The Beast (41 page)

“I should get a lawyer.”

“Up to you, Randi. It’s your time and your money.”

“Yeah . . . money. It’s always about money. He just . . .” Her jaw was clenched. “He pulled a gun on her—on Georgie.”

“Who did?”

“Penny. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” Decker said. “Let’s put that on hold. Give me a little history? How many times had you gone to Penny’s apartment before the incident?”

“Dozens of times.”

“And about how many times had you and Georgie gone to Penny’s apartment together?”

“Also dozens of times.”

“What went wrong this time?”

“I dunno.” She shook her head. “I didn’t see it coming.”

“Start from when you got to his apartment.”

“Business as usual. He answered the door. We came in. We went to the bedroom. We always went to the bedroom because I wasn’t gonna do it in front of a tiger.”

“Was the tiger always there when you and Georgie came to the apartment?”

“Yes.”

“And where was the tiger this time?”

“In the living room like always. She was sleeping . . . knocked out.”

“Was the tiger chained up?”

“She had a chain on but she wasn’t chained to anything. The asshole liked the thrill of danger. He liked having the tiger there even if she was knocked out. He liked controlling wild animals. And poisonous creepy things. He’d show us snakes and spiders and scorpions. Let them crawl over his arms and hands. At first, it freaked me out. Then you kinda get used to it.”

“Did he show you snakes and spiders that day?”

Randi shook her head. “I think he could tell that we weren’t afraid anymore, that the shock wore off.” A pause. “Maybe that’s why he decided to use the gun . . . to shock us.” Tears in her eyes. “I guess it worked.”

“So Georgie and you went into the bedroom.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Decker nodded. “What happened next?”

She wrung her hands, kneading imaginary dough. “Georgie . . . she opens up the massage table . . . that’s how it starts. We give him a massage.” A pause. “That’s how it
usually
starts.”

“Did you give him a massage?”

“No.” She shook her head. “He just wanted to jump into it. No warm-up at all. That was okay with us. Sooner we do it, the sooner we’re out of there.”

“I understand.”

“So we get into bed with him. Start doing what he likes . . . do you want details?”

“Maybe later. Right now I want to know what went wrong.”

“I’m not sure. We’re just doing him . . . orally. We were taking turns so we wouldn’t get tired. With an old guy, it can take forever. This was one of those times. He just wasn’t into it, Lieutenant. Maybe we weren’t saying the right things or faking it good enough or . . .”

She brushed away tears.

“Maybe he just needed something more. Or maybe he just couldn’t do it anymore and it made him mad. He took Georgie by the hair . . . brought her face near his. I thought he was gonna kiss her or something. Then I see he has a gun to her head. It was awful.”

“Where did the gun come from?”

“I don’t know. Maybe under a pillow.” She licked her lips. “I thought it was a fake. I even joked about it. Big mistake. He pulled it away from her head and fired it. The bullet crashed through the wall. I jumped a zillion feet. That’s when I got real scared.”

“It would scare me,” Decker said. “No one around heard a gunshot. That’s weird.”

“It was muffled. But then the wall exploded and I knew it was real. My fear musta turned him on. He got hard then . . . finally . . . after he fired the gun.” She wiped her eyes. “I was down there and saw it spring to life.” She bit her bottom lip. “Excuse me. I need more coffee.”

“Sure.”

She got up. “Wanna refill?”

“No, I’m fine, thank you.”

She came back a few minutes later and sat back down. They chatted about extraneous things, but eventually, she got back on point. “After he shot the gun . . . everything started moving like at warp speed. I jumped up and Georgie grabbed his arm. And she and Penny started fighting over the gun. I’m screaming and she’s screaming. Then I remember I have this blackjack . . . in my duffel. I’m trying to find it and that’s when I heard the gun go off again.” Her lower lip quivered. “He smiled when he shot her, this big grin . . . and the gun is pointing right at my face . . .”

She was actively crying.

“I was so scared . . . I . . .” She raised her hand. “I hit him.” She brought her hand down. “Hard. His head cracked open. It was horrible. His blood started pouring out.”

No one talked.

