"Stop it, Jake, you’re hurting me."
"Why?" Jake screamed at me.
"He just kept shaking me. He was hurting me! So I pushed him off. I didn’t think I pushed him that hard, but he lost his balance and fell down the steps. I tried to grab him; Nick, but I couldn’t hold him. As long as I live, Nick, I never will forget how he looked. His head was tipped to the side. Lying there like he was staring at me. I ran down the steps, I shook him. I screamed his name, but he was dead."
She started crying.
I didn’t sweat her about it. She killed her brother. I couldn’t even imagine the burden she must be carrying around with her. "I didn’t mean to kill him. Really, I didn’t push him that hard. I didn’t! He just lost his balance."
I put my arms around her and held her. Trying to give her a chance to compose herself. I still had a lot more questions to ask. I didn’t want to, but I had to. "What did you do then?"
She tried to pull herself together enough to answer me. "I panicked, Nick. I ran out of there."
"Where’d you go?"
"I went to Chéz’s apartment. I told her what happened. I was practically hysterical. But Chéz was calm. Calmer than I was anyway. She cried a little and said that we would deal with it in the morning. Then she gave me some of her sleeping pills and made me go to bed. We went back out there early the next morning. We both cried when we first saw him laying there, staring at us. Chéz rushed over and closed his eyes. Then she turned to me."
"We got to move the body, Gee."
"I can’t, Chéz. I can’t, Chéz, I killed him."
"Gee, you got to pull it together."
"No! We have to call the police."
"Don’t make me slap you, Gee. It’s too late for that now. This has gone too far. Jake is dead, Gee. You goin’ to jail for life ain’t gonna change that. Now help me get him to the car." Chéz went and got a blanket, and we wrapped him up in it. It wasn’t easy, but we dragged him out to the car and into the trunk. "We’ll make it look like Chilly killed him."
"How we gonna do that?" Chéz didn’t answer me. She went back in the house and came back with her purse. Chésará pulled out a gun with a handkerchief wrapped around it. "What are you doing?" She walked up to the car and shot Jake in the head. "Are you crazy?"
"Chilly always carries a 9. Do you remember when Chilly shot Jake in the leg?"
"Yes."
"This is the gun that he used. He left it there. He said it was so I’d know that he will come back and kill me with it. It’s his gun, Gee. The cops will think that he shot him."
"We heard a car pull up in the driveway, we turned around and Lisa was getting out of her car. She ran toward us screaming. She saw Chéz shoot him. We tried to explain, but she wouldn’t listen. She just kept screaming ‘You killed him!’ Then she ran back to her car and drove away. We went after her; she drove to her house and went inside. She had calmed down a little by that time, and she let us in. I told her what happened and why we did what we did."
"You two are crazy if you think I’m going to believe that story." Lisa picked up the phone. "All I know is that I saw you kill Jake. I’m calling the police."
Chéz said, "I can’t let you do that, Lisa. This is our chance to be free of that animal. Put the phone down, Lisa."
"Lisa, please, I’m not lying to you, it was an accident. Please put the phone down. Lisa don’t do this."
She started to dial. "I’m not gonna ask you again, hang up that phone." Chéz pulled out the gun and pointed it at Lisa. "Put the phone down."
When Lisa saw the gun she freaked out, she started screaming. "You’re gonna kill me!" Then she ran at Chéz. They fought for the gun.
"Stop it! Chéz, stop!"
"The gun went off. I looked at Lisa. I could see it in her eyes. Chéz dropped the gun and backed away from her. I watched Lisa fall to the floor."
"Don’t tell me. It was an accident."
"Nick, you have to believe me. I’m telling you the truth. That’s exactly how it happened. We never meant to kill anybody. We never meant for any of this to happen."
"That’s a pretty fantastic story." I got up and looked around. I picked up my glass and walked slowly into the other room. I needed a drink. I poured a glass of Johnnie Black and drank it down. I poured another one. I could hear her crying. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I thought about calling the police. But I didn’t want to. She was in enough pain. She had killed her brother, and she was just as responsible for Lisa’s death as Chésará. Maybe it was an accident; her story fit the facts. I couldn’t be sure. She had been lying to me from the start. Everything she had told me was a lie. She was good at it. I poured her a shot of Henessey and took it to her. "Here, drink this, you look like you could use it."
Her hands were shaking. "Thank you." She drank hers straight down and let the empty glass fall out of her hand. She looked up at me with those eyes. They didn’t look so pretty now. Her tears left a trail of black from her mascara. "What are you gonna do now? Are you gonna call the police?"