First Murder (28 page)

“Look at those warts.”

“Look at those teeth!”

“Next!” Ray commanded. “Next! Next! Next!” He got up from his chair and walked a few steps away. Tony and Carol were laughing out loud.

“Look at his face.” The hag was on her knees digging furiously at Stuckey’s zipper. When she pulled him free she screamed, loud enough to nudge Ray to look back over at the monitor. Stuckey was staring at the ceiling. His face was contorted in pain and disgust, his great member limp and flaccid. It didn’t faze the woman. She inhaled it, determined to bring it to life. Carol thankfully hit the off button.

“Now that was one hot momma.”

Even Ray laughed. They unanimously decided to take a break. Carol bolted for the nearest exit to have a smoke while Ray and Tony searched for a coffee pot.

“That was disgusting.” Ray sipped the oily brew they had found. It was disgusting too. One sip was enough.

“We probably shouldn’t laugh.” Tony still had a smile, actually more of a smirk, on his face. He knew Ray wanted to stick to business, get through the rest of the episodes, go home and take a shower.

“In my day we’d call that gal a coyote.” Ray had a serious look on his face, but his eyes were bright and lively. Tony motioned for him to continue.

“See, you got your one-baggers, your two-baggers, and your coyotes. A one-bagger is a gal so ugly you put a bag over her face, right?” Tony smiled, nodding.

“And your two-baggers? They so ugly you put a bag on your own head in case theirs falls off. You heard this one?” Tony shook his head no. He’d heard it but he was having a fine time watching his new partner tell the joke.

“And then you got coyote ugly…a gal so ugly you’d gnaw your arm off at the shoulder rather than risk wakin’ her up the next morning.”

Both of them were laughing at the punch line when Carol returned. “What’d I miss?”

Back to work.

Episode 4 again starred Sean Stuckey. The young pornographers had obviously gotten some advice by the time they taped this episode, Tony noticed immediately. There was bright studio lighting and an animated title page. The woman was definitely a pro, store-bought top heavy, garishly made up and bored looking. Any pretense of luring a desperate housewife into wild sex was abandoned beyond a half-dozen lame lines of conversation. Episode 5 was the same. It was a different woman but so similar in appearance and mannerism Tony wondered aloud if there was a porn hooker training camp somewhere.

By Episode 6, when a third porno-clone dropped to her knees before young Stuckey, Tony was dejected as well as disgusted. They had seen nothing to link Stuckey to any of the ‘Go Girls’. Carol had gotten fidgety, checking her watch often and making noises about where she needed to be soon. Ray had her show him how to control the videos with the keyboard and wished her a good evening. There was only one clip left to watch, an out take. DuPree had called it the ‘fucked-up episode’. Tony was grateful when his phone rang. He left Ray to view the clip.

“De Luca.”

Tony didn’t recognize the number that flashed on his ID screen. He hoped it was Sue Ellen calling from a safe house phone. The long strange day was nearly over.

“Agent XXL checking in.”

“David, I mean XXL, what’s up?” Tony decided to play along with his spy. He needed any humor he could get after sitting through six episodes of ‘
Ur MoM is
NOT
Hott’
. He was never going to use the correct title again. There was nothing remotely ‘hot’ about any of it.

“Sean was here a while ago. He just split so I can talk now.” Tony stepped further from the computer so he could hear better and concentrate.

“Okay, what have you got XXL?”

Hong chuckled before he went on. “This is weird, Tony. This afternoon I got a call here at the house from Karen…Karen Hewes.”

“What did she want?”

“She pretended she was checking in on us, looking for Scotty, some bullshit, you know. Then she asks me if I’ve got a number for Sean.”

Tony’s thoughts downshifted and his mind high-revved to what Hong was saying. What the hell did Karen Hewes want with Stuckey’s phone number? “Did you ask her why?”

“I’m sorry Tony. I fucking froze, man. I was thinking the same thing but it came out in mumbles.”

“That’s okay, David. I was just thinking out loud.”

“I gave her the number.” Hong’s voice was low, confessional, like he shouldn’t have done it.

Tony thought about it for a minute. There was something in play he couldn’t put a finger on. Karen, who they
knew
had contact with Stuckey in LA, who they
knew
had recognized Stuckey at the boy’s house, and who they
suspected
had seen Stuckey lurking outside her own house was asking for his phone number.

