STATE OF BETRAYAL: A Virgil Jones Mystery (Detective Virgil Jones Mystery Series Book 2) (26 page)

30

__________

T
hey
slept late the next morning and probably would have slept later were it not for
the buzzing noise Virgil’s phone was making on the nightstand. He rolled over,
hit the button and said, “What?”

“Good morning to you too,
Jones-man.”

“What is it, Murt? I had sort of a
late night last night.”

“Yeah, me too. As a matter of fact,
I haven’t been to sleep yet. I hung out most of the night with the crime scene
weenies while they did the GSR tests on Pearson. He fired the gun all right. Had
powder residue all over him. His prints were the only ones on the weapon, too.
Here’s something else…you know those sirens we heard last night? The flashing
lights from a block or two over?”

“Yeah.”

“That was from a shooting as well.
Want to guess who the victim was? No? Okay. It was Abigail Monroe. They found
some brass at the scene. According to the preliminary report she was shot with
the same gun that Pearson used on himself.”

Sandy got out of bed, went into the
bathroom and closed the door. Virgil thought he heard her vomit. “They’re
sure?”

“According to Mimi—and let me
just say, wow, what a voice on that broad—it’s about a ninety-eight percent
certainty. Firing pin and ejection port markings are exact.”

Virgil hit the speaker button and
let the phone rest on his chest. “So Pearson goes after Monroe, shoots her in
the back, then goes back to his place and kills himself? The governor isn’t going
to accept that, Murt.”

“He won’t have to. I had a little
chat with the medics. She never made it to the hospital…she ended up DOA, but
she was semiconscious, sort of in and out of it on the ride there. The medic
said she kept saying ‘pain’ like she was really hurting, which you would expect
from someone shot in the back multiple times. He told me he was pumping her
full of morphine just as fast as he could get it into the syringe. He was
giving her so much in fact that he had to call in to the hospital docs while
they were still en route to get permission to give her more.”

“So?”

“So thanks to lawyers everywhere,
no one wants to get sued over bad advice or miscommunication. The hospitals are
required to digitally record those transmissions. I drove over to the hospital,
made some noise and got them to let me listen to the tape. You can hear Monroe
in the background. She wasn’t saying ‘pain.’ She was saying ‘Pate.’ I think Pate
murdered Pearson, Jonesy. Miles agrees with me.”

“What’d you do with the recording?”

I had the hospital’s I.T. guy make
two copies. I’ve got one, the hospital has the other and Miles has the
original. The search warrants are already being served for Augustus Pate and
Hector Sigara. Dying declaration. They’ll both go down for multiple murders.”

“That’s great work, Murt. Top
notch.”

“Ah, I got lucky, that’s all. I
think we’ve built up some good will with Miles and his department though, not
to mention the governor himself.”

“Since you’re on such a roll, how
about you go find Nichole Pope. I’d like to ask her a few questions.” Sandy
came out of the bathroom, naked as the day she was born—though clearly
more developed—and hopped back into bed. She took the phone, said “Hi,
Murton. This morning he’s mine. See you at one.” Then she hung up.

“Want a little morning fun? We
won’t have to worry about me getting pregnant.”

“Are you up for it? I thought I
heard you getting sick in there.”

“I did, but just a little. Right
now I feel fine.”

“Hmm, you did brush your teeth,
didn’t you?”

Women, it seemed, enjoyed punching
Virgil.

__________

Virgil spent the rest
of
the day preparing for the party. He went to the grocery store,
bought burgers and brats for the grill, a large bag of charcoal, buns, and a case
of Mountain Dew. Then because it was Sunday in Indiana, he stopped at the bar
and grabbed three cases of beer, a large bottle of Appleton Estate rum and four
large bags of ice.

By the time everyone began to show
up, he had the lawn chairs set out in the backyard, the grill lit and the
drinks in the cooler. Delroy and Robert were the first to arrive and even
though they had decided to make one big announcement to everyone regarding their
engagement, when Sandy saw them she ran over, gave them both a big hug and
stuck the ring right in their faces. “Look!” she said. “We’re getting married.”

