Florida Heat

Kate nodded. “She’s at the top of my short list. Flees the crime scene before anyone can talk to her, and the last time Danny tried to wale on her she crowned him with a wine bottle and he ended up in the ER. Let’s see if this time she decided just to end the son of a bitch.” Opening the door, Kate and Mitch stepped into interview. “Good morning,” Kate said pleasantly.

  “I don’t feel so good,” Aggie groaned. “I’m gonna be sick. I need to go home.”

  With her foot, Kate pushed a trashcan in front of the woman. “If you need to puke, do it in this. Now we read you your rights last night. Do you remember or should I repeat them?”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  “No, we just want to talk to you about Danny. Do you remember your rights or should I tell you again?”

  “Danny’s dead,” Aggie started to cry, wracking sobs that shook her entire body.

  Kate took a deep breath and waited. “Aggie what can you tell me about Danny?”

  “He’s dead,” the woman sobbed.

  “I know he’s dead. Now we’re trying to help him.”

  “How can you help him when he’s dead?”

  Mitch looked at Kate and rolled his eyes. “Agatha,” he said softly. “You need to tell us what happened. Where were you yesterday? Why did you grab your boy and leave the scene?”

  “How am I going to live?” Tears ran unheeded down her cheeks. “What am I going to do?”

  “You’re going to tell us where you were yesterday morning.” Kate said firmly. “You don’t want to go back to Holding do you?”

  Aggie shook her head. She took another sip of her coffee and grimaced. “Can I have another cup? This is cold.”

  Mitch looked to Kate who nodded. “I’ll get it.”

  When he left the room Kate continued. “I know you saw your probation officer yesterday. Where did you go after that?”

  Aggie looked around as if noticing her surroundings for the first time. “I went to the clinic to get Christian his shots for school.”

  “Aggie we checked. You never got to the clinic yesterday. You never signed in.”

  Aggie looked confused. “I didn’t?”

  “No you didn’t. You told your probation officer you were going to the clinic but you never got there. Did you go back to the house? Did you see Danny?”

  Mitch entered and handed Aggie a steaming cup of coffee.

  She all but grabbed the cup and took a deep gulp then gasped. “That’s really hot.”

  “Aggie where did you go yesterday after leaving the probation office?”

  “Um, I’m not really sure. It’s all a jumble in my head.”

  “The bartender at the Sundown said you arrived there around lunch time. Where were you just before that? Did you leave the probation office and drive home?”

  “I’m not sure,” Aggie continued to sip at the coffee. “I think I dropped Christian off to play with a friend then I went to the bank.”

  “Which bank?” Mitch asked, gently pushing a box of tissues toward the weeping woman.

  “We always use the Orange-Tree Bank over on Colonial.”

  Kate and Mitch exchanged a glance. They could get the security discs from the bank if necessary to verify her story.

  “Aggie, how did Christian get to your house?”

  Aggie gave a huge sniff. “He wanted to go to Mason’s because they didn’t have school yesterday.”

  “But you didn’t take him to Mason’s house.” Kate prompted. “Christian is the one who called 911.”

  “He did? He’s such a good boy.”

  Kate worked to stem her impatience with the woman. “He did. Now, did you take Christian home?”

  Aggie’s bloodshot eyes tracked around the small room. “I took him to Mason’s but he said Mason wasn’t there so he walked home.” She set down the cup and threaded her fingers through her already disheveled hair.

  “Then what happened?” Mitch prompted.

  She picked up her cup but just stared at the contents. “When I got back home the police were there. They wouldn’t let me in because Danny was dead.” Her tears started again. “What am I going to do?”

  “Aggie did you give Danny the sports drink?”

  “I do all the shopping,” she sniffed again. “He hates the grocery store.”

  “And did you put something in Danny’s sports drink?”

  “What?” Her head snapped up. Shock seemed to momentarily dry her tears.

  Kate placed an empty bottle still in its evidence bag on the table. “Did you put something in Danny’s drink?”

  Aggie shook her head and lifted a shaky hand to point. “That’s not Danny’s bottle. He doesn’t drink that.”

