When Perfection Fails (23 page)

Based on the information she had obtained from the records and her talk with Martha German, Serena tracked down the office building on Parklane Road. The building wasn't that far off the highway, but as she drove up, there didn't appear to be too many businesses that occupied the building. It was curious to her that this building was built by Mayor Carrington's real estate firm about a decade ago. She didn't know what that meant, but Serena had a feeling this scenario included the mayor in some way.

She parked her car a few spaces away from the few cars in the parking lot and turned off the engine. Not sure of what her plan was once she entered the building, she sat for a while. Her intentions for coming here was to see if Lance Ryan was still in business. The man had to be making a living doing something. The clothes that he wore were expensive. She suspected he was probably still in the real estate consulting business in some form or fashion.

What she wasn't sure about is what happens when she confronts him. He had made a point to be elusive about who he was and managed to control and manipulate the times they had met in person. How would he react to her just showing up and nailing his true identity?

She almost wished she had been more forthright with where her investigation had gone with Alan. He might have encouraged her to take Bud and the camera to get some more footage. Serena sensed now wasn't the time to turn the information she had into a story. She clearly didn't know what was going on and after talking to Lenora over the weekend, she knew she had stunned the woman.

It sounded to Serena like the brief relationship between Charmayne and Lance had gone badly and he may have an agenda against her.

But why wait five years? Serena scratched out notes after her visit with Lenora. Her one conclusion was that Bishop Hudson's death served as a trigger.

She slapped the steering wheel, and then climbed out of the car. This was about to drive her crazy. There were so many bits and pieces not fitting together. At this point, she was going to see if she could find where all the confusion had started.

Serena noticed a side door and walked up to it. She pulled on the door, but it wouldn't budge. Then she peered to the side and noticed there was an electronic card reader. The building seemed to be pretty secure, and this door must have been for employees to enter.

She walked around to the front of the building, noticing there must not have been many people who worked inside because the parking lot was sparse with cars.
Why even keep a building open if you don't have enough tenants paying lease or rent?

Serena reached the front which had a double glass door entrance. She pulled on one of the doors, and it swung open easily. Once inside, she felt the temperature drop. While spring had arrived, it was starting to feel closer to summer temperatures. The air condition felt good. She looked over her shoulder and saw a security guard sitting behind a large circular space.

He glanced at her, his eyes glassy. She waved to him, but he continued to look at her as if he didn't care she had just walked in. Serena shrugged and kept walking over to the elevator area. The building was five stories, and there appeared to be offices on each of the floors despite the nearly empty parking lot.

She scanned the listing next to the elevator. There were various businesses, but nothing jumped out at her. Her eyes stopped on Bowman and Watson Law Firm. Didn't Martha mention there was a lawyer in this building? The law firm was located on the fifth floor. There wasn't any other business located on that floor. Did that mean Lance Ryan had moved his business or was he in business at all?

It didn't hurt to check, so she pushed the elevator up button. Maybe the lawyer had information. Serena glanced over at the security guard. He was watching her. She turned around and rolled her eyes. Really, where did they get these folks from sometimes? She heard the hum of the elevator making its descent. The doors slid open, and she stepped in. She pressed the number five and waited for the elevator door to close.

The doors closed so slowly it made Serena nervous. Remembering the day Lance showed up at city hall, she almost expected his hands to appear stopping the doors from closing. She breathed a deep sigh of relief when the doors finally closed, only to have her stomach lurch when the elevator ascended. What would she find when the doors opened?

She watched the numbers light up at the top of the elevator until the number five was lit. Serena braced herself as the doors whirred open. She stepped out on the brightly patterned carpet and looked to her left. There was a window that showed the expansive skyline of Charlotte. She recognized some of the downtown buildings. Serena turned to her right and walked to the hallway. She looked down the hallway and noticed a few doors. The first door had Bowman and Watson Law Firm on the plaque outside the door.

She stepped up to the door and peered in through the glass beside the door. There was a receptionist area, but no one was sitting at the desk. Serena scanned what she could see and nothing looked out of the ordinary. Maybe she would stop back by after she explored a little more.

Serena continued down the hall. The next office space was dark. She grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. Serena grimaced. This wasn't going to be easy. She continued down the hall until she came to another door. There wasn't anything on the plaque beside the door, but the office was lit. She looked behind her, and then walked up to the door. This time when she touched the knob it turned easily in her hand.

