State's Evidence: A Beverly Mendoza Legal Thriller (44 page)

“I like that, too.” Beverly certainly did not
want to discourage the bonding between her son and Grant. Even if
part of her was still a little scared to have Jaime out of her
sight, if not mind.

“Did anyone tell you today that you look
terrific?” Grant gave her the once over and Beverly suddenly grew
warm beneath her pink crewneck shell and long black skirt.

“As a matter of fact, no one has—till
now.”

“Then I’m glad to be the first. You look
terrific!” He grinned and she grinned back. It ended with a long
kiss that practically lifted Beverly off her feet.

Grant finally pulled away. “Think we’d better
get into the kitchen, before I lose my appetite for anything but
you. I could use some help on the salad.”

“My specialty,” hummed Beverly, enjoying the
taste of his lips on hers, which were still throbbing.

The kitchen was gourmet with new cupboards,
vinyl flooring, and a state of the art stove and microwave
combined. Grant had marinated pork chops in the oven and rice pilaf
simmering on the burner.

“I hope you’re not beating yourself up with
the way it all ended with the Santiago trial,” Grant said while
chopping carrots.

Beverly shook her head while rinsing off the
lettuce. “I’ll leave that up to the media. I was handed a case and
followed through to the best of my ability. If anyone has a problem
with that, then to hell with them. I can’t change what
happened.”

“No, you can’t. Neither of us can.” He put
the carrots in a bowl, along with diced cucumbers. “And I like your
attitude about it. Getting one scumbag for another is hardly a
losing effort. Bottom line is that we nailed the person responsible
for Sheldon Crawford’s murder and Maxine’s ordeal. All in all, I’d
say that’s a pretty damned good day’s work.”

Beverly was inclined to agree, even if a part
of her still wished that it had been Rafael Santiago who went down
in this case as the man she had put on trial. But justice had
prevailed in the final analysis. Manuel Gonzalez was where he
belonged and people like her no longer had to fear being victimized
by him in the future.

“How about your investigation into Judge
Crawford’s illicit activities?” Beverly looked up at his successor
on the bench, though the subject was officially supposed to be off
limits.

Grant looked at her with an unreadable
expression. “We expect a grand jury to hand down indictments any
day now against a number of people involved in this scheme.”

“Oh...” She batted her eyes with curiosity.
“Anyone I happen to know?”

He smiled at her. “Well, let me put it this
way—the good guys aren’t always good and the bad ones aren’t
necessarily as bad as they seem.”

Beverly laughed. “Uh, okay...”
Looks like
I won’t get any more from him than that.

Grant came up behind her, wrapping his long
arms around Beverly’s waist. “What I can tell you is that it’ll all
be over soon,” he promised. “And I fully expect that you’ll have
some new and interesting cases to sink your teeth into.”

“I see.” Beverly was piqued at the thought
and happy to move on as a prosecuting attorney.

Grant nibbled at her neck. “Then we can begin
seriously thinking more about ourselves and Jaime. Maybe becoming a
real
family—”

A real family
.

The words hit Beverly like a bolt of
lightning. The word
marriage
popped into her head. It was
something that was beginning to agree with her more and more. Maybe
even having another child or two?

The mere prospect filled her with glee.

“I’d like that,” she murmured dreamily.

The phone rang, disrupting the mood.

“Hold that thought,” muttered Grant. He
grabbed the cell phone off the granite countertop, clicking it on.
“Yeah...”

Beverly watched as he said with mild surprise
to the caller, “Detective Palmer. Nice to hear—”

Grant was apparently cut off by what Stone
had to say. Beverly wondered if Paco’s Dad was calling for some
follow up work on his case against Manuel Gonzalez, which had
suddenly grown in leaps and bounds as if not already a workload for
the detective.

Grant frowned, muttered an expletive, then
told Stone, “Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”

He hung up and Beverly asked, “What is
it?”

Grant pursed his lips. “A warning. Detective
Palmer seems to think we’re in danger.”

She raised a brow. “From whom?”

“Rafael Santiago. Palmer believes that
Santiago may come after us now that he’s free.”

“But why?”

“Revenge. Looks like Manuel Gonzalez
practically bragged about switching places with his brother just so
Santiago could finish what he started.”

