The Season of Sin (Peace In The Storm Publishing Presents) (9 page)

“What happened to your clothes?” Zoë opened Dylan’s coat.

Dylan closed her coat.

“Dylan what happened to you?” Steven asked.

“Are you all right?” Brianna walked to her.

“This is why I didn’t wanna come home. People don’t shut up long enough to listen. I just want someone to listen to me tonight.  Just one person to hear what I say and know I mean it.”

“What happened?” Steven pulled her from the others.

“She was attacked.”

“Attacked?” Jasmine gaped at the stranger. “What are you talking about?”

“If you hadn’t jumped down her throat and took the time to pay attention, you could’ve figured it out.  You’re the aunt right?”

“Yes I’m Jasmine Hudson.”

“A man tried to rape your niece tonight.”

“
What
?” Jasmine covered her mouth. 

“I went with her to the police station. We’ve been there since eight something.”

“Oh my baby.” Jasmine held her.  “I’m so sorry, honey.” She kissed Dylan’s tears. “I didn’t mean to come down on you. I had no idea.  I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I wouldn’t ever want anything to happen to you.”

“I know.” Dylan stuffed her face in Jasmine’s bosom.

“I love you so much, sweetie.”

“I know.”

“What exactly happened?” Zoë took Dylan’s hand.

“I was so stupid.  So stupid.”

“No you weren’t.” The stranger put his arm around her shoulders. “You did what any normal person would’ve done.”

Dylan clenched her coat. “It happened by Shannon’s neighborhood.”

“That’s a horrible area,” Zoë said. “You shouldn’t have gone there alone at night.”

“I went to see if I could find answers. I wanted to talk to the people in her apartment building but apparently Shannon’s missing or ran off or something.”

“I told you to leave it alone.”

“I can’t just leave it alone, Zoë. Anyway I was in the parking lot.”

Steven moved in front of Brianna. “Someone attacked you in the parking
lot
?”

“No. He came
up
to me in the parking lot. Damn it! I was a fool.”

Jasmine hugged her. “Whatever happened, it’s not your fault. You did nothing wrong.”

“I was so stupid. I thought I was helping him.”

Zoë put her arms around her. “What did he do?”

“He lured me to this van.  Said his baby wasn’t breathing and that his van didn’t run.” She closed her eyes. “He was so convincing, crying and everything.  He was a very good actor.”

“So he didn’t rape you right?” Brianna asked. “You okay?”

“As okay as I can be. We called the police and they ended up acting like I’d done something wrong for being there at night.”

“I’m sorry for that,” Steven said.  “It’s definitely not your fault. A woman should be able to go anywhere any time of day without being attacked.”

“They of course said they’ll look into it but there wasn’t any physical evidence or anything.  I described how he looked and that’s it.”

“Dylan was too shaken to really go into a lot of detail. Plus it’s very hard to prove attempted rape. She made a report, gave a description and we waited at the station for the cops to go check out the area.”

“And you…were with her all this time?” Jasmine pointed a quivering finger to the man.

“Yes.”

“Who are you?”

“He’s my friend, Aunt Jas.” Dylan took his hand. “If he hadn’t been there I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“Believe me I’m just glad I got there in time.”

“Well you already know I’m Jasmine Hudson. I still don’t know your name.”

“Nick Sebastian.”

“Nick.” Jasmine shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“So the police knew nothing about this guy at all?”

Nick turned to Zoë. “No. They traced the license plate of the van and turns out it was stolen.”

“Don’t give up.” Brianna got her coat from the two-seater. “They’ll keep trying.”

“Right. The police barely do things against suspects you
can
identify.”

“Not for lack of trying, Jasmine.”

“I’m sorry, Detective Morris.  I didn’t mean to offend. I’m just upset.”

 “I just wanna forget about tonight and go to bed.”

Jasmine helped Dylan out of her coat. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll bring you some tea and something to eat.”

“Wait.” Dylan stopped before she got to the stairs. “What are you guys doing here?”

Steven put on his coat.  “We wanted to see if anyone had seen Shannon ourselves. Guess we got our answer.”

“I know you want to do all you can to help but let us handle it, Dylan.” Brianna fixed her coat collar.  “This is nothing to play around with. The man who tried to rape you could have something to do with Nadia’s murder.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“You really believe that, Detective Morris?”

