The Mystery of Jessica Benson (8 page)

The two entered the interrogation room to find a very
angry witness. “Nice. Glad you could make it. You think I got
nothing to do but sit here waiting for you to get around to
visiting me in this sweat-box? We agreed on a time and I was
here when I said. Then you toss me into this cell and go out to
lunch? I got a good mind to dip and let you question each other. I
got things to do and no fuckin’ way is this is one of them!” He
flipped his lighter open and went to light up his cigar.

Will moved to grab it, but Karen interceded. “There’s no
smoking in here. Let me take that for you.” She smiled and
reached toward him to remove it from his mouth. “I can get you
coffee or soda if you’d like, but this is a smoke-free building so
the cigar’s gotta go.”

Lundy pulled back but reluctantly handed the stogie
over. She thanked him and left the room to dispose of the stinky
butt. Will stared sullenly at the football player until she returned.

Once the session got underway, it grew wearisome very
quickly. Lundy began with the discussion he and Kyle had on the
Friday of the murder. He clearly disapproved of his friend’s
relationship with Jessica and had urged Sands to break it off with
her, the sooner the better.

“Kyle had wasted too much time with her already. I used
to give him about ten reasons a day why he should cut her loose.
She was an unscrupulous bitch is what she was, not meaning to
speak ill of the dead, of course,” he said, raising his hands up, as
if to fend off whatever remarks the detectives might send his
way.

“I saw Jessica at the beach on Thursday afternoon when
I was hanging out with Angie, this girl I date on and off, but
Jessica sure enough didn’t see me. In fact, she was so twisted up
with some guy, I don’t think she saw anyone. Damn. She had it
going on with the fruit who teaches abs at one of the local gyms.
He’s also done some work with a few of the players at the
Demons complex as well. She…”

