Chocolate Girls with Golden Hair (26 page)

Stuart could have kicked himself for
not having spoken up sooner. But he had his own reasons for not
coming forward. A part of him wanted to just forget about what he
witnessed and remain anonymous, but when he learned that Bianca was
a suspect, he obligated himself to step in and do everything he
could. It was his chance to do something for someone other than
himself.

Detective Uhler was on the phone when
the sergeant and Stuart reached his tiny office. When Detective
Uhler finished his call, Stuart and the officer stepped
inside.

Stuart stood at the desk with a
serious, concerned look on his face. "I need to speak with you
about Bianca Bell."

Detective Uhler signaled the sergeant
to leave and the sergeant closed the door on his way
out.

"Have a seat," Detective Uhler said to
Stuart.

Stuart eased down in the chair, not
bothering to remove his coat. "My name is Stuart Clark and I have
information about the night Bruce Colby was murdered."

Detective Uhler reclined himself back
into his chair. "You do?" he asked as he pushed his glasses up on
his nose.

Stuart nodded yes.

"How do you know Ms. Bell?" Detective
Uhler asked.

"We're friends. Actually, we're
cousins, and we work for the same firm."

Suspicion covered Detective Uhler's
face. "I see."

Stuart sat forward. "I realize I should
have come to you sooner, but...Anyway, I was there the night Bruce
Colby was murdered."

"In the men's room?" Detective Uhler
questioned.

"I was in the handicap
stall."

"Did anyone see you?"

"No, but I saw the whole thing. Well,
mostly the whole thing."

Detective Uhler was silent a moment.
"Go on."

The vivid images were still clear in
Stuart's mind. He remembered that dreadful, revealing night of
November 22 and transported himself back.

Thursday night, November 22.

Stuart stood in the handicap stall,
facing the closed door in front of him. He inhaled the cocaine from
the cellophane bag, then wiped his nose and was startled when he
heard─

"Bianca, what are you doing in here?"
The male voice said.

Right way, Stuart recognized the
distinctive voice as Bruce Colby.

"Say, what are you doing in here,
BeeBee?" Bianca said.

Just as surprised to find Bianca in the
men's room as Bruce, Stuart was stuck and couldn't even think about
leaving until after Bianca left. Stuart then returned the
cellophane bag to his pocket and listened with a meticulous ear,
hoping that neither Bianca nor Bruce would realize that he was in
the very next stall.

Stuart heard every word that Bianca and
Bruce uttered. "Quit playing around Bianca. Someone's going to see
us."

"Not if we're really careful," Bianca
said.

"Knock it off, Bianca."

"I have to get you to loosen up, show
you how to have some real fun."

Stuart could only imagine what was
happening between Bianca and Bruce who were only a few feet away
from him.

"What do I have to do? Put you on a
leash and walk you in?"

"Get up, Bianca."

"Don't be a killjoy, Bruce."

Though Stuart witnessed Bianca's
impressive transformation over the last few weeks, he discovered
firsthand how she had graduated to such a high level of
raunchiness. She was nothing like the Bianca he knew.

Stuart felt like an eavesdropping Tom
as he continued to listen in as the words between Bianca and Bruce
became more and more intriguing.

"We can't, Bianca. People are still in
this office."

"So, what are they going to do, arrest
us?"

Stuart stood there, his ear locked with
the stall wall. He heard them move into a stall and he was certain
of what would come next. Being so close, he began to feel aroused
himself, and though he could not see a thing, his imagination ran
full force.

"Take it easy, Bianca."

Several seconds passed before Stuart
heard, "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Yes," Bianca said.

Stuart envisioned what they were doing
when out of nowhere he heard the voice of a second
woman.

"You son of a bitch."

Damn, Stuart thought. "How many people
are in this men's room?"

Though Stuart hardly ever worked late,
he thought perhaps he should if this was what he could expect every
night.

The drama continued and Stuart was
uncertain of the newly entered female voice.

"Oh, shit," Bruce said.

Stuart heard someone leave the men's
room, but he didn't know who.

"What are you doing?" Bianca asked.
"You can't just stop. "What are you going to do? Go after
her?"

"I have to."

"You can't just stop in the middle and
go after her. Who do you think you're fucking with? You're going to
stop what we're doing to go after that bitch? You can't leave me
for her. I won't allow it."

"Get a grip, Bianca."

It seemed Bianca and Bruce remained
while the other person left, and Stuart felt a chill just being
there, so close to the drama.

The heated porn saga had now turned
ugly. So much Stuart wanted to peer his head above the stall wall
to see what he had listened in on for several minutes, but it was
too risky.

One minute of silence and the last word
Stuart heard from Bianca's mouth was. "Okay," before she
left.

Stuart stood motionless, eager to leave
at just the right moment. He heard the click of high heel shoes
come through the door. His first thought was that it might be
Bianca returning. He couldn't know for sure unless he heard the
person's voice.

After debating back and forth, he
finally lifted his head above the stall. He could no longer just
listen. He needed to see for himself.

Very cautiously and with keen
precision, he stood up on the toilet seat and peeped his head over
the stall wall. He saw Bruce taking a spill at the urinals.
Stuart's eyes panned left, and he saw a woman with a full head of
straight blonde hair move towards Bruce.

He couldn't be sure if it was Bianca or
not.

Bianca, Camina and Michelle all looked
so much alike; it could have been either of them. Then he saw the
side of her face.

It was not Bianca.