They’d also decided they weren’t
going to tell anyone about the pregnancy until Sandy had a chance to go to the
doctor and make sure everything was okay. Virgil wondered how long that would
last, mentally putting his money on sometime around two in the afternoon.

At his own insistence Robert took
over the grill duties. “I’ve seen you cook, mon. Go. Relax. Da professionals
are here. Respect.”

Over the next half hour or so Virgil
and Sandy spent their time greeting everyone, listening to the ooh’s and ah’s regarding
her ring and generally having more fun than they’d had in a long time. Then
someone unexpected showed up.

__________

“When I saw all the
cars
I almost turned around and left, but then I realized that I recognized most of
them…”

“It’s okay, Cora. I’m glad you’re
here. I was going to invite you, but...”

They walked down the slope of the
backyard and stopped at the midpoint, away from the noise. Cora looked at
nothing before she spoke.

“My father drank himself to death,”
she said. “That’s a polite way of saying he was a raging alcoholic. He wasn’t
mean or abusive or anything like that and it didn’t matter if he was drunk or
sober, he was a good and kind and decent man. But he had this huge problem and
no matter how hard he tried, Jonesy, he just couldn’t get past it. It was their
twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. He took her to the nicest restaurant he could
afford and over the course of the evening he had quite a few too many. I don’t
know why my mother wasn’t driving, only that she wasn’t. They never made it
home. This was back before airbags and seatbelt laws and Mother’s Against Drunk
Driving. They swerved off the road and when they hit the tree head-on they died
instantly.”

“Ah, Jesus, Cora, I’m sorry.”

“Let me finish if you would please.
I’m trying to apologize. My only sibling, my little sister…she was five years
younger than me at the time…and it landed on me to take care of her. She became
my responsibility. Something happened to her that night, Jonesy, the night our
parents died. Something in her head clicked off. Have you ever seen the light
go out of someone while they’re still alive? I have. I’d hoped never to see it
again. I did everything I could, everything I knew how to do, but nothing
worked. Eventually I took her to the doctor. He put her on some pills…antidepressants
and tranquilizers. She began to take more and more, much more than she was
supposed to and three months later I buried her too.”

She turned away from him for a
moment and Virgil watched as she choked down a sob. “I’m a fifty-seven year old
overweight black woman with absolutely no one in my life. I’ve no family, very
few friends and even fewer people that I’ve let get close to me. Big surprise,
huh? But you’re different, Jonesy. You’re the only person I’ve ever known
besides my parents and my sister that I consider family. When you started on
those pills I was concerned. When you didn’t stop I became worried. When you
tossed your badge in the pond the look on your face was identical to the one I
saw from my sister just before she died. The light had gone out of your eyes, Virgil,
and I just couldn’t bear it. I’m sorry for the way I’ve been behaving. I’m
sorry for the things I’ve done and said. I’m sorry for…well, I’m just sorry.
I’m going to go now. I didn’t mean to intrude on your party.”

Virgil grabbed her arm and pulled
her close. He felt her resistance, but only for a moment before she put her
arms around him, pressed her face to his chest and sobbed. After a few moments
she pulled back, wiped her eyes, straightened her blouse and walked away.

She didn’t get far, though. Sandy
intercepted her, showed her the ring and led her to a chair. Virgil watched
them talk for a minute and then Cora took out her phone and made a call.

__________

No more than a
half-hour
later Virgil heard the sirens and the rumble of the Harley-Davidson State
Police motorcycle protection detail. The governor knew how to make an entrance.
There were twelve of them in all, six in front of the limo and six trailing and
though Virgil had seen it before it remained an impressive site. When the
governor climbed from the back of the limo he waved to Virgil and Sandy and
walked over. Sandy gave him a big hug and showed him her ring.

“My goodness,” the governor said.
“Isn’t that fantastic? Congratulations to both of you. I couldn’t be happier.”
He admired the ring for a moment, winked at me, then said, “I understand Cora
is here. Would you two mind if I stayed for a bit. I need to have a word with
her.”

“You’re welcome anytime, Governor,”
Virgil said.

