Love's a Killer part 1.5

Will only lived fifteen minutes from the office so he used the other fifteen he had given himself to finish his drink and take a shower. Then he hopped into his 1970 Buick GSX, the only thing he ever dropped any large amount of cash on that he didn’t ingest. It looked like its owner, unimpressive and unreliable but it was as surprising as Will himself. It could purr like a contented kitten or roar like a hungry lion and Will knew how to drive it hard enough to make the metal cat shiver in satisfaction as he shoved it around corners and down the alley. He eased it into this favorite spot and sat in the car for a moment or two, trying to clear his mind from the job and from the complications of that job. It’s just a case, Mac, he told himself. No reason to even think of her. Ignore her. “Yeah, because that’s really helped in the past four months.” He sighed and looked at the back of his eye lids for about thirty seconds then shook himself.1

His hair was still wet and curling along the collar of his brown leather bomber jacket as he stepped out of the car, causing him to shake his shoulders restlessly as he move up the brick stairs. Will took one unconscious look over his shoulder as he fit the key into the white door of the townhouse that had been converted into office spaces. The bright hallway light pooled warmly on the gleaming floor and Will shifted his feet a little as he relocked the door behind him. Then he walked to the leaded glass door of McCullum and Besechetti, Detective Services, Inc. and slipped in quietly. The new temp girl, Jamie or Jenny or maybe it was Joanie, was already gone for the day and her computer was shut down so that the outer part of the offices was still and hushed feeling. He walked deeper into the neutral colored room and headed left to his private office. The door across the way was open and he could see Tony bent over some paperwork with a bottle of something amber and warming near his elbow. He didn’t bother to call out a greeting, just nodded when Tony looked up with an odd expression. Will opened the door and set down his jacket on the only spare chair in the room. He booted up his system and glanced down at the four or five pink phone message memos that were stacked on top of the mess he called organized. Frowning, he saw they were all from the same person, and he plucked them up before striding across the light grey carpet to Tony’s much more inviting office. “When did it come through?”2

“I first got wind of it from Lunnter at Gill’s wicked late last night as we were settling the bet from the game. He assumed Brina would call us so he didn’t bother to talk cop to me about it. She didn’t start calling us until about three today. Which means,” Tony grinned."She either called everyone else and they referred her to us or it took her that long to choke down her pride.” He poured and then held the bottle up in silent query. Will grabbed the glass in front of his partner before settling into one of the plush chairs in front of the desk. He held up the glass returning the salute while Tony glared. Tony turned for another glass from the set behind him and then saw the slips. “What are those?” 3

“Damn, really? You’re telling me on top of everything else, now I got to find a new partner? If you don’t recognize phone message slips, I’m going to have to question how you manage to get dressed in the mornings without Cynthia’s help. Or does she help you? And if that’s the case, we got to talk to the girl about her clothing choices.” 4

“My wife helps me out of my clothes,” Tony grinned. 5

Will snorted. “Jamie had them on my desk. All from the same person.”6

“Lucinda.” 7

“What?” he asked with the glass paused half way to his mouth. Who the hell was Lucinda and why would Tony think she was calling him? 8

“Lucinda,” Tony repeated. “Jamie was at least three weeks ago. Unless you are thinking of Jenny and even she has been gone about two weeks. Maybe I need a new partner if you can’t even keep your own staff straight.” 9

Will sighed. Like he could ever keep up with the revolving door of temps they had flouncing through here. “Well, whatever. Who ever it was this month left them for me.” 10

“Yeah, and obviously they hold the meaning to Man’s all important questions of everything the way you are clutching at them.” 11

“They are all from Tonya’s sister.” 12

Tony just sat back in his chair and looked at his partner of ten, and close friend of the past seven, years. “You got it bad if you can’t even say her name.” 13

“Who? Tonya? You just heard me say it. Twice,” Will said with an arched brow and a brown that said it wasn’t open from discussion. 14

Shaking his head, and then running both hands through his blue black hair, Tony sighed. “Fine. So, we taking it or what?” 15

“I haven’t seen the file yet. Lemme take a look.” 16

Tony handed over what little he had and watched out of the corner of his eye as Will carefully read everything over. It looked to be a clear cut case of betrayed wife killing hubby as said hubby was boinking one of the staff at their country club. Normally, this was the kind of case that he would take, do his best, write the report and then drop it in the bucket, barely telling Will about it at all. But besides the fact on who the accused was, there was something about this case that didn’t sit right with him. And he could tell that Will was having the same doubts when his frown softened into just an intense look. “Uh huh.” 17

“I don’t get it. They were going to couples counseling? And were leaving that day to go on some vacation to work on their marriage?” Will asked, his tone stating what he thought about that idea. Yeah, because screaming while paying for a hotel room made sense. Unless you were doing the other kind of activities that made people scream in hotel rooms, then it did make perfect sense. He looked at Tony then back at the papers. “Well, that explains why she shot them then. If she caught Jeremiah going at it with some chick the day they were leaving for some nookie fest, you know?” 18

