Plain Jane (36 page)

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Authors: Fern Michaels

BOOK: Plain Jane
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Jane was rewarded with instant silence and a rapid scramble for seats. Confident that she'd made her point, she sat down opposite Todd and crossed her legs, affecting a casual pose. “Flash, Kimba,
seitz,
” she said, her voice quiet but firm. The dogs obeyed instantly. The sitting dogs reminded her of the stone lions guarding the New York Public Library. “You were saying something, Todd? I couldn't quite hear what it was,” Jane said coldly.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Not much from where I'm standing.” She strived for an innocent look. “Oh, you mean the dogs. Are they bothering you? I know they're big and ferocious-looking, but I assure you they're very well trained. They'll do
anything
I ask.” Todd's look of smug confidence was gone. “Now where was I? Oh, yes. In one of Connie's letters . . .” She slapped her face and clicked her tongue. “Oh, jeez, I forgot. You don't know about her letters, do you?” She waved her hand. “Let me get you guys up to speed here. I visited Connie's parents and they gave me her old computer disks. I recovered her letters off of them.” She looked directly at Todd. “Anyway, she said that after you two were married you were going to get a dog and a cat. You do like dogs, don't you? Listen, if you want to leave, go ahead.” She moved her gaze around the room. “You can all leave if you want to.”
If you dare to,
she thought and almost laughed. “Trixie, do we have any refreshments? Cocoa with those little marshmallows and some of those gingersnaps would be real good about now.”
“You're using those dogs to hold us here against our will. That's illegal,” Ben Nolan blustered.
Jane pretended to look shocked. “Surely you jest, Mr. Nolan,” she said, giving him a sideways look. “If you want to leave, then by all means leave.
I
wouldn't think of stopping you.”
“Yeah, right. The second one of us heads for that door, those dogs will be on us like stink on shit.”
“Shit? Hmm. What an interesting way of putting it,” she said. “Tsk, tsk, gentlemen,” Jane said, clucking her tongue. “Flash and Kimba are highly trained K-9s. They would never attack unless they were given a direct order to go after a bad guy. You know, a robber, a mugger, or a rapist.”
“Screw this. You're trying to intimidate us with those dogs,” Pete Zachary sputtered. He was so deep into the cushions of the chair, Jane thought he was going to push through to the other side. “You can't do this. This is illegal. You're threatening us and holding us here against our will, hoping we'll confess to what you want to hear.”
Jane clucked her tongue again. “Let's see if I have this right. You think I'm threatening you and using these dogs to hold you here against your will.” She placed her index finger on the side of her nose, pretending to give the matter some thought. “Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you all threaten Connie and me? Didn't you hold us against our will? Don't you think we were afraid of what you would do to us?” Her voice dropped an octave. “How does it feel, you miserable, stinking bastards?”
“I don't have anything to say to you,” Marcus said, his face ugly with fear. “You'll hear from my lawyer. I'll sue your ass off.”
Jane bristled. “Lawyers and lawsuits don't frighten me. And you don't frighten me. Not anymore. Let's cut to the chase here and spit it all out, shall we?” She reached over and petted Flash's head. “Now what's it going to be?”
“Fuck you,” Marcus spit.
Kimba, a sleek ninety-pound, black-and-gold shepherd growled at his tone.
“It's okay, girl. You didn't mean that, did you, Marcus? You have to be careful what you say around these K-9s. These dogs are easily agitated, and they pick up on emotion and tone.”
Trixie entered the room carrying a tray with two cups and a plate with four cookies on it.
“Ohhh, this is good. It really hits the spot.” Jane turned her back on the men in the room and winked at Trixie. “So listen, Trix, I need some advice,” she said just loud enough for the others to hear. “What do you think I should wear next week when I go to meet Mike's parents? I could wear that burnt orange dress I bought before Christmas or maybe that frilly thing with the lace at the throat. What do you think?”
“I like that cranberry-colored dress with the slit up the side. Wear your Vera Wang scarf with it. Chunky gold earrings. That will make a nice impression.”
“What are they doing?” Jane whispered.
Trixie lifted her eyebrows and looked askance at the seven men. “I think they're dead. Not a one of them is moving, not even twitching,” Trixie hissed.
“Let's smoke a cigarette. They're all smokers, and they must be dying for one about now. Make sure you blow the smoke in their direction.”
Jane had never enjoyed a cigarette so much. When she was through, she crushed the cigarette out in the ashtray, grabbed two dog treats off the tray, then returned to her chair between Flash and Kimba. One of the treats she handed to Flash and the other she tossed to Kimba, whose jaws snapped shut on the morsel of food like a sprung trap.
“You three,” she said, pointing to Mitch, Tony, and Brian, “can go. If you want to file charges against me, get in line. I'm never going to forget or forgive you for what you did that night. I want you to know that. I also want you to know that I won't shed one tear when you're all sentenced. And you
will
be sentenced. That's a given.”
The three left the
U
of furniture, walking slowly, cautiously, past Flash and Kimba.
“I don't think any of us are going to be filing any charges, Doc,” Brian said.
“I waited a lot of years to see this,” Tony Larsen said. “You know what? I'm glad it's coming to a head. I'll do whatever it takes to put it behind me.”
“That goes for me, too,” Mitch Iverson added.
“I'll walk you to the door.” Jane motioned them ahead of her. “I want you to know that I didn't see anybody's face that night, so other than my gut instinct, I don't know who did what.”
“I told you the truth. We aren't the ones who raped Connie,” Brian said. “The DNA will be our safety net. Our proof.”
Jane nodded. “I believe you. How long do you think they'll hold out?” she asked, glancing behind her.