“Yeah, he does.” James smiled, showing lots of teeth,
but said nothing more. He seemed to enjoy pissing Will off.
“Don’t be cute, asshole. What is it?”
“Feyzi. Feyzi something-or-other.”
“What the hell kinda name is Feyzi?”
“I heard he’s a Turk.”
“A rag head?” Will asked.
Karen rolled her eyes and kicked him under the table.
She looked at James and mumbled, “He didn’t say that.”
James laughed. “S’okay, I knew what he meant. Naw, he
doesn’t stand out in a crowd. I mean, you wouldn’t pick him up
as a terrorist or anything. He looks pretty much like any other
white guy to me. Maybe just with a better tan.”
“How well do you know him?” Karen asked.
“Not real well. I’ve seen him around a lot. He’s got a
going concern with the women on the Beach, a real taste for
models. Teaches at Crunch and does personal training for
women in their homes. Know what I’m saying? He’s all about
that spiritual shit — meditation, yoga — whatever pays the bills,
I guess. The broads eat that stuff up, but he sure as fuck doesn’t
bring the touchy-feely stuff with him when he works with the
guys on the team.” He pursed his lips and nodded his head a
couple of times to emphasize his point.
“Tell you the truth, ‘til I saw him with Jessica that
afternoon, I thought he was a little sweet, but he was doing a
damn convincing imitation of heterosexuality with her.” He
winked at Karen who couldn’t help but smile back. Will glared
at them both.
“So, you saw the Arab…”
“Turk.”
“Arab, Turk…whatever. They’re all fucking terrorists to
me… And you went to Sands and said exactly what?”
“I told you what I said. I basically iterated my position
on Jessica again. She was making a jerk out of him, and this time
I saw it with my own eyes. Up till then it was just a bunch of
hearsay.”
“And Sands said what?”
“Uh, Kyle was beginning to agree with me. I wasn’t the
only one who’d said something to him about her, I’m sure. He
told me he was going to take her out Friday night and end
things.”
“Yeah, looks like he ended them all right,” Will replied.
“Did you know he was going to kill her?”
“Do
you
know I’m about to walk out outta here if you
don’t stop slandering my best friend?”
“Yeah, you’re a real big shot. A fucking law class or two
under your belt and you think you can run the world. Okay,
smartass, I’m sure your buddy had plenty to tell you about his
date Friday night, huh? How long after the murder did you first
talk to him?”
Lundy told him he’d been home most of the night with a
wicked woman of his own. They had a disagreement and she left
around one in the morning. He said he’d had a lot to drink and
went to sleep shortly after she left.
He didn’t see Kyle until practice the next morning.
There had been nothing unusual about his buddy’s behavior
except he was probably a little depressed.
“Kyle said he’d had a nasty argument with Jessica, and
he wanted to get in touch with her to straighten things out.”
“What do you mean
straighten things out
?’”
“Yeah, right. I wasn’t too thrilled about it myself when
he said it. At first I thought he was going back with her and I got
pissed. Real pissed. But he told me he was definitely over her.
He just wanted the break-up to be more amicable. Kyle’s one of
the last of the real good guys. It wasn’t ‘til you guys showed up
at practice that Kyle found out about the murder.”
They talked about the reasons Lundy disliked Jessica so
much. He told them she had two passions, “sex and drugs.” The
detectives sat up immediately.
“Uh huh,” Lundy continued. “There was always jawing
about her with some guy or another. I figured she was cheating
on Kyle, and lately he was beginning to believe it as well. But
nobody knew the specifics.”
“You already told me about her sex life. What about the
drugs?” Will pushed.
“Settle down, man. I’m getting there. Jess looked stoned
half the time. I heard somewhere that she was heavy into coke,
and she sucked weed down like it was oxygen. When she was
with Kyle, she stayed pretty much with just alcohol because she
knew damn well he wouldn’t tolerate the drugs. But the little
trick wasn’t always with Kyle, which takes us back to the main
reason I wanted him to stop seeing her.”
He got quiet for a minute and looked from Will to Karen
as though waiting for another round of questioning. Finally he
shrugged his shoulders and pointed to his watch. “You about
finished with me? I gotta get back to the field some time before
midnight. Coach busted my nuts about coming here in the first
place.”
“It’s over when I say it’s over, capish?” Will bullied.
His attitude didn’t seem to faze Lundy in the least.
“Listen here, old man.” His voice had a treacherous edge to it
now. “I don’t know anything but what I’ve told you. If I could
give you names and places, I’d do it, whatever it’d take to get
you off Kyle’s back. Why don’t you go find Feyzi and hassle
him for awhile? He’s probably listed in the book. If not, call
Crunch and find out when he’s teaching a class and get him
there. Maybe he’s got more to say about what happened Friday
night. He sure as hell could tell you more about what Jessica was
doing on Thursday afternoon.”
Karen could tell by Will’s expression that he was
considering dragging this scene on longer just because he could.
But the player was right. Time would better be served elsewhere
at this point. He’d clearly given up all he was going to for now.
“Okay. Let’s wrap it up,” she said.
Will made no attempt to hide his disdain for Lundy. He
told him to make himself available for future questioning and the
athlete assured him he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Make sure you don’t,” Will said for no other reason but
to have the last word.
On the way back to the squad room Karen asked, “Next
stop Feyzi whatsisname?”
He gave her a short salute and said, “You got it, babe.”

T
he whirlpool droned in his head and Kyle finally felt relaxed.
He had come in from practice ahead of the team and was taking
advantage of the quiet. For a couple of minutes he had even
dozed. Now that he was awake, his mind started twisting and
turning again. He tortured himself with the same question he had
been asking himself for days.
Could I have stopped the murder?

He was overwhelmed with guilt, going over that Friday
night with scenarios of what might have been. He berated
himself for being so callous, causing a scene at the party and
walking out on her afterwards. He kept seeing her eyes welled up
with tears and hearing her voice trailing behind him as he
slammed out of her apartment.
What ifs
continuously tumbled
through his brain.

Fingers brushed lightly across the back of his neck and
he shivered from the touch. “Hey stud, how’re you doing?” It
was Gloria DiAngelo, one of the team trainers. She began
massaging his shoulders and he leaned back into her soothing
hands. There was an easy silence between them. Although he
wanted to fade into the oblivion of her touch, he finally
answered.