As Beverly tried to digest this, with the
clear implication being that Rafael Santiago had been guilty as
charged in attacking the Crawfords, there was a shattering sound
coming from the Great Room.

Immediately Beverly thought that Jaime had
hurt himself. She raced from the kitchen with Grant hot on her
heels.

* * *

The first thing Beverly noted was the replica
of the Titanic on the floor, smashed to smithereens. Then she saw
Jamie with a frightened look on his face.

Only he wasn’t alone.

Behind him was Rafael Santiago. He had a gun
pointed at Jaime’s head.

Trepidation gripped Beverly like in a bad
dream. But she knew this was real life and her son was in
trouble.

“Has he hurt you, Jaime?” Were the first
words to come from Beverly’s mouth.

The boy shook his head, as if unsure. “He
came out of nowhere, Mom,” Jaime stammered apologetically. “I’m
sorry—”

“Shut the hell up!” ordered Santiago, a
streak of pure evil in his tone.

“Let the boy go,” urged Grant, keeping his
voice firm, but not hostile.
Any false move on my part could get
Jaime killed, so I have to deflect the attention to myself
. “If
you want me, Santiago, you can have me. Just leave them alone.”

Santiago let out a hoarse laugh. “In your
dreams, man,” he taunted. “We’re gonna have ourselves a little
payback party,
Yo Honor
. And this big-assed boy here is
gonna be a part of it, whether you or your girlfriend likes it or
not—”

Beverly was almost glued to the spot. The
mere notion that Jaime could die...that they all could without
leaving this house was almost more than she could bear.

God, please don’t let this happen. Don’t
let this man win
.

“You killed Judge Crawford, didn’t you?” she
had to ask him.

“Figure it out, Ms. Assistant D.A.!” Santiago
bared his teeth at her like a vampire out for blood. “He got what
he deserved; so did his cunt of a wife! You had me right where you
wanted me, bitch, but you couldn’t hold me. Thanks to my twin bro,
Manuel—”

Beverly exchanged sorrowful glances with
Grant. Both knew they had been conned by two homicidal maniacs. Now
it just might cost them their lives.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Rafael,”
Beverly tried to reason with him somehow. “You won. You have your
freedom and there’s nothing anyone can do to take it away from you.
Unless you harm us—”

“She’s right,” seconded Grant, reluctant to
try anything foolish under the circumstances. Not till he could get
Jaime and Beverly out of harm’s way. “If you let the boy go and
turn around and walk right out of here, I swear we’ll forget this
ever happened. We’ll call it even, the past friction between
us...”

Santiago grinned amusingly. “Man, you must
really take me for a dumb assed Cuban,” he cursed, pushing the
barrel of the gun against Jaime’s tender scalp. “You ain’t never
gonna forget this, any more than I can forget what you did to me,
asshole—”

“I didn’t do it to you,” spat Grant, inching
closer to them. “You did it to yourself, Santiago. You murdered
your girlfriend and were held accountable. If it hadn’t been me who
prosecuted the case, it would have been someone else—”

“But it was
you
,” boomed Santiago,
ignoring all reason, “
both
of you. And now it’s time to pay
the piper—”

He shoved Jaime to the floor and pointed the
gun at Grant.

“Say good night, Judge Nunez,” he said
gleefully.

Like hell I will
. Grant lunged at
Santiago as a last gasp measure to save Beverly, Jaime, and maybe
even himself.

But Santiago, anticipating the wild move of a
desperate man, easily evaded Grant’s long, outstretched arms. He
then fired off a shot, hitting his target in the shoulder. Grant
winced from the searing pain, but continued to move toward the
rapist-killer.

Santiago grinned and aimed the gun at Grant’s
head. “Once you’re dead, I’m gonna have some real fun with your
lady before she begs me to kill her.”

Grant took another swipe at Santiago, missing
badly. Santiago slammed the gun into Grant’s injured shoulder,
causing him to cry out in pain; then rammed a fist into Grant’s
jaw, dropping him to the floor.

Beverly watched in horror. It was happening
so fast, she had trouble breathing. He was going to kill Grant.
Then her and Jaime. She had to do something or watch her whole
world collapse.

Santiago stood over Grant, the gun aimed at
pointblank range over Grant’s right ear.

“Noooo!” A blood-curdling scream erupted from
Beverly’s mouth as she flew towards them. The sound of a gunshot
exploded in her ears like cannon fire.