Sandy led the governor around to
the backyard and Virgil walked over and invited the uniformed state cops back
as well. They wouldn’t drink, of course, but he knew they could eat.

And so it went…

__________

A short while later
Virgil checked his phone and noticed that it was after two o’clock in the
afternoon. He punched in Murton’s number and it went straight to voicemail. He
tried Becky’s number next and got the same result. Cora and the Governor had
taken two chairs and walked them all the way down to the water’s edge where
they sat in the shade of the willow tree. The chairs faced each other and both
of them were deep in conversation, their forearms against their thighs.
Politics. Pearson would have to be spun somehow.

Someone had turned the music on and
Delroy was dancing in the grass with one of the female motorcycle cops and
Virgil wondered if life could be anymore strange and beautiful at the same
time.

Fifteen minutes later he tried both
Murton and Becky again with the same results.

__________

He found Sandy
sitting
with Ed Donatti’s wife, Pam. “Listen,” Virgil said, “We’ve got quite a few more
people here than what I planned on. We’re running low on food and drinks, not
to mention ice. I’m going to make a quick run to the store. I’m also going to
swing by Murt’s and find out what the hold up is. He should have been here by
now.”

Sandy turned and looked at the
table where the drinks were set up, then over to Robert who was still working
the grill. “I think it looks like we’ve got enough.”

“Well, you can’t have too much.”

They stared at each other for a
long minute. Pam straightened her skirt and looked like she was pretending that
the conversation taking place between Virgil and Sandy was as normal as any
she’d ever heard. “He’ll probably be here any minute now,” Sandy said.

Virgil leaned over and kissed her
goodbye. “I’m just going to go check. I’ll be back before you know it.” He made
it about three steps away before he heard Pam call out to him.

“Virgil?”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you take Ed with you?”

Virgil turned and looked out across
the lawn. Donatti was near the edge of the pond with his young son, Jonas. Earlier,
Virgil had set out some fishing gear and a small bucket of earthworms. He
watched for a moment as Ed baited a hook for his son, then tossed the line out
into the water before handing the pole back to Jonas. “Ah, look at him, Pam.
He’s having the time of his life. Let him be.”

“I’ll watch Jonas, Virgil. Take Ed
with you. Every time one of you guys go out alone anywhere it makes me
nervous.”

Virgil smiled at her. “Well, I
guess we can’t have that, can we?”

31

__________

V
irgil
let Ed drive because Sandy’s car was hopelessly pinned at the front of the
house by all the other vehicles. The traffic wasn’t bad and they made it to
Murton’s house in less than thirty minutes. “Looks okay to me,” Donatti said.

“Check the back, will you?” Virgil
said. “I’ve got the front.”

“Are we up against anything here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.
There are warrants out for Pate and Sigara. It’s a snake hunt now and Miles is
on it. But I should have heard from Murton by now.”

Virgil moved about halfway up the
walk and waited until he saw Donatti get around to the back of the house. He
stepped up on the porch, heard the familiar creek of the second step, noticed
the uniform gap between the deck boards under his feet, the missing bolt at the
base of the wrought iron hand rail, the Quikcrete cement patch on the
foundation just under the front door that his father had to patch year after
year. This had been Virgil’s home and he was as comfortable here as any place he’d
ever been in his entire life.

But it wasn’t his home anymore no
matter how familiar he may have been with the smallest of details. So against
the previously stated wishes of his best friend and brother, against everything
he should have been paying attention to and wasn’t, Virgil did what he thought
was the appropriate thing to do.

He knocked on the door.

__________

It had happened like
this:
Murton was freshly showered and ready to go exactly thirty minutes
before they were supposed to be at the party, but Becky was running late. These
earrings or those? This dress, or that one? Murton didn’t mind. He spent the
time cleaning up the boxes and the bits of Styrofoam off the carpet from all
the new computer equipment Becky had moved into the house. He stacked the boxes—four
of them in all—and carried them to the back door. Tomorrow was trash day.

