One Deadly Sister (Sandy Reid Mystery Series #1) (7 page)

She hadn’t heard any word after “shot” because she started shaking. The phone slipped from her hand. She sprawled forward across the desk, motionless except for the sobbing and the uncontrollable flinching.

Abruptly, the desk phone jangled unbelievably loud. She jolted upright. It might be more news. She must answer.

“Tammy, it’s Ray. Can’t find Loraine. I talked with Norma Martin, however. You were right she doesn’t know either you or Loraine. I don’t know what to do now.”

She tried her best to keep her voice steady. “Where are you?”

“In my car.”

“Come over here to my office as fast as you can.”

“Why? What’s wrong? You sound funny, you okay?”

“Come straight here. Don’t stop anywhere. Don’t talk to anyone. Get here fast.”

She hung up and buried her face in her arms for a moment. Then she picked up the phone again, inhaled deeply and punched 911.

R
ay drove straight to Tammy’s office as she instructed. When he stepped from his car outside her office, bursts of lights struck like lightning around him. Police appeared from nowhere and rushed about yelling, pointing guns and shining lights in his face. More blue and white cars screeched up. Slamming doors, flashing lights and crackling police radios jammed his head.

The confusion in his mind matched the chaos in the street. He had expected a police officer would come around, ask about how he knew Loraine and jot down a couple of things in a little notebook. Not an armada like this. Did they believe
he
shot Barner? His head felt full and warm and a knot was forming in his stomach.

The uniforms parted for a man in plain clothes. He displayed no gun just flipped his badge and stated he was Detective Goddard.

“Is this about the shooting?” Ray could think of nothing else to say.

“Sir, I’m going to ask you to lean over, place your hands palms down on your vehicle and spread your legs. Do you have any weapons on your person or in your vehicle?”

Ray answered of course not. The detective frisked him and turned him around face to face. The detective was tall and stood board-straight. He didn’t appear too mean, yet was absolutely intimidating. Ray’s hands shook and he fumbled handing over the requested driver’s license.

“New in town, how long have you been working down here?”

“Almost a month now, I guess.”

“You had ten days after obtaining Florida employment to get those Pennsy tags off your vehicle,” the detective recited calmly. “That’s a violation, Mr. Reid. As of right now, consider your vehicle impounded. Please give me the keys. Do you mind if we talk down at the police station?” It didn’t sound like a question.

Ray began to sweat and could feel his heart pounding. The multiple colored lights from police vehicles continued to spin in his eyes. He leaned over against the car door and tried to get enough breath to speak. “You’re taking me to the police station to talk about my license plates?”

The detective didn’t answer. He opened the rear door of a nearby vehicle and motioned for Ray to get in the back behind the webbed steel dividing screen.

Saturday evening in the Park Beach police squad room was busy and noisy, when they entered through a side door. Then the room became stony silent. All heads turned as the detective led Ray to a chair beside his desk. A uniformed officer walked by and patted the detective on the back.

“There must be some misunderstanding.” Ray wondered if they had already picked up Loraine.

“How did you know there was a shooting, Mr. Reid?” Detective Goddard started typing on the keyboard and didn’t look directly at him.

The detective tossed off the question so casually Ray wasn’t certain if a response was expected. What was going on? They must have found Barner’s body. That led to Loraine. She gave the police his name or someone saw him at the motel. How did they put all this together so fast? Or, more likely Tammy Jerrold is the one. She must have called the police; can’t blame her for being suspicious. Nevertheless, he must be careful about what he says. He decided to just not answer for now.

The detective studied the driver’s license and continued punching in data, “Previous address?” Ray told him. “Philadelphia, huh, what did you do up there?” He went on with the background questions: ever use an alias, any priors, ever do any time, present employment?

“I work at E.J. Bradford.”

“You’re a stockbroker?”

“No, I’m Back Office.”

“What do I put down...back office?”

“That’s what they call it, just put down, Office Manager.”

“Family in Philadelphia?”

“No family, parents gone a few years ago. Just a sister now.”

“What happened to your hand, been in a fight?”

“Slight burn, I got careless.”

“We need your permission to look under that wrapping. We’ll have it rebandaged, okay?”

“Just leave it off. It should heal okay now.”

“How do you know Senator Towson?”

That was a surprise. “Towson? I met Towson at a party last week, why?” Towson must have called them, angry about the cup. Most likely, he has plenty of pull with the police, told them to harass him. Yet, all those cops swooping down just to throw a scare into him?

“Where were you this afternoon, Mr. Reid?”

No sense to any of this. “Why don’t you just tell me what you want?” If they found Barner’s body, what does that have to do with Towson? With each fragment of information he disclosed, another piece might fall off his innocent bystander argument. He wondered if Loraine had been able to get to a lawyer in time. That’s what
he
should do. He could hear a lawyer telling him to shut up. “Should I have a lawyer?”

Those must have been the magic words. Goddard pushed back from his desk and stood. “You’re not under arrest, but we’re holding you overnight.”

“You mean in jail? You’d actually lock me in a jail cell?” He felt his heart thumping. “Look, you don’t have to do this. I’ll tell you what. Just keep those papers right there. I’ll come back in the morning, and we can settle the whole misunderstanding. Okay? What’s tomorrow Sunday? Do you work Sunday? Is Monday better for you? You see, I don’t really have much to do with all this. In fact, I was going to call you guys today.”

Goddard raised the file folder to cover his smile. “I’d be happy to listen to you. Are you waiving your right to an attorney?”

