Chapter Sixteen

	"Mark?"
	"Martin? Man, you know I'm busy today."
	"It's important."
	"What?"
	"Nina."
	"Really?" The phone slipped from Mark's hand and onto the receiver.
"Oops,"he said walking away. He toweled his freshly shaven face and peered into
the steamy bathroom mirror. "Not bad."
	"Ugly ."
	He turned around,"Nina?"
	She stormed into the bathroom,"You left me there!"
	"I'm sorry Nina,"he mumbled, not the least bit sorry.
	"You're a lying son of a-"
	"Mark?"a soft feminine voice interrupted their scene.
	"Naomi!" Nina kicked open the door that led to the adjoining bedroom.
	"Nina, wait I-"
	"I knew I couldn't trust you!You've been here, screwing your brains out
with this undisciplined tramp! I knew it! Mark, I needed you today. I practically
killed myself trying to get out of there alone!"
	"Wait! Nina, I'm really sorry, at least let me explain."
	She whirled to face him, eyes blazing.
	"We're a team! There's nothing to explain. I'm your partner, she's just your
paid whore!"
	At this remark Naomi leapt from the bed where she'd lain swathed in satin
sheets.
	"Aah!"she scream, flying through the door at Nina. Side-stepping Naomi
easily, Nina began to laughing as the girl hit her head against the wall. Blood
seeped slowly from the corner of her mouth.
	"Stupid hooker. Rule number one; Never announce your surprise
attack,"she kicked Naomi's limp hand away.
	"You shouldn't have done that Nina."
	"What?"she asked innocently,"I came over for a little for of medical help
and that big scary woman attacked me."
	Mark glared at her,"Marsha-"
	"Will do nothing. Who do you think she'll believe, me...or you? The man
who cannot be trusted?"
	"Marsha's going to be pissed when I tell her."
	"Ooh. She'll just be glad I didn't take you down with the whore."
	"As if you could."
	"Try me."
	Nina spit in Naomi's general direction and limped from the bathroom.

Chapter Seventeen

	"We were right. It was heroine."
	Joan hadn't been home, or even talked to anyone in her family for several
days. She didn't even know if they had been told exactly what killed their daughter.
	"I should have busted my own sister,"Joan felt that she was somehow,
indirectly, no, very directly, responsible for Julia's death. Dorothy rubbed her shoe
against the concrete. Joan wondered who would know when and how Julia got her
drugs. She asked herself who knew more about her family than anyone, even more
than her family knew. 
	"Did you know?"
	"Dot, we all suspected, but we never caught her with the stuff."
	"Did you try?"
	Joan shook her head,"No comment."
	"What about the dealer?"
	"I have know idea who he his."
	"But you know it's a he?"
	"No."
	"Joan, this whole thing has affected your brain. Let's charge the little dude
who calls himself the administrator of WCC of attempted murder, rape, and
assault, and get it over with."
	"You know we couldn't if we wanted to."
	"Sure we could."
	"This from our captain with the impeccable record? I'm shocked."
	"Okay, so we can't just pick the manager. What about the guy outside in
the alley. He confessed and I'm pretty sure I saw him driving a big green van-"
	"Stop it."
	"We can just charge him and lock him away."
	"I know."
	"You're wasting your time, and ours, by trying to connect everything. Just
do one thing at a time and cut and paste until you've got an answer. When that
doesn't work, we'll convict the WCC guy."
	"I don't work that way."
	"You've got one week, then."
	"And if I don't solve it."
	"You're off the force, that alley man will go to jail and the other cases will
be buried."
	"You wouldn't."
	"I can and will do both. Get out of here Joan, and don't come back until
this frickin' case is over and we can be friends again."
	Doubting that that would ever happen, Joan sat in her sister's small car,
trying once again to figure out who could help her. Suddenly she thought of a man
who'd known the Treeces intimately since before Joan, and even her father, had
been born.
	"Langston."
	Joan was certain he would be able to help her. If only he would. She pealed
out of the parking lot, calling Mike Ward and Judy Fooks on her cellular phone.
	

