Storm of Suspicion - 7. Chapter 7

Nathan and Michael arrived at the front entrance of the Provincetown police station just as their cargo had begun to regain some slight consciousness. He babbled words incoherently like a drunkard but was still far better off then had he been left in the ditch where they had found him. The two struggled for several minutes getting him out of the Jeep and up the stairs. “Are you sure we should have brought him here?”, Michael began. “With everything that’s been going on here? How do we explain showing up at the police station with some guy we don’t know that’s covered with blood and nearly dead?”.

“Duh,we tell them the truth. We’ve got nothing to hide”, Nathan replied.

“Well, true…” Michael resolved.

As the two were entering the main room of the police station with the injured stranger, Steven was being led into the back of the room in handcuffs and escorted by two officers. At first Steven didn’t notice them, being consumed by his own circumstances but then looked up and saw the stranger. The rain had somewhat cleared the blood from his face and he was now more recognizable. Steven began to scream frantically, “That’s him! That's’ the guy I rented my room to! There’s your killer! Arrest that man!”.

“What the hell is going on here?”, Wallace bellowed as he entered the room.

“That’s him”, Steven continued.

“Steven, what are you talking about?”, Thom inquired, squeezing his way through the doorway ahead of the detective and Karla to get a better look.

“Right there, with those two guys there,'' Steven motioning with his head, his hands still cuffed behind his back. “He rented my room on the night of Johannas murder”.

“Are you sure?”, Wallace quickly asked as he started across the room to inquire more of the newly arrived trio.

“Yes I’m sure dammit”, Steven screached.

“Nathaniel, Michael….”, Thom began. “What are you guys doing here, and who is that?” he asked, pointing to the listless stranger they had now placed in a chair.

“We came to help you get this mess straightened out with the club and as for this guy, we found him in a car wrecked just outside town,'' Michael explained.

“You all know each other?”, Wallace interrupted.

“Yes Sir, these two are the other owners of the Griffin; Nathan Anders and Michael Colby”, Thom casually introduced.

“And who is this guy?”, Wallace again asked, almost expecting a different answer than previously.

“We don’t know”, Nathan answered.

“Like we said,” Michael continued,” we found him in a car wreck and brought him here. It’s closer than trying to take him all the way back to the hospital in Hyannis.

Wallace walked to the stranger as he directed another officer to contact the paramedic on duty. “Do you have any identification on you?” he asked the stranger with only a groan as response. He then reached into the man's back pocket and pulled out a wet, soggy wallet. “Here we are…”, now holding a drivers license in his hand. “ Terrence Edwards, 219 Market Street, District of Columbia. Ok, now we know who this guy is but how do we know he’s the murderer?”, Wallace stated, now turning to Steven who continued to figit uncomfortably in the handcuffs.

Karla quietly reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper from Stevens room and for the first time glanced down at it. Suddenly her face began to light up like she had been looking at a lottery slip while they called out the winning numbers. “Edwards? Right here! This is it! This is proof he rented Steven’s room. Look, this credit card receipt for gas I found in Stevens room has his name on it,” she declared proudly handing the slip towards Wallace.

“Well isn’t this interesting. Where did you find this?”, Wallace began with a demeaning tone.

“It had slipped through a crack in the floor of Steven’s room”, Karla replied. I saw it sticking out when I first got there but it fell through when I went to pick it up.”

“Well that only shows that this guy might had been in that room but it doesn’t prove he’s the murderer”, Officer Peters intercepted.

“So you still think I did it?”, Steven yelled as he jerked himself away from the officer. “Your all fucking crazy, that's your killer!”

As the Paramedics arrived and immediately headed towards the injured man, Officer Peters slowly backed away from everyone and started towards the stairway hoping to not be noticed.

“Take Edwards downstairs to a holding cell so the medics can tend to him”, Wallace instructed to the other officer still in the room. “I don’t need him going anywhere until we get this whole thing figured out. Until then Mr. Hayes, your still under arrest. Get him outta here”, Wallace directed another officer.

