on the recorder then by introducing herself and Jack, giving the date, time, and location, and naming Elizabeth and her counsel. I was still a little subdued from being chastised at lunch so I was, for the moment, happy to just observe.

  “Ms. Fitzgerald, thank you so much for coming in to speak with us. I apologize for the inconvenience and the difficulty of these questions we have to ask. We will try to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible.” Detective Carter’s tone was conciliatory and polite. She seemed like she was apologizing to Elizabeth for a delay in car service rather than a murder investigation. It was the perfect tone to take with Elizabeth. Perhaps I had underestimated Detective Carter.

  Elizabeth nodded her head as if she was the queen of England.

  “We have some questions to ask you regarding the investigation into a lawyer here in D.C., James Barnes. Are you familiar with him?”

  I expected Elizabeth to look to her lawyer, but she smiled and said “James Barnes, yes, he’s a lawyer who worked with my law firm.” Her face and eyes were completely blank and innocent. She smiled at Jack and the detective like a third grader happy to help. I didn’t know what was happening here, but it was not what I had expected. Elizabeth was comfortable in her innocence. Comfortable being questioned.

  Jack took over.

  “When did you last see James Barnes?”

  “Oh it’s been years. He isn’t my lawyer. He worked at the firm. I don’t even think he works there anymore.”

  Elizabeth’s lawyer didn’t even appear concerned. Whatever we were missing, this interview wasn’t going to help. I looked over at Skeet. He was sitting straight up and looked more invested than he had in a while.

  “What do you think?”

  “Let’s go take a look at your wall.”

  Skeet and I left the observation room while the interview was still in process. We had a final piece to put in place. My subconscious had been twirling and jumping in the background. I thought I might have the answer. I just wanted to take one last look.

  Chapter 24

  Charlotte Marshall wasn’t responding the way the woman wanted her to respond. She wasn’t afraid and cowering. She wasn’t hiding and backing down. She wasn’t even paying any attention. She wasn’t even in the state! She was off playing detective. It was completely unacceptable.

  The woman paced her office. For the last few weeks she devoted time, money, and energy on Charlotte Marshall and she wanted her dead. She wanted her to suffer, to bleed.

  The woman’s perfectly maintained true red hair fanned out behind her as she spun. She calmed herself by counting the diamonds in her tennis bracelet. When her breathing was even and controlled she stepped behind her desk and gracefully sat in the white chair. She pulled the antique phone towards her and made a call. She had another job for Grant. It was time for Georgia Layeen to deliver a more personal message.

  Chapter 25

  Back in the “office” Skeet and I stared at the walls. Skeet studied one side while I studied the other. The sense that the answer was here taunted me.

  “Who’s this?”

  Skeet’s voice startled me from my reverie. I turned to see him pointing at one of my lists. The room wasn’t large enough to require more than a turn before I was standing in front of the paper he pointed at. It was the list of other players I had written earlier the day.

  “Those are all the other people I could think of that might be remotely involved.”

  “Tell me about them.”

  I pointed to the first one. “Jeannie Barnes, Jimmy’s wife, full time mother, part time interior designer. She was the first to report Jimmy missing. She claims to know nothing about his work. I haven’t talked to her since the beginning. I had a good impression of her, but what bugs me now is that she didn’t indicate in any way that he was having an affair. I find it hard to believe there were no signs he was seeing another woman.”

  Skeet nodded, he was listening.

  “You met Martin Soren, the groundskeeper, and Richard Francis, Muriel’s lawyer, with me, Bernice was the first caregiver, and Anna the second.”

  “Right, but who are these two?”

  The last two names on the list.

  “Norma is a secretary at Jimmy’s law firm. I spoke with her for a few minutes when I went to question Lori Claret.”

  “Cindy Carter was Jimmy’s former assistant. I spoke with her the first time I went to the law firm. She admitted to calling me and trying to get me to stop asking questions.”

