Killing America's Sweetheart: A Natalie Miller Mystery (22 page)

Debbie moved to help her and said, “I don’t think you should drive. Why don’t I drive you home?”

Karen protested, but both Simon and I intervened. After a little convincing, Karen reluctantly agreed to let Debbie drive her home. After gathering up their things, the two women departed, leaving Simon and I alone.

“Ruff!” Honey complained loudly.

“Someone’s hungry,” Simon said bending down to pick her up. He took her in his arms and cuddled her.

I smiled. Honey didn’t really like other
people, specifically men, which is why it was such a big deal for her to be so calm with Simon.

“Guess, we’d better get going too,” I added.

Simon walked us out to our car, where we stood talking for a few minutes.

“Hopefully Alex will call in the mornin
g with some news,” I said.

“Yeah,” he s
aid moving closer to me, resting his hand on my arm. His eyes, though hazel in normal light, looked dark and aroused in the moonlight.

I licked my lips, nerves surging through my body. What the hell was happening? Who the hell was I? This was not something that happened to me. A man like Simon Bellamy did not want a woman like me…did he?

He smiled and said, “You smell so good. What is that scent? It reminds me of the beach.”

“It’s my
lotion,” I said weakly, not sure how much more I could take of him being in such close proximity. “It’s a tropical scent, left over from summer,” I managed to say rambling.

“Well, it’s a lovely scent. It invokes happy feelings,” he said as he leaned forward and began aiming his mouth for my lips, but then suddenly veered off to my right and raised his hand to knock something off my shoulder
.

“Got it!” he said triumphantly.

I jumped slightly and looked to the pavement where a large beetle was crawling away. I immediately did the cootie dance.

“What the fuck?!” I yelled.

Simon rolled back on his heels and laughed loudly.

“I’m glad you found that funny,” I said.

“Natalie, I can say without a doubt, I have never met a woman quite like you.”

Momentarily speechless, I rolled my eyes.

“I’m serious. You’re the most fascinating woman I have ever known. You have this amazing ability and yet you are reduced to rubble by a tiny insect.”

“Haha! Very funny. You should try doing a comedy
once in a while, and give the dramas a break,” I said in my not amused tone.

“Ruff!”  Honey barked from the passenger seat. Clearly she did not like being left out of our banter.

“We’d better get going,” I said gesturing toward my co-pilot.

“Yes, I suppose we should,” Simon said with a grin.

For the life of me I could not figure this guy out. Did he want to be my friend or sleep with me? And if it was the latter, was I ready for it?
Alarm ran through me. No, this was not something I was ready for. I barely knew Simon and I didn’t want to just jump into bed with him. Oh, fuck it. Who am I trying to kid? I wanted to sleep him. Hell, there wasn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t want to, given the chance or opportunity.

“Listen, there’s something I want to talk to you about
,” he said in a low voice.

Damn, his voice was sexy, and mixed with that light English accent…I was in serious trouble.

“What is it,” I asked trying to compose myself.

“Ruff!” Honey barked again, this time with more force.

“You know what, I’ll talk to you about it in the morning,” he said giving Honey a little wave. “Someone really wants to get home and I shouldn’t keep you.”

With that he squeezed my arm softly and walked away to his truck.

I got into the car, shot Honey a death stare, and fired up the Corolla. I was about a block away when I took a mental inventory and said, “Shit!”

I pulled over and reached for my purse feeling for my cell. Damn, it wasn’t there. Knowing I left it in the office, I turned the car around and headed back to reclaim my phone. As we arrived back to the empty lot behind the office building, I decided to make a quick dash upstairs.

“You stay here,” I said to Honey, leaving the window down for her.

Hurriedly I ran into the building and up the stairs. When I finally made it into the office I heard the faint sound of my ringtone.

“Shit!” I said trying to make my way over to the desk before the call went to voice mail.

“Hello?!” I said out of breath.

“Nat?” Alex said sounding alarmed.

“Oh, hey. I was running to get to the phone. Did you find anything out?” I asked.

“Well…” he said and then explained how he searched the CDCR files and discovered that Armando Estrada was released on good behavior over thirteen months ago. He didn’t even serve half of his sentence.

“The prisons are severely
overcrowded. He was one of the thousands they granted early parole to,” Alex said.

“But why didn’t they notify Simon? This guy’s been out for over a year and no one thinks to pick up the phone and let the victim k
now?” I said.

“I agree, i
t’s bullshit. I tried to find a current address for him, but nothing comes up. According to the records he bailed on his parole officer after the first meeting and there’s no further information on him. It’s like he disappeared. I even did a credit check and ran his social in case he was working somewhere and came up with nothing. The guy’s a ghost,” he said sounding disgusted.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Oh, but I do have a mug shot photo of him, I’m sending it to your phone now,” he said.

Moments later, my ph
one chimed. It’s times like these that I really loved technology.

“Hang on,” I said as I touched the screen and waited for the image to load. Seconds later
a photo was fully downloaded. I stared at a picture of an unsmiling Hispanic man with short black hair, acne marked face and eyes, eyes that were so familiar.

“No fucking way,” I said completely shocked.

“Nat? Are you okay?” Alex asked.

It couldn’t be? Could it? I tried to picture the man with a slightly different look and it was still the same end result.

“Hang up the phone, Natalie.”

Startled I turned around and found Debbie glaring at me with her eerie blue eyes and a small magnum gun pointed right at me.

“Natalie? Natalie?” Alex asked with concern.

“Hang it up!” she hissed at me.

Fumbling, I touched the end button.

