11

Chryssie sat in a cubicle room picking at a hang nail. A small table and three chairs were crowded around, leaving little space to walk. Her gaze landed on the double-sided mirror. Someone was probably watching her. She knocked on the glass. “Can you come in here so I can get this over with?”

A moment later the door opened. The same woman who’d come to her class. She was older than Chryssie, probably in her early forties. Her brown hair was short, but the curls made it more feminine. She looked down at the paper in her hand, then at Chryssie.

“No wonder I couldn’t find you.” She turned the paper toward Chryssie. Her driver’s license picture stared back in full Glitter mode. “What’s with this getup? I wouldn’t have recognized you if I’d walked right past you.”

“You did walk right past me. At the college yesterday. You actually showed me that picture.”

“Mmm. So I was told. Your prof said you’d just finished your exam when I walked in. I looked around the campus, but you seemed to have disappeared.” She held out her hand. “Annie Dargols. I’m the detective assigned to this case.”

Chryssie shook her hand.

Annie sat down in the chair. “Are you ready to tell me what happened?”

“I guess. Where should I start?”

“Anywhere you want is fine by me.”

“I was walking—”

Someone knocked on the door.

Annie leaned over and opened the door.

“Her lawyer’s here.” A disembodied voice said from the hall.

“She hasn’t asked for one.”

“Don’t know anything about that, but here’s the lawyer.”

A tall man walked in. His suit was impressive and his demeanor even more so. He walked to Annie with an outreached hand. “Sam Carson.” He turned to her. “And you must be Chryssie Mason?”

She nodded. At least Marv had kept his word about hiring a lawyer.

He sat in the remaining chair, put his briefcase on the table, and pulled out a yellow legal pad. “What’s your full name, Chryssie?”

“Chrysalis Mason.”

“An unusual name.”

“Chrysalis is another name for a butterfly cocoon.” She wondered if there was a reverse word for metamorphosis—instead of becoming a butterfly, she was returning to her worm life. Or worse.

“Oh, very nice. How do you spell that?”

Annie stood up. “I guess you’ll need some time with your client.”

“Not at all. My client’s done nothing wrong. Therefore; we don’t need time to concoct a story. The truth will do just fine. Once you hear it, I’m sure you’ll agree that it was self-defense and we can be done with this unpleasant matter.” He turned toward Chryssie with a reassuring smile.

Did he know the truth? Or had Marv hired a legitimate lawyer who had no idea of the fraud she was about to perpetrate? If he knew the truth, then this guy was as bad as Marv. But what did that say about her? She was confessing to a murder she didn’t commit.

“Fine by me. Let’s do this.” Annie sat back down.

“I’d just closed up the bar and was walking to my car.”

The lawyer scribbled furiously on his notepad.

Annie seemed to listen intently, nodding every now and then to encourage Chryssie to keep talking. Chryssie told the story Marv concocted.

“Well, that’s about it. That’s what happened.” Chryssie was glad they couldn’t see the perspiration sliding down her back.

The lawyer looked up from his notes with a smile. “That should just about take care of the problem, don’t you think? It was a clear case of self-defense.” He stood up. “Come on, Chrysalis. Time for you to go home.”

She stood up.

“Not so fast. I have a few questions.” Annie smiled.

Chryssie sat back down.

The smile left the lawyer’s face as he did the same.

“First of all, the shooting happened on Saturday night. Today is Tuesday.” Her hands moved around as she spoke. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come forward sooner?”

“I know this will sound craz—”

“Try me.”

“I had to take my finals first.”

The detective blinked a few times as if she hadn’t heard correctly. “Excuse me?”

“I had to take that exam. Otherwise, I wouldn’t graduate. And I’ve worked so hard. I didn’t think waiting until after the exam would make that big of a difference.”

“You shoot someone and you’re worried about a final?” Annie sounded incredulous.

It did sound stupid. “I told you it would sound crazy, but it’s the truth.”

“Right. Why let a little thing like murdering a man get in the way of a final exam?”

“There’s no reason to be facetious, Detective Dargols.” The lawyer tapped the table with his pen. “And it wasn’t murder. It was clearly self-defense. Perhaps, she should have called sooner, but clearly she was in a state of shock.”

The detective ignored him and looked at her. “You shot someone and thought it would be OK to wait until after you took the test before you contacted the police? That’s more than shock.”