  Skeet and I looked at each other. Synapses fired. We both turned at once and tried to get out of the office, resulting in a shuffle at the doorway. We finally burst through. I yelled for Jack. I don’t know what I thought yelling for him would accomplish, it’s not like he was waiting for me. Skeet is much more level headed – he just headed back toward the interrogation room. Jack was in the hallway walking toward us. They must have been taking a break a from questioning Elizabeth.

  In my gut I knew this was it. The answer I had been looking for the missing puzzle piece.

  I got to Jack first. Skeet was following sedately. I started babbling the second I saw Jack. While he was trying to make sense of what I was saying Skeet approached and cut right to chase.

  “There is someone else you should bring in for questioning.”

  I love how he gets to just say that. If I said that I would have to explain why and how I came to that conclusion. Skeet says question them, and that’s that.

  I was a little annoyed, but I tried to focus on the positive. Jack was listening to Skeet, and Detective Carter would listen to Jack. I showed him my wall, and the names, particularly Cindy Carter. Jack tore my list from the wall and together with the detective strode back into the interrogation. Skeet and I followed, returning to the observation room.

  “Elizabeth, again so sorry to keep you waiting.” Jack had his most charming smile on his face. As the recipient of that smile a time or two, I knew just how effective it could be. Elizabeth practically pushed her breasts out of her shirt in an effort to help him. I’m not sure what she thought her breasts were going to do, but I have to give her credit for the effort.

  “Do you know someone named Cynthia Carter, I believe she goes by Cindy?”

  If I hadn’t been glued to the observation monitor I might not have seen the crack in Elizabeth’s façade. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was there. She leaned back, no longer attempting to share her silicone enhanced breasts with Jack.

  “Cynthia Carter?” She mused in a tone of pure innocence. “No, I don’t believe I know anyone by that name.”

  She must have given her lawyer some signal, because he leaned forward and started asking why we were asking these questions and what we were getting at, and his client was very busy, etc etc.

  I tuned out. They weren’t going to get anywhere with Elizabeth. She was too accomplished a liar. I fished my cell phone out of my pocket. It was about two thirty in the afternoon.

  “Cindy should be at work.” I commented as I looked over at Skeet. He grinned at me. Grins from Skeet are a rare thing. He scowls, glares, and stares, but he rarely grins. They are infectious. I couldn’t help it. I grinned back. Neither one of us were going to be left out of the action this time.

  By the time Jack and the detective had done whatever it was that they needed to do. I don’t know coordinate something, talk to a judge, do cop things. Skeet and I were ready, coats on, keys in hand. We were going with.

  Detective Carter rolled her eyes and sighed when she saw me. I don’t think she minded Skeet so much, but I clearly annoyed her. Jack just gave me that Jack look of his that said he knew I was going to be here. It was a look I knew well. It was a look I was actually pretty fond of.

  I am sure Jack would have rather drove with Skeet and I, but he rode with Detective Carter. Skeet and I followed, and I’m sure we had much more fun.

  Even with city traffic we were at the law firm in less than fift
een minutes. We all parked in the same parking garage where I had been less than a week ago.

  Detective Carter gave Skeet and I a disapproving look.

  “Wait out here.” She could have at least said please. Since it was freezing cold out, I decided we would let them go ahead, and then follow. I am pretty sure Jack knew that was my plan.

  Skeet didn’t even wait a few minutes, about ten seconds after they left us, he walked inside after them. I hustled to catch up. I wasn’t waiting outside by myself.

  We had just made ourselves comfortable in the lobby when Jack and Detective Carter exited the elevators. Cindy Carter wasn’t with them.

  “Where is she?”

  Jack didn’t look happy. “She left about half an hour ago. She got a phone call and rushed out. I think Elizabeth got to her.”

  “So what next? Where do we go next?” While Jack spoke with us, Detective Carter stepped away to use her phone. She spoke for a few minutes before coming back to join us.

  “We have a team going to her home address.” Detective Carter informed us. “We also have her boyfriend’s address. He is a registered gun owner. Same type of gun that was used to kill Jimmy. We’re going there. You want to come with us?”

