The Mystery of Jessica Benson (7 page)

T
he Homicide Division of the Beach Police Department was a
study in disorganization on day three of the Jessica Benson
investigation. Papers flew, cops darted back and forth, and a
general sense of bedlam raged. Every available detective had
been dragged into the hunt and caucused at least twice daily with
either Karen or Will, or both.

Will met with the Captain each evening, and was grilled
about everything to the minutest details. The meetings always
ended with the same heated warning. “It’s taking too freakin’
long! The media is biting the Mayor’s ass and he’s taking chunks
outta mine. Do whatever you have to do, but close the goddamned case!” This, of course, did nothing to help Will’s already
noxious frame of mind.

The lack of evidence extracted from the crime scene was
exasperating. The statuette, as well as every inch of the
apartment had been wiped clean. There were no prints from
anyone, including the victim, left behind. Someone knew what
they were doing.

Addressing the team, Garcia said, “The motherfucker
didn’t leave so much as a spec of dirt behind. Had to be some
kind of psycho to be that violent, yet stay cool enough to clean
up the place like that. It’s as though he figured he had all the
time in the world.”

Bill Benjamin responded with his usual irreverence.
“Hey, it’s not like he had to rush or anything. The broad had a
reputation as a screamer. All her neighbors agreed about that. He
probably could have even skipped the duct tape. Most of the
folks I interviewed said they just ignored her because it was
nothing out of the ordinary. Nobody looked at their clocks or
stuck their heads into the hallway. Fuckin’ amazing.”