“I see how wrong that was now. I just…” Tears filled Chryssie’s eyes. “But it’s taken me more than five years. I…I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t miss that exam. At least that’s what I thought at the time. Clearly, I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Clearly.” Annie Dargols nodded. “I talked with Marquetta. As far as she knew you didn’t even own a gun. She said the two of you talked about it. Made plans to take a gun safety class then both of you get one.”

Ooh, she’d forgotten about that. “I did want to take that class. But I already had a gun. I just didn’t admit it to Marquetta. She’s such a stickler for the law.”

The detective gave her a hard look. “Something you’re clearly not.”

The lawyer gave a little warning cough.

“OK, so how’d you learn to shoot it?”

“What’s to learn? Put some bullets in it and pull the trigger.”

Annie gave her a look.

Had she said something wrong?

“Do you remember how many times you shot him?”

“Once. No wait, that’s not right.” She closed her eyes, her mind going back to the alley. Pop. Pop. Pop. “I think it was three times. I don’t know. I was so scared. But I’m pretty sure it was three.”

“What did you do after that?”

“Went home.”

“So you shot a guy, then just got in your car and drove home?”

Marv should have asked more questions. She didn’t want to mess this up. “Well, no. I was so freaked out, I forgot about my car and ran home instead.”

“That’s pretty freaked out.”

“Is there a question there, detective?” Sam Carson asked.

“Not really. So, then what did you do on Sunday?”

“Studied, then went to the bar to pick up my car, but ended up working instead.”

“Unbelievable. So you killed a guy on Saturday night and you thought the right thing to do was study all day Sunday. Makes sense to me.”

“I didn’t know I’d killed him. I was hoping…” Why had Marv thought anyone would believe this ridiculous story?

“Yeah, stop while you’re ahead. You did just take classes for nursing school so I’m pretty sure you could see that he was dead. All that blood should have been an indication. So Sunday you walked back to the bar to get your car, right? But you still don’t have your car now, do you?”

“Right.”

“Why not?”

“When I went to pick it up on Sunday, Marquetta asked me to work for a while, then her son got hurt and she left. I filled in for the rest of her shift.”

“Makes sense. So, then why didn’t you get the car after your shift?”

Her gaze went to the lawyer. He was scribbling on his pad.

“It was dark when I left the bar.”

“And…”

“And well…the truth is I was still too freaked out to walk in that alley again. Especially after dark, after what happened.” Sometimes the truth was the best answer of all.

“Too freaked out.” The detective nodded. “I can understand that, but you’ve got the car now, right?”

“I haven’t had time.”

“So, let me get this straight. You’ve been running around all over the city for the past three days without your car. How’d you get here?”

“A friend.” Chryssie almost choked on the word. “And I haven’t been running all over the city. I took my final and then went to my apartment.”

“Really? Funny you weren’t there when I was there. The four different times I’ve been there looking for you. The super even let us in the last time. You were nowhere to be found.”

She rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans. “I was scared and didn’t go home. I needed some time to think. And once I did I knew I needed to come here and turn myself in.”

The detective shrugged. “OK, if you say so.”

What would she say when the detective asked her where she’d been? She couldn’t tell the woman she’d been kidnapped and then driven here against her will.

Annie Dargols stood up and looked at them. “I’ll be back in a minute. Feel free to talk among yourselves.”

Sam Carson looked up from his notes. “Not likely. Since we’re probably being recorded.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll be back in a bit.” She walked out.

“I’m not kidding about the recording,” the lawyer said. “Don’t say anything in here that you don’t want them to know about.”

“What more could I say? I already told them I killed a man in self-defense.”

“Still, it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

The door opened.

Her stomach fluttered. This was it. Time to be arrested.

Annie smiled at her. “You’re free to go.”

“What? I’m not getting arrested. Why not?”

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t be arrested later. But for now, you’re free to go. We’ll present the information to the D.A. He’ll decide if he wants to move forward or rule it as self-defense. I’ll recommend self-defense.”

Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. “I…I didn’t think you believed me.”

“I’m not the enemy, Chryssie. We really do want justice to prevail. And please, next time we try to get in touch, don’t make it so hard for us to find you.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“She promises no such thing, detective. If you want to talk to her, you contact me. Understand?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Carson. Absolutely.” Detective Dargols opened the door and motioned for Chryssie to leave.

Chryssie walked down the hall processing all the implications of being free. Gabriella’s future, her nursing career, the bar, Marv and his murderous cousin, the lies…

Mr. Carson followed her.

“Oh, and Chryssie, you might want to get your car before it gets towed.” Detective Dargols voice barely registered in Chryssie’s whirling thoughts.