She swallowed. It seemed to get caught in her throat. “So much
blood
! I started shaking. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I was scared shitless.”

Decker nodded. “I understand.”

She said, “That’s when I called Bruce . . . and he said he’d be right over.”

“So Bruce wasn’t there when it happened?”

“If Bruce was there, it wouldna happened. Bruce didn’t want us to do him anymore. But the money . . . he gave us a lot of money: five hundred up to a couple of thousand for less than an hour’s work. That’s a lot of money for me.”

Decker nodded again and said, “Tell me what happened after Bruce came over?”

“It was happening so fast. We had to get outta there ’cause the tiger started moving. I think she smelled all the blood.”

“So what did you and Bruce do?”

“We left.”

“You left?”

“Yeah.”

“And what did you do with Georgie?”

“Georgie was dead . . . no doubt about that.”

“Okay. But she wasn’t left behind.”

“No, she wasn’t.”

“So what happened?”

Randi averted her eyes. “We took her with us. We didn’t want to leave her for tiger food.”

“How’d you get her out of the apartment?”

“In a duffel bag.”

“The ones you brought with you?”

She nodded but wouldn’t make eye contact.

“One duffel bag was too small for her entire body to fit.” When Randi didn’t say anything, Decker said, “You’ve come this far. Get it all out. You’ll feel better.”

“She was dead, Lieutenant.”

“Okay.”

“She really was. She wasn’t moving or breathing or anything. There was no pulse.”

“You felt for a pulse?”

“I didn’t have to. She was dead. And the tiger was starting to wake up.”

“I understand. You had to make quick decisions.”

“Exactly. And she was already dead. Penny shot her. I swear to God, it’s the truth.”

“I believe you.”

“Do you really?”

“I do. And if you want everyone to believe you, take a polygraph—a lie detector test.”

“I’ll do that anytime you want.”

“Good. That will really help your case.”

“So when do we do it?”

“I’ll set one up as soon as I can.”

“Here?”

“It would be better for everyone if you came back to L.A. That would help your case as well.”

“Is Bruce back in L.A.?”

“He’s been in contact with us. He’s also agreed to take a polygraph.” Decker gave her a moment. “Tell me what happened to Georgina. You’ve been honest. Let’s go the distance.” Another pause. Decker said, “So Bruce Havert and you are in Penny’s apartment—”

“We’re both like . . . freaked.”

“Of course. Penny is dead. Georgie is dead. The tiger is waking up. What happened next?”

She sighed as her eyes became wet. “I loved Georgie. I couldn’t leave her for the tiger.”

“I understand. So what did you do?”

“We tried to stuff her in the duffel but like you said, she was too big . . .”

No one spoke.

“We coulda thought of something better if we had time, but we were rushed.”

“I get it.”

She sighed. “Bruce broke her legs at the knees and tried to like . . . stuff her inside the duffel that way . . . she was still too long.”

Silence.

“So . . .” Randi swallowed hard. “He got a knife from the kitchen.” She cleared her throat. “After he did that, we wrapped her up.”

“After Bruce did what?”

“He had to cut her legs off.”

“Okay. Go on.”

She cleared her throat again. “We put the different parts in a couple of garbage bags so she wouldn’t leak when we left. We stuffed the legs in one duffel, and the rest of her in the other.”

She blotted her wet face with her shirt.

“We put her back together when we buried her. We shoulda gone to the police, but I was scared that no one would believe me. Penny was rich and old. I knew the police would think we were trying to rob him.”

“Were there things in his apartment worth robbing?” Decker asked.

“Not things, but he always had cash. Lots of cash. He always paid us in cash.”

Yet when Oliver and Marge went over the apartment, there was nothing valuable anywhere. Decker said, “What happened to the cash, Randi? And be honest. Did you take it?”

“No.” Randi was emphatic. “Everything was covered in blood. The bills were disgusting. All I wanted was to get out of there.” She looked up at Decker. “I was scared for my life, Lieutenant. I honestly thought if I didn’t attack him, I’d be next.”

“So you hit him on the head.”

“I hit him on the head, yes.”

“And then you shot him.”

She looked at him quizzically. “No, I didn’t shoot him.”

