Deadly Satisfaction (28 page)

Charlene remained silent and still.

“It must have been pure torture for you, knowing that you left such a crucial piece of evidence behind that contained a video of you and Johnny getting it on. I can only imagine how scared and frantic you felt, especially after I sent you that text.”

Charlene shifted her weight in her seat.

“I would've given anything to see the look on your face when you read it,” Leslie said with another wide smirk. “I bet you stayed up day and night trying to figure out who sent it. But I've got to hand it to you, Charlene. You didn't respond, or panic and make a stupid move like most people would've.”

Charlene shook her head at the thought that Leslie had been behind the text all along. But at the moment, that revelation was a moot point that didn't make a difference. Charlene no longer cared about how Leslie had ended up with the blue box, or that she herself had overlooked it that fateful night. The only thing Charlene now regretted was that she wouldn't be around to see her children through the challenges that lay ahead. And as she stared at Leslie's gun, she knew how Johnny must have felt when he realized he was going to die.

“I really wish I didn't have to kill you, Charlene,” Leslie said. “I actually liked you, and I used to think you were one of the few people I'd ever met whom I considered to be on my intellectual level. But sadly, I realized you weren't on the night of Johnny's murder—because you left the blue box behind. Lucky for me, I came in right behind you and found it.”

Charlene broke her silence. “What? This is crazy!”

“No,” Leslie said with a smile, “it's genius and smart, but not crazy. Johnny had been blackmailing me just like he'd done all those other women. I'd been watching him for months, plotting my move. Once I read about what happened to Geneva in the police blotter, I knew I had to stop him, just like I did that pig who raped me when I was a naïve young associate. As fate would have it, though, our brilliant minds thought alike and we planned to kill Johnny on the same night. You got there before I did and handled the tricky part for me by shooting him. After I watched you casually saunter out the door, I went in behind you and recovered the evidence that's sitting on my shelf.”

“I never saw that blue box,” Charlene said quietly, admitting guilt for the first time.

“I almost missed it, too. I guess when Johnny was fixing his drink, he was so wasted that he put it in the cabinet along with the liquor. I knew he'd been drinking, so I looked to see if he'd left anything near his booze, and bingo!”

“Why are you doing this, Leslie? You're an eyewitness to the murder I committed and you have the evidence. Why go through all this trouble, and why kill me? Why didn't you just go to the authorities the next day?”

Leslie laughed, pleased with herself. “What fun would that have been? I decided to toy with you so I could study the way you went about covering your tracks. You actually taught me a thing or two that I can use, and pretending to be Geneva's friend . . . that was classic.”

“It wasn't an act. She's a good woman, and I'm sorry I put her through hell.” Charlene shook her head and swallowed hard.

“Whatever, Charlene.” Leslie sighed, as if she was growing bored.

“You'll never get away with this, Leslie. How're you going to explain killing me?”

“I've gotten away with at least ten murders since I killed that bastard over thirty years ago, and I'll simply add you to the list. Once I shoot you, the news crew I called yesterday will arrive under the pretext that they're going to do a breaking news interview of me unveiling the evidence. But what they're going to find is the body of a respected city council member I had to kill in self-defense because I'd uncovered your sex tape . . . in that little blue box.” Leslie paused. “Of course, you know I took mine out”

Charlene shook her head again. “You're sick.”

“Maybe so, but no one will think that except you, and it won't matter because you'll be dead. I'll be a hero, I'll write a book, and I'll be the most celebrated criminal defense attorney in the country.”

Charlene looked over at the blue box and closed her eyes.

“If you hadn't been moving so slowly that night I might not have seen you,” Leslie said, as she picked up the gun. “But I have to admit I was surprised. I didn't think you had it in you, Charlene. You walked out of there without a care in the world, as if you were taking a stroll in the park. You've got guts.”

Charlene's eyes narrowed in on Leslie's. “What are you talking about? I ran out of Johnny's house like I was being chased.”

