Chapter 7
Jim fairly flew to the station. Between his late night visitor and a possible break in the case, he was feeling no pain.
Spying Daniel in the hall, he shouted, "Hey, can you find the girlfriend? Try all the restaurants and hotels Kriege charged. I wanna talk to her today." Daniel nodded in assent and went to his desk to dig up whatever he could on the mystery friend.
Jim sauntered into Carlos' lab holding one of his golf clubs. He took a couple of practice swings under Carlos' watchful eye. "What did you find?"
"Other than an about-face for Mr. Sourpuss?" Jim's look could have curdled milk. Carlos went on as if he hadn't noticed. "It was definitely the same gun used for both murders. We also have a partial thumbprint from the shell casing found near Whistler's body."
"That's good news."
"Gets even better," Carlos gloated.
"I'm on the edge of my seat," Jim quipped.
"You should be, the print doesn't belong to Whistler or Carlton."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really. Even more interesting is that it appears to be a woman's thumb."
Jim's eyes connected with Carlos'. In unison, they said, "The girlfriend!"
Jim continued, "She truly was a girlfriend, not just a friend of the same sex."
"I know how I got there, but you jumped about five steps to end up with the same conclusion. How?"
"Something Callie said about mixed signals."
"You're giving Callie mixed signals?" Carlos queried.
"No!" Jim shook his head emphatically. "She was talking about not wanting to give Ray mixed signals about a reconciliation. Made me wonder why we didn't see a lot of men's clothes or bathroom supplies at Kriege's place."
Carlos pointed out, "We weren't really looking for any of that."
"True, but what there was, looked more like a sleepover, not the sort of thing you'd expect from a live-in boyfriend or lover. Not like Carlton described it."
"No, it's not," Carlos agreed.
.
Jim met Daniel in the hallway, "Good news, I hope."
"I think so. MaryAnn was with Kriege a lot more than most girlfriends are."
"Carlton told us the ladies hadn't seen each other in a month. How often did they get together?"
"Three, four times a week. Sometimes for lunch or a day at the spa, but it was usually dinner at a nice restaurant."
"What about hotels?"
"I could only find two records of both women at the same hotel."
"One was in St. Augustine and the other here in Palm Glades three nights ago."
"How did you.." Daniel shook his head in exasperation. "Never mind. She's supposedly at work, the Mercedes Benz dealership on Grand."
Jim swung his club a couple of times as he walked back to his office. He was whistling a nonsensical tune when he ran into Manus.
"Got some sleep?" she asked.
Jim startled at her voice, then grinned. "Yeah."
Manus didn't comment, just smiled in return. "Carlos told me you have a break in the case."
"Yeah. Going to get the girlfriend and bring her in."
"Go." Jim didn't wait for her to continue.
.
Jim approached the red haired woman standing next to a silver CLS. "MaryAnn Myers?"
"Yes." She gave Jim the once over and decided he couldn't afford one of her cars, so she didn't bother to ask if she could help him.
"FDLE. I need you to come down to the station with me."
"Why?"
"Murder." He motioned for one of the uniformed officers to handcuff her and take her to the squad car. He gave the CLS an admiring look, then followed.
.
Jim watched MaryAnn through the one-way glass. She didn't seem nervous or on edge. She was cool and collected. She didn't fidget or squirm in her seat. She had her hands folded primly in her lap, with one leg crossed demurely over the other. She hadn't changed positions in almost ten minutes. Grabbing his cup of coffee, he went in.
"You waived your right to counsel."
She nodded.
"Tell me about Kriege Whistler."
"She was my friend."
"From St. Augustine?"
"Yes."
"We can do this one question at a time, if you want, but it'll be better if you just tell me what happened."
She arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow and tilted her head to the right. "What fun would there be in that?"
"True," he agreed, taking a sip of coffee. "But it might make things easier with the DA if you cooperate. Instead of getting stuck in prison for life, you might eventually make parole." Jim gave her a discerning glance, "You might even be young enough to still wear clothes like that when you got out."
That got a reaction out of her. "These clothes never go out of style, Detective. That's why they're classics."
"Oh, right. Sorry. I'm a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy."
She sniffed in disgust, but didn't say anything.
