Murder of a Creped Suzette

daytime dispatcher, yelled, “Chief, you’d best get in here—fast !”

Wally rushed toward the reception area with Skye on his heels. As they reached the lobby, they found Rex and Kallista Taylor standing nose to nose. Kallista had her hands on her hips and Rex’s face was so red, Skye worried he was about to have a stroke.

“I told you to wait in the car!” Rex bellowed at his wife. “I’ll handle this.”

“All you care about is your precious theater!” Kallista screeched. “Flint’s being framed and all you’re worried about is the media impact.”

“Woman, I don’t know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful at the same time.”

“ ’Cause God made me beautiful so you’d be attracted to me. And He made me stupid so I’d be attracted to you.”

“Folks, let’s all calm down.” Wally stepped between the arguing couple. “We’ll go up to my office and discuss this quietly.”

“This has nothing to do with her.” Rex pointed to his wife. “I don’t know why she insisted on coming.”

“We’ll get everything figured out, Mr. Taylor.” Skye took Rex’s elbow and fluttered her lashes while gently pulling him after her. “Just come with me.”

Wally followed suit and offered Kallista his arm. “Right this way, Mrs. Taylor.”

Once they were all seated in Wally’s office, Rex said, “I demand to know why in the hell you arrested Flint James.”

“His semen was found in Ms. Neal’s body.” Wally folded his hands on the desktop.

“That’s not possible,” Rex stated. “Your lab made some sort of mistake. It must have mixed up Flint’s sample with one of the boys in the band.”

Skye, sitting slightly behind and to the side of the couple, saw Kallista stiffen and turn pale. Aha! Skye replayed the conversation she had overheard between Kallista and Flint James Thursday night. Kallista had said she had thrown her husband off the scent of their affair by letting him think she was messing around with one of the musicians.

As Wally reassured Rex that the DNA samples had not been mixed up, Skye’s mind raced. She needed to talk to Wally while Rex, Kallista, and Flint were all in the police station. But how could she get him alone without raising anyone’s suspicions?

She eased the legal pad from her tote and wrote in large letters: TALK/HALLWAY!!! When Wally glanced her way, she held up the tablet. He nodded slightly and she stuffed it back into her bag.

Wally waited for a lull, then made a show of looking at his watch. “Sorry, folks. Ms. Denison and I have to take a conference call. Please excuse us. It won’t take more than five minutes.”

As soon as they were out of the office and the door was shut, Wally said, “Rex Taylor is hiding something.”

“Exactly,” Skye agreed. “And not just his charms.”

“What’s up?” Wally walked her to the far end of the hall.

Skye explained what Rod had told her, then reminded Wally of what Kallista had said to Flint about Rex’s temper and diverting her husband’s suspicions toward a member of the band. She concluded with, “So I wonder if somehow Rex is behind all of this. He still doesn’t have an alibi.”

“Even though Taylor’s DNA wasn’t the one found inside Suzette, I agree something doesn’t smell right about James as the murderer. I suppose he could have been two-timing Kallista and killed Suzette to keep her quiet. Still, the whole thing feels wrong.” Wally shook his head. “But we don’t have anything on Taylor beyond a rumor of a bad temper and the fact that he flirts with women. Any ideas?”

“Divide and conquer.” Skye leaned forward and said quietly, “Let me take Kallista and make sure she gets to talk to Flint. I think she knows more than she’s saying.”

“Okay.” Wally nodded. “We might as well give it a try. But remember spousal privilege. She can’t tell you anything her husband said to her in confidence.”

“But if she overheard something or saw something, that’s fair game, right?”

“Right.” He walked back to his office and opened the door. “Mrs. Taylor, could I see you for a moment?”

Once Kallista was in the hallway, Wally turned her over to Skye and then returned to Rex.

Skye took the other woman’s arm and said in a sympathetic voice, “I thought you might want a chance to talk to Mr. James alone.”

Kallista hesitated. Her expression held both suspicion and longing. Longing won, and she said, “Thank you. That would be wonderful.”

“You’re very welcome.” Skye led her down the steps, unlocked the interrogation room door, and ushered the blonde inside. “I can only give you a few minutes.” Skye adjusted the blinds so that it appeared no one could see in through the interior window, then exited, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Skye stepped to the side, angling her body so she could both peer through the opening in the blinds and hear through the door.

Kallista wasted no time berating Flint. “How could you sleep with that skanky whore?”

“I didn’t!” Flint protested, trying to embrace Kallista. “Think about it for a minute. We were together that afternoon from two o’clock to nearly four thirty.”

“Oh, yeah.” Kallista giggled. “How could I have forgotten that? First we did it in the RV, then around three or so we went and got some food from Mickey D’s and brought it to your cabin at the motor court.”

“Exactly.” Flint took Kallista in his arms. “Remember how cute you looked with the pickle slice bra and hamburger bun bikini?”

Ew! Skye suppressed a groan.

“So how come they said your baby makers were inside that slut?” Kallista demanded.

“I have no idea.” Flint kissed her. “The only thing my love juice has been inside lately is a rubber.”

An idea skittered through Skye’s mind, but she needed to think about it. Was what she was considering even possible ?

“So you’ll tell the cops we were together?” Flint asked, nibbling Kallista’s neck.

“I guess I have to.” Kallista hugged him.

“Are you afraid of Rex?”

“I don’t think so.”

Skye could see the calculating look on the woman’s face even though Flint couldn’t.

“I’m sorry you won’t be able to get as much of his money as we originally thought.” Flint wrinkled his brow.

“Oh.” Kallista’s expression conveyed satisfaction. “I think I’ll do all right.”

After another minute or so, Skye stepped back into the interrogation room. “Sorry, guys. We need to wrap this up.”

While Skye escorted Kallista back to Wally’s office, she asked the other woman, “Did Flint flush the condom he used last Monday afternoon at the RV?”

“You eavesdropped on us?” Kallista’s tone was outraged. “That’s not fair!”

“I don’t enjoy intruding in your personal life,” Skye said, hoping to soothe the other woman’s indignation. She was used to teenagers who thought everything done to them was unfair. “But this is important. You want Flint to go free, don’t you?”

“Yes, but when I say he was with me, that will do it.”

“Not with the DNA evidence hanging over his head,” Skye reminded her. “So, about that condom?”

Kallista was silent, a pout marring her beautiful face.

“I’m ready to help,” Skye said. “Are you ready to be smart?”

“He didn’t flush it,” Kallista muttered. “The plumbing in the Airstream can’t take stuff like that. He usually just wraps them in toilet paper and tosses them in the trash.”

“Does Rex know how to drive a steamroller?”

“Uh-huh.” Kallista nodded. “He worked construction during the summers when he was in college.”

“I wonder why the police didn’t find that out when they did the background check.”

“He was paid off the books.”