“You keep saying ‘he.’ Is there evidence that I haven’t
gotten to see, or what?” Karen asked.
Tom Grant chuckled at her. “Yeah, yeah. We hear you,
woman. We’re just speculating here, understand? Lighten up a
little. But in answer to your question—I don’t know—it just
feels
like male rage. I’m all about women’s rights and equal
opportunity, but I’m going with a guy here, for now anyway.”
“I’m with him, guys, er, ’scuse me, guys and
dolls
,” Will
joked. He paused while the group had a self-conscious chuckle.
“From all accounts, she was playing around with numerous
males. She dumped ’em when she was through. The unanimous
consensus is she left the poor bastards crying in their beers or
sniffing their cocaine. She didn’t seem to have any limits.”
Benjamin wove his fingers together and crunched his
knuckles. “Yeah. Never looked back except to spit on them.
What a gal.”
Karen winced. “Geez, Benjie. I liked it better when you
were smoking. At least the sound effects were less grating. But
in spite of my reluctance to
genderize
, I’m inclined to agree with
you guys about the killer being a male. That woman specialized
in breaking hearts and by the looks of things, she broke one too
many.”
Will jabbed at his partner. “The girl who plays the game
gets the name, right? Karen’ll buy a man for the job, so long’s
it’s not sweet cheeks himself, Kyle Sands. She thinks he’s as
clean as a newborn baby’s ass. Ain’t that the truth, babe?”
All the detectives were looking a little uncomfortable
now. Karen glared at her partner. “Drop it Will, okay?”
Garcia cleared his throat in an attempt to crack some of
the tension between the partners. “What’s
with
you two? You’ve
been at each other’s throats since we took this case. Care to
share? How about let’s have a good-and-welfare moment here
and clear the air some.”
“We’re just having a little dispute about the way the law
works,” Karen answered. “Will seems to think that we should
bust the quarterback, just because we can, and then fry him
without bothering to try him. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s
convenient.”
“Yeah, right.
My
partner has her head half way up her
ass on this one. Seems she’s star-struck. The big handsome lug
sucked her in with a sob story and an academy award
performance. You had to be there, the jock crying crocodile tears
and Karen eating it up.” Will brought his fists up to his eyes and
made a show of clearing his tears.
Tom Grant gave an uneasy laugh and said, “Tell me you
two are kidding, right? You’re fighting over a suspect? Take a
fuckin’ break, will you?” And then to Will with a wink. “What’s
the matter? You jealous?”
“Fuck no, I’m not jealous, asshole. I just want Detective
Brandt here to take a step back and see the whole picture. Just
because he’s a pretty boy with nice white teeth and a decent set
of pecs, don’t mean he’s innocent.”
“Aw, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Cut the crap you two!”
Garcia shook his head. “Can’t you get past this or are you having
too much fun jerking each other off while the case goes down the
crapper? I don’t get you. You know Karen’s not gonna take up
for some scum bucket because she thinks he has a cute ass…”
Karen cut in, “I’m not saying we ignore him. But I don’t
think we ought to be locking the guy up without some good, hard
evidence. Right now all we have going for us is a bunch of
circumstantial garbage. Meanwhile, Sands isn’t going anywhere.
That’s a sure bet. We arrest him now and it’s as good as giving
him a
Get out of Jail Free
card. Any lawyer worth hiring would
have him out in less time than it takes to book him. If we’re
going to do this right, dammit, then we need a shit load more
evidence than we have now!”
Garcia nodded in agreement with Karen. He narrowed
his eyes at Will and asked, “So can we put our differences aside
now and move on? The longer we sit here pulling our puds over
your he-said/she-said-ing, the more time it’s gonna take us to
find out whether or not Sands did it. Understood?” He raised his
eyebrows in question.
Karen clenched her fists and shot Will an evil stare. He
rolled his eyes at her in response.
Tom Grant looked at Garcia. “I can’t fucking believe
we’re wasting time with this two-year-old shit!” Then to Karen
and Will, “Get with the program, both of you.”
Benjamin, who had busied himself with a stale éclair and
a cup of the deadly glop the station called coffee, looked up at
his partner and said, “Sounds like a plan to me. Do we take a
vote or can we just get on with it?”
A dark silence hung for a few moments. Karen finally
broke the mood. Poking at Will’s chest, in her best Arnold
Schwarzenegger imitation, she barked, “I’ll be back!”
Will gave her a feeble smile and said, “I know. Okay,
let’s get on with this mess. I told James Lundy we wanted to chat
with him. He was a real treat, the little fuck. Said he had to fit us
in to his busy schedule. I said I’d give him a busy schedule.
Anyways, we ended up agreeing on 1:30 this afternoon. We
don’t want to rattle the football players’ cages, though, right?
He’s got a real chip on his shoulder and he’s Sands’ best friend. I
don’t see him for being any help. He’s an honors graduate of
Fordham, and if that’s not enough of a pain in our ass, he’s been
going to law school at UM in the off season for the past two
years. You can bet he’s read up on his rights and’ll dance over
any landmines we plant.” Will stopped for a minute and looked
around to be sure he had his colleagues’ full attention. Satisfied
that the group was with him, he continued.
“His alibi for Friday night is solid. He was all cozy in his
apartment with some broad. She checked out with his story.
Didn’t leave him till after two or three in the morning, but she
left pissed. Said the guy wanted her for her body, not her mind,
like I give a shit. Can’t blame him, though.” He cupped his
hands to his chest and added, “Her tits were out to here.”
“Come on, jeez!” said Karen who was used to the
sexism but sick of it.
“Anyway, she woulda been real glad to cause a problem
for him, but the upshot was he was still in bed and a little more
than drunk when she left, and she was clear that he didn’t look to
be getting out of it any time in the foreseeable future. Whoever
killed Benson had to be sober and sharp enough to do a heck of a
job cleaning. We gotta take a crack at him, though. Crowd him
some and see what we can get. Being so tight with Sands, I
figure he might give us a little more insight to the guy if nothing
else.”
The detectives once again reviewed the information that
had been gathered to date. All the tenants in Jessica’s building
had finally been interviewed, and although all of them claimed to
have seen nothing, every one of them had plenty to say. The
women, for the most part, said she was a lousy neighbor, rude,
crude, loud and otherwise inconsiderate. The guys, on the other
hand, either thought she was the answer to their dreams or
sounded like sour grapes — the straight ones, anyway — calling
her cold, stand-offish and saying she usually kept her distance.
Rafe Strickland and his partner, who had finally come back to
town, were the only ones who seemed to actually like her.
No one knew the names of any of her male friends
except, of course, Kyle Sands, who everyone knew she was
seeing. They owed that to the fact that he was a high profile
athlete. In a small building like that, news travels fast. The other
men that she entertained were like phantoms…heard, but never
seen.
Jessica’s background was another lost lead. She was
from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Her childhood was a real hardluck story. Her father died when she was nine. She and her
younger sister were raised by their mother. Her mother never
went past the eighth grade and did odd jobs to make ends meet.
The officer from the sheriff’s office in Beaver Falls had
a lot to say about the mother. She was intermittently on welfare
and general relief. Her food stamps were usually pawned for
cigarettes and cheap liquor. One of the ‘odd jobs’ he recalled —
the Beach detectives had little doubt that he probably had
personal knowledge — had to do with late night trysts, giving
five dollar blow jobs to any and all takers.
Jessica had not been a great student, but was popular in
high school. She sang in the choir, was a cheerleader, and hung
with a nice crowd. In her senior year, however, there had been an
ugly incident in which Jessica was caught in a compromising
position in the gymnasium with two basketball players. She was
ostracized by the kids she thought were her friends. More than
one police officer was unable to resist commenting that she had
better luck with basketball players than football heroes. She left
Beaver Falls immediately after she graduated from high school.
Her younger sister, Julie, had not escaped the fall out from the
narrow-minded small town kids and was unable to live down her
sister’s mistake. She dropped out of high school less than six
months after Jessica left town. Her mother eventually introduced
her to world of midnight blow jobs and she got pregnant about a
year later. She eventually ran off with the skin-head she claimed
was the father. That was the last time her mother or anyone else
in Beaver Falls ever heard from or about her.
Karen had also interviewed Jessica’s mother who
complained bitterly about her precious daughter running off to
Florida like she did. She claimed to be devastated by the
desertion and the fact that she heard from Jessica only on rare
occasions, some phone calls and an infrequent FedEx’s stuffed
with cash.
She cried hysterically when she learned Jessica was
dead. “My baby! My sweet darling baby!” When she finally
caught her breath, she asked Karen how long it would take to get
all Jessie’s stuff, and did the detective think there was a lot of
cash money coming to her.
The case was growing cold.

