The Mystery of Jessica Benson (24 page)

That’s
what I was good for. I
was just one of a string of assholes she had walking a tightrope
for her.” He stopped talking for a moment and wet his lips with
his tongue, then continued.
“Ha! And guess what else she had on those smut tapes.
Me, doing junk with her. Cocaine. That fuck Fraga was her
supplier all right. I paid and she purchased. My entire savings
and pension fund went up our noses. You really bought into the
allergy thing, huh, Karen? All my trips to the doctor to get
allergy shots? Then the bitch starts blackmailing me and
threatening to turn me in if I didn’t watch out for her and her
‘friends.’ If any problems came up, she wanted me to bury them
or she would send the tapes to the Captain. Don’t imagine the
Captain would be happy to see the head of Homicide with a nose
full of candy,
huh, baby,
she said to me. Yeah, and she wanted
money, too, money I didn’t have. You two didn’t know her, how
she manipulated people and always got what she wanted from
them. And she got to me, too, after I’d sworn to never again let a
woman dig her claws into me like you...” He pointed his chin
toward Karen.
He paused again and swallowed, and after a prolonged
clearing of his throat he started speaking again. His voice was
hoarse and gravelly.
“You played me for a fool too, didn’t you babe? Oh,
c’mon, don’t look so surprised. I knew you laughed at me
behind my back. Reeled me in with your little Goodie Two
Shoes act, and then when you knew you had me, left me with my
dick standing at attention, and my mind blown.”
“Will,
stop
.” Frank raised his voice for attention. “Take
it easy. Let’s sit back down.” To Karen, “Get him something to
drink.” But Karen seemed rooted to the floor. Then back at Will,
“Easy man. It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
Will glared sharply at Garcia. “Fuck off, you phony
bastard. Lemme finish what I got to say. You wanted to hear it.
Just shut up now and listen!”
Frank made a move toward him and Will yelled to back
off. “Don’t come near me, don’t take another step...” Before
anyone could stop him, he pulled his gun, grabbed Karen to him,
and pointed the muzzle at her head. “I’ll blow her head off if you
so much as inhale too hard. You want the truth? I’m gonna give
it to you, and then we’ll talk about what we’re gonna do next.
Sound like a plan? Now sit your ass back down, Garcia, and
listen carefully.”
Frank backed his way toward the sofa and sat, raising his
hands in defeat.
“I planned this so carefully. No way could I get caught.”
Leering at Karen, he said, “Your jock friend was perfect
for her. He was so busy with football, out of town while she did
everyone who was
in
town. Just like the faggot down the hall in
her building said that first day. She tells me she’s tied up with
her modeling and that’s why we can’t be together more of the
time. Then she decides she’s tired of me. I could’ve lived with
that, could have, ‘til she showed me the damned tapes. She had
me by the balls then and knew it. So I waited. I watched her,
what she did and who she was with, and I waited. I fucking
stalked her, and it paid off. I was right there the night Sands
dumped her. I saw him leave and could hear her cursing after
him. I made sure he wasn’t going back, and then went up to her
apartment. She’d stopped yelling. Her door was wide open. You
know what that slut was doing? She was fucking fixing her make
up. That fast! He dumps her and like he was never there, she’s
doing her face again. It made me nuts!”
He took a breath. “I startled her, and when she realized
who it was, she laughed.
Oh, it’s only you
, she tells me. She says
she’s waiting for someone, would I move along. Would I ‘
move
along
’? That’s when I decide to teach the little cock-sucking
whore a lesson. I closed the door and locked it behind me. At
first that cocky smile of hers stayed frozen on her lips. Like
maybe she thought I just wanted to get laid or something. Or
something
. I kept walking toward her, and she started stepping
backwards.”
His eyes were blinking in short spasms, as though he
was watching a film and reliving the scene. He began to nod and
a self-satisfied grin came over his face. “Then I shouted at her,
Don’t move bitch
! She’s still smiling, thinking maybe I just
wanted it a little rough, wouldn’t have been the first time. She
did rough real good.” He laughed, a deep, wicked sound.
“Then I saw that statuette and picked it up. I got close to
her and whacked her across her shoulder. She was scared so
fucking shitless that she didn’t even scream. But finally, finally
she knew I was a force to be dealt with, and I hit her again. Once
I started I couldn’t stop. I beat her and beat her ‘til she was
passed out cold but not dead. I looked down at that douche-bag
bitch and then I started laughing! Ha! For once
I
had the last
laugh on a woman! I beat her, not just for her, but for her and
every other woman who hurt me throughout my life.”
