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“Enough of this playing around.” Lisa Swanson jumped from the couch in her and Jake Jenson’s living room that night. “What’s the big news?” she asked Dee and Detective Winston Lewis.
Jake rode his wheelchair from behind the coffee table. “You two getting hitched?”
Dee exchanged glances with Winston, ready to burst out her skin. “No, but it’s the happiest news we could’ve gotten in our lives.”
“We got the DNA results back from the paternity test today.” Winston beamed, holding Dee by the curve of her back. “Dee, you wanna tell them?”
Dee snatched his hand. “Winston is the father!”
“Ah!” Lisa jumped, slapping her palms together. “For real?”
“For real,” Dee shrieked. “He’s the father.”
“Oh my god.” Lisa grabbed her best friend into a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you!” She reached up and wrapped her other arm around Winston’s shoulders. “Congratulations!”
Jake howled, “That’s great.”
“This is wonderful.” Lisa sniffled, her big brown eyes filling with tears. “I knew everything would work out.”
“How do you feel, Dee?” Jake asked.
“Fuckin’ great!” She twirled with her arms in the air.
“That asshole Jonathan,” Lisa said. “He’ll pay for everything he did to you.”
“Speaking of which.” Dee took Lisa’s hand. “Can I speak to you in private?”
“You don’t have to ask twice, girl.”
“Excuse us.” Dee pulled Lisa out the room and into the kitchen.
Lisa sat at the table and crossed her legs. “What’s on your mind?”
Dee sat beside her. “Protection order or not there’s only one way to stop Jonathan.” She flattened her fingers on the sky-blue table cloth. “I want to get him for raping me.”
Lisa’s eyebrows rose. “How will you prove it?”
Dee propped her elbows on the table. “Rena.”
“Rena?” Lisa watched Dee through her lashes. “The same Rena who sat there for three months while Jonathan held you prisoner? Dee, she let Jonathan do whatever he wanted yet claimed to be your friend.”
“I need her, Leece.” Dee stared at the plastic container of oatmeal cookies. “I can’t get Jonathan on the kidnapping but he’s not getting away with this. It’s bad enough he stole my mind.” She sighed, fighting nausea. “I can’t let him get away with this too.”
“You can’t trust Rena. How many times does she have to gyp you for you to see that?”
“What choice do I have?” Dee jumped up and got a glass from the cabinet. “It’s either trust Rena or let Jonathan get away with his bullshit and that ain’t happening.”
Lisa sighed.
****
The next morning, Connie made her way through the iron gate of Ursula Vickers’ backyard as the gorgeous blonde bobbed in the center of the oval pool, her perfect tan beaming in the sunlight. “Detective,” Ursula beckoned in her sensual, Norwegian accent. “Glad you made it.”
“Course I did.” Connie walked through the slate pavement, passing two lawn chairs and a round, glass table with titanium legs. “You said you had information about Lang Latimer.” She took her shades off and hooked them inside her blouse. “What is it?”
“Why don’t we relax, huh?” Ursula glided toward Connie, the water brushing her chin. “You swim?”
“I don’t have time to play with you. What is it you have to tell me?”
“Ooh.” Her sexual eyes latched onto Connie’s bosom. “Always so serious, Detective. Do you ever take time to have fun?”
“If you don’t wanna tell me why I’m here, then I’ll leave.” She pointed to the gate. “I’m here to investigate a murder. I don’t have time for this.”
“All right, all right.” With one catlike move, Ursula pulled her thin, hourglass body from the water. “You like my bikini?” She sashayed to the table in a tiger print string bikini showing plenty of side boob and ass. “I swear...” She got her towel off the table and dabbed her long, bleach-blonde hair. “I’m going to get you to relax one of these days if it kills me.”
“What do you have to tell me?”
Ursula snatched a cigarette from the pack on the table and popped it in her mouth. “Lang was a friend of mine.” She lit the cigarette, cutting her eyes to Connie. “We met when she gave me piano lessons.”
“And?”
Ursula lay on the lawn chair, her knees in the air. “She had a secret. I swore I’d never tell but considering the situation, I think I should.”
Connie sat in the lawn chair beside her with caution.
“I don’t want you to misjudge her.” Ursula took a drag from the cigarette. “She was a good person; and she didn’t deserve what happened to her. I hope you catch the son of a bitch.”
“What’s this secret?”
“Lang was having an affair with one of her students.” Ursula closed her eyes and shook her head. “He’s only sixteen.”
Connie gaped. “What’s his name?”
“Robin Glover.” Ursula raised an eyebrow. “He’s a track star at his school and he took private lessons with Lang last year.”
“She was having an affair with a sixteen-year-old kid?” Connie grimaced.
“She didn’t plan to but claimed he has this hold on her she couldn’t explain. Said every time she looked into his eyes she fell into a trance and then she wouldn’t care what was wrong or right.”
Connie slouched. “How long did this go on?”
“About five or six months. It always scared her someone would find out.”
“Gage Raider?”
Ursula scratched behind her ear. “Anyone.”
“Wow.” Connie rose, struggling to understand Lang’s thinking. “This isn’t what I expected but I appreciate you telling me.”
“No problem.” Ursula laid her head back, pushing the cigarette to her lips. “It gave me a chance to see you again.”
Connie shook her head as she headed toward the gate.