Read Online The Mystery of Jessica Benson by C.K. Laurence - Free Book Online

station as they had been throughout
the drive, sheathed in ice.
CHAPTER EIGHT
    E xhausted by the end of the second day of the investigation,
Karen’s mind raced with the facts as they now knew them.
Although Will continued his ranting and was stalled on Kyle
Sands as ‘the most feasible lead, if not the perp,’ nothing they
had learned so far closed the case.
    God , Karen thought, he actually said ‘perp! ’
Tenants in Jessica’s building were still being questioned,
but no further leads had been uncovered. They were also
following up with everyone who was in any way connected to
the Demons.
Several guests from Tyrell Utley’s party had already
been interviewed. It had apparently been a casual gathering,
invitation by word-of-mouth. Many of those who had shown up,
according to the host, were ‘friends of friends.’
Utley looked to be a dead end. He was a creep and not
the least bit concerned with his teammate’s fate. If anything, he
was buoyed by what Sands’ loss to the team would do for his
own career. He bragged about having been home all that night,
promising there was more than one woman who could
corroborate his story, gladly relating the intimate details. And
one for one, each of the women backed Utley up.
The parking ticket Kyle brought up in his interview with
Karen and Will was recorded. It was written shortly after 11:00
p.m. as he claimed. The meter maid, a short plump brunette
named Antonella Perez, confirmed that he had shown up just
after she signed the violation. She said he looked “pretty riled up
over something,” and he attempted to talk her into ditching the
ticket. Ms. Perez confided to Karen that she was very tempted to
rip it up for him because he was “one hot piece of carne ,” but
because it was already documented, there wasn’t anything she
could do.
Garcia had yet to come up with anything useful from the
crime scene. Everything in the apartment had been wiped clean.
He hadn’t even been able to recover any of the victim’s own
prints. The homicide investigation was one of the most intense
ever for the Crimes Against Persons unit of the Miami Beach
Police Department. The Versace murder had been a cakewalk in
comparison. Urgent , Confidential and Urgent Confidential memos flew around the squad room like confetti. The brass
insisted everything be handled by the book . Screw-ups would not
be tolerated. Everyone was under the looking glass. It had been
years, but the Simpson case was still the standard for fucked-up
high profile cases.
But Kyle Sands was not O.J. Simpson. There had never
been 911 calls about abuse. In fact, as far as they could
determine, the quarterback had lived his life as a model citizen, a
leader in the community. He was loyal to his family, his friends
and his team. A regular Eagle Scout. But mass murder Ted
Bundy was also an Eagle Scout, and Will pointed that out every
chance he got.
Mixed messages were everywhere. After all, Kyle was a
star, an icon in the community. All ‘t’s would be crossed and all
‘i’s dotted, but the media would be treated with kid glove. News
conferences would be held twice daily and all questions would
be addressed.
As far as Karen was concerned, any one of the witnesses
with whom she had spoken so far could be guilty. Anyone but
Kyle Sands . Memories of her youth haunted her, and she found
herself easily distracted and at least part of the time obsessed
with their past. Kyle giving her her first tennis lesson; yelling
for her to hurry up so she could go to the park with him and her
brother; bringing her balloon bouquets when she was sick;
teasing her about her first date and then comforting her when
the little prick stood her up.
When her brother Brett died, she was inconsolable, but
Kyle had been the one there for her. Until he started college and
got involved with the rigorous schedule of quarterbacking at that
level, Kyle was always there for her. She now felt she had a
chance to reciprocate. She wouldn’t