The Mystery of Jessica Benson (3 page)

They walked down the hall side by each, heads bent. The
building had been recently remodeled and was clean enough and
ever-so-deco, but the hallway was dark and airless. The queasy
neighbor’s doorway was a sight. The tenants, clearly not fans of
understatement, had decorated the door with sprays of rainbows
and scripted in calligraphy was the sentiment
Every Day is
Rainbows in 3-B
. The detectives conspicuously ignored one
another.

Will banged on the door and called out “Police!” The
door cracked slowly open, the safety chain still latched, and the
still-pale and slightly green neighbor looked out.

Will rolled his eyes and pulled out his badge. “You
gonna wanna see my partner’s ID too, or what?”
With a self-conscious giggle and a quick stripping of the
chain, the door opened wide. “Sorry. I’m pretty rattled about,
you know, what happened. I didn’t mean to give you a hard time.
I am just feeling so oh-my-god about this, this,
oh my god
!” He
gave a quick shake of his head, reminiscent of a dog after a bath,
and invited the detectives in. Offering a nervous half-smile, he
held his hand out toward Karen. “I’m Rafe Strickland.”
She shook his hand. “Detective Brandt.”
Will, hands homophobically tucked deep in his pockets,
nodded at the witness. “Detective Kaufman.” A little smirk, and
then, “You’re looking a little rough around the edges, guy.”
Strickland was handsome. Karen figured he was
probably a model, like the dead girl. His hair was light brown
with just the right touch of blonde highlights. The style was hip,
short and spiky. Sea-blue eyes. His tight, sculpted body was a
tribute to many hours in one of South Beach’s famous gyms.
Every muscle was cut, and his short tank top left little to the
imagination. His shorts revealed perfect legs.
The apartment was larger than Jessica Benson’s, not a
studio. An ornate gray sofa was shadowed by an arc lamp of
chrome. A slab of white marble served as a coffee table and two
majestic gray and white brocade chairs completed the
conversation square. Karen made herself comfortable in one of
the chairs, but Will remained standing.
“So what do you think Mr. Strickland? Can you keep
your food down long enough to answer a few questions?” Will
asked.
“Hey detective, I’m so sorry about that. God, I, uh, can’t
believe this is happening.” He gulped a quick breath and gushed
on. “I was going out for my run. Sometimes Jessie’s just getting
home when I leave and occasionally, when she’s sober, she runs
with me in the mornings. So when I saw her door cracked open I
went in for a look-see, and well,
whoops
! I just lost it. The
smell
.
And the way she looked. Oh, her magnificent face…mush.” He
grabbed for another breath and continued. “Well, I had just
finished eating—I, um, I eat before I run—most people wait till
after, but I need my carbs, and—”
“I’m sure you’re not used to starting your day with a
visit to a murder scene,” Karen prompted.
Anything to get him on
task
, she thought.
“Yeah, that’s for sure.” He flashed the half-smile again.
“I usually don’t spend any part of my day around dead bodies. I
mean, that is so for sure!”
“I understand, Mr. Strickland. It’s necessary that we ask
you a few questions, but we’ll try to be gentle.”
He gave her a brief, grateful nod and said, “Please, call
me Rafe.”
“Okay, Rafe. You mentioned that Jessica often came
home in the early morning hours. So, were you pretty close
friends with her?”
“I guess. She blew hot and cold, you know? We did an
occasional shoot together. We’re both models. Actually, this
building is like a dormitory for industry people. Both in front of
the camera and behind the scenes.” He hesitated.
“Go ahead,” Karen prompted. “Tell us whatever you
know, please. Sometimes even though you think it’s nothing, it
could be a key piece of evidence.”
“All right then, although I hate to speak ill of the dead.”
He gave her a conspiratorial nod, and went on. “She was really
beautiful and when she turned on the charm she was irresistible,
um, not just as a
sexual creature
, you know, but as a person.
“But, oh my! Jessie was a real party girl. I don’t mean
like a prostitute or anything, you know, but she didn’t spend
many nights home alone. Know what I’m saying?
“Anyway, when she started seeing Kyle I really saw a
change in her, for a while, sort of. He was different from her
other boyfriends.” He looked up at Karen and gave her a sad
smile.
“Funny thing, when you hear about athletes in the news,
they’re always wild, always doing something illegal or crazy.
Not Kyle though. Uh uh. He was such a calming influence on
Jess, when they first started going out, at least. But I guess a
leopard doesn’t change her spots that easily. After a couple of
months she started running around on him. God, I can’t believe
she’s gone!”
“So this Kyle she was seeing, he’s an athlete?”
“A football player, you know, Kyle Sands, the
quarterback for the Demons.”
Karen felt her breath catch. Will asked if she was okay.
It took her a second, but she nodded, convincingly, she hoped.
“Well, really, Jessie was
known
for losing interest in
guys real easy. She never stayed with anyone for the distance.
Huh! With Kyle being on the road so often, she literally had her