“You didn’t shoot Hobart Penny.”

“No!”

“Think hard before you answer.”

“I don’t have to think hard. I didn’t shoot him. I woulda shot him if I had the gun, but it musta dropped or something. I never saw it after I hit him.”

“After he killed Georgie and you hit him over the head, you didn’t try to find the gun?”

“No. The place was a mess: all that blood and guts and brain. And then when we had to take the legs off. The stupid gun was the last thing on my mind. If I was to take something, it woulda been the money, but I didn’t even take that. We left immediately after Georgie was packed up.”

“So what happened to the gun?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at him. “You don’t have it?” When
Decker didn’t answer, she said, “Like I keep saying, I never touched it.”

“That’s very interesting, Randi. You said you didn’t shoot Penny—”

“I didn’t.”

“Okay. You didn’t shoot Penny, but Penny was shot. What do you know about that?”

“
Nothing!
”

“Bruce Havert said you shot Penny.”

“I never
touched
the gun. Ask me that question in your lie detector test and you’ll see I’m telling you the truth!”

“Bruce said you shot Penny in self-defense.”

“Bruce wasn’t
there.
He got his facts wrong. I hit the old guy with my blackjack. I admit that. But I never
touched
the gun.”

“Do you have the blackjack?”

“No, I left it with Georgie.”

“Okay.” Decker waited a few seconds. “When Bruce was inside the apartment, did you ever leave him alone in the bedroom with Penny?”

“I gotta think.” A pause. “When Georgie wouldn’t fit into the single duffel, Bruce went to get the knife.” She licked her lips again. “And then when he started to cut, I went into the living room for about a minute, maybe? I came back right away because I was scared of the tiger.”

“Did you hear anything when you were in the living room?”

“Like what?”

“Like a gun going off.”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t know what to tell you about the gun. If the old guy was shot, it happened after Bruce and me left. I didn’t know he was shot until you told me.”

“When he shot Georgie, how many gunshots did you hear?”

“One.”

“Just one?”

“Yes . . . one besides the time he shot at the wall.”

“You’re sure.”

“Positive.”

And you don’t know what happened to the gun.”

“No.”

Decker was puzzled.
If
she was telling the truth, there was a problem and a big one.

If
she was telling the truth, it meant there was another person involved.

T
HREE DAYS LATER,
after Randi Miller and Bruce Havert had written down and reaffirmed their statements to the detectives, after the polygraphs were administered, and after the bisected body of Georgina Harris had been found in a shallow grave—the dead woman having sustained a gunshot wound through the heart—the death of Hobart Penny was officially ruled a justifiable homicide.

Blood evidence had come back: Georgina’s blood, Penny’s blood, even some of Randi’s blood. Forensics also found a bullet in the wall. The evidence appeared to back up the stories. Randi Miller felt that the only possible way that she could disable Penny and save her friend was to hit the old man over the head. And after Marge interviewed Shady Lady—née Arlette Jackson—who told her about Penny chopping off her finger, the judge was further convinced that his decision had been righteous.

There were charges: tampering with evidence, mutilation of a body, but because of the extenuating circumstances of the tiger, Randi Miller and Bruce Havert managed to get off with three years’
probation. A light sentence, but expected, since the victim garnered no sympathy.

But not everything was neat and tidy. While the detectives did recover the blackjack, buried with Georgina, they didn’t find the gun. Thorough searches of Havert’s house and car, and Randi’s car and trailer, failed to turn up any firearm at all let alone the offending weapon. And in her statement to the police, Randi had mentioned several times that Penny was in possession of a lot of money, even recalling blood-soaked bills. But when the detectives had searched the apartment, they never found a stash of cash. On the contrary, there was a dearth of valuables.

As a stickler for details, Decker was bothered. His desk had the original crime scene photos along with the autopsy report. He, along with Oliver and Marge, were leafing through the case files, trying to see if they could spot any money at all. Finally he plopped the file down on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “There were three gunshots fired that we know about.” Marge and Oliver looked up. “One at the wall, one through Georgina’s heart, and one in Penny’s back.” Decker held up his hands in a shrug. “And no one heard anything?”