  “Absolutely.” As if I would say no.

  While we drove, I ran through scenarios in my mind. Cindy and Elizabeth were working together, to some degree. Did Cindy and her boyfriend threaten Jimmy? Did Cindy approach Elizabeth or did Elizabeth approach Cindy? Who had the idea? They seemed like such an unlikely pair.

  It was a twenty minute drive to the boyfriend’s house. I didn’t even know his name. Detective Carter had never said. He was just Cindy’s boyfriend. How odd. We parked a few houses down. Jack, the detective, and a few officers would approach the house. Skeet and I were given strict instructions to stay at the car.

  We watched them get ready. Watched them approach the house and knock on the front door. Jack called out. I was so intently focused on the scene in front of me that I didn’t notice the scene playing out next to me until the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of my head.

  Chapter 26

  It’s funny, your response to life threatening situations, time seems to slow down and speed up all at once.

  My heart started thudding in my chest and my hands grew clammy. Cindy moved in front of me with the gun in her hand. My gaze took in Cindy in her light peach sweater with the dark gun in her hand. She stood next to a dark burly man who could only be her boyfriend.

  Cindy’s boyfriend was someone you could imagine holding someone else at gun point. He was in his mid-fifties and those years looked as if they had been rough. He was big, not just tall but broad, someone who spent his days lifting heavy items, like a dock worker or a farmer. He had a full beard sprinkled with gray. His eyes were a dark, deep brown, so dark they almost looked black, and a scar bisected his right cheek. Despite his intimidating appearance, Cindy was the one who made my insides curl.

  Her voice trembled and pitched betraying her emotional strain. “Get in the car, both of you.” She pointed to Skeet. “Drive.”

  Skeet got in the front. Cindy, her boyfriend and I climbed in the back, the gun still pointed at my head. Skeet and I briefly made eye contact in the mirror.

  “Cindy, what’s going on?”

  “You and your boyfriend are going to get me out of here.” I wasn’t going to think about that boyfriend comment now. Really. I wasn’t.

  “Okay, where do you want to go?” Look at me, being so rational and accommodating.

  “Shut up. And you, drive.” This last order was directed at Skeet.

  I stayed quiet. Cindy gave Skeet directions. Cindy’s boyfriend didn’t say anything. He didn’t move. He just sat there. Cindy was definitely in charge. I still had a gun pointed at me.

  My phone rang. I knew it was Jack. “Cindy,” I swallowed my voice sounded scrapped raw, “Cindy, I really need to answer that.”

  She swung back to look at me the gun shaking in her hand. “You don’t answer anything. Where is it?”

  “It’s in my pocket. Let me get it.”

  “Don’t you move,” she warned, her voice rose and thinned with tension. “Don’t you even move. Donny, get the phone.”

  So that was his name, Donny.

  Donny didn’t get fresh or rough he just reached in my pocket and pulled out the phone.

  “Give it here.” Cindy ordered.

  By now it had stopped ringing. I didn’t think it would take long to start up again. Sure enough, the ringing started again.

  “You should answer that.”

  It was the first time Skeet had said anything. He sounded so calm, his tone was almost bored. We were all a little surprised. “It’s going to be the FBI. The best you can do for yourself is answer it and talk to them. There could still be a way out for you.”

  Cindy’s laugh had a hysterical edge. “There hasn’t been a way out for me since I was twelve years old. Do you know what it is to be the smartest person in your class? To be the one most deserving of everything and lose it all?”

  She had the look of a woman coming unraveled. “It has been over for me since I was twelve. Pull over. PULL OVER.” This last order was screamed.

  Skeet pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. We had driven maybe twenty minutes out of suburbia and into the county. Virginia is like that. You can blink and go from city, to suburbia, to county side. We were on the shoulder of a four lane highway with a wide grass median. Traffic was light. I don’t think it would have mattered if we were in Times Square. Cindy was done.