Chapter Eighteen

	Langston walked slowly to the door, not feeling quite up to par. He
wondered if his age was finally catching up to him. Then he dismissed the feeling
as the result of two days of dancing the horizontal mambo with his lover away
from the Treece family, Barbie.
	"Yes?"he said, lamely.
	"Langston?"
	He opened the door and stared in disbelief at the frowning face of Joan
Treece, the only Treece child he'd ever liked,"Miss Joan!"
	"Don't call me that!" She stepped inside.
	"I assume you know that Master James took his family to visit your
parents."
	"Yes, of course, it was me who called him. But that's not the point."
	"What is the point?"
	"I need to talk to you."
	"Concerning?"
	"My family."
	Langston led her to the sitting room and offered her tea. She declined
impatiently and her frown grew.
	"I'm sorry about Miss Julia's death."
	"Langston, what happened to her?"
	"Why would I know?"
	"You know everything about us, you must know something I've
overlooked."
	"She was high every waking moment of her teenage life."
	"And?"
	"Miss Joan, I really don't think-"
	"Who was her dealer?"
	"A person, I don't know names. She was kind of stupid looking, and ugly. I
saw her once when Miss Julia asked me to give her a ride to meet the girl."
	Joan shook her head,"What else? Hair color, eye color, white, black? Can't
you tell me anything more?"
	"I don't know anything more about the subject. Miss Joan, please just sit
and rest you've been under pressure, I can tell."
	"Langston, you have to know. I must know everything, it's more than
important."
	"Miss Joan,"he began, searching for a way to tell her without really telling
her. He didn't want to be caught up in whatever trouble was going on. He was
already in deeper than he'd ever wanted to be,"I shouldn't even let you think that I
know. But evidently you think that I know something and I suppose I ought to tell
you exactly what I do know."
	"Yes, please. Jules was only the first Treece, but there is another family
that I'm concerned about-"
	"The Mackennas."
	Joan's mouth gaped,"What about them?"
	"Miss Joan, I cannot believe its come to this."
	"To what?"
	He sat back and took a deep breath. He stared at Joan, with her pretty
brown eyes and her short brown curls. Langston decided that she deserved to
know, and if she got out of it, the truth, then that was fine.
	"I once knew a woman, she was a girl at the time, and she was madly in
love with your grandfather, Edgar, even though he was four times her age. She
spent all her free time trying to get his attention but the only woman he noticed
was Gladys, so he married her. Gladys like his money, but she liked something else
he owned more..."
	"Go on,"she urged.
	"When Edgar died they'd been together a few years, they had a son,
Theodore, who was likely my son."
	Joan ignored the surprise she felt and leaned forward,"Daddy always did
have a darker skin tone."
	"Not that much darker, thankfully, but enough that I always knew.
Anyway, the girl was devastated when Edgar died, and she was certain that Gladys
had poisoned him. She hadn't, she would have told me, and after almost five years
of plotting, and waiting,. the day after Teddy's fifth birthday, Gladys was found
dead. No one could prove anything, but I knew that the girl had done it."
	"How, did you see it?"
	"Not exactly, I well, I heard them talking that day. Then I heard Gladys tell
her to leave, and then there was a thump, very loud. The police said that Gladys
had fallen from a ladder while putting away the birthday decorations. I'm certain
she was pushed."
	"Langston, how does this fit in with-"
	"Then, there was the girl's eldest daughter. She fell in love with Theodore,
the same way her mother had loved Edgar, madly. She was only a few years
younger than Theodore, and when he married Daphne, she got incredibly angry.
She tried to kill Daphne, by pushing her off the ledge that overlooks Lake Lincoln.
She managed to befriend Daphne and they were having hunch up there. The girl
tried to push Daphne, and though she looks frail, your mother is very strong. She
fought back and accidentally knocked the girl off. They found her body, but
Daphne's story was airtight, thanks in part to the Treece family fortune, I'm sure.
She told them that yes, she had eaten lunch on the ridge that day, but Linda, that
was the girl's name, had wanted to stay behind. That, she said, was at one thirty.
Both Theodore and I confirmed that she had been home between two and eight
that evening, the time span in which Linda was said to have died. They suspected
she jumped and the case was ruled to be a suicide.
	"But Linda had a little sister who didn't believe the stories. She was, just
like her mother and sister, a vengeful bitch. She wanted revenge for the death of
her sister, whom she idolized, and the suicide of her mother, who's note said only
that she loved Edgar."
	"Langston, are you saying that this is her revenge for the deaths of-"
	"There's more,"Langston continued, getting excited by the whole story.
He'd never told another living soul all he knew about the circumstances regarding
those deaths, now that he had his chance he was loving it. Maybe, I ought to write
a book, he thought. Joan was really enthralled, but getting impatient for him to
continue,"Linda's little sister was the second of three, her name was Janet. Janet
made several very unsuccessful attempts to kill off the Treeces. She tried to burn
down the house during a large reunion, but dropped her matches in a puddle and
couldn't get them to light; she tried to blow it up with a homemade bomb, but she
mixed up two of the wires and ended up with third degree burns on her hands
when the bomb burst into flames as she set the timer; then she tried to pick them
off individually, with a gun. She had awful aim and ended up hitting three trees and
she took the tail off that old cat."
	"Stumpy?"Joan laughed, despite herself. She'd always wondered what had
happened to the cat's tail.
	"Yes. Eventually, she just snapped and committed suicide, leaving only one
sister behind. But that daughter had been kept away from the Treeces, she lived
with her aunt, I don't know her name. I do know, however, that it wasn't a Treece
she was in love with, she loved another, a Mackenna."
	"Mack?"
	"Yes. She wanted him, but he married Katherine Santez, the rest is
history."
	"She didn't try anything."
	"Not to my knowledge, at least not until I heard about what is happening in
Weston. If she is anything like her mother and sisters, she wants revenge as much
as they did."
	"Who is she?"
	"I have no idea where she is, who she is, what she looks like. But if these
accidentally are organized by someone of the bloodline of Linda, Janet, and
Pamela, I fear for you and your family. Especially as the Mackennas are dropping
like flies."

