Authors: Jeffrey Allen

Stay At Home Dead (22 page)

BOOK: Stay At Home Dead

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“I thought it was Odell’s idea,” I said, trying not reveal too much shock.

Deborah rolled her eyes. “Please. Odell’s never had an idea in his entire life.”

Now, that sounded exactly right.

“The entire thing was Reggie’s idea,” Deborah repeated, adjusting her grip on Shayna’s hair. “He just wanted Odell’s money.”

“And Benny’s, too, right?” I asked.

Deborah hesitated, as if there was an invisible line in the conversation and she wasn’t sure whether to cross it. She blinked several times and glanced at her sister.

“And Benny’s, too,” Deborah finally said. “And Benny gave it to him. Didn’t he, Shayna?”

Shayna remained silent, her hands wrapped around her sister’s wrists.

“He did give it to him,” Deborah said, shaking her head at her sister’s silence. “But Shayna didn’t want him to. Which was why Shayna stuck that knife in his chest and put him in your van.”

Shayna started thrashing for all she was worth. “I did what? You shut the hell up, Deborah! I did not kill Benny!”

Deborah leaned back, trying to leverage her weight as she attempted to maintain control of Shayna’s hair. “Oh, bull. Reggie told me how you did it and how you tossed Benny in Deuce’s van because you knew how it would look.” Deborah smirked. “You were so pissed at Benny for dumping your savings into Killer Kids, and you just couldn’t take it anymore.”

Shayna screamed, and Bob turned himself in a circle and sat back down to watch. Shayna moved like she’d been electrocuted, and Deborah couldn’t hang on, Shayna’s hair slipping out of her hands. Shayna rolled over, crouched like a jaguar about to pounce, and Deborah scooted away on her butt, fear washing over her face.

I’d been a bystander long enough. As Shayna jumped at Deborah, I caught her from behind and wrapped my arms around her.

She kicked and thrashed and threw her head back, trying to crack me in the face with her skull. But her head just kept bouncing off my chest.

“I didn’t kill Benny! I didn’t kill Benny!” Shayna screamed, kicking and trying to wriggle out of my arms. “I didn’t kill Benny.”

Deborah was still scooting away, but fear was now riding heavy in her expression, like I might let go of her raging sister at any moment.

After a few more seconds, Shayna’s body sagged and she stopped kicking. Her body jerked several times, and I realized she was sobbing.

“I didn’t kill Benny,” she said, but it was no longer a scream. It was a whine, full of pain and exhaustion and sadness. “I didn’t kill Benny.”

I eased my hold on her and her body continued to sag and I let her go to her knees. She brought her hands to her face.

“I didn’t kill Benny,” she repeated, her voice hoarse and worn and exhausted. “Reggie did.”

Bob the cat pawed at his ear, like he couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

“Reggie killed Benny?” I said, the words feeling funny coming off my tongue as I spoke them.

Shayna’s limp figure managed a nod.

“That’s absurd,” Deborah said, but watching her sister carefully and making sure she was out of striking distance. “He told me you killed Benny.”

Shayna lifted her head. Her tears had turned her mascara into smudgy black circles around her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed pink. She wiped at her eyes, streaking the mascara to the sides.

“Of course that’s what he told you, Deborah,” she croaked, saying “Deborah” much in the same way you’d expect someone to say “Disease-ridden whore.” Her mouth tightened, grimaced, then worked its way into a bitter smile. “Reggie’s been lying to you from day one.” She shook her head. “To both of us.”

Bob bumped his head against my leg. I reached over and scratched his ears. He pressed his head harder against my leg, and we both kept our eyes on Shayna.

She wiped harder at her eyes. “Killer Kids was just a way for Reggie to steal money, all right? He was never serious about turning it into something real. He was just in it for the money.”

“It was a scam?” I asked.

She nodded. “He was using Odell all along. He was just looking to take everyone’s money.”

Deborah squinted at her sister. “Why were you sleeping with him, then?”