“Gloria, hey. Feels good, don’t stop. Mmm. You don’t
want to know how I’m doing. Hell,
I
don’t want to know. What’s
going on with you?”

“I got no problems, handsome, but then I never dated
Jessica Benson. Oops! My bad! Sorry, but I couldn’t help
myself,” Gloria giggled. Kyle wasn’t amused.

“Nice. Glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor over
my bad luck. Go ahead, have your laugh about what used to be
my life.”

“Aw, come on sweetie. It’ll get better.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. It can’t get worse. Thanks loads.
I’d smack you one, but then you might stop what you’re doing to
me and that would really be a crime.”
“Ah, you like the pleasure my hands give? Or are you
just sweet talking me here?”
She leaned into him so he could feel the softness of her
full breasts. When he didn’t resist, she slowly brought her arms
around him, and began provocatively massaging his chest. He
savored the warmth for just long enough that Gloria took it as an
invitation to move in for more. Her lips pulled him to her like a
magnet and she quickly slid her tongue into his mouth. He
moaned from the heat of it.
Kyle bolted away from her as though he’d been stung by
a wasp. He pulled from her grip and turned to face her. She
backed off for a second and then smiled and continued talking as
though nothing had transpired between them.

Gloria DiAngelo was the color of dark honey with large
aqua almond eyes and a full sensuous mouth. Her body was
sculpted from rigorous workouts and excellent genes, but rather
than having the sharp angles of a gymnast, she was all female,
curvaceous and inviting. She was the product of a mixed
marriage. Her mother was African and her father was a
descendant of Northern Italians. The blend produced a woman
who was as striking as she was sensual.

“So, really, how are you doing with all this? I’ve
wanted to talk with you these past couple of days, but you
looked so dark, and anyway, everyone else seemed to be in your
face, so I thought I’d give you some space.”

Kyle tried to smile, but couldn’t quite make it. “Thanks,
but with the exception of the media hoards, most everyone here
seems to be lecturing me or steering clear of me.”

“They’re a bunch of wusses. When it’s all good, they’re
all about you, but something happens and you need them,
everybody’s got an agenda and you’re not part of it.” She shook
her head and ran her fingers across his forehead, softly pushing a
renegade clump of hair from his face. “It’s not you, Kyle. It’s
them.”

“Thanks Gloria. You’re a good friend and that means a
lot to me right now. I hope the police haven’t been hassling you
too.”

“They are a little. The old cop thought he was pretty
intimidating. He got a little tough with me, but I butched my way
through it. You know I can handle myself okay. He left off after
awhile, though, the lech.”

