ANOTHER KIND OF DIAMOND (14 page)

I’m still the one at the center of it all, okay? Isabel continued. It was hell for me at work today and I’m trying so hard to keep it all together right now babe. I’m trying real hard! Don’t work yourself up too much ‘cause we got to remain strong and keep working together, that’s all we need. I share in your feelings but we don’t need all the drama right now. If we can’t find peace at work and can’t find at home, where do we go, eh? We must stay strong and focused, so please, wipe your tears.

You think I fared better at work with that boss of mine? Carissa cut in. No way! With the news of Teri’s death Mrs. Gupter started treating me like I was the one that shot him? Can you imagine! I couldn’t even breathe the fucking air without the lady saying some shit to me. I don’t get it anymore! She has even passed over her nasty attitude to some of the other workers and now every one of them wanna get in my business. Whatever I do someone is watching, whatever I say someone is listening and I’m sick of it! Fatima is the worse of them all and I know she watches me all the time ‘cause each time I tried to look her way I see the way she will move her eyes real quick trying to get away from me. I don’t know what to do. You know what Mrs. Gupter did today?

What! Isabel asked.

She deliberately accused me of taking too long on my lunch break just because she wanted to get in my business. Carissa continued. And I know in my heart I didn’t do what she accused me of. She didn’t even stop at that ‘cause at another occasion she was again screaming at my face. “Carissa, the only reason you are still here is because you’ve got great looks and is good for business. But not even that will stop me from taking you out of my store if I find you are mixed up with this mess in any way”. So you see how big my problem is? Without this job what am I gonna do? I know what I went through before I found it. I had gone all over the places knocking on so many doors and no one would let me work for them because they think I’m too young until Mrs. Gupter saw some potential in me for her Beauty Supply business and hired me. I’m really scared ‘cause I don’t wanna lose my job yet I don’t even see how I can stop that from happening.

Stop worrying! Just like she saw something in you, so will another person see even greater potential and hire you. So don’t worry about her. If you lose that job, you’ll find another one. Mrs. Gupter or whatever she calls herself is not the only one that runs a business in LA.

Isabel, not with all that is going on right now. I doubt if anyone will want me work for him like this! Consider that! Carissa continued crying while talking.

All these shall come to pass and everything will be okay? I’m not saying I’m not worried ‘cause that will be a lie, but what am I gonna do? Nothing! As she continued taking Isabel broke down in tears too and for the first time since Carissa came to live with this roommate, she saw her cry.

Please don’t cry with me ‘cause that’s not good for both us, Carissa said, tried so hard to stop her own tears and won. After a short pause she continued. We better start doing some fast thinking to see how we can continue with our lives. Sometimes I just wish this whole mess will just go away ‘cause is so hard to believe so much has happened in such a short time. I’m still dazed! Everything was going on so fine! Am I wrong? We were happy together and doing so well on our own and then came this evil and the music just stopped without warning? Who can take all that and still standing? I actually thought I finally found a breakthrough in life and was just beginning to settle to it and see how I’m gonna work out things for the future and then this happened. I just started thinking about going back to school for my GED, understand? Now I might end up in worse situation than I’ve ever been ‘cause we don’t know where this is leading.

Somehow, Isabel regained control of herself too and now wiping her tears she said, tell me something Carissa, when last did you speak to your Aunt?

Why do you want to know?

Just kind of curious! With the way things are going right now, you may want to give her a call.

What the hell for? Carissa asked.

I don’t know, I’m just saying.

Well, if you must know, it’s been months I had anything to do with that Aunt of mine. I spoke to her last the day we moved in here to let her know about it and that was it.

You haven’t talked to her again since then?

Why should l?

Why not?

She likes to control my life and I don’t want to see that continue anymore. Besides she should be looking out for her little nice but she is not doing that, so what do you want me to do?

So she never called you or what? Isabel continued.

I mean she called a number of times but I guess she quit when I wasn’t picking up her calls. Anyways, I don’t think I should have ditched her the way I did, understand? It was wrong! I might need her now and I don’t know how she will be reacting.