“Same reason you were,” she said, frowning at her sister. “Because he was good-looking and available.”

“But you and Benny were married,” I said.

Shayna looked at me like I was the Baby New Year. “Not everyone has your stupid fairy-tale-ass marriage, Deuce.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard anyone describe my marriage like that. Did she really think it was a fairy tale? Julianne and I were happy and in love, but our marriage was work, just like anyone else’s. It was strange to hear it described as if it was better than everyone else’s.

“Benny and I should’ve gotten divorced years ago,” Shayna said. “He cheated on me, and I cheated on him. We both knew. Our marriage was over a long time ago.”

“Yeah, because he knew you still loved Deuce,” Deborah said, a wicked smile slithering across her face.

Uh, whoa. Awkward.

Shayna cut her eyes to her sister. “Relationship analysis from the town slut. How ironic.”

Deborah wrinkled her nose, then shrugged, like she’d heard it before and grown comfortable with her role in Rose Petal.

Shayna turned back to me. “So, yeah. I had an affair with Reggie. But I didn’t know he was stealing Benny’s money. Not at first, anyway.”

Bob curled up in a ball next to me.

“How did you find out?” I asked.

“Benny,” she said. “He figured it out. He found it on the computers, here at the store. He found the account number where they’d deposited the money. It was supposed to be some sort of savings account, but Reggie started acting funny. So Benny found the account and guess what?” Her face clouded over with disgust. “Money was gone.”

“All of it?”

She nodded. “All of it. All that we had given him. All that Odell had given him. And all that Billy had given him.”

“Billy?” I asked, surprised to hear his name. “Caldwell?”

“She’s sleeping with him, too,” Deborah chimed in.

Shayna ignored her. “Yes, Billy invested, too. And Reggie took it all.”

“What did he do with it?”

“Hell if I know,” Shayna said, rubbing her knees with her hands. “But it was gone.”

Everything she was telling me made sense but seemed a little surreal. And I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to determine whether Shayna was telling the truth.

“So why haven’t you told anyone this?” I said. “If he killed Benny, why haven’t you said anything? And why have you been content to let people think I did it?”

She pulled her eyes away from mine and studied her hands on her knees. “Because I’m stupid, Deuce.”

I let that hang in the room until she was ready to continue.

“I let Billy lead me by the nose,” she finally said. “Benny and I were a mess financially. That money he gave Reggie was, honest to God, all we had. When we found out that was gone, we knew we were screwed. That’s why Benny confronted Reggie.”

“He confronted him?”

“Same morning they found Benny in your van.”

“So you knew Reggie killed him?” I asked.

“I had an idea,” she said, still staring at her hands.

“But I couldn’t prove it. I called Billy as soon as the police called to tell me. I was crazy, drunk, out of my mind. And there was the possibility that
maybe
you could’ve killed him. It was Billy’s idea to hit you with the lawsuit and to file the restraining order. Benny left me with nothing. Suing you was the only way to get my hands on any money.”

“Idiot,” Deborah whispered.

Shayna laughed. “Yeah, I’m the idiot. At least I didn’t talk my friends into trying to kick Deuce out of his Room Daddy job because Reggie suggested it.”

Deborah’s face froze, all the collagen in her lips and cheeks coming to an abrupt halt.

“That true?” I asked, though I was already certain that it was.

Shayna raised an eyebrow and smiled at her sister, happy to have put her on the spot.

Deborah managed to thaw her expression and gave a slow nod. “Yes. I brought it up to Sharon Ann.” She blinked rapidly, replaying something in her mind. “And yes, it was Reggie’s idea. Goddamn him.”

Reggie seemed to have quite the power of manipulation.

“He said everyone would end up thanking me,” she said. “Since everyone was saying you were the one that killed Benny, they’d thank me for helping to have you removed.”

“But I thought you said he told you Shayna killed Benny?”

She continued blinking, letting it all play out in her head. “He did. After the meeting last night.”

“Ask her why Benny ended up in your van,” Shayna said, staring at her sister.

