The Perfect Woman (36 page)

              “ You want Denise's killer brought to justice, so do I. I can give him to you.”

              “ Pardo, you can bring Pardo to me just like that?” She snapped her fingers.

              “ You’ll be surprise what I can do, Detective.” He chuckled.

              That was music to Rita‘s ears. “ How do we do this?” She smirked at her friend.

              “ That‘s the detective that I wanted to see.”

Chapter 74

All Or Nothing

“ You tell me, Franklin. Where is home for you?” He didn't answer to her. “ There is no home for you. How many years did you do for a group of thugs?”

              “ Look, I ain't no fool. So save your sweet talk for some other chump. Your boss paying good, but he doesn't want to show his face. I don't do deals with shadows.”

              The pink haired girl chased him down. “ And you're a shadow too, Franklin, or soon will be.” That stopped him dead in his tracks.

              “ Why can't he do this himself?” He had to ask.

              “ Things got complicated, he needs extra muscle to do some chores for him, pick up items.” She was luring him in.

              “ Nothing crazy?”

              “ You can always walk away.” And the devil had him in his grasp.

*  *  *

“ This is stupid, man. “ Four men argued in a bedroom of a worn out roach motel. There were hamburger rappers and pizza boxes tossed around the room, two days old at best. These four angry men bickered for the past two hours about the newest job they had been approached about from their shadow buyer, a man willing to let these men cash in a big pay day and keep it all if they could just pull this one last task. But this grand leap would be pissing off one of New York’s worst crime Bosses, Hector Pardo. “ Whatever this fool is promising, it isn't worth it, I say we hightail it out of here and never look back.” Said the bulky white male, who was already traumatized from the last blood bath.

              “ What, you fucking scared of this guy?” Said the tattooed Mexican gang banger that had been expelled from his old gang, after being accused of being a snitch. His mere betrayal would have earned him death, but instead they decided to cast him out. The accusations of being an informant was all a lie, one that was implanted by the younger thugs looking to become a higher piece on the chess board. “He’s laid down the plan, yo, and it’s fucking solid, we take Pardo’s hard earn money and run like hell. I ain't going to question his beef with Pardo, as long as I’m getting paid, that’s all that matters.”

              The younger of the four men spoke out, he was a black man, barely in his twenties. Among these men, he had no name, he was just whatever they wanted to call him, that's how this crew operated. Before this job, he was Franklin Washington. Sent to jail  for murder when he was sixteen, did a hit to feed his family, but it all went wrong, now he was here. Selling his humanity for profit and a second chance at a better life. “ For the past months we haven’t seen this guy's face, he just sends that creepy girl over, man. It doesn’t feel right.”

              The fourth member an old Irish mob enforcer spat out his own two cents. “ You scared of pussy, you stupid nigger?”

              “ Fuck you, man.” Franklin barked at the pale Irish man. “ I’m just saying, I don’t trust a man that don’t do his dealings up front. I mean the shit we delivered for this guy, the people we killed for him, the fucking bodies..” He tried his best not to think of the bodies.

              “ Relax, he paid for the last time.” The Irish man said.

              “ I don’t want to remember that.” Said Franklin.

              The Irish male just rolled his eyes at him. “ I got a feeling this shadow has bigger plans for Pardo and that’s our focking ticket to run for it. When that wet bag comes looking for the truth,  we’ll be on a focking on a plane heading to God knows where. So, let’s just do this job and get it over with. Last I looked, we don’t have a lot of options. It’s this or we start  peddling dope on the street, like focking amateurs.”

              “ That’s the thing I don’t like, man.” Franklin said to the group. “ He knows we’re desperate, he’s using that to reel us in. It's like he studied us, inside out, he knows how we think, he knows what we'll fucking do.” The four men eyed each other once more. “ This ain't some two-cent hustler we're dealing with, this is the devil himself.”

              Despite all the bickering and scared psyches of everything they witness, they knew they would go through with tonight's plan, after all, desperate men do desperate things when there's nothing else left on the table.

Chapter 75

Where It Started

Painted white fence, perfectly trimmed grass, even a rosy cheek garden gnome, it was like being transported back to a 60’s lifestyle magazine on how the modern family of America needed to look, and to add the cheery on top, there was a icy pitcher of ice tea on the patio. This entire blast of the past was enough to make Karen vomit a little in her mouth, it was new age and the black & white era clashing together, the only outcome could be chaos. “ Please tell me we jumped into some sort of wormhole.” Karen blinked her eyes repeatedly hoping to make the image disappear.

              “ Relax, Detective Hewitt.” Peewee elbow her ribs lightly as Doris Miller came walking into view with her bright sunflower dress, her gardening gloves smudge with dirt, and all the awhile keeping her face dirt free. “ Hope this works,” He whispered softly. “ Doris Miller? “ Peewee held out his fake badge they had bought from their mutual friend a very long time ago, he never wanted to hear the words a high school dropout couldn‘t do anything but flip burgers, because the one that made them their I.D’s was a sheer artist and an amazing burger flipper.

              “ Yes, that’s me, can I help you?” Her voice was crackly and dry, she wipe the sweat from her face, eying them suspiciously.

              “ My name is Detective Kathleen Hewitt and this is my partner Kyle Reese.” Peewee’s fake name was taken from the Terminator movie character, Karen was surprised on how many failed to grasp that off the bat, it was an improvement from his first alias, Bruce Wayne. “ We’re from NYPD homicide, ma’am, we were wondering if we could ask you some questions?”

              “ About what?” Doris body seem to tense up, she grip on to gloves nice and tight.

              “ Is your husband home?” Peewee asked.