Should she do this? She could always say she was lost. With that little lie in place in her mind, Serena opened the door. As it opened, she glanced around. Like what she saw at the law firm, there was a receptionist area. Serena swung her eyes to the left to see a waiting room and a television set that wasn't on.

Was this a real office? Maybe someone was setting up an office?

She walked all the way in and closed the door slowly behind her, willing it not to click or make any noise. Once the door was shut, she listened for any movement or signs that someone was in the back area. Serena tiptoed across the office, grateful for the plush carpeting. She moved past the receptionist area. One office was closed, but two other doors were open. She peered inside the first open door. It seemed to be an office supply closet, but there were no supplies. A lone filing cabinet stood off to the side.

Her body was tense with anxiety, but she kept walking until she reached the second open door. From the light that came from the window, she could see the room had the usual office furnishings: a large desk, swivel chair, armchairs, and filing cabinets. The walls were bare. She did a 360 turn and noted the walls didn't have any artwork. Just plain white walls.

Then she heard a voice from outside the door. What should she do? Serena scrambled over to the utility closet and hid behind the door. Whoever was coming was either talking loud to someone or was on the phone. The door she had just entered swung open. Serena peeked through the crack in the door and saw the very man she was looking for stroll by her.

She pulled back as Lance turned around. His face was reddish under his tan, eyes flashing. “There's no one to blame here but you. You let that righteous bishop get into your business. He would have never discovered what you were into if you left this project alone in the first place.”

Who was Lance talking to on the other end of that phone call?
Serena tried to pull herself in the shadows as best she could and hoped Lance didn't need anything in this empty closet. He had grown quiet, and then started sputtering out a string of expletives that even made Serena's cheeks grow warm. The man was in a rage which put her in a real awkward, dangerous position, she thought.

Serena dared to glance through the door again and saw Lance had his back turned away from her. She listened as he continued. “You just make sure you have my money. You wanted the Hudson Development off the plate. It's gone. No one is going to try to resurrect that project. Even if they do, any missing funds would probably fall back on Charmayne. She's not exactly here to defend herself, is she?”

After a moment of silence, Lance threw his hand in the air. “What?

“I told you, I doubt the woman saw me at Charmayne's house. If she did, you better believe I'm going to take care of that.”

“I
know
you're not threatening me, Mayor. I mean, would you really want it to get out that you were the last person to see Charmayne alive?”

Serena shrank back in horror; her heart was beating so fast she held her hand to her chest.
The mayor? Mayor Carrington?

I knew it!
So the bishop had found out the mayor had been making some money on the side. That had to be some federal money too. Did Charmayne know?

But what woman was Lance talking about? Was he talking about Lenora Freeman?

Serena listened again, but only heard the one-sided conversation from a distance. She looked through the door and saw Lance had moved inside the office that had the closed door. Okay, now she had a decision to make. She could either try to get closer and hear more of the conversation or she could get her behind out of this office before Lance discovered her.

Her mind told her she needed to do the latter. Now that she knew the mayor had probably seen Charmayne before she died, she could just confront him. It was coming up on an election year, and she could probably catch Mayor Carrington off guard.

Serena moved slowly out of the closet, her eyes glued to the door where Lance was still talking loudly on the phone. She could hear tidbits of the conversation as she tried to move toward the door. Serena was almost halfway across the room when she heard Lance clearly say, “I even cleaned her fingernails so no one would suspect that she fought for her life and connected the DNA to you. By the way, thanks for saving me the dirty job and giving me the insurance to make sure I get paid. Maybe I should up the amount you owe me.”

Serena could have jumped out of her skin at that revelation. That made the mayor a murderer. Somehow, Lance came in as the one to make it all look like a suicide. Charmayne was going to marry
this
man? No matter indirectly, he had played a role in her death and in some crazy way had probably achieved revenge.

She had to get out of there.

As thoughts raced through her mind, Serena didn't realize that Lance had stopped talking. She looked up at the office. Lance was walking back toward the door.

Serena turned and sprinted toward the door.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?”

She didn't bother to turn around to know the man had a murderous look of rage on his face.

Serena ran out of the office, thinking there was no way she was going to make it to the elevator. She ran past the lawyer's firm office, thinking, why didn't she just go in there? Instead, she headed to the door marked stairs and proceeded down the flights of stairs as fast as she could. Maybe she could get to one of the other floors, where there had to be more people.

As she started down the stairs, Serena made an error that she would soon regret. She turned just long enough to see Lance burst open the door to the stairway, his face was exactly as she pictured it.

