The Mystery of Jessica Benson (9 page)

“Hey dawg,” he called. Then, seeing his buddy’s face, he
slowed and said, “You not lookin’ so good today. This murder
business getting to you, huh? You got a lot on your plate, I
know.”

“Nah, man, I’m great. Just chillin’.” Kyle grinned at his
friend.
“Sure. Now cut the crap and tell me what’s happening.
That fat fuck cop been steppin’ on my last good nerve all
afternoon. He gotta be making your life miserable.”
“Well, since you mention it, I don’t see any quick fixes
shining down on me, that’s for damn sure. Did you at least
behave yourself a
little
during your official visit with the
gendarme?”
James sat down on a bench and motioned to Kyle to sit
as well. “Set yourself down here awhile and relax your bones.”
Kyle sat and yawned deeply, letting his breath out in
short spurts. “Relaxing would be a good thing. I hope to try it
again some day real soon.”
“Listen up, man. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but that
jerk Kaufman really pissed me off. I got him on his own turf
today, though. I was as big an asshole as he was.” A selfsatisfied grin broke out on his face.
“That couldn’t have been much of a reach for you,
dude.” Kyle joked.
James raised an eyebrow and pointed his finger at his
friend. “I’m just saying that so long’s you got friends like me,
you’ll be fine, white boy.”
“Stop beating your chest and tell me what happened.”
“That dick put me in one of those fuckin’ little
interrogation rooms and left me sitting. I must’ve waited half an
hour for him to get his raggedy ass back in there. I mean, how
much more obvious could he have been about trying to sweat
some answers out of me. By the time he and his cute little
sidekick got around to coming back to me, I was damn ready to
fuck around with them some.”
“Cute little sidekick. That would be Detective Brandt?”
Kyle asked. “I hope you didn’t jerk her around. I think she might
be my only ally over there.”
“Nah, I didn’t mess with her. Why would I bother taking
her on when that partner of hers is so much fun? Anyway, I
made a few good points and then got my ass outta there.” He
motioned with his thumb toward the door.
“And those good points you just mentioned were what
now?”
“Since you ask, my good man. I made it clear that
Jessica was a slut and you were not.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Great. I’m sure that bought me
points with that prick.”
“And I might have mentioned the scene I lucked into at
the beach last week, when she was getting it on with that
muscleman of hers. Now that he liked. Gave him someone to
think about besides you for a little while. Give you some
breathing room here.” He gave Kyle a wide grin.
“Shit, Lundy, what are you thinking, huh? You’re in law
school, man! Doesn’t that go to motive? My motive? I’m
thinking that information isn’t as much a plus for me as you
seem to think.”
“It gives ‘em someone else to annoy for awhile. Your
shit hemorrhage the night Jess was murdered gave ‘em enough
motive to go after you, so don’t be barking at me ‘cause I told
them about another guy. What I’m trying to do here is divert
their attention a little, get ‘em to maybe look past the noses on
their ugly faces and check out some of the other possible
solutions. They gonna be on Feyzi Batan like flies on shit, man.
Ha! And I only gave ‘em his first name, so they gotta do some
sleuthing just to find out who they’re looking for.”
Kyle furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “You don’t
really think Batan could have done it do you?”
“Shit no. But then he is a little kinky — preaching to all
those hungry women about ‘
ohm
’ and all that Buddha crap,
twisting himself up like a pretzel. Ain’t natural. When you
really get to thinking about it, he’s not much more than a paid
whore. All his rhetoric about fitness and health, but you know
what the ladies are really paying for. Anyway, he might know
something that we don’t and lead them in another direction,
away from you.” His smile was brilliant.
“You’re the man, James.” Kyle smiled back at his friend.
“Hey, I heard an interesting story myself today.”
“Do tell.”
“Seems Jessica was having all kinds of arguments the
last few days of her life. With all kinds of folks.” He looked
down and patted his stomach. “I’m starved. Let’s get out of here
and catch dinner. We have plenty to talk about. What do you feel
like eating? It’s on me tonight.”

