Chasing Suspect Three (30 page)

“But he’d never given you a book, and it
wasn’t actually a book of poetry, was it? It was your red-hot diary
you gave him to turn him on. If he didn’t take up with you again,
at least he’d regret splitting with you.”

“That red hot diary was all someone’s erotic
dream.”

“It wasn’t true? You made that stuff up?”

“I didn’t make it up, Margo wrote it. John
found it and gave it to me for laughs.”

“Margo? So the male wasn’t Chip?”

“You still don’t get it. Margo was obsessed
with a TV star, Richie Grant. She’d daydream about him and even
started a diary fantasizing about him. She talked about how she was
going to fly out to Hollywood, and he was going to fuck her brains
out. I used to tease her about him and ask if she still had all her
brains. I know, silly question. Then after the murder, when she
needed to lie, she blamed a boyfriend. When you started pressing
her for a name, Richie Grant was the first name to pop into her
mind. She got the bright idea to use a made up boyfriend as her
alibi. The only clever thing she did in her entire life.”

“So, her real boyfriend wasn’t actually named
Richie Grant?”

“There was no real boyfriend.” Claudia paused
long enough to roll her eyes. “God this is fun—you’re so out of it.
I’ll say it one more time. Margo’s boyfriend is totally made up.
Never existed. He’s a phantom.”

“But you both identified him in the
morgue.”

“Wasn’t that too clever for words?” Claudia
smiled. “You kept asking Margo to produce Richie and, of course,
she couldn’t. Feeling desperate, she identified the corpse in the
morgue as Richie. She phoned and told me what she’d done. I was
ready to call him Richie Grant whatever he looked like.”

It wasn’t too clever for words, it was a
screw up, but Sandy wasn’t going to point that out. True, they made
up an imaginary man and called him Richie Grant, so they could
blame everything on him. Except, they didn’t know that the
unclaimed stiff they said was Richie Grant was actually Gerardo
Diaz, the murderer of Margo’s husband. That mistake immediately
tied Margo in as a conspirator. In effect, Margo was saying her
boyfriend shot her husband. They should have left Richie out in
no-man’s land.

“You didn’t know who he was?” Sandy
asked.

“Beats the hell out of me. Just some ugly
dude.”

Sandy was beginning to get it straight. The
Miami gang sent Gerardo Diaz up there to get rid of John Larena and
recover the money. It was Diaz she encountered in the condo. He was
never Margo’s boyfriend. The two women didn’t know him at all. They
were just after the money. Diaz torn up the condo looking, but the
two women already had it.

“What if the body in the morgue was proven to
be someone else?”

“We didn’t care. We’d just swear we knew the
guy as Richie. Not bad having an unidentified body show up. He’d
get the blame, we’d never have to produce our imaginary man, and
the police would stop looking for him. I went along with it as it
took the heat off both of us. Boy, did you ever buy that loony
tune. You were wiggling your ass all over town looking for Margo’s
fantasy.”

Hard to imagine, yet it did begin to explain
everything. “Geez, did I underestimate you, I could see you had the
looks, but didn’t realize you had the brains.” Anything to keep her
talking, she might move away from the gun. “How did you end up with
the money?”

“Margo knew all along John was delivering
drugs and money. When she heard the FBI had arrested the vice
consul, and John unexpectedly shows up, she guessed what had
happened. She couldn’t believe it when he shot at her. She wasn't
fighting the divorce, and she didn’t have anything he wanted. After
steaming for a couple of hours, she decided to go over and confront
him.”

“Confront the husband who had shot at
her?”

Claudia shrugged. “He was already dead in the
shower when she got there. She was going to hurry out of there.
Then she remembered he had made off with the money and decided to
look in the freezer. There was the money pouch. She grabbed it and
took off.”

“That’s when you had to move in on her.”

“I tried to convince her she couldn’t handle
all that was going down, but together we’d be rich. Later the
detective shows up at her place asking questions. Wants to look
around. The money is now a few feet away in her own freezer. When
he leaves, she knows he’ll be back with a search warrant. She
frantically phoned me needing help. At that point, she started
relying on me for advice. She brought the money over here. I told
her to act as if we hated each other. That would keep me in the
clear in case something went wrong.”

