A Killing Rain (16 page)

“So?”

“If you don’t allow me access now, I’ll get a material witness order and take Outlaw back to Miami.”

Wainwright’s eyes shot to Susan then back to Joe, who was now in his face.

“I’ll fight it” he said.

“And more people will die while you try,” Joe said.

Wainwright’s brows came down hard over his eyes, and for several seconds he stood perfectly still. Then he turned, waving his hand.

“All right for
crissakes. Go have your talk.”

Wainwright zipped his jacket
and left. Jewell put out a hand to prevent the door from slamming.

Joe reached for her jacket. “Anyone coming with me to the jail?”

“Give me a minute,” Susan said, disappearing into the hallway.

Louis looked at Joe, hoping she would say something to put Susan off, delay the inevitable explosion between Susan and Austin, but Joe didn’t seem concerned.

“Joe, letting her see Austin right now is not a good idea,” Louis said.

Her eyes swung to Louis
. “She’s desperate for information, Louis. This man lost her son. She has every right to confront him.”

“I just want to
—-”

“Protect her?”

“Maybe.”

“What makes you think she needs you to protect her? Or even wants you to?”

The bedroom door opened and Susan reappeared. She was wearing jeans, an old red sweater, and was struggling to get her arms into a black jacket. Her hair was still frayed but pulled back with a red barrette and her face was scrubbed. She seemed different. Her movements were quicker, sharper. Her jaw was set, and her eyes had a spark of...what? Anger? Purpose?

She stopped in front of Joe and Louis, pulling up the zipper on the jacket. “Let’s go.”

Joe stepped back to let her pass. Susan went outside and Louis leaned back into the room to look at the bookshelves near the TV.

“What are you looking for?” Joe asked.

“Making sure Susan didn’t take this with her,” Louis said, picking up Susan’s revolver.

The interview room was very small, not really meant to hold three people. It smelled of sweat with an undernote of something foul, as if the desperation of the legions of losers who had sat in here had somehow permeated the drab green wall paint.

Joe and Susan had taken the chairs at the metal table. Louis wedged himself near the door. None of
them had spoken since the cop had put them in here, telling them that the jail staff was in the middle of a medical emergency with another prisoner and it would be a while before Austin was available.

Available. Like they needed an appointment to see the weasel.

Louis raised the Styrofoam cup to his lips and took a drink of the stale coffee. He felt the urge to pace but there wasn’t enough room. There was only the table, two chairs, and a mirror on the interior wall, one-way glass, Louis knew. A small speaker was mounted on the wall near the door.

Joe had pulled her notebook out and was asking Susan questions. When had she last seen Austin before this visit? How
much did she know about his import business? Did she know his Miami partner?

Susan sat stiff in her chair, hands folded, intent on answering Joe’s questions. She shifted now and then, her emotions jumping between frustration and anger as she realized she knew so little about her ex-husband. Sometimes she would look away from Joe, struggling for answers, for some tiny shred of information about her past, a past that might somehow shed light on the horrible present.

Joe glanced up at Louis then closed her notebook, sitting back in her chair. She stretched a long leg out to the side and draped her arm over the back of the chair.

“
Tell me what he was like thirteen years ago,” Joe said to Susan.

Susan’s eyes flicked up to Louis then she looked away, pushing her hair from her face. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Maybe nothing,” Joe said. “But it might trigger a memory. Maybe there’s something he wrote or said, something he put in a letter or postcard.”

Susan’s shoulders seemed to relax, and she drew in a long breath as she took her first step back.

“We met at a New Year’s Eve party in nineteen seventy- five,” she said in a near whisper. “I was almost twenty. He was twenty-five.”

Joe was quiet, letting Susan fill the pause.

“He wore this beautiful black suit and gold cufflinks, and he had a tiny diamond earring in one ear.” Susan looked up at Joe. “I had never dated a man who wore an earring before. I thought men who wore earrings were all...”

Susan fell silent

“Gay?” Joe asked.

Susan gave her a small smile but it quickly disappeared as she nodded.

“Now cops wear earrings in their off time,” Joe said.

“Not many,” Louis said.

Joe placed her long fingers over Susan’s clasped hands. “The suit got you?”