  “This is what we found by his body.”

  “No,” her voice was suddenly fearful. “Danny gets mad if I forget and buy the wrong kind.” Her eyes darted about the room again then filled with tears. “That can’t be his.”

  Kate and Mitch exchanged a glance. “So you didn’t buy this?” Mitch questioned.

  Aggie shook her head. “I can only get Power-up. He gets . . . he gets angry if I forget and bring home the wrong stuff. A man likes what he likes,” she stated firmly.

  “Aggie why did you take Christian and leave the scene before anyone could talk to you?”

  Her tears increased. “Danny’s dead and I don’t know what to do.”

  “So you thought that going to the Sundown Bar was the answer?” Kate snapped.

  Aggie jerked. “I didn’t know what to do,” she cried. “The police wouldn’t let me in my own house. I was confused.”

  “But not confused enough to take your boy and run?”

  “I didn’t run. I got in the car and drove.” Her tone clearly implied she thought Kate was the one confused. “I dropped Christian off at his friend’s house then I went to the bar for a drink.”

  “Why did you take Christian to Mason’s house again?” Mitch asked.

  Aggie all but rolled her tear-streaked eyes. “They won’t let me bring him into the bar.”

  Kate gave Mitch a glance then rose. “Aggie, wait here, we’ll be right back.”

  “I want to go home. I want my boy.”

  “Aggie we need to talk with Christian. Do we have your permission?”

  “No, I want to go home,” she sat up a little straighter. “I want a lawyer, and I want to go home.”

  Kate nodded. “No problem. Give us a few minutes to deal with the paperwork and you’ll be cleared to go for now. Okay?”

  Aggie folded her arms across her narrow chest. “I don’t want to go back to that cell. It smells in there,” she said stiffly.

  “You can wait here,” Mitch said, not bothering to add most of the odor had come from her.

  Outside the interview room Mitch turned to Kate. “Are you going to let her go?”

  “Yeah, no fingerprints on the bottle so for the moment I’ve got nothing to charge her with. Explain to her that her house is still a crime scene so she can’t go home. See if she’s got a relative that will take her and the boy in for a few days. I want to get over to the scene.”

  “Any word yet from the crew at Jo’s?” Mitch asked before turning back toward the door.

  Kate shook her head. “I’ll be heading there after I check out Aggie’s house. Somewhere there’s a container of antifreeze and I’m going to find it.”

  “Antifreeze?” Mitch’s eyes went wide. “That’s what the poor fool drank?”

  “Looks that way. The lab isn’t positive but the prelim report states properties similar to antifreeze. So that’s my bet. Easy to obtain – easy to use.”

  “But wouldn’t he have noticed something?”

  Kate shook her head again. “Seems the taste is sweet, although I don’t have that on personal experience. That’s why some jerks put it out to kill dogs. Animals are attracted to the sweet scent, then the sweet taste.”

  Mitch grimaced. “Gross. What a way to die.”

  “You’re right there.” She gave one glance back toward A
ggie. “Okay, I’m gone. Tag me when you’re done here and I’ll let you know where I am.”

  “Aye aye, Chief,” Mitch gave a mock salute then turned back to the interview room and Aggie.

  * * *

  Julie Finch walked on air as she made her way to her locker. Today was going down as the best day of her life. First the computer lab crashed and she got a free period. Then the call to report to the guidance office had sent her nerves scrambling for what she might have done wrong, only to find Mrs. Downey had wanted to congratulate her. Her PSAT scores were over the top. If she could keep her grades up – like that was a problem-- she’d be able to get into any college she wanted and with scholarships. She resisted the urge to dance as she reached her locker. But the best part had been coming out of the office and bumping into Marques Brown. The hottest guy in the Jazz Band had asked her to the first dance of the year. Could life get any better?

  She spun the dial on her locker and laughed when she missed the first number.

  “Hey, Finch, heard you got sent to the office.”

  Julie turned to see Nicole Atwood leaning on the wall behind her and her smile faded. Nicole, one of the most popular girls in the school with her blond curls and perfect clothes, was rarely nice to anyone. And being the focus of Nicole’s attention was not where Julie wanted to be.