“That’s okay Dave, really.”

“I knew she was scoping him.”

“She say anything else?”

“Nope.” Tony heard a loud banging sound behind him and spun around. He was too far away to make out what was on the computer monitor but whatever it was prompted Ray to slam his fist on the desk top…hard.

“Good work, David. Keep in touch.” He powered the phone down and didn’t hear Agent XXL sign off. Whatever was playing on the screen had Ray upset…cussin’ mad in fact.

Ray re-cued the video and was digging through his notebook when Tony wheeled a chair over next to him.

“The cop in LA…I know it’s here, damn it.” Pages flew while Ray pawed through the tablet. “Got it! This clip was the last one they made with women off the street or whatever. It’s called the ‘fucked-up episode’ because they never finished it...it was aborted. Watch.” Ray hit the play button.

The clip showed some technical improvements over the third episode. There still weren’t studio lights but more lamps and brighter bulbs gave off plenty of illumination. It was the same set, the same sofa, and the camera was still set in a fixed position. There was the sound of a door opening and closing off camera, a woman’s throaty laugh and then Sean Stuckey appeared, nearest the camera with his arm around a woman’s waist, her head buried, nuzzling his neck.

Karen Hewes was drunk. Not falling down drunk. Not incapacitated. But she was slurring her words and plopped heavily onto the sofa dragging Sean down with her. She seemed oblivious to the camera. Maybe it was hidden pretty well after all, Tony thought, or maybe she just didn’t care. She clumsily unbuttoned Sean’s shirt, never taking her mouth from his while she did.

“Never saw the guy before in her life,” Tony mumbled, repeating what Karen said when Ray showed her the picture of Stuckey. Sean had her blouse open and was roughly kneading her breasts now. Karen was concentrating on his zipper—first one handed, then two.

“No Deanna. Where’s Deanna?” Tony whispered, mesmerized by the scene he was watching. He had allowed himself one or two brief flashes during the interviews, imagining what Karen looked like without her clothes. She was a beautiful woman. He’d been proud of himself for knocking those thoughts down quickly, staying professional. But now here she was, half naked, pulling Sean Stuckey’s great stiffening member out of his pants while he removed her bra and skirt.

“Isn’t this enough, Ray?” His partner had called
time out
this far along in all the other episodes. Tony felt himself getting aroused.

“Watch.”

“Okay, boss.”

Karen, dressed only in her panties now, was on her hands and knees slobbering all over Stuckey’s huge phallus while he struggled with his pants. Once they were off Stuckey roughly spun Karen around. He glanced over at the camera, a wicked smile plastered to his face, then pulled her back toward him. Tony realized he was positioning Karen in the center of the camera’s view.

“Not much more now.” Ray’s voice was calm. He was concentrating wholly on the video. Stuckey entered Karen from behind, thrusting fully into her. She gasped—a fierce intake of breath at first and then she shrieked, either in pain or pleasure. Tony couldn’t tell which. He found his breath quickening. Karen’s breasts were flapping in rhythm with Sean’s frantic strokes.

“Now. Listen.” Ray cocked his head, not paying attention to the sex on the screen but the soundtrack. Tony listened harder too. There was the sound of pounding. Someone was furiously pounding on a door it sounded like. Then there was a muffled voice.

“Karen?” It was a woman’s voice, shrill and high and panicked. “Karen?”

On the screen Sean faltered, missed a stroke, distracted by the voice and the pounding. The camera wobbled. Karen looked off to the right, back toward where the sound must have been coming from.

The cameraman whispered harshly off screen, “Get the fuck rid of her.” The camera jerked again.

Sean had stopped altogether. Karen’s eyes were closed and she took over the effort, thrusting desperately against Stuckey, slamming her buttocks into him, pleading…begging him to come on.

“Hurry,
goddamn it
!”

There was a loud crash, the sound of a door being slammed open then a woman’s scream. It wasn’t Karen.

“You bastards!”

Ray and Tony heard the sound of a slap, a hand striking flesh, then another.

A young sounding male voice cried out. “Fucking bitch!”