The boxes were stacked high enough
that he could almost see where he was going. But he’d grown up in this house
and knew his way without looking. He got all the way through the kitchen to the
back door, then, balancing the boxes with one hand he twisted the knob and
pulled the handle. When he did, Hector kicked him in the groin and then
interlocked his fingers and brought both hands down across the back of his
neck.

Murton landed face-first on the back
steps of the porch, knocked out cold.

__________

Hector grabbed the
back
of Murton’s collar and pulled him into the living room like a dog
that might have just peed on the carpet. He hefted him into a chair then taped
his hands and legs together and stuffed a rag into his mouth.

Then he stood still and listened.

The shower.

He moved up the stairs and followed
the sounds to the end of the hall. When he walked into the bathroom he spent a
few minutes admiring the shape of the woman behind the shower door. When the
water turned off, Hector pointed his gun at the door and waited. When the woman
stepped out he put his finger to his lips in a shush fashion. Her jaw dropped
and before she could make a sound, Hector punched her square in the face. She
dropped to the floor, out just as easily as the asshole fed downstairs. Then
there was a moment of indecision for Hector. Here was a beautiful woman, naked
and unconscious. What would be the harm? She was going to die soon anyway. Why
not have his way with her? He was going to do just that when he heard Pate’s
voice behind him. “Get her downstairs, Hector.”

Hector grabbed her by her hair and
pulled her naked body down the steps, her feet and ankles banging off the polished
hardwood planks. Halfway down she started to moan and he hit her in the face again,
this time with the butt of his long gun. That shut her up. He propped her in a
chair next to the fed, taped her arms behind her back and her ankles to the
legs of the chair, then stepped back to admire his work.

“What now, Boss?”

“Now we wake them. First we’re
going to cut on the woman some. Not much, but enough to show them both,
especially Wheeler, that we are not fucking around. When we have their attention,
they’ll tell us where Nichole Pope is, we’ll get the ticket and then come back
and finish them. Go in the kitchen and get a sharp knife. No, no, wait. I’ve
got a better idea. See if you can find a potato peeler. The peeler always makes
them talk.”

“Yes, Boss.”

__________

Murton
felt the
consciousness wash over him, heard the sounds from the kitchen,
someone rattling around in the drawers. He opened his eyes and saw Pate staring
at him. When he turned his head he saw Becky, naked and taped to a chair, her
face bloody and swollen. He shook his head to clear the fog, spit the rag from
his mouth and said, “Hey, Gus? I hope you’ve enjoyed your life. You’re going to
die today.”

Pate opened his mouth to say something,
but there was a knock at the door. He turned away from Murton’s words, leveled
his shotgun at the front door and emptied both barrels from a distance of less
than three feet.

__________

Virgil would have died
right
then and there except Pate had loaded the shotgun with slugs instead of
buckshot. The first shot blew through the door and Virgil jumped sideways, landed
on his shoulder, rolled and then spun back around as pate fired the second
shot. Virgil drew his weapon, leaned around the corner just past the shattered
door and saw Pate standing next to Murton, the shotgun pointed directly at
Murton’s neck.

Murton gave him the slightest of
nods, no more than a quarter inch at the most but that was all Virgil needed.

Had he thought about it, he might
have hesitated.

You’ve got people in your life
who are going to need you.

He didn’t think about it.

Virgil fired three shots and Pate
was dead before he hit the ground. When he rushed inside, Murton said, “Hector.
Out the back.”

That’s when Virgil heard three more
shots.

__________

Donatti was almost at
the back steps when he
heard the shotgun blasts. He yanked the Glock 30 from his ankle holster, ran up
the steps and barreled through the back door. Hector was right there. They
ended up on the floor in a pile, snarling and scraping for survival, but Donatti
had already had a few drinks at the party and wasn’t quite as fast as he could
have been. Hector rolled him, got Donatti pinned on his back and buried the
sharp, pointed end of the potato peeler in the center of his neck, right below
his Adam’s apple. Just as he did, Donatti began pulling the trigger on his
Glock. He got off three shots before he found he didn’t have the strength to
pull the trigger anymore.