Stuart had Detective Uhler's full
attention as he continued with his story, conveying all that he
remembered the night Bruce Colby was murdered.

From what Stuart saw, a blonde haired
woman tapped Bruce on the shoulder and Bruce turned around to see
her face.

From the bathroom stall, Stuart watched
them stare at each other. The woman threw Bruce a punch to the face
and it caught him off guard because before Bruce could retaliate,
she threw him another one before she kicked him in the groin.
Again. And again.

Losing his balance, Bruce fell to the
floor, unable to move. Now, Bruce was on the floor, Stuart
observing with widen eyes.

The woman straddled herself on Bruce's
bruised body and Bruce struggled to overpower her, but it was no
use. Moments later, she removed his belt from his pants and wrapped
it around his neck. Stuart stared in disbelief, wanting to do
something, but was too paralyzed by it all.

Stuart witnessed the woman strangling
Bruce until Bruce moved less and less. Bruce tussled to stop her as
she pulled the belt tighter and tighter around his neck until he
could struggle no more. In a quick move, Stuart jolted his head
down behind the stall wall, his heart racing and his hands shaking
after just witnessing a murder. Stuart heard the clacking high
heels disappear through the door and inhaled a deep breath as he
wasn't sure if it was safe to leave. Finally, Stuart forced himself
from the stall, glanced over at Bruce's lifeless body on the floor
before making a quit exit.

Stuart finished his recount of the
murder and wondered if Detective Uhler believed him or
not.

"And that's what happened?" Detective
Uhler asked.

Stuart nodded his head. It was because
of Stuart's tainted record with the law and rehab that he chose not
to come forward. However, when he learned that Bianca was a
suspect, that changed everything. He wasn't about to let anything
happen to her, and not just because she helped him obtain his job,
but because she was family.

"You refer to her as the woman,"
Detective Uhler said. "Who was this woman?"

Stuart did not hesitate. "It wasn't
Bianca Bell."

"And you're sure, absolutely sure
because they do look an awful lot alike."

"Positively sure," he said.

"Why didn't you say something before?"
Detective Uhler asked.

"Scared I guess."

"So who was it?"

Bianca awakened in Lee's arms on the
sofa, her head against his chest as Lee was still asleep. It was
only a three-hour nap, but very much needed. Careful not to wake
Lee, she eased herself from underneath his arms and glanced at her
watch. It was 8:30 p.m. She grabbed a red blanket from the bedroom,
and spread it over his body.

While Lee was asleep, she tried her
best to reach her sister, Sandy. So much had happened, and she
wanted to share it all with her. Bianca stood in front of the hall
mirror, in the same position as always, and in a whisper, she
called out to Sandy. "Sandy? Sandy?"

When she received no response, she
moved her face closer to the mirror, her lips almost touching it.
"Sandy? Are you there?"

Bianca delicately placed the palm of
her hand onto the mirror, hoping to somehow energetically summon
Sandy's image. "Sandy, it's Bianca. Are you there?"

After several minutes, it was obvious
that Bianca's attempts proved futile as Sandy was nowhere to be
found.

When Bianca thought she heard Lee
waking up, she stepped away from the mirror fast and headed back
towards him. When she saw that he was still asleep, she realized
that she wasn't quite ready to give up on reaching her sister. For
several days, Bianca had attempted to reach Sandy with no success
and today was no different.

Desperate to connect with her sister,
Bianca removed the mirror from the wall, thinking maybe she just
needed to readjust it. Upon replacing the mirror back onto the
wall, she heard Lee yawning and as she directed her attention
towards Lee instead of what she was doing, the mirror slipped from
her hands and shattered into pieces onto the floor. She was certain
that all of the ruckus would have awakened Lee, but he was still
sound asleep.

A gush of fear swept through Bianca's
hands as she quickly bent down and studied the broken pieces on the
floor.

This was it.

She had done it now.

She would never see her much-loved
sister ever again.

Heartbroken over the broken mirror,
Bianca stood at the window and peeked through the mini-blinds. She
couldn't believe it. As quickly as Sandy had reappeared in her
life, she disappeared just the same.

What was she going to do
now?

For moments on end, she pondered the
dialogue her sister used. Sandy's favorite question posed to Bianca
was always: What are you going to do about it?

Though Sandy was gone, never to return,
Bianca was comforted by her sister's words. For all that transpired
with Bruce and the investigation, the question to ask herself was
the same as if Sandy were there to ask it herself.

What was she going to do about
it?

About everything?

About the investigation?

About Lee?

About her past behavior?

About her job?

What could she do to make things
right?

Bianca pondered for several moments,
almost in a hypnotic trance. Several more moments would pass before
she snapped back to reality. When she opened the mini blinds, the
night sky stirred up old emotions of the day as she studied the new
Buick across the street. Though it looked like a detective's car,
she couldn't be sure.

Even after the detectives dismissed
her, they were still watching, as if waiting.

What was that all about?

Then it dawned on her. Still, she was a
suspect, and until they could prove otherwise, she would be under
scrutiny. No longer could she wait like this on display, hoping
that everything would resolve itself. She needed to do something,
anything. Though it was that same attitude that brought her to this
place, it deserved credit if used modestly.

Though Camina was the last person
Bianca wanted to share space with, Bianca would confront her and
learn what mischievous motives scurried around in that hard head of
hers. With all the evidence pointing towards Bianca, she reached a
point when she actually believed that she had killed Bruce Colby,
but that point passed, and she now knew better.