	Maria was sitting in the living room, watching television. Her head hurt,
her bruises throbbed, and she couldn't sleep it off. Jade had taken off the moment
she changed her clothes and hadn't returned. The door bell rang in unison with the
doorbell on the sitcom she was ignoring.
	"Are you Maria Santez?"
	"Yes." He asked if she would come with him and she followed him to his
car. All of a suddenly she collapsed. He picked the partially conscious girl and set
her the passenger seat of Joan's truck. He slammed the door, trying to get Maria
into a more alert state. He jumped behind the wheel and revved the engine.
	The noise shook her,"Where?"
	"Maria."
	"Who're you?"
	"I'm Don Henniger. I work with Joan Treece, she asked me to pick you
up."
	"Why, what's wrong?"she began to struggle with the seat belt he'd pulled
too tight.
	"Stop, it's fine,"he pulled to the side of the road and locked the doors with
the automatic button.
	"Is it Lola? Jade?"
	"I don't know,"he put his hands over hers and she pawed at the belt,"Look
Maria. I don't know exactly what's going on with you guys, but something big is
going on. If Joan thinks you're in danger-" Maria began pummeling his chest with
her fists. "Maria, please! I can't help you if-" She hit him with all her force in the
face. There was a loud snap. Don slumped in his seat.
	"Oh God!" Maria gaped in horror as she awoke to what she'd done.
	"Maria, call for help." His words were smeared with blood, the meaning
rang clear.
	"Oh God. Don't die, okay?"she began ripping and biting at the confining
seat belt. Don laughed weakly, spurting blood on his crisp uniform. He moved his
arm toward the seat.
	"Here,"he pressed feebly on the release button. Maria nodded, and pressed
the button. The clasp burst open and she flung herself upon him.
	"No."
	"What?"
	"Call,"he lifted his finger toward the police radio. Then he passed out.
	"How?" She picked up the little speaker and tried to remember what they
did on TV.  She held in the long button,"Oh God, God, oh God! Help, me,
somebody, help me please!"
	"This is a police frequency, please get off this channel,"a stern female voice
said sharply.
	"I'm Maria Santez, and Don Henniger, he's passed out. Oh God, what have
I done?"
	"What about Don?"
	"I think I've killed him. I thought-"
	"Christ!"the voice exclaimed,"Where are you?"
	"On a road in Joan's truck. By my cousin's house, in , oh God...um-"
	"Where is the house?"
	"Hunter Avenue, in Forester Villa. We're in a black truck just past the big
sign."
	"Calm down. Who's truck are you in?"
	"Joan Treece, he was taking me to see Joan."
	"Don't move, stay there. I'll be right back."
	"Okay,"Maria looked at Don, his shirt soaked in blood. "Oh Don, I'm
sorry. I didn't mean to do this."
	"Maria?"
	"Joan."
	"What happened?"
	"I killed Don. He said- But I thought he was lying and-"
	"It's okay, he'll be fine. Just watch for an ambulance."
	"He came to pick me up; he said you wanted me."
	"Yeah."
	"What's wrong?"
	"Nothing I can tell you like this. I'll hitch a ride with some officers. Wait
just a second,"Joan clicked off.
	Maria fidgets nervously as she waited for Joan's voice to resume.
	"Maria, Jade is here. We're going to find you, okay? Be watching for the
cops and the EMT's."
	"Bye."
	Maria dropped the speaker and leaned over to Don. His breathing was
shallow, but at least he wasn't dead. She felt for a pulse, he had one. Maria wiped
her tears away, and touched his cheek.
	"What have I done?"she pulled her finger away and stared at the blood on
it. Blood she'd spilled.
	"Don, I'm so sorry."
	His eyes opened. Maria began to cry again. My jaw must be crushed, he
thought, gently touching the painful area. Christ, she ought to be a boxer.
	She told him again that she was sorry and he nodded, kind of. Don glanced
down at his shirt, and nearly fainted when he saw the amount of blood that colored
it. That's not good, the thought, laughing in this mind. It hurt to even think about
laughing. Don, don't die tonight. You've got sexy Judy Ward waiting back at the
station and there's a beautiful gal sitting right next to you. Remember what
Johnny told you about the Florence Nightingale thing? If you live just a bit longer
maybe one of them will prevent you from dying a virgin.

	"Naomi?"
	"Yeah, she got Naomi."
	"God, I'm glad it wasn't me in bed with you."
	"As if I'd crawl into be with a pig like you Mae."
	Mae evidently chose to ignore that remark,"Mark, do you think she'll come
after me next?"
	"I hope so."
	"Don't say that,"Mae paused, licking her lips,"Maybe it will be you."
	"What?"
	"You could be the next. You've crossed her, I haven't."
	"What?"
	"You heard me."
	"That's insane."
	"Nina's insane."
	"So was Naomi, and so are you Mae."
	"Perhaps,"Mae licked her lips.