Deborah shifted, as if a sheet of tacks had been placed in her underwear. “What are you talking about?”

“What did you tell Reggie about me?” Shayna said, but there was very little question in her tone. “What did you tell him to try and get him to dump me? You just said it a minute ago.”

Deborah thought, blinked some more, then cleared her throat. “I told him you still loved Deuce.”

Seriously. Awkward.

Shayna nodded. “Exactly. You gave him the perfect person to put Benny’s murder on.”

Deborah looked at her sister. She swallowed hard, her lips pressed together, as the realization dawned on her that she had done just that.

Shayna shook her head, like it didn’t surprise her. “Reggie’s managed to get everyone looking everywhere but where they should be looking. At
him
.”

As I tried to keep it all straight in my head, I had to admit that it fit. Reggie had scammed them all several times over and played everyone against one another.

Bob stretched out next to my leg and pushed his head against me again. I looked down at the cat.

Reggie had played me, too.

Something fell in the back of the store, and Bob scrambled to his feet and took off for parts unknown.

Shayna and Deborah turned around, and I stood, thinking it was going to be Reggie.

Wrong.

Detective Willie Bell stumbled in, holding the side of his head with one hand and clutching something that looked like a gargantuan phone book in his other arm.

“Nobody move,” he said, his hand pressed firmly to the side of his head. He wavered a bit and swayed to his left.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

He dropped the phone book, and it landed on his foot. He howled and sank to his butt.

“Oh,” Shayna said. “Sample book.”

“Sample book?” I said.

She nodded at the phone book. “Rug samples. A ton of ’em. I can’t even pick that thing up.”

“Are you all right?” I asked again.

He had one hand pressed to his head, the other wrapped tightly around his foot. “Don’t move, I said.”

He rocked on his rear end. He finally took the hand away from his temple, revealing a red welt the size of a tennis ball.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It hit me in the head,” he said, wincing, still rocking.

“Just reached out and took a swing?”

Both Deborah and Shayna laughed. Detective Willie Bell did not.

“It fell off the shelf.” He winced and tried to focus.

“I’m here to arrest you, Deuce Winters.” He let go of the foot, tried to stand on it, and fell over to the side, reeling in pain. “Dammit! I think it’s broken.”

“A shame,” I said.

He pointed a finger at me, then lost his balance and rolled again. “Don’t move. You’re in violation of that restraining order.”

I looked at Shayna.

“He ain’t doin’ nothin’, Willie,” she said, frowning at him. “It’s fine.”

He looked at the two sisters, took in their appearance. “You two all right? You look like you were attacked.” He nodded at me. “He do that to you?”

“Oh, Willie. Shut up,” Deborah said, dismissing him with a wave.

Willie’s face reddened.

I took several steps toward the fallen detective and extended my hand. “Can I help you up?”

He kept his eyes away from me for a moment, then finally looked up at me. “I’m still gonna get you, you know that?”

“No, you aren’t, Detective.”

He squinted again, probably thinking it made him look tough. “Oh, I always get my man, Winters. Always. You know why?” A smug smile settled on his face. “Because I’m a details guy. That’s why I’m here right now.”

“You’re here because you’re a details guy?”

“Yep,” he said, giving a curt nod. “I followed you over here. Then I saw Miss Shayna in here, and I knew you were up to no good.”

“Up to no good?” I said. “Seriously? Of all the clichés you could use, that’s the one you’re gonna go with?”

His cheeks darkened again in embarrassment.

I retracted my hand. “You know what? Sit there on your butt, then. These ladies can tell you what they just told me. Maybe that’ll help you get your man.” I headed for the door.

“Hey! Wait!” he yelled, crawling on the floor, his damaged foot dragging behind him. “Stop right there!”

I didn’t.

Shayna reached out and pushed him, and he fell onto his side with a thud.

“Shut up and sit still, Willie,” she said. “We’ve got something to tell you.”

BOOK: Stay At Home Dead

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