Crime of Passion (Marcus Douglas 1)

Marcus started to speak, “You'll have to—” but was startled by the sound of a gun firing three times.

Marcus looked quickly at Carmen and just as quickly at Roland. He had been hit three times in the chest. His now lifeless body slumped over in the chair.

“Now, you just hand me the piece, pretty lady,” a voice came from behind them.

Marcus and Carmen turned and looked in the direction of the voice. Bill Hudson stood behind them. He pointed his gun at Marcus, pressing the barrel against his temple. “I said, hand me that piece. I ain't gonna ask you again.”

Carmen slowly placed her gun into Hudson's outstretched hand.

“That’s a smart girl.” Hudson looked at Roland. “Fool! You always were a fool, Roland,” he said as he came around the desk. He looked at Marcus and Carmen, shaking his head. “And you Marcus. You know that the DEA and the FBI are camped outside my house? Probably in there right now, tearing up my house. Then I come over here and find this fool spilling his guts to you two.” He glanced over at Roland again. “Now look at you, Roland. Dead. Dead because you're a fool! Real shame too, Marcus, because Roland Ferguson was the smartest man I ever met. But he was a fool. A fool for these women. That's why we're here. Men being fools for these women.”

Keeping his gun trained on Marcus and Carmen, Hudson jerked the chair and Roland's body fell to the floor. He sat down in the chair.

“Fools, damn fools. Weak for these women. So now, what I'm I going to do with you two? And shit, you Marcus, damn it. Why couldn't you just let things lay where they were? You coulda been well on your way to being the next DA in this town. But no! You had to push it, had to involve Mondrya in this shit. She was a pretty young thing when she came to work for me. I watched her grow into a fine woman, smart as a whip, too. Now she’s dead because of you. Why? Shit I know why. Because you’re a fool for her!” Hudson shouted, and then he laughed a little. “But shit, pretty as she is though, I mighta had to be her fool too. Frank Collins was a fool. Let Suzanne bluff him into tellin' her where the money came from in those off shore accounts.”

“So you killed Suzanne,” Marcus said. “Raped and beat her to death.”

“That's where you'd be wrong. I didn't have to rape Suzanne, the slut wanted it. But what does good old Frank do? Instead of falling back in line like a good boy, he starts playing footsy with the DEA. Then he fucks around and tells Desireé everything. That set Roland off. I tried to tell Roland not to worry, that I would handle it. But what does the fool do? He goes off and beats her and that limp dick dope fiend to death. When all he had to do was wait a day or two and his problem would have taken care of itself.”

“You punctured the brake line on Desireé's car?” Marcus asked.

“Who did it isn't as important as the fact that it was done and that woulda finished it. But since the brakes didn't finish you two, you have to be dealt with,” Hudson said picking up the phone. He dialed a number. “Let me speak to Benjamin.”

“Detective Benjamin is cur

rently unavailable. Who is this?”

Hudson quickly hung up the phone. “Shit!”

“I guess you can't count on Benjamin to handle your light work,” Marcus said smugly.

“Guess I can't.”

“How'd you get your hooks into Benjamin?” Marcus asked.

“That was Roland's doing. About fifteen years ago. Benjamin had a fire at his house and that fire claimed the life of his wife, and the fire and his wife being in there wasn't no accident. But you see, Roland being the smart man that he was, found out from the investigator that it was arson. So when Benjamin filed a claim, Roland paid it, but let him know that he knew that he set the fire to cover the murder and tucked Benjamin away neatly in his back pocket. So now Roland had him a cop and me, I had me a prosecutor.”

“Izella Hawkins.”

Hudson nodded. “So when Benjamin came to Roland with this money laundering thing, we were all set. All the piece was put in place. We had us a good ten year run. Until these grown men started getting foolish over these women. Because of the trouble since the world began. I always thought that Roland was smarter then that.” Hudson shook his head glancing down at Roland. “So now what I'm I gonna do with you two?”

“You don't have to kill us,” Carmen said quietly.

“Yes I do, pretty lady. That dog won't hunt, and I'll tell you why. That damn disk you gave to the fuckin' FBI.” Hudson sat quietly, thinking about what he was going to do with Marcus and Carmen. Then he smiled at them and started to laugh out loud.

“What's so funny?” Marcus asked.

“Well here's how this is gonna play out. The police are gonna find Roland dead. It seems pretty lady here found out that he really did kill her sister and came over here to kill him. Then you two love birds are going to disappear.”

“Any reason why the police won't think that you killed him?”

“Because I'm in Puerto Rico, as we speak. I'll let the Puerto Rican police arrest me tomorrow and extradite me back here where I'll swear that I had no knowledge of what Roland was doing. Collins was his boy and so was Benjamin. I never had any direct contact with Benjamin, he always thought he was getting his orders from Roland. So you see, I'll get me a smart lawyer like Marcus here and I'll be out on bail by lunch time. And cleared of any charges in no time.” Hudson stood up. “Now if you don't mind, let's all go quietly to your car.”

Carmen and Marcus stood up and walked slowly out of the study with Hudson close behind. As they walked down the hall, they saw Melissa laying on the floor.

“Don't worry, she's not dead. She has to find Roland's body and tell the police that you two were here,” Hudson laughed.

As Hudson stepped over Melissa's body, she grabbed him by the leg. He fell to the floor which caused the gun to fall from his hand and slide across the floor. Marcus quickly turned around and kicked Hudson in the face. Melissa crawled on top of Hudson and began hitting him as hard as she could about his back, head, and shoulders. Carmen went after the gun.