She expected to see Grant’s head splattered
on the parquet floor. Instead it was Santiago who tilted backwards,
glass-eyed as if in shock, before dropping the gun and falling
forward, flat on his face.

Looking to the entryway, Beverly saw a tall,
familiar figure standing there. His long arms were sticking
straight out, a revolver held tightly in his hands.

It was Detective Stone Palmer.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, moving
forward while keeping the gun pointed at the motionless Rafael
Santiago.

“I’m not sure,” she uttered honestly, her
pulse racing. “He shot Grant—”

Stone watched her for a moment, along with
her son as they both scrambled to their feet, frightened, but
apparently unharmed. So this was Paco’s buddy. He gazed at Jaime.
Glad to know that their friendship had been spared. Had he been
seconds later, the situation could have been far worse.

Ignoring Grant Nunez for the moment, Stone
ambled over to Santiago, ready to shoot him again if he moved so
much as an eyelash. He knelt down and felt his neck. Nothing. The
bastard would never kill, rape, or sodomize again. Not in this
world.

“Santiago’s dead,” Stone announced without an
ounce of remorse.

He stood and checked the condition of the
judge. Beverly and her son were huddled around him like guardian
angels. Grant was only semi-conscious, a bullet having ripped
through his shoulder.

“He’ll live,” Stone assured them, recognizing
the special bond between the three. “I got here as fast as I could.
Others are on the way, including medical assistance.”

Beverly thanked God that they had somehow
survived this ordeal. Then she thanked the detective who had saved
their lives. As she expected, he shrugged it off as only doing his
job. But she suspected that the job had become personal with him,
as with her, and it had led Stone right to Grant’s front door.

And had given them all the opportunity for a
future.

* * *

Grant stirred, his eyes watery, focus
distorted. He could barely make out the concerned faces of Beverly
and Jaime.

“You got shot in the shoulder!” Jaime
informed him, seeking to be strong in the face of terror.

“An ambulance is on the way,” Beverly
said.

“Looks like we got more excitement than we
bargained for,” Grant joked, doing his best to tolerate the pain
and dizziness.

Beverly wiped away tears while smiling.
“Story of our lives lately.”

Grant made himself smile at his beautiful
lady. There was something he needed to say and this seemed as good
a time as any to do so. “Bev, this isn’t exactly the way I planned
it, but will you marry me? I’d hate to die before I ever popped the
question.”

Beverly was stunned. “Yes, I’ll marry you,
Grant Nunez. And don’t even think about dying. Not until we’re both
ancient, living the good life in Hawaii or the Cayman Islands or
some other exotic location.”

She kissed him on the mouth. Grant returned
the kiss, whispered he loved her, and lost consciousness.

“I love you, baby,” she whispered back.

Beverly cried as she cradled Grant in her
arms. The thought that she could have lost him and Jaime left her
slightly disoriented.

But they would live to see another day. And
take on whatever new battles and victories that life had in store
for them.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Stone sat in the bar, having a drink with
Chang and mulling over another day of detective work. Three months
had passed since Rafael Santiago’s plan had been foiled, costing
him his own life in the process. While the killer’s remains had
been cremated, his identical twin was set to do some hard time.
Although the plea bargain between Manuel Gonzalez and the D.A.’s
office sparing his life stood firm, new evidence had shifted the
murder of Judge Sheldon Crawford and Maxine Crawford’s sexual
assault back to the original suspect in the case.

This included Gonzalez’s taped admission
about the scheme plotted with his brother, the recanting by Isabel
Santiago that Santiago had been with her at the time of the crime
and, most importantly, the murder weapon. As such, the case was now
considered closed and the D.A.’s office vindicated in its dogged
pursuit of Rafael Santiago.

Or at least the lead prosecutor in the
case.

Stone sipped the mug of beer and smiled in
thinking of his good friend. Make that good friends. Grant Nunez
and Beverly Mendoza had not only survived the assassination
attempt, the lovebirds had gotten married and, from what Stone
understood, were honeymooning on a cruise ship somewhere in the
Pacific. He wished them well, while counting his own blessings in
having a wife who he wouldn’t trade in for anyone. Or his kids, for
that matter, growing up faster than he could keep up with their
shifting needs on a homicide detective’s salary.