Guilty Pleasure (16 page)

“
I heard you changed the
décor in your apartment. All I have to say is about
time.”

Nicole told Adam, Michael’s idea.

Michael watched Adam becoming more relax.
Good, this was going to be easier than he thought. If he was Adam
and he thought that someone was in his place while he was gone you
bet your ass he would have a surveillance camera or two
installed.

“
You guys come
sit.”

“
We have to go to work. I
just have to change real quick.” Nicole went to her
room.

“
Was she wearing your
shirt?” Adam said.

“
Yep.”

“
Well, come and have some
coffee while you wait for Nicole,” Monica said. She went into the
small kitchen and started making some coffee. She watched Michael
with Adam for a moment then she got some coffee cups. She poured
some coffee then she looked up feeling the weight of someone’s
gaze. Her gaze met Michael’s, the intensity of his dark eyes
chilled her. It was like a hunter eyeing his prey. It quite frankly
freaked her out for a moment, but she tried her best not to show
it. She went over to them and gave them both a cup.

“
Thank you,” Michael said
as his gaze met hers again. He could see her fear in her eyes. “Do
I make you uncomfortable, Monica?”

“
Just a smidge.”

“
Why?”

“
Your Nicole’s
boss.”

“
Oh come on, Monica,
Michael isn’t going to pull out the boss card while he is here,”
Adam said.

Nicole came out of her bedroom wearing a
nice business jacket and skirt. “We are going to court today,
right?”

“
Yep, we have Johnny’s
preliminary hearing this afternoon. You look nice, woman.” Michael
stood. “We better head out.”

Monica watched Nicole and Michael leave.

“
Don’t tell me he doesn’t
freak you out just a little,” Monica said.

“
No, he doesn’t freak me
out.”

“
His gaze was so
intense…”

“
Hot, isn’t it.”

“
Excuse me. I didn’t know
you swung that way.”

“
I don’t, but I can admit
when another guy is hot.”

“
I’m not disputing that he
is hot. He just…oh man there is just something creepy about him. I
just can’t put my finger on it.”

“
You will get used to him.
I got today off what are you doing?”

“
Let’s go to the movies
this afternoon. Oh, then we can go shopping this morning before the
movies. Sound cool to you?”

“
Yep.”

Monica turned on the news. “There is a new
clothing store open just down the street. You mind if we check it
out?”

“
Sure.” Adam turned his
attention to the news. “Oh man…they found another body along Leone
beach.”

“
Oh shit.”

The victim has been identified as Linda
Bennett, a twenty five year old single mother…

Adam slowly stood and took the prepaid
cellphone out of his pocket.

“
What’s wrong?” Monica
said.

Adam quickly kicked up the dialed calls and
his blood ran cold seeing the name Linda Bennett listed.

“
Hey, you are freaking me
out what is wrong?”

Adam handed her the phone. “Read the
name.”

“
Linda Bennett…” Monica
quickly stood. “Oh my God…”

“
Should I go to the
police?” Adam said.

“
No, talk to Michael first.
This might not be the same Linda Bennett, I mean there has to be
more than one in the Chicago area.”

“
What if someone murdered
that woman in my apartment?”

“
Go talk to Michael now.
I’m coming with you.”

“
He said he was going to
court.”

“
This
afternoon.”

“
Alright, I’m going to go
talk to Michael now. I will do this alone.”

“
Are you sure you don’t
want me to go with you.”

“
No, I want to do this
alone. I will let you know what Michael tells me to do. I feel sick
to my stomach.”

***

“
Mr. Lyons, I know you said
you didn’t want to be disturb, but this man won’t take no for an
answer,” Emily said.

“
Let whoever in.” Michael
stood from behind his desk. “Adam?”

“
I really need to talk to
you and this can’t wait.”

“
It’s okay,
Emily.”

Emily left the office.

Adam walked over to Michael. “I know you’re
going to court soon, but…”

“
Sit down. Take a deep
breath and tell me what happened.” Michael wasn’t thrilled about
Adam showing up at his office. Emily would surely remember Adam if
the cops ever questioned her. Great, now Michael was going to have
to put a new spin to everything. Well it would make sense that
Emily would have seen Adam, after all, Adam was the recipient of
the
Dedicated to the Arts
fund from this law firm.

“
Are you listening to me?”
Adam said.

“
I’m sorry. My mind is so
full with the shit coming up this afternoon.”

“
I know, I’m sorry, but…”
Adam handed Michael the prepaid phone. “That woman’s name whose
body was found on Leone Beach was Linda Bennett. Look at the dialed
number.”

Michael went through the motions.
“Shit.”

“
What do I do? Do I give
the phone to the cops?”

“
Hell no. If this is the
Linda Bennett that got murdered you will only be implicating
yourself. It’s hard to believe that someone got into your apartment
to kill this woman. The cops will think you did it.”

“
What?!”

“
Calm down.” Michael
pretended to ponder about a solution. “First thing, don’t go back
to that apartment by yourself. I will come with you so you can grab
anything you need. If someone did kill that woman in your apartment
they obviously had a key. So, they must have gotten it from your
landlord. I will find out who.”

“
I can do that.”

“
No, it would look even
more suspicious if you were inquiring around about your apartment.
I’m a lawyer it will look less suspicious. Besides, if the killer
gets wind of you snooping around he or she might decide that you
are next.”

“
Yeah, but what about you,
don’t you think the killer would try to take you out?”

“
No, like I said I’m a
lawyer so me asking questions doesn’t seem strange.”

“
I can’t ask you to put
yourself at risk. Maybe I should just stay in my apartment and try
to catch this asshole myself.