“Lech?”
“Hell, yes. He was practically drooling by the time we
finished. He never took his eyes of my boobs. I could see his
hard on, and the bastard knew it. I’m sure he would have asked
me out if it hadn’t been for the other cop with him. She was all
business.”
“Detective Brandt?”
“That her name? I didn’t catch it. What’s the other one,
oh wait, yeah. He gave me his card. Kaufman. “He did all the
talking. I’ll bet he’s making your life pretty miserable, right? But
not to worry. As they talk to more people who knew her, they’ll
find out that she wasn’t going to win popularity contests around
here with anyone, either.”
“You know something I don’t?”
“Yeah, maybe. You can never tell.” She gave him a
wink, and continued, “They’re gonna have to look under plenty
of rocks before they get a clear picture of Jessica. My feelings
probably aren’t much different from any other woman who’s had
anything to do with her, and most of the men, too.”
“And those feelings are what?”
“She was a certified people-eater. I thought you were
savvier than to buy into her act like you did. But then, Kyle
baby, you give as good as you get, and that’s the bottom line
here.”
Here it comes
, Kyle thought. Gloria and he had shared
some intimate moments when she first came to the team a few
years before. It had meant less to him than to her, but he hadn’t
realized that until she reacted badly when he broke it off. Several
months had gone by before the two were civil to each other
again. Over the years, however, she had not missed an
opportunity to bring up the romance that never was.
“Why not let’s drop that mantra for now,” he smiled.
“Well, okay, just this once.” She scowled and gave him
a soft punch in the solar plexus. “You know, I really hadn’t
thought about it much at the time, but something happened the
other night that was really weird.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, Thursday night I was getting out of here late.
When I got to the parking lot, Jessica was there arguing with
Luke Arnold. They looked pretty heated up. I couldn’t hear what
they were saying and left without giving it another thought.
Shoot, Luke’s always having a problem with someone and
Jessica didn’t mind getting into it when the chance came about,
either. Anyway, I didn’t think they had even seen me, until this
morning, that is. Arnold caught me in the training room when no
one else was around and wanted to talk about what happened
that night. I don’t know. He was even weirder than he usually is,
if you can believe that! I can’t stand the turd to begin with, so
I’m like, ‘we got nothing to discuss, man.’ And then he got all up
tight and tells me ‘no, no, I just wanted you to know about me
and Jessica.’ Him and Jessica? Now there’s a scary thought.
Okay, but now I’m interested, right? Him and Jessica, ha! So I
ask him what’d he mean
him and Jessica
? So he’s telling me
how he knew I saw them talking the other night and he’s just
making sure I understand that it was just a ‘misunderstanding’
they were having. So, you know, like I shouldn’t be getting any
wrong ideas. Well, then I’m
really
interested, so I tell him, ‘why
would I get any wrong ideas just because she was murdered the
next night?’ And he tells me that’s nothing to joke about and
then goes all quiet on me and gets to looking all sulky, right?
Finally he tells me they weren’t really fighting. Yeah, right. I just
have an active imagination. He says he was just talking to her
about some shit he’d heard and she got nasty, and don’t we all
know that she could get plenty nasty. Then she started yelling at
him for no reason. I told him I got the picture and then he’s ‘Mr.
Aw Shucks’ all over again and everything’s cool. Boy, don’t I
wish I was a fly on a car that night.”
“Boy, don’t wish you’d been a fly on a car that night.
You told the cops about that though, right?”
“Nah. I told you I didn’t even think about it again ‘til
Arnold came to me this morning.”
“Damn it, Gloria!” Kyle stood, and wrapping a towel
around his hips, splashed out of the whirlpool. “You’ve got to be
kidding me. You have to tell Kaufman about that. I can’t believe
you let something like that slide. It’s not just a little thing…”
Gloria’s eyes moved appreciatively from Kyle’s face to
his feet. Then she apparently recognized just how angry he was
getting and stepped back away from him. She blinked a couple
of times and cleared her throat.
“Well, uh, actually, I meant to tell them about it, Kyle,
but that asshole cop was banging on me about you and I just
wanted him to get outta my face, you know what I’m saying
here? I lost my train of thought, you know? He has a real bad
attitude about you, Kyle. All he was asking me about was if I’d
been social with you and Jessica. Social? What the fuck is
that
all about? And he wanted to know how well I knew you. Oh
yeah, and he asked me what I knew about your bad temper, and
did I know any other incidences where you might have been
‘abusive’ to women. Damn, I had to laugh about that one!
Where’s he getting all this crap from, anyways? I stuck up for
you, though. I told him we’d been together a long time ago and
you’d never been anything but a gentleman always. I told him
you were a regular knight on a white horse.”
Kyle was sorry he’d jumped at her. After all, who knew
better about Kaufman’s nasty attitude than he? Not wanting to
start anything up again, but not knowing how else to handle this,
he put his arms around her and gently pulled her toward him. He
was a good foot taller than Gloria, and he rested his chin on her
head.
“I appreciate your support, Glor.” And then, as an
afterthought—almost a consolation prize, he said, “So maybe
when this is all behind me, you and I will have a drink or
something.” Then he immediately felt regret. This was not the
time, and she was not the woman to be sharing false hope with.
She stayed very still and held tight to him for a minute
longer. Then she pulled back, lifted her face up at him and
smiled. “Yeah, that’d be cool.”