“Good, now throw the phone to me,” she commanded.

Not wanting to anger her further, I did as I was instructed.

“You just had to keep investigating, didn’t you? You and your fucking psychic powers.
Devil tools, that’s what they are. But, hell they’re not that great if you couldn’t even figure out I was the murderer!” she said laughing hysterically.

“So, now you know I’m not really Debbie Perez, but Armando Estrada,” he said in a rich male voice. “I wondered if you’d figure it out. I’m actually surprised I got away with it for as
long as I did,” he said unraveling the scarf from his neck, producing a large and noticeable Adam’s apple.

“Ah, that feels much better,” he said smiling.

I stood, shaking my head in disbelief. Was this guy psycho? Did he have multiple personalities? Was he another Sybil? Panic surged through me as one too many possible outcomes began invading my mind.

“Why?” I finally stammered.

“Because, none of you cheap bitches are worthy of Simon,” he stated.

“Are you in love with him?” I asked trying to understand.

“Fuck no! I’m not a homo! I just think that a man like Simon and a decent guy like me could be good together. He’s perfect in every way, except when it comes to the women in his life. He always picks such losers. First there was his wife who was never really a true wife, if you know what I mean. Then there was that druggie whore Hannah, who fucked around on him and made him look like a fool. Do you know she was fucking her ex and you’re ex? What a slut. That stupid bitch even got pregnant, but thankfully she had the sense to abort it. The last thing this planet needed was more of her DNA running around. And now there’s you. Miss Rehabilitated. No, sorry. You’re not good enough for him either. No one is…except me!” he ranted waving the gun around.

Clearly Debbie,
err Armando was out of his mind, and possibly confused sexually. How long had he been watching and following Simon? To know so much about Hannah and her private affairs, he must have been stalking them since he was paroled. Good God, he had been working at Super Thrifty for a little over a year…how could I not have known? What kind of psychic am I if I can’t sense the danger that is right in front of me? The murderer was under my nose the entire time, and I didn’t know. Disappointment and anger filled me.

“Do you really think Simon will want to be your friend once he finds out what you’ve done?” I asked trying to keep my voice calm.

He laughed manically and said, “He’ll never know. I plan on getting rid of you. See, I’m safe being the quiet, homely Debbie. No one suspects her of anything, now Armando on the other hand, well, he’s going to have to disappear. But, once I kill you and your bitch friend, Debbie will be the sole survivor and then she Simon will bond over your loss. It will be a tough time, but together they’ll make it through.”

My heart began racing. What had he done to Karen? Had he already hurt her?

As if reading my mind he said, “You’re friend is passed out in the car. I plan on taking both of you back to your place, where I’ll make it look like Armando forced his way in and after bravely trying to protect her friends from harm, Debbie will be injured and you and Karen will be dead.” He continued, “And the evil Armando will escape and never be heard from again. The end,” he said with crazed smile.

“Except that’s not the end,” said a voice standing near the opened door.

It was Simon.

“No! No! No!” Armando shouted. “This is not how it’s supposed to happen!” he yelled pacing like a caged animal.

“When I saw you tonight, there was something about your face that looked so familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then while I was driving home it dawned on me, your eyes. Though I had never met you, I had seen your mug shot photo before and I could never get your cold, uncaring eyes out of my mind,” Simon said.

“My eyes are cold and uncaring? What about this bitch?” he said point
ing the gun at me. “She’s does not deserve your attention. She’s an addict! She’s a fucking loser! A failure at everything! She’s even a lousy psychic!”

“You know nothing,” Simon said
in a clipped tone.

Armando began rocking back and
forth on his heels, pointing the gun from me to Simon.

“Shut up!” he yell
ed, trying to put his hands up to his ears, while still clutching the gun.

“Armando, please put th
e gun down,” I pleaded quietly, trying to blink the tears out of my eyes.

“Shut up!” he repeated.

Simon and I looked at each other and we silently communicated to give Armando a moment to compose himself, since it was clear he was slowly unraveling.

“I tried so hard for you,” Arma
ndo said. “We could have been good together. We could have been best friends, or even brothers. We’re so much alike. I have a bad history with women, just like you and my family is just as fucked up as yours. I only wanted to make your life perfect so we could be happy together. We don’t need any distractions,” he said waving the gun at me. “I got rid of the other one too. She had to go, she was tainting you.”

Simon winced and asked, “What did you do to Hannah?”

“I snuck onto your property and waited in her SUV. I knew that if her habits were still the same, she’d take off some time that night and go meet up with that piece of shit loser, over at that flea bag motel. Thankfully, she did. And I told her she didn’t deserve you, that she wasn’t worthy. You were too good for her, and she tried to buy me off! Seriously, like a hundred grand was going to stop me from killing her? Stupid bitch. So, I put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. It was such a soft ‘pop’, thanks to the silencer that no one heard a thing. When her head slumped back, I knew she was gone. It was so easy and fast. I got out of there, taking the money with me. I mean, she offered it to me, I figured I should take it anyhow.”

Simon said nothing. He only stared
at Armando with hard eyes and after a moment said, “You’re fucking sick. Do you even know how fucking sick you are?”

I tensed, and shot Armando a look. His face bore a look of confusion and for a moment, hurt and then rage. A vain in his forehead protruded and then the wrath began.

“After everything I’ve done for you, and this is how you treat me? You should be worshipping me for cleaning up your life! Instead you have the nerve to call me sick? I’d be very careful of how you tread, seeing as I am the one with the gun,” he said cocking the weapon and lining me up as a target.