“Don’t worry Steven, I’ll get to the bottom of this”, Karla called out as they exited the room.

“Wait a second…”, Michael pondered for a moment. “Edwards…. Edwards…..That name sounds familiar.”

“Well let’s get back to the Inn, we can’t do much from here right now,'' Thom offered.

§

Once outside and seated in the patrol car, Officer Peters quickly pulled out his cell phone and began dialing. “Shit, Frank isn’t going to like this,'' he sputtered under his breath.

“Peters, are they there yet?” Frank asked, answering after a single ring.

“Yes Sir… but…, Peters stammered. “There's someone else with them. It’s the guy that rented Stevens room”.

“Shit”, Frank gulped, nearly dropping the phone.

“What are we gonna do now?”, Peters asked at last.

“Gotta think about this a minute,'' Frank answered as he poured himself a liberal shot of Crown Royal and downed it in a single swallow. “This may work to our advantage but we’re going to have to work quickly.''

“But I’m not sure if…”, Peters started. “I mean we’re already in this mess pretty deep”.

“Exactly!”, Frank exclaimed. “That why you need to finish the job so that I don’t get caught in the middle of it all. You know what needs to be done now so do it!”

“Yes Sir”, Peters replied as he hung up the phone. “I never thought he’d go this far just for a piece of property in P-Town”, he mumbled to himself as he returned inside to survey the situation.

After hanging up, Frank immediately started dialing the phone again. “Let’s see if they’re ready to sell now,'' he pondered while running his finger along the edge of the empty shot glass. This time no answer, as the phone switched over to voicemail, and then he hung up.

Outside the Provincetown police station, on the floor under the front seat of Nathaniel’s Jeep, a cell phone blinked one final time before shutting down completely.

§

As Thom, Karla, Nathaniel, and Michael walked into the Admirals Inn, Carter greeted them at the door. “I didn’t expect to see you back here this evening,'' he said as he closed the door behind the group. “And I see we have company…”.

“Yes this is Nathan and Michael, the other owners of the club and of course you remember Karla. We’ll all be staying here tonight if that's convenient”, Thom explained.

“Oh no trouble at all, but I only have two rooms here on the main floor to work with. The power being what it is I only have the generator running enough to supply power to the first floor so I don’t lose everything in the kitchen freezers and all”, Carter explained.

“That's fine. Karla and I can use one room and you and Nate take the other”, Thom directed as he then led the group into the corner of the dining room near the fireplace.”Just put everything in my name”, he motioned towards Carter. “Oh and can we get some coffee?”.

“But of course”, Carter answered as he disappeared into the kitchen.

“Well?”, Thom said at last. “What's your big solution now Miss Karla?”

“I’m not sure yet”, Karla began. “I know Steven didn’t kill Johanna but…”

“But what?”, Thom snapped back.

“But I’m starting to think this ‘Terrence Edwards’ didn’t kill her either. Something here just doesn’t seem right.

“Well you don’t think I did it do you?”, Thom demanded.

“Not the murder anyway,” Karla started.

“Oh so you think I started the fire and killed Danny?”, Thom snarled in response.

“No, No I didn’t mean that. I’m just saying that none of this makes any sense. Why would someone kill Johanna then set the club on fire the next day…”, Karla puzzled.

“To destroy the evidence”, Nathan stated firmly.

“Eh, no I don’t think so…”, Karla speculated aloud as the ring of Thoms cell phone interrupted the conversation.

“Hello?”, Thom answered.

“Are you ready to sell the Griffin?’, the voice on the other end asked.

“What makes you think I’d want to sell now?”, Thom screamed into the phone.

“Between the insurance money and what I’m willing to pay you’d make out pretty well”, the voice edged on.

“I don’t want to sell out now and I never did”, Thom continued.

“Who’s that?”, Nathan nudged Thoms arm.

“It’s that guy that has been bugging me for months about selling the club”, Thom responded.