I’m happy you realized is not her fault ‘cause she tried! Get what I’m saying? I’m thinking you might find a way of reconnecting soon. I’m Serious! Isabel said.

I’ll probably go to her house, Carissa added.

That’s a good idea. But call before you go!

I’ll try! My guess is she probably changed her number or something, I don’t know! Carissa continued.

Why not go ahead and try now and see, eh?

Carissa fished the number and dialed but just like she guessed the line was dead. You see! I told you! She is already disconnected.

May be you should have done it earlier! Anyways you know what is good for you!

Like I said, I’ll pay her a visit soon. She can run but certainly can’t hide from me. The house where she lives belongs to her and she will always be there so I’m gonna go find her! Why did you start talking about my Aunt like this so suddenly?

May be I’m scared, Isabel said. May be I ain’t thinking right anymore! Anyways, right now I wanna go to bed ‘cause I’m really tired and having this very bad headache so I need go lie down and see if it will go away.

Sometimes I don’t understand how you can sleep with all these going on. As for me, sleep has left me since this thing happened. Right now, I’m just gonna lie down on my bed and try to see what I can work out for myself, I’d need some quick thinking.

Without saying more words, Isabel went into her room, lay down on her bed and called Wallis. They talked for a while before she went into plotting until another day light came to shade her rays.

Chapter Seven
 

O
n Monday the 16th of May, some officers of the LAPD gathered on a round table with the best brains on the block listed. Officers like Thomas Jenkins, Geoffrey Kettles, Courtney Mansfield, Lawrence Bedford and the rest of them. Everything focused on the Wilkinson Street party shooting, the bullet extracted from the corpse of Teri by autopsy and how it was a perfect match with another spent bullet picked up at the scene of the shooting. And the two bullets exact match with some other ones used in another murder in faraway Dallas some five years ago. How the gun that fired all these bullets itself was never found and has not been found till this day. Even though there is someone saving a jail term for that murder committed five years ago in Dallas, that someone couldn’t have committed this second murder because from all indications the person had a solid alibi, she was right inside her cell at the time Teri was shot. So, if this fellow at Dallas prison did not commit this second murder, which did? What is the link between what happened in Dallas five years ago and Teri’s death? And most importantly who is the culprit or are the culprits behind the cases? Where is the gun that fired the bullets and how can the LAPD get hold of it?

The motive! That is always the case. Find the motive behind a crime and you solve it! And I think that is the key here like in every other crime! Mansfield suggested. And once we figure that out, a pattern will fall in place.

At this point, Kettles came into the discussion. I’m not taking that route. No! I’m gonna fine tune that phrase a little bit.

And how is that gonna play out? Mansfield asked.

Connect with this lady in a Dallas jail and you solve this crime. Kettles said. I suggest we carry out the plan we already have in place and go have a chat with her as soon as possible. To my mind, she holds the key to resolving this whole mess. The motives in both murder may be tied together somehow and might be anywhere on her fingertips. So are all the other answers like how the same gun she used to kill somebody five years ago surfaced in Los Angeles in another murder, and most importantly in whose hands? If we solve this puzzle, we solve it all.

Yeah! I agree with Kettles that these are very pertinent issues, said Bedford. A lot could have happened in five years you know! Someone could have stolen that gun from where she hid it. Anything is possible. She could have sold it to someone who sold it to another, we don’t know but somebody knows and that person is where we can reach her. We must make arrangement immediately to go have a chart with this lady in Dallas.

Her name is Lulu! Lulu Dominguez, Kettles continued. And according to Police reports, she was a twenty eight years old hawker when she killed a guy. The story was that she hooked up with this guy and they spent their time in his home because his wife worked night as a waitress in some bar, then one thing lead to another, possibly money issues who knows, and she shot him two times.