"Okay, let me tell you what I've got and you can fill in any gaps. You and Kriege met while she lived in St. Augustine with her husband, Corporal Jonathan Whistler. During his first deployment to Iraq, you two became close. But it wasn't until his second deployment that you and she started a romantic, physical relationship." He watched her eyes, to see if he got things right. "Kriege moved down here to get some distance between her and the National Guard base. She may have wanted a divorce, but she didn't want her relationship with another woman to mar her husband's career."
MaryAnn nodded involuntarily. Jim continued.
"You took a job with the local car dealership to be with her. You had high hopes that she'd get her divorce soon so you wouldn't have to sneak around anymore." Jim paused, then abruptly asked, "Is Steve Carlton your brother or your cousin?"
"Cousin."
"What happened? Whistler didn't want to give Kriege a divorce without knowing why, so you and Carlton decided to give her a boyfriend?"
"Correct. That bastard was too much of a macho man to ever agree to let Kriege go if she was involved with another woman, or even if she just wanted to be alone. So we gave her a male lover."
"He reacted as desired, didn't he? He flew into a rage and drove down here to confront her, but instead of finding her with Steve, he found her with you."
"He said he knew she couldn't have been cheating on him, basically patted her on the head and left. She laughed it off, saying at least he wasn't going to give her a hard time about the divorce. But I knew he wasn't going to give her the divorce. Without a 'valid' reason for her wanting to leave him, he never would have signed the papers. So I had to give him one."
"You called and told him about Steve and let it drop where they'd be later that night."
She nodded, crying, "I didn't think he'd kill her. I just thought he'd be mad enough to give her what she wanted. When Steve told me Jon left the bar with her, I freaked out."
"You must have been close by and saw him drag her out onto the pier."
"I was. My cousin's a good guy, but he wanted Kriege too. That's why we thought it would work so well. Steve was very attracted to her and could make it look like they were an item."
"Did she know about the set-up?"
"No. We were all there together, but I left the table just before Jon came in. I didn't want him to see me again."
"Did you see them leave?"
"No. Steve ran back to get me from the ladies' room. We ran out the front together, but I'm the one who ran to the pier to find her. I saw them arguing, but didn't get to them before they went down to the sand. By the time I got there, she was dead. I couldn't do anything to save her. So I grabbed the gun and ran."
"How'd you find Whistler?"
"I knew where he was staying," she admited. "It was a dump, just off the highway. So I waited until I heard morning traffic and shot him.
"How many times?"
"Three. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly hold the gun steady. He laughed at me, said I wasn't a real woman, that he'd show me what a real woman wanted. He said he was going to take the gun from me and use it to rape me and then kill me like he did Kriege. I pulled the trigger. The first shot hit him in the chest, but that only enraged him. He started towards me and I shot him again. He went down, holding his gut and screaming obsenities at me." She started shaking at the memory. Her hands clasped together around an imaginary gun. "Then he was screaming in pain and the traffic noises were dying down. I stood over him and pulled the trigger one last time. He stopped moving."
"What did you do with the gun?"
"I threw it off the end of the pier."
Jim thumped the table lightly. "Okay. We're done. I'm going to have to charge your cousin for hindering prosecution, but he should get off with a slap on the wrist."
"Thank you," MaryAnn said quietly. "I loved her, you know. I would have done anything for her."
"I know. You just proved it."
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Callie sat outside the prison fence, waiting for Ray to appear at the gate. Jeff had wanted desperately to come with her, but she told him it would be best if he waited at Jody's to help with the party. He wasn't happy, but that wasn't unusual right now. She couldn't deal with both Ray and Jeff right now. One was going to be hard enough.
Eventually the gate opened and Ray stood there, freshly shaven and dressed in civilian clothes. She hadn't seen him in anything but prison duds for almost two years. He looked a lot like the man she'd fallen in love with all those years ago. She got out of the car and stood waiting for him to cross the street.
"Hi," she said as he approached.
"Hi, baby," he said, pulling her into his arms for a hug. He placed a kiss on her lips, but didn't try to deepen it. Letting her go, he said, "I know we got a lot to talk about, but can we just get out of here? I'm tired of looking at this place."
"Yeah," she said getting into the car and starting it up again. As they go under way, she stated, "Your mom's got a party planned at the house. A lot of people are looking forward to seeing you."
Ray stared at her from the passenger seat, "I'd rather just be with you and my little man. We need to reconnect. It's been too long."
"It has, Ray. There's so much we need to discuss."
"Later, baby. Later. Just get me home."
Callie didn't know how to respond, so she just stared ahead, hoping her future would be as easy to navigate as the road in front of her.