An hour later the players walked into City Hall – The
Restaurant, one of the newest and the most delicious places to
open in a long time in the greater Miami area. Steve Haas, the
owner, had been around the restaurant scene for many years.
Everyone knew when he finally opened his own, it would be the
best, and no one was disappointed when he did. Reggie, the
maître d’, immediately took the football players into the private
room in the back, away from the already crowded main area of
the restaurant.

“Thanks, Reggie,” Kyle said to the very handsome
African American man who was Steve’s right arm during the
busy evenings. “We’ll try to be quick. Can you keep the masses
out ‘til we get out of here?”

“Of course. How are you doing, okay?” Reggie’s face
showed genuine concern. James, Kyle and a few of the other
players were regulars at City Hall and big favorites among the
wait staff. Everyone who dined there received special treatment,
though, and the food was beyond delicious, with a twist.

“Steve will come back to say hello, but in the mean time,
I’ll get someone here to take your orders and get you started.
You know, anything you guys need, we’re here for you.”

After their orders were placed and they were nursing
their second beers, Lundy finally spoke. “Well, I don’t plan on
waiting all night. You got something to tell me, so tell me.”

“I thought you might want to catch a little more of a
buzz before we got back into the subject of life as I now know
it.”

“Gloria came around to see me today and dropped some
interesting information into my hot tub.”
“Gloria? Man, she hated Jessica. Never forgave her for
having you.”
“Yeah, thanks. Anyway, when she was leaving the
compound the other night, she stumbled into Jess and Luke
Arnold. They were arguing. She thought they didn’t see her and
she never mentioned it to either of them. She told me she hadn’t
given it another thought, but then this morning Luke confronted
her about it. He wanted to make sure she didn’t think anything of
it, which naturally got her to thinking there might be more to it.
Luke told her they weren’t fighting. He was denying something
he wasn’t even sure Gloria knew had been going on. Said
something that pissed Jess off apparently, and then she tore into
him. But if it was so much of nothing, why’d he bother going to
Gloria about it at all?”
“So what’d the cops say when she told them?”
Kyle wrinkled his eyebrows and said, “Gloria didn’t
mention it to them, and if Luke was covering with Gloria, I don’t
see him telling the police about it either.”
James stepped on the end of his sentence. “What the
fuck? Is she on crack or what?”
“Settle down a minute. Let me finish telling you what
she said.” He waited a beat and then continued. “She told me that
Kaufman really rousted her about me and she got off point.”
“Look Kyle, I’m not saying he’s not a prick, but Gloria’s
no pushover. I don’t see her buckling like that.”
“I agree. She’s been around. But I don’t think she’s ever
been questioned by a homicide cop before — and Kaufman is
one intimidating motherfucker.”
James started to speak, but held back when the waiter
showed up with their meals, and set the plate on the table,
looking to the quarterback for his approval. “Hope this steak is
rare enough for you, Kyle.”
“Thanks, Luigi. It looks great. When you get back this
way could you drop us off a couple more beers?”
“No problem,” he smiled at the quarterback and stayed
just a beat too long.
Kyle smiled back and nodded at the waiter, hoping to
signal it was okay to leave, but he didn’t turn to go until Lundy
slurped the last of his beer and thumped the bottle down hard
enough to make everyone jump. Luigi turned on his heels and
stomped off.
As soon as the waiter was out of sight, James said,
“Look, Kyle, you don’t think forgetting to mention an argument
in a dark parking lot one day before Jessica’s killed is a stretch?
Shit. This is all about rage —
this
is the shit that goes to motive.”
Kyle stared at his best friend, then looked down at his
plate, shrugged and pushed the steak away. “I thought I’d be able
to eat tonight, but I just lost my appetite. So, you’re saying you
think Gloria deliberately held that information back from the
cops? I don’t see a reason for her doing that. There’s no gain for
her in not giving Luke Arnold up.”
“Don’t be stupid with me. That woman’s had a thing for
you since she came to the team. Fact is, she’s still hot for you.”
“Oh, that’s rich, asshole. I see now. She’s so hot for me
she makes sure I get thrown in jail for life. There we go. She
can’t have me so no one else can ever me, either, right?”
Luigi came back and placed two bottles in front of the
athletes. Kyle picked his up and took several deep pulls. James
did the same, and then continued.
“You’re joking about it, but stranger things have
happened, man.”
“Okay, so why’d she bother mentioning it to me? It
could’ve been her and Luke’s secret. Once I know about it, she’s
got to figure I’m going to shout it out. My goddamned life is on
the line here.”
“Sure, but coming from you it’s not the same. You go
tell Detective Dickhead
so and so told me and I’m telling you
.
It’s just different, you know? Think about it, man. It’d look like
you put her up to it. All of a sudden she remembers an argument
she witnessed and she’d never said anything when they
questioned her in the first place. That, my friend, is no small
oversight.”
“What’s your point here? I seem to be missing it.”
“Maybe she figured by telling you, you’d feel indebted
to her. She’d like that enough. Or maybe she just holds a fat
grudge against you and hates you enough to want to see you go
down for the killing.”
James was so intense that Kyle couldn’t help chuckling.
“So tell me, James, when did you become a conspiracy
theorist? Or maybe you’re just practicing law without a license,
huh? I suppose you have an idea of where to go from here,
counselor?”
“I think for starters we pay a little visit to Arnold on the
down-low. Check out his version of the mysterious parking lot
scene for ourselves. I’d be curious to know if he mentioned it
when he talked to the cops. I’m betting — again because he
tipped his hand to Gloria about it by coming to her after the
murder — he didn’t.”
Kyle nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “You’re
right. I can’t think of any reason he wouldn’t have mentioned it
to the cops, or felt he had to clear it up with Gloria, unless, of
course, he has something to hide.”
“Alrighty then, Kyle, we got some work to do.”
Kyle stood to leave. Pointing his thumb and forefinger at
Lundy said, “Let’s do it.”
James motioned him to sit back down. “Uh, Kyle —?”
He lowered himself back into his chair and asked,
“Yeah?”
“You gonna finish that steak?”
Kyle looked hard at Lundy for a minute, then shook his
head slightly. “Nah, James. You go ahead. Don’t let my bad
fortune ruin your good appetite.”

