I sat next to Carmen on the couch and looked up to see Cedric and Amos slowly enter the room. “Sit,” I commanded. I reached out and touched Carmen’s arm. “Carmen, you need to tell us the whole story or instead of walking down the aisle, you may be sitting in a jail cell in a few weeks. I’m not about to let that happen, you hear me.”
Carmen’s eyes threatened to spill more tears. She looked over at Cedric.
I followed her gaze and examined my son, who for a few seconds looked ready to bolt. The disappointment in his eyes made me catch my own breath. Cedric was the one who never seemed to get along with his father, Ralph Patterson. He also was the one who looked so much like his father. I’d witnessed that wary look and staunch silence in Ralph so many times. Dear man had been gone five years and I’d almost forgotten this look. Here it was glaring sullenly back at Carmen.
I watched as Cedric’s chest rose as if he was sighing deeply, preparing himself for the rest of the truth his fiancée would deliver. He sank down on the other half of the sectional couch that dominated the living room. The soft, black leather couch was left over from Cedric’s bachelor days. I knew it was the one sore spot in the living room that Carmen looked forward to getting rid of when she became Mrs. Cedric Patterson. The if word hung in the air ready to crash to the floor in a million pieces.
I glanced over at Amos who’d scooted back towards the dining area, opting to pull out a chair away from the center of my family drama. I felt bad for including him, but I needed him. Not just for his old detective skills. I wasn’t sure if I was prepared myself for what Carmen would tell us.
Carmen clasped her hands in her lap and sat with her shoulders hunched as if she was expecting one of us to throw something at her at any moment.
I encouraged again. “Carmen, we’re almost family. We want to help you. It’s no doubt in my mind that Detective Wilkes will come back and haunt you about this man’s death. She looks like she wants to accuse you, and she wasn’t that convinced about Cedric’s whereabouts either. It worries me that she’s going to focus on y’all and not look for the real killer.”
Carmen shook her head. “He was already dead. I called the police. If I had killed him, why would I call them? I could have just walked away.”
That’s true. I rubbed my hands down my arms as if I had caught a chill. It didn’t matter what I thought, we needed proof that someone else had it out for this man. “Well, I’m not sure if the detective will see it that way. Tell us everything, starting from when Darius first contacted you last week.”
Carmen glanced at Cedric once more before starting. “Last Thursday, I’d seen patients all day and was on an extra-long shift at the hospital since I had a patient with some complications. I walked off the elevator and saw Darius Randall walking towards me. It took him a few seconds to recognize me. My hair is different. I wore it longer, straight and it was darker. But then I saw the recognition in his eyes. I probably should have walked by faster, held my head down or something.”
I urged Carmen to continue. “You seemed practically terrified of him yesterday.”
“When I ran into him at the hospital, it was so weird.” She squeezed her hands as though she was wringing out a dishcloth. “He claimed he was in town visiting someone, but he never said who. He didn’t mention anything about me getting married during that conversation. It was like he just saw me and wanted to ask how I was doing.”
“So, was he stalking you?” Cedric’s voice was strained as if trying to control his anger. “Why didn’t you say something before now? We could have reported him to the police before all of this.”
Carmen shook her head. “With what, Cedric? I couldn’t go to the police and say I ran into the man who made my life hell almost ten years ago.” She wrapped her arms around her as if shielding herself.
“I didn’t know to be scared until he showed up at the bakery yesterday morning. I panicked because Ms. Eugeena was there. I don’t know. I saw something in his eyes. Desperation, maybe? I just wanted us to get out of there, Ms. Eugeena.”
I thought for a minute. “Are you sure you’re telling us everything? You seemed preoccupied the entire time we were in the bakery.”
Carmen shook her head and briefly closed her eyes. She snapped them open and stared at nothing in particular on the coffee table. “Darius called yesterday morning. He wanted to see me over a cup of coffee. I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten my cell number. I was also trying to figure out how to tell Cedric that Darius was in town attempting to see me whether I wanted to or not. Him calling out of the blue for coffee like we were old friends freaked me out. It started to dawn on me that he wasn’t going away.”
Carmen’s voice rose as in panic at the thought. She sounded scared and desperate. I hoped Carmen hadn’t appeared the same way to the detective.
Desperate people did dangerous things.
I decided to change the direction of the conversation. “You said he came in from out of town. Where was he living?”
She shook her head. “When we were married, we lived in Charlotte. I graduated from Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, which isn’t that far from Charlotte. Darius always talked about moving to Atlanta. I assumed he moved there after our divorce. Of course, I didn’t keep up with him. My parents settled in Asheville about five years ago. I’ve never run into Darius until last week.”