Leslie laughed. “Most people come clean and confess their wrongs right before they die, so they can leave this world with a clear conscience. But you're going to lie to the end. Like I said, you've got guts.”

“I'm not lying. I was so frantic after what I'd done that I ran out the door at full speed and I didn't stop until I got to my car.”

“That's impossible,” Leslie said.

The sound of Lauren's voice startled them both. “No, it's not!”

Charlene and Leslie turned their heads to find Lauren standing in the middle of the doorway. Charlene was so shocked she couldn't move and Leslie was equally taken by surprise. Slowly, Lauren entered the room as Leslie grabbed her gun and rose from behind her desk. Charlene felt a rising sense of panic. She wasn't sure how much Lauren had heard, but it didn't matter because she'd seen the gun in Leslie's hand, and now that meant Leslie was going to have to kill Lauren, too.

“Charlene, you really should've kept your daughter out of this. Now the police are going to have a double homicide on their hands.”

Charlene rushed from her chair and stood in front of her daughter. “Leslie, please don't do this. Lauren didn't do anything, so let her go. I'll confess to everything, just please don't hurt my baby.”

“You don't have to confess to anything, Mom,” Lauren said in a calm voice. “You didn't race out of Johnny's house that night because you're not the one who killed him. I did.”

Charlene and Leslie both looked at Lauren with shock and disbelief.

“What are you talking about?” Charlene said, feeling as though she was getting ready to lose what little balance she had left.

“Johnny had to pay for what he'd done, so I went to his house to kill him. When I got there he'd already been shot, but he was still alive. I didn't know who beat me there and pulled the trigger, but I knew I needed to finish him off. I walked over to where he was lying on the floor and I could see that he was trying to talk . . . to ask me to help him. But he couldn't really speak. That's when I bent down over him and covered his nose and mouth until he stopped breathing.

Charlene's eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her mouth. “Lauren, what are you saying?”

“She's saying she killed that son of a bitch,” Leslie said with a laugh. “Now it makes sense why the coroner's report said he died of suffocation on his own blood as a result of being shot. This just keeps getting better. A mother-daughter tag-team murder duo.”

Lauren lowered her head. “I'm sorry, Mom.”

They all jumped when they heard a door slam outside and voices coming from the front yard. The news crew had just arrived and they were taking their equipment out of their van.

Leslie walked toward Charlene and Lauren. “I hate to break up this touching confession but I've got a job to do before News Channel 7 knocks on that door.” She aimed her gun directly at Charlene and pulled the trigger.

“Urrgghhh!” Charlene groaned. The hot, burning sensation of Leslie's bullet was painful, but it didn't stop her because she knew she had to save Lauren. She gritted her teeth and lunged forward, grabbing Leslie by her wrist as they both fell to the floor. In a quick move Charlene managed to wrestle the gun from Leslie's hand, aim it toward her neck, and shoot her in the throat.

Lauren raced to her mother's side. “Oh God, Oh God!” she said in a panic as she dropped to the floor beside Charlene.

Charlene's jacket was covered in Leslie's blood, and the woman's gurgling became erratic as she fought to breathe.

“Is everything okay in there?” One of the cameramen had heard the shots as they were unloading their news van and rushed to the door. “We heard shots. We just called the police.”

Charlene managed to roll over on her side, and when she did, blood oozed from her abdomen.

“Mom!” Lauren cried. “Oh God! Please don't die. Please don't die.”

Charlene had faced many difficult situations in her life, and with each one she'd developed a plan and moved forward with solving the problem. She knew that this moment was no different, and she had to think quickly. She was losing blood, her head felt light, and she knew it would be only a matter of minutes before she lost consciousness. “I'm okay,” Charlene said as she breathed hard, trying to calm Lauren. “Baby, I need you to focus and listen to everything I'm about to say.”

Lauren began to cry and that's when Charlene knew she was going to have to get tough with her daughter. “Listen to me, dammit!” Charlene hissed, as she labored to speak. “The police are going to be here any minute. Don't say a word, do you hear me?”

