by Sean Dexter
She gave me an inquisitive look. “Are you okay? You look bummed.”
“I feel bummed,” I said and told her what I’d done that day.
“So you feel bummed because you’re sure this guy got murdered?”
“Yeah, but even more that he got murdered just before I got to his place. If I’d been there just a little sooner he might’ve still been alive.”
“Or you would be dead along with him. Any ideas about who could’ve been behind this?”
“Could have been a hate crime? Maybe one of the losers he dated? I just don’t know.”
“One of his dates probably wouldn’t put on straight porn. Neither would someone who hated him for being gay.”
“Nancy Drew in the house,” I said and kissed her on the cheek.
“Anyway, seems like an awful sloppy job by the investigators,” she said. She took this personally, Minnie is an Assistant Medical Examiner. “I’m going to put in some complaints about this. See if I can get this one reopened.”
“Sounds good, until then, feel like sharing a bottle of Jack?”
“If I can add some Coca Cola to it, I’m game,” she said.
FIVE
Talking to Minnie, sharing some drinks, I came up with an idea. That led me to running background checks on Mrs. Beck and Burt. Maybe I should have waited for Minnie to get the case reopened, let the cops do their stuff. They botched it once, though. I didn’t want them to botch it twice. Besides, this was personal.
I visited the bakery again. Mrs. Beck wasn’t too happy to see me.
I held up my hands. “Don’t call in your boyfriend just yet. I have an idea what happened in your son’s apartment. I can get you a good lawyer. Just tell me exactly what happened.”
There was panic in her eyes that darted from left to right, as if she was looking for an escape route. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“There was an argument, right? Mark told you he was going to look for his father and you and Burt objected. Told him Burt was the only father he ever really needed. I’m not sure who got angry enough to strangle Mark, you or Burt. Probably Burt, but maybe kneading al that dough has made your hands strong enough to pull it off.”
She shook her head. “No, no, no!”
“I’m sure it wasn’t anything like a premeditated murder. Just an argument that went wrong. You and Burt decided to cover it up, hanging him and putting on some porn, making it look like a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation.”
“Nonsense! It was just a stupid sexual experiment that went wrong. Mark always had been a little too obsessed with porn. Obsessing on porn stars… The whores in those movies are responsible for my son’s death, not me or Burt.”
I smiled a Cheshire Cat grin. “In case I had any doubts, they’re gone now. I’m pretty sure Mark didn’t obsess over those so-called whores. You see, Mark was gay.”
“He was not! You’re crazy!” Mrs. Beck yelled.
“I’m afraid not. He just was too afraid to tell you. Maybe he was especially afraid of what Burt would say. He seems like a pretty macho guy.”
“Burt’s a sweetheart and you don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
“Forget it,” a voice coming from behind me said. “He’s not going to quit this until we make him.”
I turned, facing Burt. He was carrying the knife again.
“You seem to be the cold-blooded one, Burt,” I said. “So I figure you’re at least the one who staged the death. Show your wife you love her and confess, maybe she doesn’t have to go to jail then.”
“Nobody’s going to jail,” Burt said and waved the knife.
“I ran your credit card history. I know you used your credit card to buy that porn in the store a few blocks away from Mark’s place. The evidence is stacking up. Turn yourself in.”
“Why should I do that? Sounds like you’re the only one who know about it, and you’ll be dead soon.”
He came at me with the knife. I blocked his knife arm with my left arm and twisted his wrist with my right hand. I was able to use my left hand to grab the knife from his and with my right hand I twisted his arm behind his back. I put the knife against his throat.
“It’s over, Burt. Stop this insanity here.”
He struggled against my grip, but I was trained by one of the best martial artists in the world, an assassin named Kane.
Minnie entered the bakery. She was showing me her cell phone. “The cops are on their way.”
“I don’t know who you are, bitch, but you’ve got nothing on me.”
“Oh, I do,” she said and pushed a button on her phone. Burt’s voice sounded from it, “He’s not going to quit this until we make him.”
Mrs. Beck gasped. Burt cursed. Minnie smiled.
“That’s right. Noah had his cell phone on, connected to mine. I recorded it all,” Minnie said.
Mrs. Beck started to cry. “No… No… It’s just… I got so angry when Mark told me he was looking for his real father. Made me feel like a cheap whore how he talked about my one-night stand. I told him to show some respect to me and Burt. He told me I didn’t know anything about what he was about, that we hadn’t been good parents to him, that he didn’t feel safe with us… Something snapped and I grabbed him by the throat. It all went very fast then. I was left with his dead body and I called Burt. He told me to take care of it. Burt always took care of things for me…”
Minnie put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all over now. All over.”
I heard the sirens in the distance. They would be taking Mark’s parents with them soon, closing the case. It felt odd, in a way. Mark had been my client from the grave. He hadn’t been able to hire me for the job he wanted, but I’d just solved the one fate had handed me.
*****
Jochem Vandersteen is the writer of the Noah Milano series, founder of the Hardboiled Collective and blogs at www.sonsofspade.tk. His stories have appeared at places like Hardluck Stories, Thrilling Detective, Powderburn Flash, Beat To A Pulp, Back Alley Magazine and Thuglit.