Ready to kill.

She was thinking this man was some athlete as he moved swiftly down the stairs toward her. In a split second, she knew without a doubt he was going to catch her.

Whether he shoved her or she tripped, Serena didn't know, but for the first time in a very long time, she called out to God as she fell.

“Are you sure you need to be going over there by yourself? Don't you think we should be looking more into this guy, Lance Ryan Matthews?” Jonathan had asked her as she relayed to him all the information she had learned. At this point, Lenora wanted to stick to the plan of hiding nothing. She asked Jonathan to meet her over near Parklane so they could have a late lunch. She wasn't sure what the lawyer had to tell her, but she knew she needed her husband's support.

Lenora assured her husband, “I should be fine. Let's just plan to meet at two o'clock. I can't imagine this taking more than thirty minutes, and certainly not an hour.”

“Okay. I'll meet you there at two.”

Lenora clicked the End call button and stared at the phone for a minute. She had already arrived at the Parklane Plaza. It wasn't until she drove into the parking lot that she thought to call Jonathan. She knew his favorite restaurant was down in this area, and she really wasn't sure what she was walking into right now. She got out of the car. Today, she had thrown on jeans and a blouse, with some Keds sneakers. The attire was something she would wear on the weekends for shopping.

She entered the office building and noticed the security guard. He glanced briefly at her and turned his attention back to whatever he was looking at behind the high desk. The man looked like he was in his late forties or early fifties; his thick, wiry hair was speckled with gray under his cap. He had a thick mustache that covered his top lip.

Lenora walked over to the elevators and looked for any signs of a law firm. The Bowman and Watson Law Firm was located on the fifth floor.

She pushed the elevator button, despite the increasing temptation to turn around and walk out of the building. She would check out what the lawyer had to say. It occurred to Lenora maybe the reason why the police hadn't found any evidence was because Charmayne kept the threatening information safe. What better place than to keep it with a lawyer or store it in some safety deposit box.

As Lenora entered the elevator, she imagined the lawyer's instructions consisted of a key or some type of package that Charmayne had delivered in the event of her death. Charmayne was so fearful the day she came by, it didn't occur to Lenora until now that maybe Charmayne saw her death coming. As impulsive and crazy as she was, Charmayne knew the art of covering her tracks.

The elevator doors opened on the fifth floor. Lenora stepped out. There was a great view of downtown Charlotte. It eased her mind a bit to know that she was in the heart of the city. As she walked closer to the first office door, she saw a gold-plated sign with Bowman and Watson Law Firm.

Just as Lenora placed her hands on the knob to open the office door, she stopped as she heard a scream. It was a woman screaming. Lenora whirled around to where the scream had come from. Was it coming from the stairs?

A memory from long ago grabbed at Lenora's mind. Someone needed her help. She wouldn't be guilty of not doing the right thing this time. Not sure what she was going to see or even if she really heard a scream, Lenora ran over to the door leading to the stairway and opened it.

She gasped. At the bottom of the stairs was a woman. Lenora immediately recognized her as Serena Manchester. Her body lay not moving.

“Oh my dear Lord,” Lenora exclaimed. She ran down the steps, but stopped as she saw a man's face looking up at her.

It was Lance Ryan. His pale eyes focused on her.

Before she could stop herself, Lenora yelled. “You did this to her! What kind of monster are you?”

Lance bounded up the stairs toward her.

Lenora took two steps at a time with her long legs. She pulled the door open, thinking how in the world was she going to get away from him.

She prayed for God's protection as she ran toward the door marked Bowman and Watson Law Firm. Lenora yanked the door open and ran inside, closing it swiftly behind her. She stood leaning against the door, pushing her weight against it. She quickly glanced around the room wondering if she had done the right thing.

There was no one at the receptionist area.

“Hello!” she called out into the office. It was well past one o'clock. Suppose this was a setup the whole time.
You fool! You walked right into it.

Lenora didn't have long to ponder the thought as someone threw their weight at the door. She screamed, almost losing her balance, but she bore her weight against the door, digging her sneakers into the carpet. She couldn't stand here all day trying to hold back a door against a maniac.

Tears sprang to her eyes. She hoped Serena was okay. The woman had done so much to find out what happened to Charmayne. Through her tears, Lenora looked at the doors in front of her. Maybe she could make a run for it to one of the offices. They had to have locks. Speaking of locks, in her haste she should have tried to lock the door she was desperately holding closed.