“What about her share?”

“I had something special in mind for
her.”

Sandy shook her head slowly at that. Then
said, “May I at least put my dress back on?”

“Why don’t I let you fix your hair and do
your nails as long as we’re at it? All women want to look good
naked, don’t they? Even if they’re dead.”

She noticed Claudia’s fingers tighten around
the pistol grip. “Wait! You don’t have to kill me. You two are
innocent. You haven’t done anything yet. I discovered the identity
of John’s killer. I can get Margo out of the murder charge...she’ll
walk free. And you as well. You’re in possession of some money that
you thought legitimately belonged to John. No one can blame you for
that.”

Claudia took a step closer, and pointed the
gun directly at her. “I don’t mind telling you all this. In a
second, all of your memories are going to vanish.”

The sound of footsteps in the hall startled
them both. Claudia pointed her gun at the door. They waited. They
heard the squeak of the door knob slowly turning. The door inched
open. They saw a gun first. Then Margo cautiously peeked in.

“Oh, good it’s you,” Claudia said, as she
lowered her own revolver. “Come on in and lock the door. You can
put that gun away.”

Margo lowered the gun to her side. “I came
for my money. What’s she doing here? I saw her car outside. What’s
going on?”

Sandy answered. “First, she kills me. Then
she kills you. That’s what’s going on. You don’t want that. We can
straighten all this out.”

“You’re not on my side anymore,” Margo said.
“Claudia told me you’re actually working for the cops. Why did you
turn on me, Sandy?”

“I didn’t turn on you. I’ve been working on
your behalf. In spite of you never being straight with me. You were
more interested in the money than saving your own life. I’ve
identified the real murderer. You’re free now. You see I never
stopped for a second. The cops thought they had a solid case. But I
believed in you, I knew you were innocent. I’d never give up trying
to prove it. And I did it. You can go free now.”

Margo looked at Claudia. “Why are you going
to knock her off?”

“Smartass knows too much. As soon as she
walks out that door, all the cops in Florida will come down on
us.”

Sandy shook her head. “She told John to shoot
you at the Community Center that night. She wanted you dead and a
clear shot at the money.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“She made that date with Chip Goddard. He
would be her alibi for the time John killed you. Then she’d go
after John for all the money. For chrissake, she gave him her gun.
He wasn’t supposed to miss. You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Is that true, Claudia? Behind my back, you
set up an alibi for yourself and left me for dead? You told me John
had a hundred thousand. We agreed to go after it and split it.
That’s all it was supposed to be.”

“Don’t let her trick you,” Claudia broke in,
“The only way you can be free is to simply run away with plenty of
money and have a beautiful life.”

“See, that’s what she told me, Sandy. I like
South America, and with fifty grand I could live like royalty.”

Sandy yelled, “Why only fifty grand!
Claudia’s holding out on you. The FBI told me John made off with a
half million dollars.” That lie should stir up things. “Claudia has
it all figured out. You get locked up. She gets the money.”

Margo shouted, “Half a million! Claudia,
what’s going on?”

“She’s lying, it wasn’t a half million,”
Claudia said. Then she stopped and screwed up her face. “Was it
really? That bastard John was holding out on me. He said only three
hundred grand.”

“He told you three hundred? You told me one
hundred grand.”

“She lied to you.”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!”

“Yes she did.”

“You stay out of it!” Claudia reached for her
gun.

“Stop! Or I’m pulling this trigger.” Margo
had turned quickly with her gun now pointed at Claudia. “Put that
gun over on the floor...very slowly. I gotta think about this.” She
looked confused.

“She told you John stole a mere one hundred
thousand? Didn’t you stop and count the money?”

“Shut up, Sandy!”

“It was all in the pouch wrapped up in
different packages,” Margo explained. “It sure looked like a lot of
money. I played with it a little. I was going to count it in the
morning, but then the cops showed up.”

“Damn you!” Claudia scowled at Sandy and
looked down at the gun on the floor, then up to see if Margo was
watching.

Margo noticed the look and kicked the gun
farther away. It slid across to the sofa. “Just stay still and
don’t make any sudden moves.”