cake and was eating it too, if you get my drift. My partner and I
always talked about how awful it was. You’d have to be out of
your mind to cheat on a hunk like Kyle Sands!”
Will smirked and asked, “Your partner? Business?” He
knew exactly what kind of a partner Rafe Strickland was
referring to.
“Oh, Lord, no! My life partner. I’m gay.” He beamed.
“Who’da thunk it?” Will snorted. “Does your life partner
have a name, or what?”
“Of course he does! Ron Juneau.”
Karen could feel her face burning, but knew she had to
break out of her haze.
“Um, Rafe,” she fumbled, “do you know whether Kyle
Sands knew about Jessica’s, uh, indiscretions?”
Kyle Sands
. She
noticed that Will had stopped scribbling into his notebook and
was staring at her.
I’ve got to keep myself together
, she thought.
“Are you kidding? She made it clear that we had to keep
mum on that story. She would have killed us if we—oh, man—I
didn’t mean
kill
.” Shaking his head as though disengaging his
mind from his mouth, he stared at the detectives for a long
moment. Finally, as though a decision had been reluctantly
made, he continued.
“Kyle really cared about Jessie, you know? You could
tell from his body language and the way he looked at her, at least
early on when they first started dating. He is so awesome…”
Rafe put his hand to his mouth and looked at Will, who
was glaring. “Sorry. Too much information, huh?”
Will could have burnt a hole through the man’s
forehead with the fire in his eyes. Rafe recognized the danger,
cleared his throat and went on.
“But the last couple of times I saw them together, I felt
like he was getting to know her a little better—good for him, not
so good for her.
“Kyle even got a little tense and snapped at her once or
twice. Ron and I were thinking that maybe he’d found out about
her extracurricular activities. I mean, just because we kept our
mouths zipped didn’t mean the rest of the world wasn’t going to
tattle. And Kyle was, uh, is,
anything
but a dumb jock.” He
shook his head again and gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “I
don’t guess a compliment can get more back-handed than that,
hmmm? The bottom line, according to Jess, was that he looked
great and…” he cleared is throat again, “these are her words, not
mine,
fucked like a god but he should have been an accountant
because he was just so damned dull, boring
. Like I said, those
were her words only. We thought he was phenomenal!” He
cocked his head and continued, “Too bad he’s straight…”
Karen tried to smile. “So you’re saying she stayed with
him because of the sex?” Her brain hurt.
“Well, this is really kind of embarrassing, but yeah,
that’s pretty much it. Sex, and of course, he took her out pretty
nice.” Rafe stared at the floor, examining his spotless silver
plush carpeting.
“Sure,” Will spat. “Nothing about murder is easy to
discuss, but we need to get this over with already.”
“I understand, detective. You know, I read a lot of
crime novels myself, so I feel as though I’m fairly conversant
with the procedure here.”
“Terrific.” Will rolled his eyes.
“Oh, you know, fiction only! But these days the authors
are so into realism. I mean, in the books I read, anyway.”
“So, okay, then. I think we have a fairly good picture of
the situation between them.” Karen wanted out of there, feeling
desperate for a moment to herself. “Is there anything else?”
“Well, the reason Jessie felt she could keep Kyle and
juggle other guys was football.” Sensing that Karen was
somehow off, Will asked, “How’s that?”
“Because of football, Kyle was out of town every other
week or so. Jessica used to make a joke about how she never had
to worry about him coming home early and catching her in the
sack with anyone. She had him right there in her television
where she could watch him.
“Pretty ironic, uh? Jess played her home games while
Kyle was playing his away games.” He giggled yet again.
“Did you meet any of the guys she was dating while she
was going with Kyle?” Karen asked.
“No, she was pretty secretive about them. Guess she was
covering her butt, you know, like we couldn’t tell what we didn’t
know.”
This is not happening
, Karen thought.
The Kyle Sands I
knew is no murderer
.
“What about your partner? Is he around? We’re gonna
need to talk to him too.”
“Oh, sure, I understand. But he’s at a seminar in New
York. Ron works for Chanel at Neiman Marcus. He’s a make-up
artist.”
“Mmph. Yeah, okay,” Will said, squirming as though
he’d swallowed live worms. “When did he leave town?”
“Thursday. He’ll be back tomorrow night though.” He
scrunched his eyebrows and then suddenly his mouth dropped
open in shock. “You weren’t thinking about Ron as a suspect
were you? Oh God! You’re looking for some kind of a monster!
My Ron wouldn’t hurt a fly. Anyway, like I said, he left
Thursday. He’s staying at the Lowell. You can check it out if
you don’t believe me.”
Karen couldn’t take Strickland’s babbling any longer.
She stood and started for the door. Will handed his card to him
and said to call if he thought of anything else.
Down the hall Rojas still stood guard outside Jessica
Benson’s apartment. Will looked in and exchanged a few words
with Frank Garcia.
“Nothing new,” he said to Karen. “Let’s boogie.”

