Now and Always (2 page)

Chapter 2

Connie Gonzalez slipped on the thin latex gloves before entering the crime scene. She stopped at the door and checked the frame for signs of forcible entry. Not a nick marred the lock or door jamb. “The perp had a key or was let in by the victim,” she told the agent behind her, who examined the door and agreed.

“Easy work, Gonzalez. Any beginner could see that.”

“So let’s see what else we have then.” Stepping inside the room, she scanned the interior of the shabby motel room, typical of those backstreet, by the hour establishments. Two mismatched chairs sat beside a scarred table strewn with the remnants of a take-out Chinese dinner for two. She stepped over and opened the containers. “One from Column A. One from Column B. Husband says they had finished dinner when he left. Must be light eaters,” she commented about the nearly full containers.

The agent behind her grunted, entered the room, and sat down at the table. He picked up a fork and one of the containers. “Want some?” he asked.

Connie shook her head as he dug into the fried rice and leaned back in the chair.

“Sir, I don’t know how you can handle that,” she said as she approached the bed where the victim lay. Or at least what remained of the victim.

“What’s the matter, Gonzalez? Stomach a little queasy?” he teased as she bent at the knees and made herself face level with the edge of the bed and the body of the victim.

Connie laughed and tossed her shoulder length cap of hair aside. “Hell, no. The salt and grease will kill you. Plus the MSG always gives me a headache.”

He chuckled and dug back into the fried rice as Connie rose, walked to the other side of the bed and examined the blood splatter patterns on the sheets and victim.

“Twelve gauge shotgun. Two blasts. One to the chest. One to the privates.” She blushed as she examined the victim’s body.

The other agent laughed, nearly choking on the mouthful of rice. “That some new technical term, Connie. Privates?”

“Yes, sir. I petitioned to add it to the FBI dictionary. What do you think?” While she waited for his reply, she checked out the bathroom, and after examining the area, returned to the main area of the staged hotel room.

Her superior grabbed an egg roll, waving it as he spoke. “I think you need to get a thicker skin. That Catholic school innocence gives the male agents a real opportunity for making you uneasy. Want some egg roll?” He held up the victim’s purported dinner and as he moved it around, bits of filling flew off.

“Can I help it you guys don’t have any class? Anyway, let’s get this over with. You’re making me hungry. Where’s the other body?” she said and sat down at the table across from him.

This time her superior did choke on the egg roll.

She reached over and pounded his back until he had control.

“How did you know there was another body?” he asked once he could talk again.

“No forced entry. The posture of the victim’s body would indicate that she wasn’t yet asleep and the sheets were off her even though it’s kinda cold in here.”

She rubbed her arms against the chill and looked up at the two-way mirror at one side of the room where other instructors were monitoring the test. “If it’s intentional, please turn up the heat. My Cuban blood can’t handle this cold and it’s the least you can do for solving this little puzzle.”

The instructor sitting across from her laughed and dug back into the pint container of Chinese food. “Don’t get too cocky, Agent Gonzalez. Or should I say, Agent-in-Training? Since so far you’re the only one to have picked up on it, let’s hear your theory.”

Connie nodded, leaned back in her chair, and confidently laid out her explanation for the crime. “As I was saying, the victim was not covered, and the bed, lumpy and soft as it is, shows a deep impression. More than our little ‘victim’, if she was of average weight for that height, would have made,” she said, pointing to the mannequin that had been prepared for the exam.

“The husband claims they had been involved with some drug dealing and that his wife was supposed to meet with one of the men.”

She chuckled and shook her head in disgust before proceeding. “You guys have a twisted idea of what meeting with someone is. Anyway, as I said before, there was no forced entry. The nature of the gunshots is not typical of a drug style execution. The husband claims they ate dinner, but it was barely touched. My guess is, he went to get dinner, came back, and saw through the window that his wife was doing it with someone else. Not too smart on her part, but maybe she thought he would take longer to return. In any case, when he saw what was going on, he lost it, went and got his shotgun, returned, and blew them away. He laid out the dinner to support his story.”

The instructor nodded and urged her to go on. “What about the other body? Where did it go?”