Claudia protested, “I never meant to say one
hundred. I’m not good with numbers. And I don’t know about any half
million dollars.”

“She’s lying, Margo. Of course, she knows
about the half million. She wants it all for herself. And when she
gets it, you’re dead. I think you’d better stop right here and
count the money.”

“Good idea. Where’s the money, Claudia?”

“She has us against each other,” Claudia
said. “Don’t you see what she’s doing?”

“I want to see the money right now. I know
it’s here someplace.” Margo brought the gun up even with Claudia’s
eyes. “There better be five hundred thousand there.”

“Let’s do all that later. We need to get rid
of this tricky smartass once and for all. We don’t have time to
count it now.”

“I think we have plenty of time to count it
now.” Sandy said.

“You shut up.”

“Where is it?” She poked toward Claudia with
the gun. “I’m warning you?”

“In the hall closet...over there. Go and get
it.”

“No, make her get it, Margo. She’s pulling
something.”

“You get it, Claudia.”

“She wanted you arrested and put away for
life,” Sandy kept talking. “You’d rot in jail forever, and she
wouldn’t spend a dime of that money to get you out.” Her eyes went
over to Claudia’s gun on the floor by the sofa.

Margo frowned. “Maybe that’s true. I told her
to give you fifty grand for my defense. She said that was too much
and delivered only ten grand to you.” She waved the gun again. “Get
the money, Claudia.”

Margo watched carefully as Claudia walked to
the hall closet and opened the door. Claudia was moving so slowly
Sandy was certain she was about to make some sort of sudden move.
Sandy was ready. If either one of them did something unexpected,
she’d go for the gun on the floor by the sofa.

Claudia took out the vacuum cleaner and
carried it out to the middle of the floor. “It’s in the bag.”

“The money?”

“In the bag. Don’t expect a half
million.”

“Well, take it out. I want to see it.”

Claudia unlatched the bag. There was no
filter inside, just bundles of money. “You can have it all, Margo.
You take all of it.” She poured it out on the floor. “Even the ten
thousand dollar check I wrote out of my business account to pay
Sandy. We’ll forget that too. This isn’t like you, Margo. We should
be friends. I don’t want you mad at me. You need me to guide you
and decide things for you. You can’t handle all this. Without me
you’re going to screw it all up and be left with nothing.”

Sandy noticed Claudia staring at Margo’s gun.
She looked over and could see why. Margo had lowered her gun,
pointing it at the floor. Sandy didn’t like how this was going.
Margo looked confused. She was buying Claudia’s story. This was
bad.

“Margo listen,” Sandy quickly spoke up.
“Before you came in, Claudia told me you are a loveless pity. Those
were her exact words, a loveless pity. No man can stand you. You
had to make up Richie and pretend. She told me how they laughed at
you.”

“I don’t pretend about such things.”

Sandy said, “Yes you do, it’s in your
diary.”

Margo looked shocked. “My Diary? How do you
know about that?”

“Because Claudia stole it.”

Margo screamed at Claudia, “You stole my
diary. That’s where it went. You had it all along. You didn’t read
it, did you? Did you read it? I want it back, right now.”

“She stole it, read it, and showed it to
everybody. By now, lots of people have read it. They’re all
laughing at you. She said it was real raunchy.”

“Wasn’t raunchy, it was beautiful. You
shouldn’t have done that, Claudia.” She brought the gun back
up.

Margo appeared ready to tear into Claudia at
any second. Sandy thought if she could set her off, she might be
able to escape when the fight broke out. Claudia’s eyes had
narrowed looking at the gun by the sofa leg.

“That was my diary. One of the precious
things in my life. I didn’t dream it all up, well maybe some of
it.” Her eyes were starting to glisten. “I haven’t had many men,
but that diary was my best memory of those I did know. And you
treated it like a joke? That’s horrible! You knew it was precious
to me. You didn’t care. The bits and pieces of my entire love
life—was a joke to you.” Margo’s hand was trembling.

“She shit on your diary, Margo, and laughed
as she did it. Do you realize that?” Sandy pointed at Claudia like
a defendant in a courtroom. She put her hands on her hips, leaned
forward, and shouted at Margo, “She shit on your diary. Don’t you
understand!”