I was reaching for information, not sure what I was looking for Carmen to tell us. It wasn’t like I was a professional detective.
“You said he was an accountant?” I asked, still curious about the man’s wealth, “He must have been paid really well to be able to stay at a fancy place like the Charleston Place Hotel.” I had a high school friend who was a staff manager at that place. I made a note in my head to reach out to her later.
Carmen acknowledged. “Darius kept the books for some pretty large firms. He may have moved on to bigger things. Back then, he owned a Jaguar and the house we lived in was located in a gated community. He’d owned the home for several years before we were married.”
“He was much older than you?”
“I was seventeen when we started dating, and he was in his late twenties. My parents didn’t know until later. When I realized I was pregnant, I was already eighteen… We married a few months later.”
I crossed my arms. “That’s not good for a man to marry a woman so young. I know your parents were awfully upset.”
It occurred to me as I said this that I thought Carmen was awfully young for Cedric when I first met her. Now Carmen was twenty-eight and Cedric was turning forty in a few months. Despite an eleven year difference I no longer felt the age gap was odd. I turned my attention back to Carmen as she shared her story.
She took a deep breath. “My parents warned me not to consider marrying him. They said they would help me with the baby, but I wanted to have a family. I was adopted, and I wanted my own child to be raised in a real family. His or her own family. I was so naive at the time. I didn’t realize what a control freak Darius was. His temper was terrifying. He was an awful man.”
“There had to be other people he turned that temper on. The wrong person. Probably the one who killed him.” I patted Carmen on the hand. “What prompted you to meet with him today?”
Carmen eyed Cedric for a few seconds. “I was talking to Jocelyn last night after Cedric left. She suggested I face him, tell him to go away and stop bothering me.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Jocelyn told you that?”
A year ago, Jocelyn Miller, Carmen’s BFF, had been mired in her own legal trouble. In the midst of it, she’d sought out and found her maternal grandmother. Now the young woman lived with Louise Hopkins, who’d been my next-door neighbor for almost thirty years. I would be visiting with them tonight. Seemed like pretty bad advice to me.
“Did Jocelyn say anything to Darius about the wedding?” I asked.
Carmen shook her head. “No, she never talked to Darius. In fact, when I was seeing him, Jocelyn warned me something wasn’t right about him. I remember getting mad at her and accusing her of being jealous. She wasn’t, of course. She just saw what I couldn’t. That he was a real creep.”
“How many people knew about your marriage?” I asked.
“Not that many people.” Carmen seemed lost in her recollections before speaking. “We were married at a small chapel in Asheville. I’m still not sure who arranged it all. Jocelyn was there. My parents. No one was there with Darius.”
My own wedding was a small affair, not in our family church either. When I got pregnant with Junior, my older brother, my then surrogate father paid a visit to Ralph Patterson. I was pretty sure my brother was, as the young folks say, “packin.” Next thing I knew, a few months later, I was married. My story wasn’t too different from Carmen’s.
I did think it odd that Carmen mentioned Darius was alone. “He didn’t have any family or friends?”
Carmen took in a breath. “Not at the chapel. Later, before I lost the baby, I’d met a few of his acquaintances. They were all kind of like him. Wealthy, liked to spend money. They didn’t seem real. I remember feeling awkward.”
I thought about the current wedding we were planning. I knew Carmen had asked Jocelyn to be her maid of honor. My daughter, Leesa was one of the bridesmaids. Cedric had asked his brother, Junior, to be his best man and one of his friends from college, Larry Holmes, to be a groomsman. Larry lived in Charlotte. I pondered aloud, “I mailed the invitations Monday. There were seventy-five of them, and he certainly wasn’t on the list.”
Carmen frowned. “No, absolutely not!” She blew out a breath as if to clear her system of any mention of Darius. Suddenly sitting up straight, Carmen uttered, “Wait. Leesa set up a website on eWedding.com. I don’t know. Maybe if someone was searching for my name, they might find the website.”
That’s true. I did searches all the time. I had even searched for a few old classmates I lost contact with. I also thought about other places I searched. “Are you posting the wedding plans on Facebook?”
Carmen’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t have time to post much, but yes, I posted a few photos on Instagram, and then sent them to my Facebook page.”
“So it’s possible if someone was looking for you, you know trying to see what you’ve been up to all these years, they could find out from your Facebook page?” I asked.
Carmen nodded. “Yes, I changed my status to engaged to Cedric Patterson. I even posted a photo of the engagement ring awhile back, and there are a few photos of Cedric and me.” She turned towards Cedric. “I tagged Cedric in those photos.”