J
ames Lundy arrived at the police station as promised, at 1:30
that afternoon. He came straight from practice and looked like a
thug. The sleeves of the Demons sweatshirt he wore were ripped
out, and his basketball shorts hung low on his hips. He wore flipflops on his feet, and a beat-up Marlins cap, bill to the back of
his head. A fat unlit cigar jutted from his mouth. Karen mentally
thanked the city for the ‘no smoking’ ordinance.

Will insisted on making Lundy wait. He told Karen he
needed to speak with her in the squad room and escorted Lundy
to the interrogation room, a small airless cubicle with the
obligatory two-way mirror. The player made no secret of his
impatience. Will just grinned/ “Relax, Lundy. Sit down. I’ll be
back.”

He returned to Karen who, in an attempt to control her
exasperation, had been working studiously on a hangnail. When
Will appeared, she asked if Lundy was settled in. Will took a
seat across from her and said, “Yeah. He thinks he’s a real tough
guy. I’m gonna let him sweat it awhile.”

“You’re wasting time, Will,” she responded. “He’s not
the type who’s going to sit for your shit. He’s got a basic grasp
of the law, and that’s usually worse than having a papered
attorney around.”

“I don’t give a fuck what he does or doesn’t know about
the law. Captain Cruz is tearing my head off for a break in this
case and I’m gonna get Lundy for it. I’d make book that piss-ant
knows something, and I’m gonna make damn sure he shares
whatever it is with us. Are you going to tell me that’s a problem
for you?” Will glared at Karen, challenging her to give him the
wrong response.

“How about we drop the petty bullshit between us and
concentrate on the case?”
“Yeah, sure. Might as well. I just didn’t feel right about
the chemistry I felt between you and Sands the other day. It’s not
like you to be so passive in an interrogation. So maybe I got a
little crazy.”
Karen shook her head and groaned. “God, you make me
so mad sometimes, Will. It wasn’t an ‘interrogation.’ We were
just questioning him, and because I didn’t jump to arrest him,
you’ve got me swapping spit with him. Get over it, already.”
Will sat there, making no move to leave, a sour look
pasted on his face.
“Tell you what, Will,” she offered. “I’ll be superaggressive with his buddy today and you can sit back and play
good cop. Will that cheer you up a little?”
Will stiffened and rolled his head around on his
shoulders. His bones crackled. Then, with a huge sigh, he shook
himself out like a wet dog. He was quiet for a few short seconds
more and then fixed his eyes on Karen’s as though trying to read
her thoughts. Finally, he flashed a weak ‘thumbs up’ and gave
her a feeble smile. “You drive a hard bargain, woman. But the
only thing I want you to be is yourself. I’ll even back off Sands
for now if it’ll make you happy. Let’s go see what his sidekick
has to say. Sound like a plan?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she replied, feeling lousy about her
deception.
Truth was, he knew her too well. She was very definitely
getting hung up on Kyle Sands. Until yesterday, he had been a
fixture in her life; one that had been lost forever, then suddenly
returned. Her little-girl crush was growing into a woman’s
heartache. It was hard enough for her to deal with the out-ofcontrol emotions without Will’s eyes on her soul.
When they stood, Will gave her a big hug and kissed her
cheek lightly. She hugged him back and smiled a smile she
didn’t feel. A growing sense of danger swept over her and she
could not help but feel things were going to get a lot scarier
before this case was solved.