“You know Thom, maybe we need to all talk this over and consider a few things…” Nathan added.

Turning his attention back to the voice on the phone,” Now is not a good time to discuss this.”

“Very well, I’ll call you back at noon tomorrow, but after that the price goes down and who knows what else will happen”, the voice warned before the line went dead.

“What was that all about?” Karla asked.

“For several months now someone has bugging me about getting rid of the club, he seems to think now that the place burned to the ground that I would want to sell out”, Thom explained.

“Actually he’s been bugging all of us”, Michael added.

“Oh really?”, Karla commented. “Now that’s interesting”.

“In fact I had hired someone to come check the place out to see how business was really doing and if there’s actually a steady clientele or what was going on here”, Michael explained. “He was here….. wait a minute. He was here the night of the murder but I never heard anything back from him. I guess maybe he got spooked by the murder. Let’s see what was his name… Dammit, I lost my phone”.

“Karla...what is it?”, Thom asked glancing over at Karla who already seemed to be in another dimension.

“I’m not sure yet but I need to check a few things out first and talk to Steven. I’ll meet you in the room later, ok”, she said as she grabbed her coat and headed to the door.

“Well guys, that’s Karla for ya”, Thom motioned to Michael and Nathan. I suppose we might as well get to our rooms and get a fresh start in the morning.”

“Yeah, I need to get out of these clothes”, Michael commented. ‘It’s been a long couple of days”.

“You head to the room and I’ll go get ours bags from the Jeep”, Nathan directed.

“Hey, can you see if I left my phone out there?“, Michael replied.

As he headed to the door, Nathan quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his own phone, checking first to make sure he still had a signal. Once outside he quickly began to dial. “Frank, was that you that just called Thom?”

“Yes it was,'' he replied. “You need to convince him to sell soon. The buyers are getting antsy with all the publicity going on down there right now. And with the election coming up in a few days… If they pass the legislation allowing gambling in Massachusetts the price for land in Ptown will go crazy.”

“And if it doesn’t pass?”, Nathan hesitated.

“If it doesn’t pass, and it will, at least you’ll already have made your money and can retire to Palm Springs”, Frank explained sarcastically.

“Yeah but how much is two deaths worth”, Nathan mumbled.

“What’s that?”, Frank started back.

“Nothing, never mind”, he replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll get Michael on board. With us having 75% of the club, Thom really doesn’t have much say anyway even though Michael always sticks with what Thom wants”.

As Nathan hung up the phone, he grabbed Michaels bag and then suddenly remembered to look for his phone. Fumbling around with only the light of his own phone, he finally found it beneath the passenger seat. Almost instinctively, he hit the button on the side to see if Michael had missed any calls but only saw a black screen. “Musta gone dead,'' he mumbled, reaching into the center console for a battery pack he kept handy for emergency charging of his own phone and grabbing his own bag.

§

“Steven, now you have to tell me everything that happened the night of the murder”, Karla began.

“I’ve told you and the police everything a zillion times”, Steven whined.

“I know but I need times and places. You said you were going to grab a bite to eat, what time was that and where did you go?”, Karla drilled on.

“Um, let’s see. Tea-dance was over and I had just picked up the cash drawers from all the registers and put them in the safe and then that guy came in to see about getting a room. We were booked so I rented my room. So… I guess it must’ve been around 8pm when we finished up. I locked the office and went over to Daddy Jack’s. I ran into a couple of lesbians I knew and they dragged me to the Pied Piper for a couple drinks. We were there until about 10 when I wandered over to the Atlantic House. I was back at the Pilgrims Landing by midnight only to be greeted by our friendly boys in blue interrogating me about the murder”, Steven explained.

“And?”, Karla edged on.

“And what?”, Steven snapped back.

“And what about the murder?”, Karla prompted again. “How was Johanna killed?”

“Hell if I know”, Steven snapped back.”I didn’t kill her! At first they seemed to think she was killed with my stilettos but then they found that bayonet in my office, why are you asking?”