  “No big. Mrs. D just wanted to talk college.”

  “Don’t be dense, Finch,” Nicole’s laser blue eyes stared holes into her. “I’m talking about Marques.”

  Julie felt her stomach do a flip. “What do you mean?” she stammered.

  Nicole rolled her eyes. “He asked you to the dance, didn’t he?”

  Julie nodded slowly.

  Nicole pushed away from the wall and stepped closer. “Way to go,” she said softly. Her smile, which made Julie think more satisfied smirk, never reached her eyes. Then she turned and walked away.

  Julie stood rooted to the spot in front of her locker and waited for her heartbeat to return to normal. What had just happened? Was she in trouble with Nicole for accepting a date with Marques? She tried to turn the dial on her locker again and found her hands were shaking. Shifting her books, Julie took a deep breath and tried again. This time the locker opened. She started to slip her books onto the shelf when a small square envelope fluttered to the floor. Frowning she put the books down and retrieved the envelope. She turned it over and felt her stomach jump again. An old-fashioned inkbottle with a feather sticking out of it had been carefully drawn on the bottom corner of the envelope. “The Quills,” she whispered to herself. A secret club in the school that everyone knew about but no one knew who was in it. It was rumored they only selected a few students each year. Julie thought of her meeting in the Guidance office and her excitement grew. Was she being invited to join the Quills because of her over-the-top test scores?

  The bell rang and classroom doors flew open. Carefully Julie slipped the envelope into her pocket as her fellow students filled the hallway. This would need to be opened in private.

  Two hours later Julie entered the coffee shop. The instructions were clear. She was to buy a latte and take a seat at the back corner table. But as she stood at the counter her heart sank. A couple already occupied the assigned table. What was she going to do now? She glanced nervously over her shoulder, surely she wasn’t supposed to go and sit with them. They were all but making out across the small tabletop. Maybe she’d just get her coffee and take the table next to them, but even that seemed intrusive when there were so many empty tables to choose from.

  The server handed Julie her order as she tried to decide what to do. She just couldn’t mess this up. She wasn’t going to miss getting into the Quills because some stupid couple decided to make it in the coffee shop. She paused at the side counter to get some napkins and felt her heart take a hopeful leap. They were leaving. Thank you god, she whispered softly. The man scooped up their discarded cups and plates while the woman giggled and shifted her purse on her shoulder. Laughing, the two made their way toward the door and Julie all but rushed to the table. She wiped the top with the napkins and took a seat in the corner so she could better see who was coming in.

  Ten minutes later and half her latte gone she wondered if this was some cruel joke. Was someone going to jump out with a camera and yell, “Sucker!” Impatiently she checked her watch again. She didn’t recognize the girl who now stood at the counter but she did recognize the indecisive glances that kept coming in her direction. When the girl, latte in hand, started in her direction, Julie took a deep breath. Okay, she thought, here it goes.

  “Can I ask you a favor,” the girl said timidly. Her hair was pulled back from her face in such a tight tail that Julie wanted to wince and if her glasses had been any thicker they could have been cut from a Coke bottle. A dingy patterned skirt hung loosely on her thin frame while a matted pink sweater slipped from one shoulder. “Would you mind moving to another table?”

  Whatever Julie had been expecting, this wasn’t it. “Excuse me?”

  “There are lots of empty tables would you mind moving to one of them,” the girl pulled out a chair and started to sit. “I’m expecting someone and this is our table.”

  Julie sat up straighter. “Yes, I do mind. Why don’t you take one of the empty tables? I was here first.”

  The girl sat and leaned forward. “Look,” she whispered, “this is really important to me. I’m going to be let into a special club and I need to meet them at this table. So would you move? Please?” The last word came out as more of a whine than a plea.

  Julie leaned back in her chair. She’d never been one to judge a person only by their appearance, but as she took in the mismatched clothing and the unflattering hairstyle she began to have second thoughts. Was this pitiful girl also being asked to join the Quills? Her tablemate wasn’t just a nerd, but an unkempt one as well. Maybe the Quills weren’t such a great group after all. “Look,” she said finally, “I’m sorry but I was here first. And if some club is going to keep you out because you sat at the wrong table then maybe you ought to rethink joining them.”