“
Come on, do you think I
would let that happen, or Nicole or Monica are just going to sit by
and let you put yourself at risk. No, they will try to help and
since this person seems to be killing just women…”

“
I see what you are saying.
Where the fuck am I going to stay?”

“
You can stay with me and
Monica?” Nicole said, standing by the door.

“
How much of that did you
here?” Michael said.

“
Enough.” Nicole closed the
door. “Oh my God, Adam, do you really think that poor woman was
murdered in your apartment?”

“
Nicole, we haven’t
established that yet. And I don’t want you saying anything to
anyone. You will only be putting Adam at risk.”

“
I’m more concern about
putting the rest of you at risk,” Adam said. “Maybe I can crash
with one of my band mates.”

“
No, you are staying with
me and Monica. I will be worried sick otherwise.”

Michael was kind of glad Nicole heard all of
that. In a strange way it made him feel better. When Michael pulls
the trap on Adam and everyone thinks Adam is the killer any
feelings she had for Adam will vanish. Michael would laugh out loud
if he could, he was fucking jealous of Nicole giving Adam all of
this attention. Besides, Michael couldn’t afford for Adam to stay
at his place. The less people that saw him with Adam the
better.

“
I think it is best you
stay with the girls, Adam. It will make me feel better to know you
are there with them just in case,” Michael said.

“
Alright, but I wish you
would let me help you ask around about that key. You don’t think
it’s my landlord who is the killer do you?”

“
I doubt it. Didn’t you say
your landlord is in his fifties?”

“
Yeah.”

“
So that means it is
someone who knows him or has access to his office. Besides, we
don’t even know if this is the same Linda Bennett who was murdered.
I will check that out first. I will keep the phone here. And if and
when the police need to get involved the evidence is safely put
away.”

“
I trust you, Michael,”
Adam said.

“
Let’s go to your apartment
and get some of your things. Nicole, finish prepping the notes for
the preliminary trial.”

“
Dude, we can swing by my
apartment later,” Adam said.

“
No, we are doing it now. I
can see on Nicole’s face she is worried about you, so I want to
ease her mind.”

Adam looked over at Nicole. She did have
such a look of concern on her face.

“
I will be fine, little
Nicole. Alright Michael, but let’s make this quick so you can get
back to work.”

Michael and Adam headed to Adam’s apartment.
Neither said too much, both of them were lost in thought. Michael
knew he was going to have to kill that damn landlord. If Adam
decided to go snooping on his own, the landlord would surely tell
him that he gave Michael a set of keys to the apartment. Michael
couldn’t trust that Adam would just stand by and let some other guy
take care of everything. Michael sure the fuck wouldn’t do
that.

“
Now I know why I always
felt such awful vibes in this place,” Adam said as he packed some
clothes.

“
If it bugged you that much
you should have told me. We could have found you another
apartment.”

“
I couldn’t have done that.
I mean it’s bad enough that I took you up on your offer in the
first place. I just wanted to work twice as hard on my music and
not having to worry about a day job let me do that. I wanted Mindy
to see me as more…I guess that doesn’t matter anymore does it. My
point is, I don’t have a right to complain about
anything.”

Michael didn’t know what to say. He didn’t
understand Adam’s way of thinking. The fact that Adam wanted to be
a better musician for that bitch Mindy instead of just for himself
was ludicrous. Adam claims music is his passion so why in the hell
wouldn’t he take every advantage to pursue his passion. Michael
wouldn’t apologize for anything he did to pursue a passion.

He watched Adam gather some more things.
Adam grabbed his guitar, two large duffle bags of clothes and a
soft-sided briefcase that held his music.

“
I’m done,” Adam
said.

Michael helped Adam carry his stuff to his
car. They headed toward Nicole’s apartment.

“
You can provide very well
for little Nicole. I should have tried to do the same for Mindy
then she wouldn’t have ended up…”

“
Stop that!” Michael said.
“If I would have walked in on Nicole fucking some other man I
wouldn’t have given a shit what happened to her. That bitch Mindy
used you. Why the fuck couldn’t you see that? She was betting that
your band was going to hit it big or she just wanted to fuck a hot
musician. You didn’t mean anything to her. If you did, she would
have never hurt you like that. So just stop grieving that stupid
bitch.”

“
I can’t just stop loving
someone because they ripped my heart out. I would have dealt with
it, but knowing she died in such a horrible way…”

“
Should give you some sort
of satisfaction. She hurt you and she paid a horrible
price.”

“
Whoa…that is an awful
thing to say.”

“
No, not really. You know
you think that. It’s inside of you, deep inside, but it’s there.
Look at Nicole and that fucker Nathan. I don’t know that whole
story but I can pretty much figure it out. I’m guessing he was her
first real boyfriend. And since Nicole didn’t have much of a
childhood, and I’m guessing, whatever this asshole told her was
like gospel to her. He made her believe she was worthless and that
only he could love such a woman. She believed him and put up with
whatever he decided to do to her. I don’t even want to think about
what that asshole put her through or I will have to find him and
hurt his miserable ass. Yet, she stayed with him for God knows how
long. I’m guessing if he ended up murdered just like Mindy was
Nicole would probably act like you, but deep inside she would be
celebrating that he got what was coming to him. I don’t mean to
sound so harsh, but you need to move on. God knows, I will help
Nicole move on.”

“
I see what you are getting
at. But no one deserved to be murdered like Mindy was, no
one.”

“
You are right.” Michael
wanted to punch Adam in the face. This whole day was getting very
frustrating and when Michael got frustrated his inner demon was
harder to control.