Connie stood, walked over to the mannequin, and pointed to the groin area. “I’m assuming you intended these bits of stuff on the mannequin to be brain matter, because it’s inconsistent with what would happen to a shotgun blast to the ‘privates’,” she said with a smile, teasing him. “So, I’m assuming they were involved in, let’s just say something my Catholic school mind would rather not discuss in mixed company.”

“I knew you were good,” the instructor said.

Connie did a mock bow and continued. “The plastic liner of the shower curtain is missing from the bathroom and there’s no trail of blood from the bed to outdoors. Therefore, the husband likely wrapped his wife’s lover in the shower curtain and took the body elsewhere. That’s supported by the small bit of plastic caught on a nail by the door jamb.”

The instructor clapped. “Very good, Connie. Nice job today.”

“Thanks. If you don’t have anything else, I’d like to go back to the dorm now,” she said and walked back to her teacher.

He stood and plopped the pint container of food back onto the table. “Big exam tomorrow, right?”

Connie nodded. “I have some studying to do and I want to call home and see how things are going.”

He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’re going to pass that test with flying colors. You’re the first one to solve this crime and only a few others will get it as quickly as you did. You’re one of the best I’ve had.”

“I appreciate that vote of confidence.” Only the best could choose where they wished to be and she was itching to go home to Miami.

After another few exams, she only had one real hurdle left to go: the self defense test. She hoped that when all was said and done, she would be at the top of her class and buying a ticket back to Miami.

#

After a quick dinner in the cafeteria, Connie returned to the small, dormitory style room she shared with one other woman. She sat at her desk, quickly glanced through her e-mail, and seeing nothing urgent, closed her laptop. The various messages could wait until after she talked to her family.

She dialed and the phone rang a few times before her sister Carmen answered.

“Hey, sis. How are you?” she asked.

“Good. What about you?” Carmen responded.

“I’m fine. Have any luck landing a job yet?” Carmen had been looking for a nursing position for once she graduated.

“Even if I told you, you’d probably never believe me,” Carmen replied.

Connie leaned back in the chair, propped her feet on the desk, and wondered what trouble her sister had gotten into this time. “Carmen, with you anything’s possible. Please, don’t keep me waiting.”

Carmen regaled her with the details of her interview with her prospective employer. Connie laughed as Carmen described the look on his face as his files fell on the floor. Her eyes teared up from her amusement as her sister exaggerated the telephone run-in with Mrs. Ruiz.

“This guy sounds like he’s in real trouble,” she said.

Carmen chuckled. “Yeah, real trouble. He needed help right away and I felt so bad for him that when he asked me to call everyone, I gave in.”

Connie shook her head. “Oh no, sis. Don’t tell me he’s got a pretty face and got you to do the work for free. We didn’t raise a fool, you know.”

“I know, Connie,” Carmen said with an exasperated sigh at her sisterly chiding. “He offered to pay me.”

“And you accepted of course,” she jumped in.

“Now, Connie, don’t get all crazy.”

“Tell me he paid you, Carmen.” There was a moment of silence on the line, then her sister laughed — the unrestrained, earthy laugh Connie had missed so much during the months of their separation.

“Well?” she prompted.

“Do you always do that?” Carmen asked.

Connie furrowed her brow, trying to imagine what her sister was talking about. “I don’t get it.”

“Victor —”

“It’s Victor now? When did that happen?” she teased as she slipped her feet off the desk, tucked the cell phone between her ear and shoulder, and gathered her books and study materials.

“Victor asked me if I always finished sentences for other people. So do
you
?”

Heat crept into her cheeks and Connie was glad her sister was not in the room to witness her embarrassment. “All right, you got me. I’ll keep quiet while you explain how he got you to do his work for free, didn’t hire you, and became Victor all in the course of one day.”

Carmen chuckled. “Lighten up. He
did
pay me for the day and he likes to be informal.”

Connie waited for her sister to go on, wondering if she had gotten the job, but Carmen didn’t say another word. After fifteen seconds or so, Connie asked, “So did he —”

“Hire me? I knew you couldn’t keep quiet,” Carmen kidded.

