The Gamble
“What?” Kami whispered.
“Not too long ago, Shauna sold her house. She closed about a month ago, paid rent to the new owners to stick around.”
“I don’t believe it,” Kami was still whispering.
“She’s closed her accounts,” Mick finished. “Closed ‘em yesterday. She’s also put orders in to shut down gas, water, electricity, phone and cable, startin’ first of May.”
Kami wasn’t letting this information sink in. “But, if she sold her house, she’d have hundreds of thousands of dollars. She owned it outright. Why would she ask me for money?”
“Maybe because she hired a contract killer?” Linda screeched and I changed my mind and decided I should probably tackle Linda first before she continued, “With my daughter’s money!”
“That’s… that’s crazy, Mom!” Kami shot back, deep in the pit of denial. “She’d never hurt Curt. He told her he loved her, he wanted to marry her, he was gonna leave Bitsy for her.”
“Yeah, she told you that like she told you I took her ring shoppin’,” Max clipped.
“But –” Kami said.
“I never took her ring shoppin’, Kami,” Max went on.
“But –” Kami repeated.
“Never f**kin’ entered my mind,” Max carried on.
“She said –”
“She lied, Kams, Jesus!” Max exploded. “We weren’t even exclusive, I made it clear she could go her own way when I was gone and I’d go my own. I had a woman on the job I was on and she knew it.”
My eyes got wide and my body grew still. That was news. Linda’s gaze slid to me and I tried to act casual but I found it extremely difficult.
Kami was shaking her head and Mick entered the conversation. “Sorry, Kami, but thought you should know.”
Kami just tipped her head back to stare at him and my heart went out to her. She looked beaten down by the betrayal. She might act like a bitch a lot of the time but, bottom line, she was a good friend.
Mick went on, “You’re free to go but I might need to ask you more questions so I want you to stick close to town.”
“Why?” Linda was back to snapping at Mick.
“Because we need to talk to this Robert Winston guy and we need to ask Shauna a few questions and we can’t find her. And, seein’ as this has all come to light, we might have a few more things to get clear with Kami,” Mick answered.
“What things?” I asked.
“Don’t know yet, just don’t want her leavin’ town,” Mick told me.
“You can see that Kami had nothing to do with this, her statement checks out,” I said to Mick.
“Yeah, but –”
“Did you find anything to place her at the construction site? Dirt on her shoes? Rocks?” I pushed.
“No, but –”
“Did you find roofies in her house?”
“No –”
“Do you have any known dealers who have admitted to supplying roofies to Kami?”
“Nina –”
“Do you?”
“No.”
“You have her gun in your possession and it hasn’t been loaded or fired; a warrant to search her house which has pulled up nothing or she wouldn’t be free to go; a cancelled check that proves what Kami told you she’d done with that money true, whether it was to a known acquaintance of Shauna’s or Shauna, that doesn’t change the fact the money was meant for Shauna. You have no physical evidence that places Kami at the construction site and no other evidence whatsoever to link Kami to either murder. All you have, as far as I can see, is the fact that Kami Maxwell was asleep between one and four the morning of the murders which, by the way, so was the vast majority of the residents of Gnaw Bone and the entire Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.”
“Except we got the fact that Shauna Fontaine is on our suspect list, Robert Winston is now a person of interest and Kami gave him twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“And a jury will be made up of her peers and everyone knows Kami and Shauna have been close since grade school and friends help friends in a tight spot. It gets down to it, I’ll call Max, Brody and Mindy to the stand to testify that they heard Shauna announce to Max she was pregnant and needed money, thus corroborating Kami’s story if not Shauna’s lie. They’ll also all testify to the fact that Shauna was with a gentleman by the name of Robert, he was protective of her, as in overprotective considering he engaged in physical combat with Harry at The Rooster in front of dozens of witnesses in defense of Shauna.”
Mick tried to interrupt. “Nina –”
I cut him off. “Kami thought her friend was up to her eyeballs in debt, had no insurance and a baby on the way. Shauna asked for the transaction to be private, for her own ends but telling Kami it was to save face. We’ve all been there before, needing to save face or helping a friend who needs it. Every jury member will have faced that same scenario in their lives. But friends do what they can which is what Kami did and a jury will believe that too and you know it.”
“Shit Nina, you’re tryin’ the case in this room,” Mick mumbled.
“You wanted her to lawyer up, Mick, she’s lawyered up. You don’t want her to leave town, okay, where’s she going to go? But she isn’t leaving this room thinking this nightmare isn’t over for her. She’s got a life to live, Curtis Dodd meant something to her, his death is already taking its toll and she doesn’t need this hanging over her head.”
“I’m just askin’ her not to leave town,” Mick noted.
“Okay, she won’t leave town,” I assured him. “But I’ll remind you, on top of all that, there’s a good possibility that she’s just found out her friend took advantage of her so she’s dealing with enough. You need to question her, you call me and I’ll set it up. Yes?”
Mick turned beleaguered eyes to Max but he was barking up the wrong tree. I looked to Max and saw he was leaning with his shoulders against the wall, arms crossed on his chest, eyes on me and a huge grin on his face.
“Remind me never to do any more favors even if it’s for one of our own,” Mick muttered to no one.
“Are we done here?” I asked, standing and grabbing my coat.
“You movin’ to town?” Mick asked back and my head tilted with confusion at the somewhat nosy change of subject.