He stopped again and looked at Karen, tightening his
grip on her until she gasped. “I beat her for you, too, Karen.
Then I taped her mouth up. Nice touch, huh? I made sure she
couldn’t talk to anyone ever again. And then I carved her name
into her forehead,
WHORE
. I watched her bleed out for awhile
and all the time I’m getting hotter and hotter and I’m horny as
hell. I came with the death blow.” He began to laugh hysterically
and then stopped short. “I literally came like a motherfucker with
the death blow. It was so sweet. Maybe better than sex. But then
again, I guess we all have our own definitions of sex, don’t we?”
Beads of sweat had gathered above his lip. When he started
talking again, his breath was ragged.
“Think about it. We’re always analyzing why the bad
guys do this and why they do that, and what was he thinking
when he did so and so, but Frank, Karen, I gotta tell you, I was
having too much fun to think about much of anything but how
good it felt. I just did it. No deep psychological whatchamacallit,
I just wanted to kill her, and kill her and kill her... But I had to
hurry. If there really was someone else coming, I didn’t want to
be there. Not that I wouldn’t have gladly killed him, too. I ran
through her stuff for tapes, pictures, anything that could
incriminate me. Then I wiped the place clean and took off.”
He had loosened his hold on Karen and she tried to pull
away. “Will, she pleaded. “Please, stop this.”
He tightened his grip and cold-cocked her with the side
of the pistol. She gasped. Frank made a move to get up. Will
pointed his gun toward him and shot. The bullet grazed Garcia’s
thigh. With a yelp of pain, he dropped back down on the sofa,
throwing his hands up again in feigned surrender.
“Hold off, Will. You gotta...”
“Shut up.” Will cautioned. “Don’t say another word.”
Then to Karen, “Don’t make me hurt you more, baby. I want you
nice and healthy ‘til I’ve fucked you like your little quarterback
does.”
He turned to Frank Garcia and gave him a depraved
wink, “You can watch, pal, but you can’t touch. This time Miss
Priss is finally gonna give it to me, and before she’s dead, she’s
gonna know what getting fucked is really all about.”
Karen’s eyes widened in disbelief, but she was
motionless. “Yeah, baby, I know all about you and loverboy.
Your little secret visits to his place. I know everything about it.
Was he good, baby? Were you thinking about me when you were
doing him? Well, I’m gonna show you
good
real soon. I’m going
to make you forget all about that washed up jock.” He reached
down, unholstered her gun, and threw it to the ground, then
kicked it out of reach.
Then he looked to Garcia. “You too, hot shot. Pardon the
cliché here, man, but remove your gun from its holster real slow.
That’s it, easy now. Don’t make any moves I might interpret as
threatening. Good, good. Now kick it across to me. Yeah.
Perfect. Now relax while I fill in the rest of the blanks for you.
Wouldn’t want you should miss a single delicious detail. I was
so sure no one had seen me. I was home free. I’d never
mentioned her by name to anyone, and apparently she hadn’t
said much about me. I got a little nervous about Fraga, though. I
knew he’d been her supplier and I got to thinking. What if she
told him about me? What if she’d told him who was footing the
drug bills? What if he had something on me? I sure as shit
wasn’t gonna wait until he came to me. That’s why I tossed his
office. He didn’t have shit except that gun. Never know when
someone else’s gun is gonna come in handy, right? I made it
look like robbery, knowing he’d report the gun and put it out
there.”
The room was chilly, but Will was sweating profusely.
“So then we get to that prick, the so-called personal trainer. My
gut told me something was wrong there. I just couldn’t figure out
what it was exactly. I thought he might just be a faggot. He never
did say anything though, so I chalked his schizoid behavior up to
nerves. And Karen comes up with maybe he’s got problems with
immigration, and that would have checked out right ,too.”