Stuckey had withdrawn, his penis going limp already. He was bent double, trying to pull his pants up, and waddling almost comically, trying to escape the unseen attacker. Karen collapsed on the sofa, hands over her face, tucked into a fetal position, racked with sobs. The camera tilted and then dropped hard to the floor and the screen went black.

“Listen.” Ray’s eyes were closed tightly. The screen was dark but sounds of a fight, of cursing and shrieking continued. “Listen closely.”

“Never let me have any fun. Never let me have any fun. Never let me have any fun.”

Tony looked into Ray Bankston’s sad eyes. They didn’t know who belonged to the cursing woman’s voice off screen but they had a good idea. They had never heard Deanna Fredrickson speak, but they knew the other voice, the one that kept repeating over and over, “
never let me have any fun
.”

Karen Hewes.

“W
hat?” Tony barked into his cell phone. It was late. He was horny. Sue Ellen was tripping through the living room of his small house, dropping clothes and hints, heading down the short hallway toward his bedroom.

“What
what
? You said to keep in touch,” David Hong barked right back.

“What is it, David?” He leaned back on the sofa, eyes closed. Tony was almost sorry he’d been so abrupt.

“Sean was here.”

“He lives there.”

“What’s wrong, dude? Am I interrupting something?” Tony thought he heard smirking in David’s voice. “Sean was here and…”

A pair of lacy panties sailed into the room and landed on the arm of the sofa.

“…he got a call. As soon as he answered he went to his room and slammed the door. He was yelling at whoever called.”

Tony sat up straighter. “Mad?”

“Got that right. I couldn’t tell who it was but he kept yelling ‘bitch’. I never heard a name.”

“The guy has a lot of girlfriends.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But you gave the Hewes’ woman his number and you think it was her. Look David, I told you things would start banging around in your head.”

“Well it could have been.” Hong sounded defensive.

“And it could have been Angie or it could have been anyone. Did you hear a name?”

“No.”

Tony took a deep breath before he continued. “Look, I’m glad you called. It might be something or it might not.”

“He was plenty pissed when he split.”

“When was that?”

“Ten minutes ago, maybe less.” Tony checked his watch. 11:17.

“Okay. Call me when he comes back…if he comes back.”

“So it might be something?”

David Hong didn’t know about the video clip, that Karen Hewes and Sean Stuckey had history. He hadn’t seen the image of her, curled up, naked and trembling, chanting over and over about not having any fun. David only knew that he had given the woman Sean’s phone number and his detective friend was curious about Stuckey’s comings and goings. What if it was Karen? Was she calling for the first time? Why would she be calling? Tony was lost, sorting through all the what-ifs.

“Dude, you still there?”

“Sorry. Look, it’s probably nothing. Just give me a heads up if he shows.”

“Will do. Agent XXL out.” Tony smiled and closed the phone.

Sue Ellen was leaning against the wall just inside the arch of the hallway, watching him. She was wearing one of his dress shirts, her arms folded across her chest, holding it mostly closed. “Important?”

Tony didn’t allow himself to look at Sue Ellen while he sorted through the last of his questions.

“Probably not,” he said after he’d worked the last bits through and tucked them into bed for the night. “In any case, I’ve got protection duty.” He grinned at her. She turned and headed for the bedroom, laughing softly.

The call came in at 8:15 the next morning. Ray had left word with all of the watch commanders and the communications supervisor to page him if anything came in regarding the Hewes’ address. A silent alarm had just been posted and a unit had been dispatched. Ray and Tony dashed toward the stairs, jackets in hand.

Ray drove, using full siren and lights to bully the traffic aside until they were close to the house. A squad car was parked out front, lights flashing. A uniformed cop was standing at the front of the car talking into his shoulder mic.

“What have you got?” Ray grabbed Tony’s sleeve to stop him from going up to the house while he talked to the patrolman.

“Got no answer when I rang the front bell. I don’t think it’s working. I was just about to knock on the side door. When I looked in I saw a guy with a knife and a woman sitting on the floor, backed up against some cabinets. The woman saw me. I don’t think the guy did. I just radioed for backup.”

Ray and Tony shared a hard look, both knowing the man would prove to be Sean Stuckey.

“Tell ’em to come in quiet. We might know who this guy is. I don’t want him freaked.” The patrol cop nodded and walked away, talking urgently into the radio.