“Well…”, Karla began, a grin growing across her lips. “I happen to know how Johanna died and it wasn’t by a frigging shoe and it wasn’t with a bayonet!”

“Wait, what?”, Steven exclaimed.

“Someone obviously planted that knife in your office. When we were upstairs earlier I happened to see the police reports sitting on the detective's desk,” she replied sheepishly.

“So tell me then, how did Joanna die?”, Steven demanded.

“All in due time,'' she warned as she picked up her coat and placed the paper she had been writing on back in the pocket. “Don’t worry Steven, by tomorrow we’ll get you out of here”.

“You better, I’m not gonna make it in here much longer! You know I get claustrophobic, and I can’t poot where everyone can see me!” he screeched.

§

As Thom, Michael, and Nathan started to their rooms, Carter stood stoically behind the reception desk watching a small television located at the end of the counter. With the power on here, Thom could almost imagine that this whole weekend had been nothing but a bad dream and everything was normal until his attention was drawn to an announcement on the television. “A suspect is now in custody for the murder of Johanna James…”.

“What was that about Johanna?”, Thom asked as he approached the desk.

“Just something about their having someone in custody although the fire probably destroyed most of the evidence, someone being found dead in the fire, just the basic rundown. They haven’t said who they arrested though. Not yet anyway. I see it wasn’t you at least!” Carter exclaimed as he scanned the group. “I see Steven isn’t with you….”.

“Ah, yeah...”, Thom replied distantly. He was again thinking about Johanna, still lying in the morgue, probably right next to Danny. “When this is all over with, I want to take care of Johanna and Danny”, Thom mentioned turning to Michael and Nathan, as they made their way down the hall.

“Of course Thom, whatever you want”, Nathan responded.

“Well, I need to shower and get some sleep”, Michael quickly intercepted, trying to change the subject.

§

Karla started back down the hallway to the side entrance of the police station. On her left, she noticed a door slightly opened marked ‘Holding Cell’. “That must be where they put Edwards”, she thought to herself. As she placed a hand on the door to peer inside, a shadowy figure moved across the back wall of room stopping her in mid-motion. She could scarcely make out a figure lying on a cot against the far wall with someone standing over them, their back towards her, and a pillow in his hands. “What the…?”, Karla gasped as she witnessed the standing figure lower the pillow over the strangers face lying on the cot and holding it there as they struggled to breathe, then finally going limp. As the figure turned towards the doorway, Karla quickly broke her freeze and raced out of the building, not knowing if she had been seen or not. She was sure of one thing and that was that the figure she saw standing there was Officer Peters. As she ran back to The Admirals Inn, a flood of thoughts raced through her mind; why would Peters want to kill Edwards, a random stranger that Nathan and Michael had picked up outside town? “Dammit, I was just starting to get this all figured out and now nothing makes any sense!”.

“Thom!”, Karla bellowed as she burst into the room.

“What is it?” he replied, seeing she was distraught and completely out of breath. “Here, sit down,'' he instructed.

“Pff, Pff, Peters”, she stammered. “Peters just killed that Edwards guy!”.

“Huh?”, Thom mumbled. “You’re crazy”, rubbing his eyes. “Are you sure?” he went on. “That can’t be right”.

“I just saw it myself!”, Karla exclaimed. “I went down to see Steven to clarify a few more things and when I was leaving I saw Officer Peters killing Edwards with a pillow”.

Thom moaned as he sat beside her. “This is just getting way out of control here. And for what? I just don’t get any of this. Johanna gets murdered in the club, Steven gets accused, the club burns down, Danny is found dead inside, and now this? I know it’s all connected somehow but it just doesn’t add up”.

“Well, not entirely”, Karla began. “At least not this last part, but as for Johanna’s death, it’s definitely a frame job. She wasn’t killed with the bayonet from Stevens office”.