Cedric’s eyes were focused in our direction. “I’m not on Facebook that often either, but I read all the comments on the engagement ring. I have the same status. Engaged to Carmen Alpine.”
After Cedric’s statement, I stood and turned my eyes towards Amos. He gazed back at me, concern in his eyes. I smiled, grateful he was here. I needed to move around. As if movement would make sense of the two lovebirds in front of me whose lives had been shattered by Carmen’s discovery this morning.
Yes, we had established some possibilities of how Darius Randall could have found out about the upcoming wedding. But it didn’t help the bride-to-be who was now a possible murder suspect. If anything, we’d confirmed Carmen had a perfectly good reason to kill Darius.
I paced the floor, knowing it was time to go deeper into Carmen’s reasoning. “This morning you went over to the hotel. I assume you already had the room number from the business card. Did you call ahead of time? Did he know you were coming?”
“No, he didn’t know I was coming.”
“That’s good.” I looked at Amos. “There’s been no contact from Carmen to Darius on his phone.
Amos nodded. “Yes, but it can work against Carmen. She also just showed up and her reasons definitely interested Detective Wilkes.”
I eyed Amos. “You’re not helping.”
The eyes of a retired cop gazed back. Soon, his eyes began to soften. “I’m sorry, Eugeena. You’re right, the police would need to get Mr. Randall’s phone and find out who else he’d been corresponding with the past few days. The inquiry could lead to other suspects.”
I sighed. “Good. That’s the direction we need Detective Wilkes to take.” Still, I knew Amos was right. “Carmen, you found the body. There has to be something else you noticed.”
Carmen glanced over at Cedric who sat looking off into space as if he wanted to be anywhere, but here. “When I arrived, I parked my car towards the back. The parking lot was pretty filled up. I took the elevator up to his room.”
“Which floor?” I interrupted.
“It was the eighth floor. Room 828.”
Amos stepped closer into the living room. “Did you notice anyone coming off the elevator or in the hallway? From my understanding, Darius was hit from behind.”
I gasped. “So, he knew the person he let into the room. As soon as he turned his back, he or she hit him over the head. With what though?”
Amos answered. “From what I can gather from an old friend on the force, he was hit from behind with an object, but it wasn’t found at the scene.”
I frowned. “So the killer took the weapon with them?”
Carmen stretched out her hands. “Well, I don’t have anything like that on me.”
Amos eyed her. “Still, the detective may want to come back and search your car and the house. I wouldn’t be surprised if Detective Wilkes was securing search warrants now.”
Cedric looked up, the fire back into his eyes. “So what should we do?”
Amos sighed. “Now may be the time to start calling a lawyer or lawyers. You will both probably want separate lawyers.”
“Lawyers!” I squealed. “They haven’t done anything. Won’t having lawyers make them look guilty?”
Amos looked around the room. “Better to be prepared for whatever is coming.”
At that moment, a piercing noise radiated the room. Both Cedric and Carmen peered down at their phones.
Cedric frowned, and then a sense of relief crossed his face. He rose from the seat. “I need to head back to the hospital. My patient needs me.” He looked at Carmen. “We’ll talk about all this later.” Cedric grabbed his keys from the table by the front door and left.
I didn’t know if it was a good idea to leave Carmen alone. “Have you reached out to your family?”
Carmen nodded. “I talked to my mom last night, but I haven’t told her what happened this morning. My parents are going to freak out. They would not have approved of me seeing Darius this morning. I almost wished I hadn’t, but I had to face him sometime. Funny, I didn’t need to… Someone else took care of it.”
“They left with the murder weapon too. I wonder what it was.” I turned to Amos. “How can you smack someone in the head and just walk out the hotel with the murder weapon?”
Amos shrugged. “The weapon could have been discarded in the hotel.”
It felt past lunch time. “Carmen, I know you’ve had a difficult week with this man showing back up in your life. Do you need anything?”
She shook her head. “No. I just wished Darius had never tried to contact me. What was his point? I hadn’t heard from him in almost ten years.”
Those were my exact thoughts. “You hadn’t heard anything about him getting married again? It would seem odd for him to spend all this time alone.”
Carmen sank back into the seat. “I don’t know if he remarried, but I’m sure Darius had plenty of women. The brief time I was married to him, I also realized too late that he was a ladies’ man. He had no qualms with flirting with other women and I’m sure picking them up, even when he was married to me.”
We needed to find out more about Darius Randall. I was still suspicious about the man’s finances. He obviously liked to live a life of luxury and seemed to not have a problem with getting women. Still, how did he find out about Carmen and her pending nuptials? Why did he want to reach out to Carmen after all these years? Surely the man had moved on by now.
There were so many questions for me and I had all the time in the world to find the answers.