She shot him twice! Jenkins who is the lead investigator began. And that is yet another puzzle to the whole set up because Teri’s murder took a similar pattern. And just like in the case of the Dallas guy named Norman, this guy Teri also died later in the hospital. In Norman’s case, his wife returned from work, found him and dialed 911. Ambulance arrived, took him to the hospital but he never saw the daylight again until he died. Since this Teri’s incident, I’ve studied the case of this Norman a lot and the more I look into it the more I make all sorts of postulations and what I’ve been able to deduce so far is that there is a twist somewhere that could be hard to untie. Honestly I don’t know exactly what it is, but my basic instinct driven by my years of experience as an officer of the law tells me that this case will eventually turn out something larger than the ordinary.

Hum! What are you actually trying to dig up Old-Hand? Bedford asked. I mean can you shed more light on that?

To start with, this Lulu of a lady never ever admitted to the murder as charged. Remember she went into hiding as soon as the Police came after her and was not arrested until about a year ago. Her trial lasted three months if you remember. She actually pleaded not guilty and stood by that throughout the trial. Infect the defense team did put up a very strong argument on her behalf even though they failed to convince every single member of the Jury that sent her to jail. From the defense team’s point of view, she was a hawker no denying that. On the night of the murder, she worked in a brothel between 6pm and 12am, everyone saw her on her bit that night. Lulu and a follow hawker wanted extra cash same night, so when they left the Brothel they didn’t go home. There was a place the girls usually hook up with some drunken guys who wanted a little private thing you know, those with things to hide like wife issue or girlfriend stuff and for the hawker this is also solid cash that goes straight to the pocket. No pimps, no Johns, no one else gets a penny but me thing, understand? So on that particular day, Lulu and this other girl with her waited for an unusually long time for some guy to show up but no luck seemed to come their way. Then it started raining, and the girls were going to leave when out of the blues this car pulled up right in front of Lulu and the hawker in her automatically kicked in. She approached the guy even though she could see clearly he was heavily drunk. You could small him from a mile but Lulu needed more cash anyway and since it was kind of a dry night she went, charted him up all the same and eventually they agreed to do business. Then the guy took her home. Eventually, they ended up making out on a couch in the living room but then as soon as it was over the guy just went off to sleep like the pig he was, snoring away like hell. He was gonna pay up front but lied to Lulu about forgetting his wallet at home or something but kind of acted real cool about it and she accepted to get the money when they get to the house. But the moment they got in, he took this Wallet filled with cash out of his pocket and kind of tossed it on the table like he didn’t really know what he was doing and was all over Lulu and you know, they just went ahead and did it. After all, Lulu already seen the wallet is loaded and knew she was gonna get her money one way or the other ‘cause she is experienced on the job and knows how to work her way out of any situation. Later, she took the wallet and left him a small note with the name of the Brothel where she worked and signed Lulu. She even wrote down the time, date and a room number so he could come over there and pick up his wallet ‘cause she didn’t wanna take more than she bargained for. The thing is that she just wanted the guy to sweat a little bit ‘cause of the wrong way he handled the business, that’s why she left him the note telling him where to come pick up his Wallet and left the house. She admitted it was a dumb thing to do but she wasn’t thinking anything was gonna go wrong. I mean she saw him as a healthy grown man who didn’t look like he was ready to die. Besides she was in a manner of speaking trying to biff up customer, client relationship with a guy she thought had a lot of money and ready to part with it. The guy was still sleeping when she left the house and she did nothing to harm him! And you know the interesting thing about it all? She remained consistent with her story throughout the trial. That note left by Lulu and one of the ear rings found at the crime scene which was a match with another found at Lulu’s apartment latter, nailed her in the case. All those stuff kind of put her at the crime scene and she never denied she was with Norman the night he died anyway. The prosecution stand hammered on those issues until they stuck with the Jury. No weapon was ever found until now the dammed thing mysteriously showed up in LA. But at the end of a very lengthy trial in which both sides to the argument put in everything they could, she was convicted. Even though it was a hung Jury that slammed her with a life sentence, it was still a conviction all the same. Now, my thing is this! This time around, it is obvious Lulu did not fire the gun that killed Teri Parkinson because we have a proof to that, right? She was in her jail room at the time of the shooting. That’s a water tight alibi, right?