              “ No, Mr. Reese, he’s not. My husband’s in Atlanta for a conference.” She pulled her gloves off and tucked them into her pockets. “ Would any of you like a glass of Ice tea?” She headed over to the patio never letting them answer.

              “ Mrs. Miller,” Karen walk behind her. “ we’re here in regards of your daughter's case.”

              Doris chuckled as she glanced at Karen. “ What case would that be, Ms. Hewitt , the one of the love stuck girl that ran and turned her back against her own parents ?”

              Karen could feel those words rang hollow, there was too much forced emotion into it, like it was scripted. “ Love struck, love,” She searched for the meaning of the word with a small chuckle. “ doesn’t mean running away from family and not even giving a call to let you know she’s alright. When’s that last time you’ve heard from her, I mean actually heard her voice.”

              “ That would be,” She paused to pour herself a drink before answering, took her time to take sip, letting sigh of pleasure as it hit the spot. “ over a year, since she went missing, she told us she was going to bible study and never returned.”

              “ What type of person was Casey?” Peewee asked.

              “ She was a shy girl, kept to herself, didn’t have much friends,” The mother stop herself from answering anymore. “ Why are you asking this, did you find something new, something that contradicts  what that Detective Klecko found?”

              “ No ma’am.” Karen beat Peewee to the punch.

              “ Then why are you here, detectives, it’s an open and shut case. My daughter got in heat and ran  away from us, maybe it is our fault, we pushed God into her life, never let her blossom into the person she wanted to be, never let the girl think for herself without forcing the good book down her throat. You two look young enough to know how that feels.”

              Karen wanted to believe the words coming of Doris mouth, but she couldn’t, there was something else going on, something she was keeping hidden. “ Yes, we do. But I just can’t..”

              “ Can’t what ?” Asked Doris.

              Karen would smile if she could, though that would just ruin the fire she had going, but she loved how her pause made Doris jump to react, she was so quick to cast down anything that should arise, why would a mother do such a thing, Maggie Donner never did. It was as if they were protecting someone. “ Get the feeling we’re missing a big chunk of a story with Casey, like we’re not getting the full picture.” That last part of the sentence must have made Casey’s mother thirsty because she wasn’t shy in chugging down another glass of ice tea. “ you see ma’am, my partner and I are trying to reopen the case.”

              The glass almost slipped from her hand. “ reopen, why?” Her eyes shifted back from Karen to Peewee.

              This was Peewee’s line to step in. “ We’ve gotten another missing girl who disappeared, much like your daughter ma’am, same style, same story. The people on top say we’re just chasing a ghost, but we think otherwise.”

              “ You two figure that my husband and I are the link to reopen the case?” She asked them, waiting for one of them to response, but they just nodded their head at her question. “ Shouldn’t you two ask the detective that was in charge of the case, Brian Klecko, why ask us, we told the police everything.”

              “ Are you sure that’s true ma’am?”

              Doris took offense to Peewee’s accusation. “ Are you two accusing me of something or my husband for that fact!”

              Doris was sweating in this cold weather, feeling the sting of each questioned thrown her way, she was an easy target to grill and play off, but they couldn’t bank that would give them the answers they needed. “ No, ma’am.” Karen stepped in. “ Sweet girl like Casey, it’s hard to think anyone would do a thing to her. That’s the reason we’re so enamored with this case. A love struck girl wouldn’t just run away from her parents, and we can’t wrap our heads around who would want to hurt her, what possible motive could they have to abduct your daughter?”

              “ Ms. Hewitt, sinful people didn’t need a reason to commit sins, they just did.” She took out her gardening gloves, meaning their time was coming to an end. “ My daughter got a taste for sin, something her father and I tried to keep her away from , but there’s only so much as parents we can do.”

              “ You still think she just ran away with prince charming?” Karen could smell the lies, this woman knew something.

              “ I think I’ll give your Lieutenant a call Ms. Hewitt, after all he was the one who opened this case, I’d think he’d be the one coming here asking questions, wouldn't you agree?” That was the dogs bark, warning her intruders if they didn’t leave soon, they would get the bite. “ Now get off my property.” She pointed them out.

              They weren’t going to overstay their welcome, they wasted no time in walking back towards the car. “ Tell me what you felt?” Peewee undid his tie and open the door to his car.

              “ She’s hiding something, I can feel it in my bones.” Karen could see Doris eying them from afar, waiting for them to vanish before she continued her gardening, anything to clam her nerves from their encounter. “ For now we back down.”

              “ You think she’ll call the cops to find out if we’re the real deal?”

              “ Not a chance,” Karen voice sounded so mellow, knowing the words out of Doris mouth were just a bluff, she wanted them to run away and never come back. “ She’s going to wait for her hubby to come back and tell him everything that happened.”

              “ What could they be hiding?” There was a hint of doubt in Peewee’s voice, he wasn’t on the same ship Karen was on. “ I mean, they’re her parents.”

              “ Just trust me, buddy, they’re hiding something, what it is I don’t know, I just got this vibe.”

              That was good enough for Peewee. “ Let’s get the hell out of here and head back home, maybe it‘s time I dug deeper into this little picture of perfection.”

Chapter 76

Water Gate

It had been awhile since Karen had a pleasant dream, no blood, no death, just a clam gentle breeze in an open filed of green. She could hear somewhere in the distance Peewee’s roaring car, she turned around calmly looking for the road but it all was to bright and shiny to see where it was. She could just feel the smile on her face and the breeze of the air caressing her face. “ Karen wake up!” The garden filled paradise vanished in a haze as she awoke with Peewee hollering like a teenage girl who found the perfect prom dress. He ran towards a daze Karen in bed with the laptop in his hands almost toppling to the floor.