Ray shook his head. It was unfair, talk-or-go-to-jail blackmail. Blurting out the long Loraine-Norma-Tammy story probably would change nothing right now. If it took spending a night in jail for these people to understand their mistake, then he’d go along. The detective said he wasn’t under arrest.

Ray had to ask one question, “What does Senator Towson have to do with this?”

Goddard gave him a puzzled look and passed him along to a police sergeant. “Test this guy’s hands for GSR, before fingerprinting and save every bit of that bandage in an evidence bag. Bag all of his clothes and shoes, separate bags for everything, of course. I got to get back to the crime scene, if I can fight my way through the reporters.” Goddard started to walk away then turned back grinning. “Check his alcohol level while you’re at it. He’s talking weird.”

I
t was later that Saturday night. Dark outside, but the lights were bright along the jail corridor. Ray sat on the edge of his concrete bunk staring at the back of the drunk zonked out opposite him. They were in one of ten small cells in a basement area attached to the police station. They shared two concrete bunks with thin pads, a toilet without a seat and a dirty sink. Ray was now wearing a hot baggy jumpsuit. He wondered why his cellmate still had his street clothes.

He heard the metal clang of a door down the hallway. A short young man wearing jeans, a polo shirt and dirty sneakers strolled down the jail corridor and straight up to his cell. The guard at the desk near the door didn’t even glance up at him.

“I’m Beau Cobb, named for my granddaddy. Chip Goddard told me you might need some stuff.”

Ray stared curiously through the bars.

“Local bail bondsman, official and licensed. I’ll be around in the morning after you go before the judge.”

“I’m not sure I’m even under arrest. You said Chip somebody?”

“The cop who arrested you, Detective Sergeant Ronald Goddard, Jr., son of the former police chief. Chip, like off the old block, get it?”

“Yeah, I get it. I’m back in the South a hundred years ago. Everyone is named Beau, or Chip, or Bubba, and everybody with power is related.”

“Don’t know about that, but he’s not related to anybody. I heard about him in high school. Was a few years ahead of me. He was on the football team, went to college and was a Marine. I decided not to do any of that, had some other stuff to do. He just made Detective. So, you think you’re not under arrest.”

“Just holding me overnight.”

“Heard that one before.” Beau glanced around then stepped confidentially to the bars and whispered, “Hey man, did you really off the senator?”

“What?”

“Senator Towson, you do him, whack him, close him out? They got a tip you were at his place today.”

“Towson’s dead?” Ray backed up and sat on the end of the bunk. He didn’t get it. Something’s wrong. Couldn’t be.

“Where you been? The whole country’s talking about it, all over the TV. I’m not supposed to talk about it, you know. Like it’s the big deal crime of the century for them upstairs. What’s your middle name? The
National Enquirer
guy asked me. They always stick in the middle name of assassins. Like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. You’re gonna be a celebrity.”

“That’s horrible, I liked the guy. They think I did it?”

“Hey, you’re the one dressed in gorgeous orange. So what is it?”

“What is what?”

“Your middle name. I’ll split what they pay me for it.”

He still couldn’t think straight and this character wasn’t helping. “What about Barner?”

“You know old Sonny, what about him?”

Now it was sinking in—not Barner, the senator. Towson was why he was there. That explains the uproar. No wonder all heads turned when the detective brought him through the squad room. He guessed they didn’t yet know about Barner.

They think one shooting is a big deal, wait until they discover Barner’s body; they’ll bring in Loraine for sure. Ray had been with her today as well. Within a few short hours, he realized, he was with the perpetrator of one murder and visiting with the victim of a second.

How’d all this happen? The police better get this mess straightened out fast. “What’s going to happen to me in the morning? The detective told me I wasn’t under arrest, yet they took my clothes.”

“Arrest isn’t what you need to worry about right now, thing is you’re in
custody
. Arrest can mean a lot of things. Custody means they got your actual stinking body locked up in the slammer. Learned this shit when I got my license. There’re people walking around on the street right now who are under arrest but aren’t in custody because they’re out on bail. Know what I’m saying? Custody’s the thing, man, custody.”

“But don’t they have to arrest me, read me my rights and all that?”

“I keep telling you man, that’s coming. There’ll be a brief court hearing in the morning for the Saturday night junk. And in your case, the judge will find some reason to hold you. Your jumpsuit tells me you’re gonna be around awhile. They’re running a make on you right now and will search all night for evidence. Word is, whether they get a hit or not, you’re gonna stay in custody.”

“What about my snoring slammer buddy over there, why didn’t they take his clothes?”

“He doesn’t even know he’s in here yet, they’ll let him out when he wakes up, if he ever does.”

“I’ll miss him, he was such a good listener. Does he have any family?”

“If he does, they’ve forgotten about him. He’s a regular.”

“Beau, has anyone been arrested besides me?”

“Hey, it’s Saturday...hooker and drunk night. Oh, you mean for the senator’s murder. Don’t think so.”

“For any other murder?”

“Man, I don’t get that.” Beau gave him a blank stare. “What we talking about?”

Ray couldn’t sort out Loraine and Barner just now. He tried to play it through in his mind—arrest, court, judge. New situations with new rules that didn’t belong in his world. Rules he didn’t want to learn.

“Be back around in the morning, man. Forget about release, get comfortable.” Beau left.

Ray was past mere fatigue. The exasperating mix of Loraine, Towson, Tammy and the detective added up to the worst day of his life; each was a puzzle piece that wouldn’t fit into place. No use trying to relax. His head buzzed with confusion plus a headache. His stomach felt sick, maybe nerves, maybe hunger.