  Cindy, Donny and I got out. I still had a gun aimed at me. Cindy screamed for Skeet to get out too. He calmly obeyed and walked around the car to stand beside me. Both his hands were in the air. It looked like Cindy was going to shoot the two of us on the side of the highway. Not the way I wanted to go. I started praying that Jack would find us.

  Skeet and I were standing with our backs to my SUV with Cindy and Donny in front of us. Nervous tension built in my throat. I could hear it in my voice when I asked “Why are you doing this, Cindy?”

  I expected a confession, a rundown of everything she had done and why. I was shocked when she raised her gun her hand little steadier and pointed it at me. I heard the click of the hammer cocking.

  Skeet moved so fast I could barely follow him. He grabbed Cindy’s gun hand and pushed the barrel to the side. I heard the bang and thwap of a bullet exiting the gun. It hit the side of my SUV inches from my head. With his other hand he struck her once in the throat and then on the side of the head. Cindy went down, hard. Donny charged. Skeet turned into the charge. Donny’s size and momentum worked against him. He flipped over Skeet’s hip, completely out of control. With Donny lying sprawled out on the ground, Skeet stomped on his groin and then punched his temple. The whole thing took less than a minute. Skeet collected the gun laying next Cindy. Both Cindy and Donny were out of commission. I’m ashamed to say I never even moved.

  Inside the open SUV the phone continued to ring. I wondered distantly if it had been ringing the entire time. Skeet reached in and snatched up the phone. He answered and I could hear Jack. Skeet leaned against the car next to me. He told Jack our location and said that the “situation was handled.” I guess that is guy speak for I kicked some ass. After hanging up he handed the phone back to me.

  “You okay?”

  “Me yeah, I’m fine. You?”

  “I’m good.”

  Now that it was over I was starting to shake. My heart was thudding and the adrenaline was surging through my veins. “I think I’m going to call you Nate from now on, okay? I just don’t think I should call you Skeet after we were threatened together. You just saved my life.”

  “Okay.”

  We leaned against the car until the sirens signaled the arrival of the police and Jack.

  Chapter 27

  Jack was the first to reach us. He stepped between Cindy, Donny, and I keeping his body between the two of them and me.

 
“Did you do this?” He motioned to Skeet, no Nate, Nate now Char remember. For a brief moment I wondered if I should be offended then I remembered how quickly Skeet, no Nate, Darn it, had moved. I decided not to be offended.

  Nate, just shrugged.

  Jack sighed. “I guess we better call an ambulance.”

  “I didn’t hurt them,” Nate defended. “I just incapacitated them.”

  “You hurt his balls.” I thought it was worth mentioning. Both Jack and Nate, haha got it, just stared at me.

  Personally I thought I was being really calm about this whole thing. I was held at gunpoint and almost killed. With my history of PTSD and recent paranoia I was expecting a break down any minute. The fact that I was relatively calm was a miracle. Maybe I had reached a point where I just couldn’t absorb anymore. I think it was something else.

  I survived. I proved to myself again and again that I could stand up for myself. That when trouble came, I would survive. I would trust myself. My hands may be shaking and sweaty. It might not be pretty, but I made it, and you know what else I learned? What I else I realized as I stood there between Frick and Frack? I could trust them too.

  ______

  Jack, Nate, I was getting good at thinking of him as Nate, and I were leaning on my SUV while DCPD and emergency services processed Cindy and Donny. Cindy woke up, and other than some bruises she was in pretty good shape. Donny was still unconscious. They were taking him to the Emergency Room. Cindy was going to the police station.

  The EMTs offered to look over Nate and I but we both said we were fine and refused treatment. Processing the scene took some time. These things don’t happen quickly. I took the time to touch base with Tammy. I told her I would be home late tonight. She assured me Max and Kitty were fine. She said Max seemed a little sad and Kitty kept hiding under the bed, but they were both eating and moving around. She would go back this afternoon and take Max out. I used my remote access to check on the house. Everything looked fine. I felt awful being away for so long. I would be back tonight though. I couldn’t imagine this taking much longer. Of course, I had been telling myself that since yesterday.