I
n the car, Will looked over at his partner of eight years. She was
too quiet. It was obvious something was wrong, but he couldn’t
get her to talk about what was bothering her. To him, she was
beautiful in every sense. When they had first partnered up years
ago, he had become deeply infatuated. She was pure energy,
always with a new angle or piece of the puzzle no one else was
able to find. Today her dark mane of hair was, as usual, pulled
carelessly back with stray wisps haphazardly framing her face.
Yet there was something in her eyes that unsettled him.
Anything that bothered Karen, bothered him.

Eventually he had fallen in love with her and come too
close to confessing his feelings. It had been at his lowest point,
shortly after his marriage slipped onto the rocks some five years
ago. Margaret, his wife, had run off with another man and the
divorce was ugly. He’d grown bitter and was drinking out of
control. Every night after work he’d shown up at Karen’s place
with a case of beer and a bad attitude. She listened to his sad
songs and when he was too drunk to drive home, she would set
him up on her sofa for the night.

One particularly long evening when he might have been
more sober than he let on, he realized Karen’s cheeks were
streaked with tears. His life was in the crapper and she was
crying. She had reached out and touched his arm, telling him
how special she thought he was. Will had taken her hand and
kissed it gently. He looked at her too-serious face and spoke her
name. She stared intently into his eyes and gently kissed him on
his forehead. But as he moved responsively toward her, she
tightened up. Pulling slightly away from him she whispered,
very, very softly, “No.”

The opportunity had never again presented itself, and
eventually he moved on to a slew of nameless, faceless women.
But he never remarried, and Karen had never left his thoughts.

He finally spoke up. “I’m thinking the quarterback looks
pretty good for it. Too bad. He’s having a great season. I hate
like hell to bust up the chemistry of the Demons.” He chuckled.
“What d’ya think, K.B.? Could it be that easy?”

“Oh sure. We’ll just pick him up, he’ll confess, and then
we’re off to a celebratory dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab and a good
night’s sleep. It’s never that easy Will.” She flashed a humorless
smile.

They both knew the circus this slaying was on its way to
becoming. The repercussions from the O.J. Simpson case
shadowed all police investigations, and they’d be working under
a microscope on this one. The public would scrutinize every
move within the Department and the media people would be
partying. Forget Homeland Security and terrorism… this case
was HUGE.

“If Sands is the dirt bag who did this, you can bet the
evidence’ll be wrapped and bound in hermetically sealed
containers. I’ll make sure myself that there are no loopholes for
him to escape through.” Will pursed his lips and looked toward
Karen for her endorsement.

K
aren slammed her locker door shut and leaned her head on it.
It was the first moment she had to herself since learning of Kyle
Sands’ suspected involvement in the Benson murder. She was
desperate for some space to sort her emotions, but there was no
way she could break away from the station now. She walked
over to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. Will had
already picked up on her distress, but she was determined that he
remain ignorant about the reason for it.