  “Oh, but I can’t,” the girl leaned forward. “You don’t understand. This is the most exclusive club at my school. I just gotta get in. Everybody that’s anybody is in the Quills.” The girl gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Gosh, I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

  Julie shook her head. “I didn’t hear anything.”

  “Look, you seem really nice. I’m Wilma. The thing is I’m not supposed to tell anyone I’m being considered for the Quills.” She thumped herself on the side of the head. “Gosh, I said it again. Just don’t listen to me, okay. When I get excited my mouth just runs ahead of my brain.”

  And I’m beginning to wonder if you have a brain, Julie thought. She glanced at her watch again. She’d been waiting 30 minutes and nobody showed. Well so much for great days she thought and slowly got to her feet. “Look, you can have the table. I’ve got to get going.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Wilma’s smile brightened.

  What a shame, Julie thought tossing her empty cup and the white envelope in the trash. The girl might have been pretty with a better hairstyle. But the Quills? Maybe she should be the one rethinking the situation.

  “Julie?” She looked up to find Marques Brown standing at the counter. “I thought that was you.”

  Julie struggled to keep her heart from doing somersaults in her chest. “Hey, two times in one day.”

  “Yeah,” Marques said, reaching for his order. “My lucky day. You stop in here often?”

  She shook her head. “I was supposed to meet someone but things didn’t work out. You?”

  Marques nodded. “Yeah, I’m a regular. Just finished Jazz practice. Hey do you need a ride home? I’ve got the car today.”

  Her stomach did a flip as she tried not to look too anxious. “That would be great.” And feeling like she was floating again, Julie left the coffee shop with Marques.

  At the back table, Wilma watched the c
ouple leave. When she was sure Marques’ car had left the parking lot she reached back and pulled the band from her hair. Giving her head a shake, she let the long brown waves settle softly around her face. She tucked the glasses into the hideous mustard purse and pulled out her phone.

  “Okay, she’s gone. Yeah, she did okay, never even gave a hint of who she was waiting for. I think she even felt sorry for me. And Christ, Nicole, where did you get these hideous clothes?” Wilma chuckled. “Interesting development though -- Marques Brown came in and ended up offering her a ride.” She listened a minute more. “I know, things are working out perfectly. I’ll see you later. No, later. First I’m going home to change out of this ridiculous costume.”

  It was hours past dinner before Julie finally escaped to her room. She hadn’t even balked when her mother insisted she clear the table and do the dishes or help stuff envelopes for the fundraiser. Life was just too good. She stood in front of her mirror and eyed herself critically. She wasn’t too bad in the looks department: her skin, a rich milk chocolate, was clear and the new mascara did make her eyes look bigger. She turned her head from side to side and studied her dark hair. Would Marques like her better if she had it straightened? Maybe she should splurge and get new eyeliner. She calculated how much of her allowance was left. Before she’d gotten out of the car Marques had invited her to the first home game and that would mean a new outfit. Maybe if she did a few extra chores around the house before she asked for an advance, Mom wouldn’t hit the roof. Deciding on her plan of action, Julie flopped down on her bed. Paper crinkled under her and she frowned. Sitting up she pulled a crumpled envelope from her sweater pocket. The old-fashioned inkbottle with feather stared up at her. She’d thrown this away in the coffee shop hadn’t she? Slowly she opened the envelope. This time there were two small sheets of paper.

  You passed the first test

  Tomorrow you’ll try for the second.

  Good luck

  * * *

  The next afternoon Julie tried to board the late bus as instructed. “Whoa, kid, you got a pass?” She stopped at the driver’s command.

  “I don’t usually ride this bus but I’m going to a friend’s house today.” She tried to make her voice sound confident but to her chagrin it came out shaky.

  “Yeah? Who?”

  Startled to be questioned this way with students pushing behind her to get onto the bus her mind went blank so she blurted the first name that popped into her head. “Nicole Atwood?”