“We have a witness who gave a statement claiming you were.”
“Witness? Gideon’s no witness. He’s the guy who did this, if you ask me.”
“We’re not asking you, Mr. Barnet.”
“I’m just telling you what I think.”
“You know what I think? I think you tried to hit up Mrs. Boggs for more money and an argument broke out. She was tired of giving you money.”
“Giving me money?”
“Hold the baloney, Barnet. We know you hit her up for money before.”
“And what makes you believe that?”
I stepped out onto a limb. “Marilyn confided in a friend. In fact, two of them.”
“It was a loan, that’s all. Nothing wrong with that.”
“And nothing wrong when you overcharged her either?”
“I told you before, that was a mistake someone at the store made and it was paid back. As far as the loan is concerned, Marilyn was trying to help me through a rough patch.”
“And when she refused to continue propping up your lifestyle and failing business, you threatened her, didn’t you?”
Barnet’s upper lip glistened. “That’s not true.”
“You filmed her in a sexually compromising way and threatened to embarrass her and the family, didn’t you? You tried to blackmail her.”
Fear flashed across Barnet’s face. “I would never do something like that.”
“You mean, you would never do something like that again?”
The slightest of pauses before he said, “Again?”
“Yes, again. We have two women willing to testify you did.”
“It wasn’t twi—”
Barnet stopped short, realizing he’d admitted to blackmailing at least once.
“You thought you could bully Marilyn into giving you money. You figured she had so much money she wouldn’t risk the embarrassment of the film, illegally taken, that you took.”
Barnet was silent.
Vargas said, “You were aware of the reputation clause in the trust, weren’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to.”
I said, “When Marilyn Boggs resisted your blackmail attempt, you argued with her. When she wouldn’t give in, you threatened her with a kitchen knife, didn’t you?”
“No. I never did that.”
“If you never did that, how do you explain the blood found on both the pants and the shirt you wore the day she died?”
“There wasn’t any blood on my clothes.”
“Not according to the forensics lab.”
“Huh?”
“That’s right, John. The lab identified the blood of Marilyn Boggs on your pants and shirt.”
“But that’s impossible.”
I slid two photos marked up by the lab across the table. “They can pick up a microscopic spec of blood these days. It’s really amazing.”
Barnet’s ears flattened and he shook the pictures.
“That brat came at me with a knife. I just reacted. I had no choice. I─I didn’t mean to stab her; it was an accident.” He tossed the photos back. “She should’ve just given me the money I needed. I couldn’t lose the store. Marilyn knew that.”
“Why don’t you tell us what happened?”
Barnet drew a deep breath and exhaled. “I was in a hole this off-season. It was terrible. I needed money to keep things going, you know, buy some time until it turned around. But the spoiled brat wouldn’t help me, even though it amounted to nothing to her.”
“When she refused, you threatened her with the sex videos?”
Barnet shrugged. “I wasn’t going to do nothing with them. It was just something to scare her with. But Marilyn just freaked out. Instead of just giving me the money I needed, she pulled a Wonder Woman thing and grabbed a knife off the counter.” He shook his head. “You should’ve seen her standing there holding the knife. I laughed at her. Then she, she just snapped, started screaming and came at me like this.” Barnet held his hand ear-height. “So, I grabbed her wrist, turning the knife away, but then she kneed me right in the balls.”
“That’s when you stabbed her?”
“It was self-defense. I’m telling you. In my wildest dreams I never thought she’d use it. I still can’t believe it.”
Chapter 56
Vargas lived in a nice community called Marbella Lakes, off of Livingston. As I pulled into her driveway, the lightness in my belly intensified. The last time I felt like that was with Kayla at Baleens. That was a real date; this was just a celebratory dinner, wasn’t it?
Mary Ann smiled as she got in the car. She had on those corduroy-type pants I liked. Did she know and wore them on purpose? Her perfume was some kind of floral one that made me think of nectar.
I said, “What time did you get off?”
“I left around four. The DA’s office wanted me to run through the Sanchez file with ICE.”
“They gonna deport him?”
“Yep. No sense spending the money and time prosecuting him, not to mention the cost to house in him prison for ten years.”
“Maybe. I get it, but I don’t totally buy into it. If you do the crime, you should do the time.”
“It’s an imperfect world, Frank.”
“Tell me about it. How about Brighthouse? He plots to kills his wife, and at the end of all this he gets twenty million.”
Mary Ann said, “I still can’t believe we almost pinned the murder on him. Without today’s technology, we’d never have known the blood on his pants was two years old. Could you imagine putting him away for something he didn’t do?”
I didn’t need to imagine. The Barrow case had haunted me for almost ten years and flooded my head again.
“I’m sorry, Frank. I forgot about Barrow.”
She could even read minds?
“It’s okay. I don’t think much about that case anymore. You helped me to see that I had to let it go.”
“I’m glad you had the courage to move on.”
Courage? Me?
“I don’t know about courage, but let’s change the subject, okay? Tonight, we celebrate! I still can’t believe you’ve never been to Bleu Provence.”
She smiled. “It’s exciting to go to a new place. Thanks for putting it together.”
“You’re gonna love it.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“You know, Mary Ann, you look very nice tonight.”
The End
I hope you enjoyed reading this collection as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I’d appreciate if you would like a quick review on Amazon or your favorite book site. Reviews are an author’s best friend and even a line or two is helpful. Thank you, Dan
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Other Books by Dan
Luca Mystery Series
Am I the Killer—Book 1
Vanished—Book 2
The Serenity Murder—Book 3
Third Chances—Book 4
A Cold, Hard Case—Book 5
Cop or Killer?—Book 6
Other works by Dan Petrosini
The Final Enemy
Complicit Witness
Push Back
Ambition Cliff
Luca Mystery Series Box Set Page 59