“Well it certainly was a mess at the club and they did find the murder weapon at the hotel along with his drag stuff at the scene. I couldn’t bear to go look but Carter said one of his shoes was supposedly sticking out of Johannas head...I mean I know Steven didn’t do it but you can certainly see the cops view”, Thom commented.

“They said the shoe was there, not that it was actually used as a weapon”, Karla continued. “It was just that gossiping old Queen who said that the shoe was sticking out of her forehead. I just happened to have seen the forensics report on Wallaces’ desk earlier. Johanna was killed from multiple stab wounds from a small knife. I imagine something around the size of a paring knife like you use at the bar for cutting fruit. I noticed one sitting on the bar when I first saw you at the club,” she explained. “A bayonet like they ‘found’ at the Pilgrims Landing would have left very large deep cuts and would have been difficult to hide on the night of the murder. A paring knife anyone at the club could had just snuck off the bar and killed Johanna without drawing much attention.”

“So this forensics report, you just happened to have seen it, huh? Just lying there wide open...”, Thom teased.

“Well yeah, I mean it was just lying there, under a file or two,'' she giggled in response. “Now Steven mentioned something earlier about Johanna getting that job in Orlando for the winter? And how some other queen was really upset over the whole thing?”.

“Yes actually,” Thom began. “There were some people up here a couple months ago recruiting. The night they saw Johanna, Misty Lane was performing as well. Misty was supposed to headline but she had broken her ankle earlier in the week and was only able to do one number. She did the old Bette Midler bit where she’s a mermaid in a wheelchair. They loved the number but I guess since Johanna was headlining they chose her as the bigger talent. Which of course she is… er, was. Misty was in the club the night…. Hey wait a minute! You don’t think she did it?”

“Steven did say she’s already left town for a winter job somewhere else. I guess she could have lined herself up as Johannas replacement. Revenge can be quite a motivator ”, Karla added.

“Seems pretty odd that she would get a job offer to go there so quickly after Johanna's death”, Thom debated aloud.

“Yes, unless she knew it was going to happen and had put some pieces in place beforehand”, Karla explained.

“But what about the fire?”, Thom continued.

“Well I have a theory about that too. Remember that phone call you got right afterwards about selling? I’m thinking the fire has to do with them trying to get you guys to sell out. It may actually just be a coincidence that it occurred right after the murder”, Karla explained.

“And what about Danny then?” Thom questioned.

“Ok, that I’m not sure about but….”, Karla paused as if to collect her thoughts. In fact she was speculating how to proceed with Thom. “Well”, she began at last. “You said he was supposed to have already been back in Boston?”.

“Yes”, Thom replied. He goes to school up there and tends bar at some gay sports bar… uh...Frans. It’s in the South End. Why?”.

“I’m almost afraid to say he was probably the one that set the fire. I bet he was already there when I first saw you and then got trapped inside after we left”, Karla spoke softly as she took Thoms hand. “I know he was your protege but….”

“Yes, I guess he was; but Wallace said Danny was dead ‘before’ the fire started”, Thom dropped his head and stared into his lap.

“Hmmm, I dunno. Well, enough for tonight, let’s try to get some sleep,” Karla commented as she headed towards the bathroom.

§

The insidious ringing of the phone broke the smoky air in the downstairs office of Frans as Frank sat at the desk counting money for the bank deposit.

“Is it taken care of?”, Frank bellowed into the receiver without barely even looking to see who was calling.

“Yessir”, Peters responded from the other end of the phone. “He won’t be any more trouble at all. I still don’t know who he was but he sure would have made a mess if he started blabbing!”.

“It was a lucky chance him showing up anyway. He may have thrown a wrench in this all but now we can use it to our advantage and get rid of Steven at the same time. Everything is going so much better than I ever imagined!”, Frank grinned wide like a demonic clown.

“What's that little faggot have to do with all this?”, Peters asked.

“He’s my pawn”, Frank responded as he hung up the phone. “Besides, why shouldn’t I get in on this game”, he chuckled aloud as he turned back to the desk and quickly scooped up the money and shoved it into the safe.