“We can’t take any chances, Zoë.”

“I’m really glad you’re all right, Dylan. Bree and I are gonna do all we can to help.”

“Nick?” Dylan hugged him for the thousandth time.  “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“I’m glad I was there.” He kissed her cheek.  “I want you to get some rest.  You got my number if you need it.”

“Yes. Thank you so much.” She hugged him again.

“Come on, sweetie.” Jasmine pulled her away.  “Go on upstairs and I’ll be up in a minute.”

She went upstairs.

“I hope she’s gonna be okay.” Zoë gathered the coffee cups. “I’m gonna take these to the kitchen.”

“Good job I’m doing of protecting Dylan huh? I swore to Nadia I’d always look after her. I’m already screwing up.”

“Jasmine it’s not your fault,” Brianna said. “Who could’ve known this would happen?”

“What’s happening around here huh? Did we do something to deserve this?  Is this payback for something?”

“Jasmine you gotta hold yourself together.” Steven put on his gloves.  “Call me and Bree if you need to all right?”

“You think Shannon ran off or do you think something happened to her?”

“You know her better than we do,” Brianna said.  “What do you think?”

“No telling with Shannon. She’s a master at disappearing.”

Zoë came back in.  “Who’s a master at disappearing?”

“Oh we’re just speculating about Shannon being gone,” Jasmine said.

“Oh.” Zoë patted her hair. “I’d put my money on her passed out somewhere dead drunk.”

Steven hid his grin.

“The last person we need to be worrying about is Shannon. I don’t know why Dylan thought she’d know something anyway.”

Steven zipped up his coat. “It’s not impossible to think she might have had something to do with Nadia’s death. If you guys find out anything let us know.”

“We will.” Jasmine motioned to the door. “I appreciate the attention you’re giving this case.”

“Have a good night, everyone.” Steven titled his head to the lovely woman beside Zoë. “It was nice seeing you again.”

She put her arms behind her back. “You too.”

Jasmine escorted them to the door. “Thank you so much.”

“Bye.” Brianna waved.

Jasmine went back into the living room.

Nick stuffed his scarf down his coat. “Well I guess I should be going huh? It was nice meeting you both.”

“Nice meeting you too.” Zoë  went upstairs. 

“Well.” Nick tied his scarf.  “Tell Dylan I hope she’ll be okay.”

“Wait, Mr. Sebastian.”

“Call me Nick.”

“I just wanted to thank you so much for what you did. I can’t imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t come along.”

“I think your niece is much stronger than you give her credit for.”

“Maybe so but I will always worry.” She walked him to the door.  “I owe you. If you need anything then let me know.”

“That’s not necessary.”

She touched his hand.  “There’s nothing I could give you that would be worth what you did. You have no idea how much I care for Dylan.”

He pulled his collar over his ears.  “I probably understand more than you think.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Brianna and Steven approached the front counter of the “Make a Deal” pawnshop the next day.

“Are you Antwan?” Brianna asked.

“I am.” He escorted a customer to the furniture section then went back to the counter. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m Detective Brianna Morris with the Albany Police.” She showed her badge. “This is my partner Steven Kemp.”

Antwan dusted off a shelf of DVD players. “What’s this about?”

“You’re a friend of Shannon Kuriakis’ aren’t you?” Steven moved for a customer to pass.

“Look if this is about Dr. Hollister then you’re on the wrong track. Shannon wouldn’t hurt her. She wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“That might be true but we need to find Shannon first. We believe she’s missing.  We heard you saw her Friday the fifth. It was the day of Nadia’s funeral.”

He straightened a bin of golf clubs.  “Look I don’t know where Shannon is. If I did I’d tell you.”

Brianna stooped down to check out a computer scanner.  “But you have to be concerned right?”

“We spoke to a young lady, Marley Blake.” Steven checked out the televisions. “She said you’re all close friends.”

Antwan scratched under his hat.

“Marley told us you were all together the evening of the fifth. Marley said Shannon was very upset because she wasn’t allowed at the funeral.”

“I don’t remember. She was rambling and everything.”

Steven blocked him.  “We’re losing patience.”