F
eyzi Batan was sweating. Karen and Will watched intently
throughout the entire aerobics class he was teaching. Exactly one
hour after he kicked his first kick, he told the exhausted class of
women he would see them again next session. The giggling
group of scantily leotarded, make-up caked patronesses rolled up
their mats and rushed up to the front of the room and surrounded
the guru, each competing for a portion of his attention. And it
was clear he had plenty of it to go around.

The Turk had well-defined muscles without being bulky.
He was just tall enough to not be called ‘short’, maybe 5’10.”
He’s the kind of man women love to nurture and be nurtured by
,
Karen thought. Big, sad brown eyes and a head full of dark,
curling hair. His lips were full but not too full. The kind women
love to kiss and be kissed by. A tiny diamond stud decorated his
left earlobe.

As soon as the last woman left the room, the detectives
cornered him. They flipped their badges. Feyzi turned an ugly
shade of crimson.

He looked around for a moment as though he wasn’t
quite getting it, and then, beckoning to them said, “Yeah, uh,
yes. There is office in back. Come please.”

Crunch catered to the wealthier exercise groupies. It was
clean, modern and unlike most gyms, did not smell like old
sneakers and jock straps. Feyzi led them through an area
equipped with more step machines and treadmills than Karen
had ever seen in one place. Will muttered something about it
looking like a torture chamber to him.

Feyzi took them into a small office that was totally out
of character with the upscale décor of the rest of the gym. It was
cramped and cluttered with file cabinets and obsolete equipment.
Four folding chairs surrounded a faux oak desk. Behind the desk
was a leather executive chair that looked like it had been
retrieved from a war zone. Batan started to move toward it, but
Will blocked his path. The two stared at one another, Batan
looked as though he was ready to run, but instead backed himself
slowly into one of the folding chairs.

“Good choice,” leered Will, giving the trainer a steely
glare. He took the chair right next to Feyzi while Karen sat off to
the side.

“What kind of accent you got, Batan?” Then he lowered
his voice, narrowed his eyes and asked, “You from somewhere
in the Middle East, boy?”