Lauren continued to cry, and was now rocking back and forth, nearly hysterical. Charlene grabbed her daughter's hand and squeezed. “Look at me, Lauren,” she said in a tone that finally got her daughter's attention. “Don't say anything, to anyone, under any circumstances. Not even your brother. They'll think you're in shock, and that will buy you some time. But don't say a word. Do you understand?”

Lauren nodded.

“Repeat what I said.”

“I won't say a word, Mom.”

“Good, I'll handle everything.”

The last thing Charlene remembered hearing before she lost consciousness was her daughter's soft cries and the sound of sirens blaring from the police squad cars outside.

 

Charlene blinked slowly as she opened her eyes in her dimly-lit room. She looked down at the tubes extending from her nose and arms and realized she was in the hospital.

“Thank God, you're awake,” Lauren said. She rose from her chair beside Charlene's bed and went to her side. “We've been so worried about you, Mom.”

Charlene smiled, but it quickly faded when she saw that Lauren was wearing a hospital gown and robe. “Are you . . .” she coughed as she tried to speak. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine, Mom.”

Charlene's voice was now a raspy whisper. “Why're you wearing a hospital gown?”

“They admitted me right after the shooting. I haven't spoken a word to anyone since that day, not even to Phillip. And like you said, they think I'm in shock so they admitted me. They've been probing me every day but I haven't said a word.”

Charlene closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “How many days have passed?”

“Three.”

Just then a nurse walked into the room. “You're awake!” she said with enthusiasm. She looked at Lauren. “I know you're happy to see your mother's eyes open, aren't you?”

Lauren looked at the nurse with a blank stare, and remained silent.

Charlene swallowed and grimaced with pain. It felt as though sandpaper was lodged in her throat. She tried to speak again, but this time she could barely talk. “My stomach hurts, and my throat is . . .” she couldn't finish her sentence.

The nurse immediately started taking Charlene's vitals. “That's to be expected, Ms. Harris. You suffered a gunshot to your abdomen, but you were lucky because it missed your intestines, and the bullet came out right through your back. And your throat is sore because we had to intubate you. We took the tracheal intubation out this morning and the scratchiness will go away in a day or so.”

Charlene let out a deep breath as her words sputtered out. “Am I going to be all right?”

“Shhh,” the nurse said. “Try not to speak. You need to save your strength. I'm going to get you some pain meds and let the doctor know that you're awake.”

Once the nurse was out the room Lauren spoke up. “The doctor said you're going to make a full recovery. But we don't have much time because the staff has been instructed to contact the police as soon as you regain consciousness.”

Charlene knew that Lauren had figured out that they needed to get their stories in sync. Although it was hard for her to speak, Charlene whispered quickly. “You got out of the car because you had to use the bathroom. You rang the doorbell and when no one answered you came inside, thinking something might be wrong. You stood outside Leslie's study and listened as she confessed to coming into Johnny's house after I'd shot him. He was still alive so she covered his mouth and nose until he stopped breathing, then she took the blue box and . . .” Charlene stopped when she realized that Leslie had left everyone's tapes in the box except her own, and that was the crucial piece of evidence that would tie Leslie to Johnny and corroborate her motive.

“Don't worry,” Lauren said. “Once the police found the blue box they searched Leslie's house and they found it hidden inside one of her legal books.”

Charlene nodded and continued. “Leslie was planning to kill me and let me take the fall for Johnny's murder, got it?”

Lauren nodded. “I mean, yes.” She shook her head. “I've gotten so used to not talking. I'm still in silent mode.”

“Good, stay that way until I give my statement.” Charlene was glad that Lauren had kept quiet, which relieved some of her worries. But she couldn't fully relax, because she knew she had to finish talking before her voice gave out or the police came. “The rest of the story will be exactly what Leslie said about her being a hero and a celebrated attorney.” Charlene braced herself for the pain as she cleared her throat again. “The police will probably be here any minute, so repeat everything to me as quickly as you can. Don't add or take away from anything I said.”