Susan sighed. “I guess so. I fell for a suit. That and his...his personality. He was everything I wasn’t
. He had this sparkle about him that I think people hoped would rub off on them.” She paused, pulling her hands from Joe’s and dropping them to her lap. “I guess that’s what I hoped, too.”

Louis wanted to look away from them, but there was nothing to stare at but the green walls.

Girl talk. A strange moment of female intimacy that Louis didn’t understand or didn’t even want to know about. Somewhere in his brain he flashed on an image of his older sister, Yolanda, and her best friend whose name escaped him, a large girl with stiff, pointy braids and bright red lipstick. It was summer, on a porch, and they were talking about Nate Broosher. Louis was six years old, hiding just inside the screen door.

He so fine...

What’s so fine about him?

Girl, those lips. What else is there to like?

Why you like those big ass lips?

Yeah,
theys big but they do make for some good kissin’.

Louis had shrunk away into the
door, flushed with a feeling he didn’t understand.

Susan gave out a bitter little laugh in response to something Joe asked. Louis glanced at the door but he knew he would have to knock to signal an officer and that would disrupt their conversation more than his staying.

“We all have an Austin in our past, Susan,” Joe said.

Susan nodded. “He bought me my first Chateaubriand, my first dozen roses, and my first diamond,” she said, glancing at her bare fingers.

“How long before you got married?”

“Five months.”

“Did you know what kind of business he was in back then?”

“Some kind of land investments. He made some decent money off some local developments. Construction here was booming and he bought some apartments and condos that he sold off for a huge profit.”

“Anything shady about them?”

“Not that I could see.”

“So you two were doing okay, then?”

Susan
’s face wrinkled. “He was doing okay. I was working as a legal secretary and wanted to quit and go back to school, but he kept saying he needed to reinvest our money for our future. We ended up pawning my diamond for some Christmas presents one year. It wasn’t long after I learned he was blowing it on other investments. Bad investments.”

“Like what?”

“He never said exactly. Nothing was working for us then. I should’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t.”

Louis was looking at Susan but she was staring at the table, like she didn’t really want anyone to see how gullible she had been.

Susan looked up suddenly at Joe. “It wasn’t all bad,” she said. “Parts of it were still good, you know? We had this crazy sense that the world turned just for us. We had this idea that, that...” Her voice trailed off and she shrugged.

“What happened?”

Susan went to take a drink of her coffee but saw the Styrofoam cup was empty. She held it for a few seconds then set it down.

“I got pregnant.”

“How’d Austin feel about that?”

Susan’s smile had a hint of bitterness. “He was happy. He went out and maxed out the credit card on baby stuff we couldn’t afford and even started painting
the extra bedroom for a nursery.”

“But?”

“Three months later he was gone, and there were all these paint cans left in the room. He was off on an overseas business venture he couldn’t pass up. I was so sick with morning sickness I couldn’t work, and I...I...” Susan started shaking her head, anger setting in. “I had to go on public assistance. I had to use food stamps.”

Louis crossed his arms, his head down.

Joe let Susan’s anger pass before she spoke. “Did he come back for Ben’s birth?”

Susan nodded. “Stayed three weeks. I thought Benjamin would make a father out of him, keep him home where he should be. But
then one afternoon, he handed me five hundred dollars and said he had to go again.”

“How long after did you try to divorce him?”

It was a minute before Susan could answer. “It took me about five years to save up the money. When I served him with the papers, he flew all the way back from Hong Kong. Begged me to try again. I told him I’d try again if he would stay in the States with Ben and me.”

“Did he?”

“He stayed three months. I got up Easter Sunday and found a basket on the kitchen counter that he had left for Ben and a card for me.” Susan paused, took a breath then went on. “The card said, ‘I will never be who you want me to be.’ He took the divorce papers with him and disappeared. I just let it go. It costs money to find someone.”

“After that,” Joe said, “it was just birthday cards and Christmas presents?”

“When he remembered. I think he’s been back twice since.”

“Has anyone ever called your home looking for him? Creditors? Businessmen?”

“Not in years.”

The door opened and a uniformed officer stuck his head in. “You the people waiting for Austin Outlaw?”

Joe nodded.