He pulled Karen a little closer. “But then when he called
and wanted to talk to you alone, Kar, I knew there was a
problem. You were thinking I just antagonized him, but I knew it
was something more. That’s why I sent you back to the station,
to give me a window of opportunity. I got my ass over to his
place. When he sees me he freaks. Couldn’t wait to tell me what
happened, how he was the one she was freshening up for that
night. Turns out the little prick saw me leaving her building. He
went up and found her, got scared and took off. The wimp shut
his mouth because he didn’t want anyone to find out that he’d
been there, either. You were right, honey. He had INS problems,
and much more than that. Here’s the fucking irony of this whole
thing. When we interviewed him, he recognized me from the
night of the murder and figured if he shut up about that night no
one would be any the wiser. Except he got that little attack of
conscience, and decided to talk to you about it, Karen. He really
shouldn’t have done that. The yutz thought I’d let him off if he
swore to leave Miami and lose my name. He broke down and
cried, lots of crying in this case, don’t you think? That’s when
Fraga’s gun came in real handy. I smacked the back of his skull
with the butt and he was out cold before he fell. I knew you’d be
along any minute, so I was working too fast and not thinking
quite right.” He squeezed Karen’s arm until she gasped and then
leered at her.
“Stupid! I should’ve just shot him and gotten rid of the
gun. But, no, I get this great idea. If I make it appear a suicide,
it’d maybe look like he did Jessica then killed himself when he
found he couldn’t live with it.” He stopped talking once again
and stared at Karen. He leaned into her and sniffed her neck,
inhaling deeply. He said, “Oh, lady, I always loved your scent!”
Then he clamped his lips to her neck and sucked loudly. He
moaned low, painful and bitterly, drawing blood. Karen cried out
and Frank reflexively stood up and lunged toward them. Will
tightened his grip on her and pointed the gun at Frank with a
straight, sure shot.
“Sit down and stay there, goddammit!” Will shouted.
Frank remained on his feet for a moment. Karen
continued to stare at him, her eyes begging for help. Frank
nodded slightly to her as if to say, “Yes, but not yet.” He stepped
backward and sat back onto the couch.
As if nothing had happened, Will continued, “That
would have pretty much locked this case up, and we could’ve all
gone home happy. But it’s just not smart to work in a rush, right?
I thought I’d wiped that sucker clean. I would’ve sworn I had.
Then it turns out the kid’s a lefty. A fucking lefty! And the heat
gets turned up another notch. Screwed in my own petard, so to
speak. You two gotta be slapping each other’s backs when you
figured it out.” He took a deep breath and eyed his prisoners.
“Since you called me and were kind enough to keep your
theories to yourselves...”
“Will,” Frank interrupted. “Don’t get too far ahead of
yourself here. Sam Garrison knows about the prints, along with
half a dozen other agents at Quantico. Anything happens to me,
you’re the go-to guy.”
“You think you’re real smart, huh, Frank? Well, think
about this. They aren’t even gonna know you two are missing
before I’m so far out of this country they’ll have to chase their
asses forever to find me.”
Turning again to Karen he said, “But first, little one, we
have some unfinished business.” He jabbed the gun into Karen’s
ribs, and nuzzled his mouth over her ear. He ran his tongue
around the inside and trailed it down the side of her face,
caressing her breasts with the muzzle of the gun. He nipped her
cheek with his teeth and with a lightning-quick move ripped the
front of her blouse. The buttons flew off, revealing her bare
breasts. He grabbed her left nipple and twisted it violently until
she cried out in pain.
“Oh yeah, honey, sing to me. Am I hurting you so
good?” He then moved her hand down to his crotch and pressed
it against his erection, never moving his gun. “Good, huh, baby?
I’m ready now, and I’m gonna show you just how hot I am.
What you’ve been missing all these years. Ah, what a
partnership we really could have had!”
Garcia dug his fist into his bleeding thigh and shifted his
weight. The wound was not as bad as it looked, but it gave him a
chance to shift. His eyes locked with Karen’s, assuring her he
was ready to move. That was the moment he decided to stop
Will’s killing spree, even if he died trying.
Will was lost for the moment to Karen’s body. He softly
moaned as he rubbed against her. Karen shut her eyes and leaned
into him, faking submission. He relaxed for only a second as he
moved in to kiss her hard on the lips. She grabbed the advantage
and shoved her knee into his groin just as Garcia came charging
in and jumped him. The three of them fell to the floor, but Will
still held the gun. Somehow, Karen scrambled away from the
pile and got to her pistol. She yelled for them to stop, but they
were struggling over Will’s gun. She pointed her gun at them
and shouted, “Stop! Both of you. Will, I have my gun pointed at
your head. Please don’t make me use it.” But the two men
continued to wrestle hard and fast, Frank desperately trying to
get the gun from Will.