Connie wished her sister was in the room with her so she could provide a sisterly smack to get her in line. “Tell me,” she pressed and looked at her watch. She had to hit the books shortly.

“Do you know he actually had the nerve to ask if I planned on having babies soon?” Carmen admitted.

Connie bolted upright in her chair, righteous indignation seething in every pore of her lawyer’s body. “He’s not allowed to ask that. The Neanderthal should know. If he refused to hire you because of that, we’ll sue.”

“Take it easy, my little legal eagle. He admitted he shouldn’t have asked, but then again, it’s something I wasn’t thinking of doing right now.”

Her adrenaline going, Connie couldn’t stop. “I should hope not. At least not until you’re married.”

“Ah, Connie. Earth to Connie,” Carmen teased. “This is the twenty-first century. People do that now.”

“But not you, Carmen.”

“How do you know?” her sister said, knocking all the wind out of her sails. Connie’s little sister had … well, lost it … while Connie was still nearly a virgin at the age of twenty-six. She didn’t consider her couple of short college relationships a lot of experience, sexually that was. She didn’t know what upset her more, Carmen’s active love life or her own chaste state.

“Carmen,” she said huskily and paused to clear her throat. “As long as you took the right precautions.”

And as long as her sister wasn’t doing it with that no account Julio from down the block
, she thought to herself.

A heavy sigh drifted from the other end of the line. “Of course, I do. Don’t you?”

Connie blushed, hesitated, and then stammered out a quick, “Of course. Of course I do.” Well, at least the few times she had in any case.

“Believe it or not, Victor hired me, even though I was too young and too inexperienced. I don’t know why and I don’t care. He’s paying me well and I’ll be able to get experience so I can get another job once Yolanda comes back.”

“That’s great, Carmen. Congratulations. We’ll have to celebrate once I get home.” Home, she thought with a pang of longing. It had been months since she had been back to the small cinder block house off
Calle Ocho
in Little Havana.

“You know where you’re being assigned already?” Carmen asked.

Connie hesitated and finally admitting, “Well, no. Just wishful thinking on my part.”

“Con?” Carmen asked softly, using her pet nickname for her older sister. The one reserved for important moments or serious ones.

Connie wondered what was suddenly bothering Carmen. “What’s up, sis?”

“Have you talked to Mom and Dad about where you’ll be living if you’re assigned to Miami?”

Connie chewed on her bottom lip. “No, but they have to know I’m not going to live at home if I come back to Miami. I mean that’s so Old School.”

“I know. Still, Mom launched into one of her ‘My Daughters’ speeches the other day. I think she’ll give you a hard time if you tell them you plan on getting your own place.”

Connie sighed and dragged a hand through her hair. “Well, I’ll deal with it if and when I’m lucky enough to get the Miami assignment.”

Not to mention good enough
, she thought, suddenly assailed by doubt.

“Okay. I won’t say anything. Besides they’re not home right now. Want me to have them call you later?”

“No. I’ll be at the library studying. Tell them I’ll call tomorrow. Carmen?”

“Yes, Con. What is it now?” Carmen said with a sigh, as if waiting for Connie to chide her about something.

Connie smiled, certain she would catch Carmen off guard. “You never told me if he was cute or not?”

“Who? Victor?” Carmen said, obviously playing dumb.

“Of course, Victor. Who else?”

There was a long, drawn out moment over the phone line as her sister considered it. “I don’t think he’s your type at all, Connie.”

“And yours?” she teased.

“No way,” came the immediate reply. “He’s much too old.”

Connie pictured him, wondering what he looked like from Carmen’s sparse references. The picture of a cigarette-smoking, paunchy, sixty-something male chauvinist immediately came to mind. “Well, I hope he’s not so old that you’ll be looking for another job in a few weeks.”

“I said old, not ancient. I think he’ll be around for a while.”

Carmen stopped for a second and laughed. The kind of laugh that told Connie her sister wasn’t being totally truthful. “Okay, Carmen, spill the beans. What’s with this doctor of yours?”

“Don’t worry, Connie. You have to go, remember, so take care. I’ll talk to you soon.”