Lenora noticed Lance had stopped banging on the door. Probably because he intended to knock it down. She had to move fast. Lenora scrambled across the office. The first door she tried was locked. She banged on the door in frustration.

She ran over to the next door and tried the knob. Just as Lance stormed through the main entrance, she turned the knob. The door was open. Lenora rushed in and quickly turned the knob to lock the door behind her. She backed up into a chair. Lenora grabbed the chair and hauled it toward the office door. She tilted the chair so it was propped under the doorknob. She hoped that would hold Lance off for a while.

Lenora reached in her purse and dialed the last number she had called. She moved away from the door listening to Lance pounding and yelling.

She heard Jonathan's voice on the other end, but before she could respond, Lenora screamed instead. She could hear Jonathan frantically calling her name, but she was too much in shock.

A man lay on the floor behind the desk with his tie wrapped around his neck. His brown eyes stared up at the ceiling in disbelief and his mouth was open as if still gasping for air. He wasn't a tall man. A pair of glasses lay on the floor next to him. Lenora looked at the name on the desk.

Henry Bowman.

This was the lawyer who had set the appointment. She was so confused. Did Lance do this too?

Lenora stepped away from the dead man and stared at the door as the man outside continue to bang. Her desperate phone call to Jonathan was forgotten as she tried to process the plans of the man trying to get in and the one dead on the floor.

She didn't have long to think as Lance crashed through the door. Lenora screamed and grabbed the lamp on the desk. As Lance came toward her, she held the lamp in her hands. “Don't come near me. I've called the cops.”

Lenora hoped Jonathan had called the cops after she lost the connection. She was sure her husband heard her scream.

“Cops? Really?” The man stopped and laughed. “You know I see why you and Charmayne were friends. You both are a handful. Just don't stop.”

Lenora stepped back. She didn't want to take her eyes off this man's face, but she knew the dead man was behind her. “You're Lance Ryan Matthews. I don't understand why you're doing all of this. Charmayne loved you.”

The man laughed again, and then abruptly stopped. His face turned hard and cold. “I thought she loved me too. She couldn't stand up to that father of hers . . . the great bishop. He didn't like me from the start. You know he had the nerve to call me white trash to my face. Not very godly of him, was it?”

She'd already seen Serena out there on the stairwell and the dead lawyer behind her.
What is he going to do to me?
She needed to keep him talking. Lenora asked, “So, you're mad with Charmayne for not fighting for your relationship? I remember her being really excited and hopeful. She would fight back against her dad.”

“She didn't fight for me.”

“Is that why you killed her?”

The man's eyes flashed as he came closer. “I thought about it. A long time ago. I finally decided I would just show her and her father what they missed.” He moved closer toward her. “I have another friend to thank for ridding the world of Charmayne. Besides, I think he hated her more than I did. Believe it or not, I found great pleasure in just seeing her miserable.”

Lenora held the lamp higher. She was ready to smash it across his head, face, back—wherever she could make it land. “If you are going to try to do me in, then you can at least tell the whole truth. So, you were the one sending her threats.”

“Why would I admit that to you? Is the truth supposed to set me free?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

“It might help me understand what happened to my friend. I don't know you, and I don't know why you've involved me in this sick game of yours.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. It occurred to me that I needed to step up my ‘game,' as you call it. I knew Charmayne was a tough cookie. I had to get her where she was weak. I needed to expose her secret.”

Lenora's arm was tired of holding the lamp. “She told you?”

Lance smiled. “She was full of her favorite wine. I must say when she first told me, I was shocked. Then she told me how the bishop cleaned it all up for her as if it never happened. I never knew that little secret would come in handy later.”

Oh, Charmayne! You picked out the wrong man.
Her arms were really straining now. She took a second and glanced at the door.

That was her mistake.

He leaped toward her.

Lenora yelped and sent the lamp smashing into his head. The impact didn't stop him as she fell backward under his weight. The lamp tumbled out of her hands.

Without a weapon, she slammed her fists into his head with as much ferociousness as she could muster. His head was already bleeding from where she smashed the lamp.

He grabbed one of her flailing arms and punched her in the jaw.

The pain was sharp, and Lenora saw flashes of bright light. As she struggled to gain her bearings, she kicked out with her leg and dug the nails of her free hand into his face.

Then Lenora felt something strong grip her neck. Her fight soon turned to a dire need to breathe.