“Okay Shannon showed up at Marley’s around one or two that afternoon.  Marley called me over because Shannon was scaring her.”

Steven glanced at Antwan then back to the televisions. “How was she scaring her?”

“She was talking crazy and yes, she was kinda drunk. Shannon’s neurotic anyway but when she starts drinking she’s out of control.”

Brianna nodded. “What happened?”

“She was cursing and hollering about not being able to go to the funeral and how much she loved Nadia. Then she started talking about Bruce.”

Steven played with a universal remote. “Bruce McNamara?”

“Yeah she kept saying she knew he killed Nadia.”

The officers looked at each other.

“She said he wasn’t gonna get away with it. Marley got scared because Shannon kept talking about getting her gun to go see Bruce.”

Steven moved from the shelves. “Shannon has a gun?”

“Look she was just ranting and emotional. She didn’t mean it.”

Steven put the remote back on the shelf. “How do you know?”

“Shannon says things all the time when she’s drunk. I told her to go to the police if she thought Bruce was involved. She cursed me out, left Marley’s and I haven’t seen her since.”

“Do you think she saw Bruce that day?” Brianna asked.

He adjusted his cap. “I don’t know. This isn’t the first time Shannon’s sprouted off and disappeared. You guys don’t know how Shannon can be when she’s drunk.”

“Looks like we need to get back to Old Swaggert’s junkyard huh, Steve?”

He gestured to the door.  “I’m right ahead of you, Bree.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Steven and Brianna found Bruce underneath the hood of another car when they got to Swaggert’s junkyard.

He turned the radio down and got a wrench from the pocket of his overalls.

 “Well isn’t this a lovely surprise huh? Let me guess. Wanna talk about the murder right?”

“You can say that,” Steven said.

Bruce walked around Brianna to get to the other side of the car.  “I thought we settled this before.” He stooped back under the hood.

“You know Shannon Kuriakis is missing?” Brianna peeked over his shoulder.

“I heard something about that.” He wiped his oily hands  on his overalls. “Sure she’s missing?”

Brianna stepped back. “What do you mean?”

“Well this isn’t the first time Shannon’s run off.”

“We’ve heard.” Steven stepped over a soda can in the grass.

“I suppose you’ve also heard she’s a drunk?”

Brianna swatted a gnat. “We think it might be more than her just running off.”

Bruce peeked over his shoulder at her.  “Why?”

She shrugged. “Do you know Antwan Toussaint?”

He reached further into the car.  “What did ole’ big mouth Antwan say now? I swear he gossips more than a chick.”

“Antwan saw Shannon Friday, the fifth. I’m sure you remember that day right?” Brianna stood next to Steven. “It was the day of Nadia’s funeral.”

“Get to the point if you don’t mind.”

“Antwan said that he and Marley Blake, another friend of Shannon’s was with her that afternoon. She was upset about not being invited to the funeral and she was very drunk.”

“When was Shannon not drunk?”

Steven bent down beside Bruce. “Antwan said Shannon planned to come see you and she was bringing her gun.”

“Oh man this is total bullshit.”

Steven rose. “Is it?”

“Yes. Now maybe she said she was coming to see me but she never did. I haven’t seen Shannon in months.  Ran into her at a bar last time I saw her.”

Steven rocked on his tiptoes. “Kinda get the feeling you’re lying there, ol’ Bruce.”

“Why would I lie about Shannon?” He cleaned his hands on his overalls. “She was no one in my world. I couldn’t care less about her.”

“It’s just so funny that your name keeps popping up every time we turn a corner with this case.”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you guys, Detective Morris. If you really wanna find the killer I suggest you stop bothering me and go talk to someone else. I’m not taking more of this harassment. I’m getting sick of it and trying to control my temper.”

Steven put his arm around Bruce’s shoulders.  “I think you’re lying.”

“For the last fuckin’ time I didn’t see Shannon that day and I don’t know where she is. So you can run back and tell Jasmine that. She probably danced down the street when she found out Shannon claimed she was coming to see me so I’d look like the killer.”

“We haven’t even told her about Shannon coming to see you yet,” Steven said. “Besides she’s busy worrying about Dylan. I’m sure you’re the last person on her mind.”