“It makes sense, except for the part where Jeremiah supposedly picked up Tonya from the club and then took her home to help her pack because it was a surprise. Then only reason she was out of the house was to pick some frilly nothingness. From their place to the shops down on the strand and back is about a ten minute drive. Even if she stood there yakking to the shop girl, she would have been back in about thirty minutes, but she could have been sooner.” Tony lifted one shoulder in a shrug.” No man is dumb enough to sneak his girlfriend into the house for a maybe thirty minutes of making out when he’s trying to fool his wife into thinking that he still loved her.” 19

“Especially since he probably didn’t know she’d up and go out for something until that day and couldn’t plan ahead for her to be out of the house. And this girl is barely eighteen! Surely not even Jeremiah is that hard up to be thinking about going to prom for just a little trim?”20

“Keep reading. It gets worse.” 21

Will raised a brow but sipped his drink while reading some more. Tonya was gone maybe twenty-five minutes, and then the driver dropped her off at the brownstone. From the police report, they suspected she walked in, caught the lovers and killed them without any thought. “Wait, she called the boys in blue?” 22

“Uh huh. They think she might even be dialing nine one one as she pulled the trigger the second time.” 23

“And they never found a gun?” 24

“Nope.” 25

So, Tonya came home, found her husband with the teenager, shot them, ditched the gun and called the paramedics to cover her firm, pampered ass. Only she usually had a problem with adding two with two if her professionally painted toes were stuffed into fine Italian leather heels. Will had a hard time seeing Tonya as some criminal mastermind. “No one else heard the shots? None of their staff?”26

“No. And there were quite a few new faces. They are doing the spring cleaning sprucing thing, which from what Brina told the police means Tonya hires a cleaning staff from out in town to do the whole place in one day. But they have all been accounted for.” 27

“But not tested for powder. And she passed the test.” 28

Tony sighed, nodding. “Yeah , well, they suspect she was wearing gloves and those are with the fun. And no, they didn’t test the staff. Not hers and not the cleaning crew. Did you catch the name of the girl?” 29

Will narrowed his eyes and then dropped them back to the pages in his lap. Then he started to swear pretty creatively. And some of it was in Gaelic. Tony only grinned a little at the slip, not finding it nearly as funny as usual. “Isn’t this just great? Lauren Francis Toudlete Myers. Gary’s wife got remarried?” 30

“Nah, it’s his niece. I don’t think most people would know that besides those close to the Toudlete family.” 31

“Like Tonya. Fucking luck.” 32

“Uh huh.” 33

“Great conversational skills, Tony.” 34

He grinned, finishing off his drink. “I know. That’s why you hired me and I get all the face to faces.” 35

“No.” 36

Tony looked at Will’s bent head in surprise. Sure, he wanted Will to take the lead on this but he really thought he would have to work a lot harder than this. “You can’t seriously be thinking about doing this one. Not alone, not lead.” 37

“She called me, Tony,” Will stated, not looking up. Then he did and pinned Tony to his chair with the heat in his gaze. “Twice on my cell phone about three hours after she had left five messages for me here. If I don’t do this case then-“ 38

“What do you care? You never care what anyone says about you. Ever!” 39

“I don’t care. Which is why I am doing the case. And no, not alone. I’m going to need all the help I can get on this one. I guess cheating the husbands of the cheating wives of Haleton out of hundreds of dollars will just have to wait a few weeks.” 40

“Will, you can’t-" Tony stopped talking at the look Will shot him. Okay, maybe not the smartest move ever to poke at the man when he was doing exactly what Tony wanted him to do. It was odd though, and it made no sense. If he didn’t care about Sabrina and what she thought of him why was he taking lead? And why had he changed his mind from the earlier phone conversation where he had already agreed that Tony should do the face to face on this. Whatever, not his issues. His issues were to make sure they had enough time to devote to this case. Thankfully Will had at least three days where he had no plans and Tony’s own books were pretty slow. “Yeah, got it. So, what time are you telling her to come in tomorrow?” 41

“It’s too late to call tonight,” Will said as he set the glass on the desk. He stood with the file and started to cross the room toward the door. 42

“Will! It’s barely nine. Her sister is sitting in a cell. She’s tried to call you a dozen times or so. I’m sure that it’s not too late.” 43

“It’s too late,” he repeated and then was out the door and closed in his own office. Tony watched him go, shaking his head. See? This is why he should stay out of the match making bi. He just hoped he would still have a place to put p his feet at the end of all this. Will and Sabrina being together was like mixing dangerous chemicals with a ‘let’s see what this will do’ kind of attitude.44

And that was when they were getting along. Tony shook his head with a small grin and went back to the paperwork. 45