__________

Virgil raced down the
hall,
his .45 leading the way, made the kitchen in about three seconds
and found Hector on top of Donatti. He pulled him off, rolled him over and saw
the bullet wounds in his chest. He was breathing, but just barely. When he
looked at Ed, Virgil saw that there was something sticking out of his neck.
Donatti was trying to pull at the handle, but his strength was obviously
fading. Blood was pouring from the wound and his shirt was already soaked and his
lips and the skin around his eyes were starting to turn blue.

Virgil grabbed a knife from the
rack, ran back to the front room, screaming Murton’s name along the way. He cut
him loose as fast as he could. “It’s Ed. He’s down. In the kitchen. It’s bad,
man. Really bad. He’s been stabbed in the neck. I’ve got Becky. Go!”

Murton had medical field training
in the Army and Virgil knew he was Donatti’s best hope for survival. Virgil cut
Becky loose, carried her to the sofa and covered her with a blanket. She was a
mess, but she’d live. He pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as he ran back
into the kitchen.

“Stop yelling,” Murton said. “They
won’t be able to understand you.”

Virgil tried not to shout, managed
to relay their location to the emergency dispatcher then let the phone drop to
the floor. “Tell me what to do.”

“It’s not good, Jonesy. His
airway’s blocked and from the amount of blood he’s probably got arterial damage.
I don’t know how bad it is. If I pull the knife he’ll either drown in his own
blood or bleed out. If I don’t he’s going to suffocate.”

“He’s turning blue, Murt. We’ve got
to do something.”

Murton looked up at the counter. “There’s
plastic straws in the silverware drawer. And get me the pairing knife from the
rack. Hurry, get right down here with me now, right on the other side.”

Virgil handed Murton the knife and
the straw. Murton took the knife and said, “Hold the straw. Give it to me when
I ask for it.”

Virgil had his hand on Ed’s chest
and could feel his heart. It felt like it was beating way too fast. “What are
you doing?”

“I’ve got to open him up. It’s the
only way to stop the bleeding and get him some air.”

“Ah, Jesus, Murt.”

Murton ignored him, touched the
blade to Donatti’s neck right below the handle of the other knife and began to
cut.

Virgil listened for the sirens, but
didn’t hear any.

__________

Murton made one long
L-shaped cut in Donatti’s neck that intersected with his wound. He set the
knife aside, said, “Ready with the straw,” then pulled what turned out to be a
potato peeler from Ed’s neck. A burst of blood sprayed out and Murton said,
“Straw.” Virgil handed him the straw and Murton pushed it into the hole where
the peeler had been. Ed’s chest instantly began to rise and fall. He was breathing,
but the blood was pouring from his wound. “Get me some paper towels. We’re not
out of the woods yet.”

Virgil grabbed the roll of towels
and peeled off a wad and held them out. Murton grabbed the wad and said, “Not
like that. Take one sheet at a time and fold it over until it’s as small as you
can get it.”

He did what Murton told him and
when he had the paper towel folded the proper way, Murton took it and said,
“Just like that. Keep ‘em coming.”

Virgil began to tear and fold as
fast as he could. He’d hand the towels to Murt and he pressed them to Donatti’s
neck and they turned red and were completely soaked through before he was
finished with the next.

“Faster,” he said. Somewhere in the
back of Virgil’s mind it registered just how calm Murton was. “It’s not
working. He’s breathing, but he’s losing too much blood.” Then Virgil witnessed
something he was sure he’d never forget no matter how long he lived. Murton
picked up the knife and sliced more skin and tissue and muscle from around the
wound, stuck two fingers inside Donatti’s neck and just like that, the bleeding
slowed to no more than a trickle. “I’ve got it pinched off. Put your hand right
over the top of mine and hold it in place.”

No more than four or five seconds
later two city cops ran down the hall, stopped at the entrance to the kitchen
and leveled their guns directly at Virgil and Murton. “Nobody move. Show us
your hands, show us your hands!”

 “We can’t show you our hands
unless you want this cop to die,” Murton said. “Stop pointing your guns at us
and get the medics in here right fucking now.”