The door opened wider, and Austin slowly came in. The first thing that caught Louis’s eyes was Austin’s gold Rolex and neck chain. They were a stark contrast to his ripped trousers and the white
Gatorland T-shirt that stretched tight across his chest and arms. Louis guessed the cops had given him the shirt from the jail lost and found, but he had to wonder where Austin got the Luster-Curl that glinted off his black hair.

The door closed behind Austin, and he stood stiffly, his dark eyes moving from Louis, to Joe, and to Susan, where they rested for several seconds. Louis tried to see something in his eyes. A hint of regret? Humility? Confusion? To his shock, he thought he saw a spark of indignation.

Susan rose and walked to him, paused a second, then raised her hand. He made no move to stop her, and her palm hit his cheek with a smack.

“You bastard,” she hissed.

Louis tightened, his instincts telling him Austin might strike back and if he did, Louis knew he’d kill him. But Austin hadn’t moved.

“Are you done, woman?” Austin asked.

She answered him by slipping back into her chair and looking away.

Austin pulled his gaze from Susan and looked at Louis. “Have you found Benjamin yet?”

“No.”

Joe rose and gave Louis a discreet nod. He followed her out, pulling the door closed behind him. For a moment, they just watched through the window as Austin stood by the door, head bowed, and Susan sat at the table, glaring up at him.

Joe flipped the speaker on.

“I’m not being nosy,” she said to Louis. “I want to hear what he tells her about Ben.”

“You don’t have to explain to me,” Louis said, watching Austin and Susan through the glass.

Susan didn’t say anything right away. Austin looked at the empty chair, but did not sit down. The two of them and their silence seemed to fill the tiny room.

“I guess they left us in here so you could beat up on me some more, so go ahead,” Austin said. “Take your best shot.”

Susan was silent.

“Come on,” Austin said. “Rip me a new one, just like your boyfriend did last night. Make this look like it’s all my fault.”

Susan’s eyes
lasered up to Austin but she didn’t come out of the chair. “It
is
your fault,” she hissed. “You’ve done something to cause this. What is it this time?”

He curled his lip in disgust
. “I just came to visit my wife and son.”

“I’m not your wife.”

He shrugged, looking around the room. His eyes stopped on the mirrored glass and Louis knew Austin knew they were being watched.

“How could you just let them take him?” Susan asked.

Austin rolled his eyes. Susan repeated the question, louder this time. Austin let out a tired breath and began to speak.

Louis and Joe listened as he went through the same pathetic story about throwing away the ice cream cups, but he didn’t add the part
—- the lie —- where he said he went back for Benjamin. He stopped after he said he hid in the bushes for a while, his gaze flicking again toward the one-way mirror.

“You are unbelievable,” Susan said.

“What do you want me to do now, Susan?” Austin asked.

“I want you to tell the cops the truth. I want you to tell them what this is all about.”

“I can’t,” he said.

“Can’t or won’t?” she snapped.

Austin leaned on the table. “Can’t. Because I don’t know.” He slammed a hand on the table. “Damn it, why doesn’t anyone believe that?”

“Because you lie when you breathe, Austin. Your whole life is a lie.”

“Everyone lies. You lie. Cops lie and I bet even Kincaid lies.”

Susan stood up. Louis reached for the doorknob, but Joe caught his arm.
“Let them talk.”

Susan’s voice filled the small speaker.
“This isn’t about you or Louis or me,” she said. “It’s about Benjamin. My God, Austin, what is wrong with you? Your son is gone!”

“A son I barely know
, thanks to you!”

Louis grabbed the doorknob. This time it wasn’t to prevent a fight
. It was to start one with the bastard. Joe quickly stepped in front of him.

“Louis! Cool off.”

Louis spun away, his back to the glass. He could still hear their words, filtered through the speaker. Eventually, he turned back so he could see them.

“I told myself I wanted to come here to ask you what happened,” Susan said, her voice calm. “I wanted to look in your eyes when you answered me. But I shouldn’t have bothered.”

Austin crossed his arms, his gaze steady on her face.

“Because there’s nothing in there to look at,” Susan said. “No husband. No father. No man.”

“You want a man, Susan?” Austin asked, his voice rising. “You want me to do something to help find Ben? Okay, how about this. I’ll walk out of here right now, even though I got two killers after me, and I’ll go back to the house with you.”