“It's anybody's guess,” Brian said grimly. “Todd is never going to give it up. He has too much to lose. You might have to call his father-in-law.”
She let them out and watched the three men walk away, then made her way to the kitchen, where Trixie was brewing a pot of coffee, Olive and Golda at her feet.
“I don't know what you've got planned, Janie,” Trixie said. “Where is this going? How long do you think you can keep this up?”
“I've come this far. I can wait until they're ready to confess. They can't hold out forever. You know what, Trixie? If I'd thought of this sooner, you and Fred wouldn't have had to do that thing with the contest at LSU. I think this is going to wrap it up.”
“It doesn't matter, honey. Endowing a university is never a waste of money. I'm glad we did it. Like Fred said, a pair of hands on the book cover with the football will make it a great jacket. We'd do it all over again.”
Jane smiled wanly. “All the hatred, all the misery, it's gone, Trixie. I feel like I've been reborn. When they first walked into the room, I knew I was capable of killing. If I'd had a gun, I would have fired it. I never felt such blind rage in all my life. One second it was there, and the next second it was gone.”
Trixie wrapped her skinny arms around Jane's shoulders. “That's a good thing. I bet if I wanted to, I could work a whole series of books around this one event. What we're doing here is definitely illegal,” Trixie said, her voice cheerfully at odds with the situation.
“I know. Even if they confess and we get it on tape, will it hold up in court? I can only hope so. Hell, Trixie, I have my doubts it will ever even
get
to court. I don't know what to do now.”
“What do you want to do?”
“An hour ago I would have said I'd like to cut off their balls, but now, I don't know. I'm way out of my league here and we both know it.”
“Let's give them an hour or so, then you can tease them a bit with the telephone. You have the computer line in the office. I can go in there and turn down the ringer and you can call that number and pretend you're calling whomever. You have all their info from the alumni, right?”
“Do you really think they'll fall for the telephone thing?”
“Right now, I think they'll believe anything. They all look a little green to me, but then maybe it's your lighting. Are Flash and Kimba priceless or what?” Trixie trilled.
“You're really getting off on this, aren't you?” Jane snapped.
The only sound coming from the living room was that of panting dogs guarding their captives. The room was exactly as she'd left it . . . the ashtrays dirty and the two cocoa cups on the table. It seemed to Jane that something should have changed.
She sat down and crossed her legs. “Doesn't anyone want to say anything?” She looked from one to the other. “No, huh? Okay, how about this? One minute from now, unless somebody starts talking to me and telling me what I want to hear, I'm going to call your families, then the police, then the news hot line. So, I'm asking you nicely, do any of you have anything to say?”
“You're crazy,” Todd said, eyeing Flash, then Kimba. “If those three raped Connie, they did it on their own. I did tell everybody I was trying to break it off with her, and I asked them for advice. But that's all. I didn't want to hurt her. I was young and stupid. I should have had the guts to just come out and tell her, but I didn't. How the hell do you tell someone you've been sleeping with and who was as nice as Connie that you're in love with someone else?”
“You liar,” Marcus Appleton shouted. “You set it up. You had a goddamn diagram showing us where to do it and how messy you wanted it to be. You were so specific I wanted to puke. You know what else, I kept the fucking diagram in case something ever went down like it's going down right now. It's all in your handwriting.” He turned to Jane and laughed. “And here's the best part. I couldn't get it up that night, so you aren't going to find any of my DNA on Connie's clothes. If you stop and think about it, Miss Shrink, I was the one who punched you in the gut. I did that while the rape was going on. If you think hard enough, you'll remember. Ben and Pete did it. And yeah, I'm the one you bit. That's it as far as building a case against me, Doc.”
“What's your feeling on writing all that down?” Jane asked, her head whirling with the information Appleton had just given up. A diagram. Todd Prentice had actually made a diagram. Like Marcus, she wanted to puke.
“Swear to me that dog won't attack me, and I'll write it in capital letters for you.”
“And . . .” Jane prompted.
“And this never happened. I'm giving a statement of my own free will. Get that other lady to witness it. You don't get the diagram, my lawyer gets it.”
Trixie, her face blank, handed over a legal yellow pad and pen. “That's fair. You best get yourself a good lawyer, son,” she said quietly.
Both women watched as Appleton scribbled furiously.
The room still hadn't changed. Why weren't things different? Everybody seemed to be breathing the same way, taking little gasping puffs of air for fear of aggravating the dogs. A sliver of moonlight could be seen on one of the end tables.
That
was different. It hadn't been there a little while ago. Did that count as a change? There was a second little difference, Appleton's scratching pen.
Jane waited patiently for Marcus to finish writing. Four down and three to go.
I'm doing my best, Connie,
she thought.
My methods might be a tad unorthodox, but if I get the job done, who cares? I'll try to find a way so that your parents don't have to see that diagram. I don't think they can handle that.
“You better read it, because you aren't getting another crack at me,” Appleton said, his voice tight.
Jane read the paper carefully, amazed at how graphic, how explicit, and how detailed the account was. She handed it to Trixie.
“Okay, sign it, date it, and we'll both witness it. You can leave after that.”
Trixie escorted the ex-football player to the door. The sound of screeching tires rang in Jane's ears.
“Okay, who wants to go next?” Jane dangled the portable phone by the antenna.
“I want a lawyer,” Pete Zachary said.
“I do, too,” Ben Nolan agreed.
“Do you hear that, Trixie? These guys want lawyers. Guess we have to let them go. Soon as a suspect says
lawyer,
you gotta back down. Flash! Show these guys the door.”

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