Chapter 2
1210 Words
TWO
“You want a glass of water?”
Vivian shook her head. She felt as if she couldn’t stop shaking. Her mouth tasted like vomit. This isn't happening, she told herself. It can’t be. Images of Joanna kept flashing before her eyes as she sat at a table in a windowless police interrogation room. The two homicide detectives who had detained Vivian at the scene of the crime were in the room with her. Detective Harry Chen, a stocky Asian in a mud-colored suit, and Detective Latoya Bassett, a thin black woman with a tight afro and glasses. Chen sat across from her while Bassett stood by the door.
“Okay, let’s cut to the chase,” Chen said. “How did you know Joanna Rorke?”
Vivian flinched as Joanna’s name slammed into her.
“I didn’t really know her, I just went to her reading.” Her voice seemed hollow, disconnected, as if someone else was speaking.
“Don’t jerk us around, little girl,” Bassett said. “You did a lot more than that. We have a maid who placed you at the scene and witnesses who saw you together in the hotel bar after the reading. We figure when the prints and DNA from her room come back from the lab they’re gonna have your name all over ‘em.”
“Do you own a g*n?” Chen asked.
Vivian shook her head.
“Okay,” Chen said, “let’s take it from the top. You spent the night with her, right?”
Vivian nodded, mortified that it was public knowledge. She wanted nothing more than to disappear and never be seen again.
“Did you have s****l relations with the deceased?” Bassett said.
Vivian looked up at her. She felt her stomach turn. Bassett made it sound as if she’d had s*x with a corpse. She lowered her eyes and said, “Yes.”
“Had you ever had s*x with her before?” Chen said.
Vivian shook her head.
“Had you ever met her before?”
“No.”
“So what was it, some kind of casual encounter?” Bassett said.
“I told you before. I went to her reading,” Vivian said.
“Lots of people went to her reading,” Chen said. “How come she ended up in bed with you?”
“I don’t know, it just happened,” Vivian said, feeling the heat rush into her face.
“Did you like it?” Bassett said.
“Excuse me?” Vivian said. “What’s that got to do with it?”
“You tell me,” Bassett said. “But here's the thing, Ms. Voss. We ask the questions and you answer them.”
Vivian lowered her eyes. “Okay, I liked it.”
Chen and Bassett exchanged sideways smirks.
“You got a boyfriend?” Chen said.
Vivian shook her head. “We broke up a couple of weeks ago.”
“Why? You decide you like girls better?” Bassett said.
“He was cheating on me.”
“Did anyone else join you?” Bassett said.
Vivian looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean a threesome. You and Joanna and somebody else.”
Vivian shook her head. “No, nobody else.”
“You see anybody when you were leaving?”
Vivian shook her head.
“So you left, realized you took her phone by mistake and went back to return it. Is that right?” Chen said.
Vivian nodded.
“So you just missed him,” Bassett said. “Or her.”
Vivian looked up at her.
“The killer.”
Vivian shuddered.
“Got any idea why somebody wanted her dead?” Chen said.
“How would I know? I didn’t even know her.” She shook her head. “I just can’t believe she’s dead…”
“You knew her well enough to jump into bed with her,” Bassett said.
Vivian whipped around to Bassett. “How well do you know everybody you have s*x with, detective?”
Bassett’s face tightened. She glared at Vivian. “Excuse me?”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Chen said. “Rorke mention anybody who might have had a grudge against her? Any enemies, somebody she was worried about?”
Vivian shook her head. “We had s*x, that was it. But there was this woman at the reading… she asked this weird question…it seemed to bother Joanna.”
Bassett and Chen exchanged glances.
“What woman?” Bassett said.
“I don’t know, some woman.”
“What kind of weird question?”
“She asked Joanna if she’d ever read a certain book. She mentioned the title, I think it was called Tourist Trap, something like that. Joanna told her she’d never read it, and the woman said, no, you wouldn't have, it was never published. I asked her about it when we were having a drink and she just brushed it off like it was nothing.”
Bassett and Chen exchanged glances.
“Did you see this woman again?”
Vivian nodded. “She was in the bar when we were there. She ordered a drink, then came over to the table and threw it in Joanna’s face.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’d she look like?”
“She was blonde, a little overweight, late 30s. I remember she had a southern accent.”
“They knew each other?”
“Joanna said she was just some jealous writer, but it was like they knew each other. I mean you don’t throw a drink in somebody’s face for no reason, right?”
Vivian wondered if the woman’s obvious anger at Joanna had gone from throwing a drink in her face to putting a bullet in her head.
“She mention her name?”
Vivian shook her head.
“Then what happened?”
“The bartender threw her out.”
“What’s Rorke’s book about?” Bassett said.
“It's called The Murder Tour,” Vivian said. “It’s about a serial killer who’s murdering tourists who go on murder tours. Joanna told me she was going to promote the book by reading at some of the stops on a tour.”
“Murder tours,” Chen said in disgust. “It’s not enough that people suffer and die, somebody’s gotta make a buck off it.”
“You ever go on a murder tour?” Bassett asked.
Vivian shook her head. She looked up at the detectives. “I didn’t even know what a murder tour was until I read her book.”
Bassett and Chen exchanged glances, but said nothing.
“You got family here?” Chen said.
“My sister Hannah. She lives in Oakland.”
“You want us to call her, have her come get you?” Bassett said.
Vivian shook her head.
“We’ll need her address and phone number,” Chen said, pushing a pen and notepad across the table.
Vivian’s eyes filled with alarm. “Wait a minute…you’re not gonna talk to her about this, are you?”
“It’s routine,” Bassett said.
“But she had nothing to do with it. Why do you have to talk to her?”
“This is a homicide investigation, Ms. Voss,” Chen said. “We’re gonna talk to anybody who might have useful information.”
“She doesn’t have any useful information. The only information she’s gonna have is what you tell her.”
Chen nodded at the notepad. “Her name, address and phone number, please.”
Vivian threw Chen a defiant look. “What if I don't give it to you?”
“You want to be charged with obstruction of justice?” Bassett said.
“You’ll go to jail,” Chen said. “You sure you want to do that?”
Vivian smiled bitterly. “You guys always win, don’t you, no matter how much you wreck people’s lives.” She jotted down the information, then pushed the notepad back across the table. “Can I go now, or do I need a lawyer?”
“You’re free to go,” Bassett said, “but we may need to talk to you again.” She handed Vivian a business card. “Give us a call if you think of anything that might help.”
“You gonna be okay?” Chen asked.
Vivian looked up at him. Her face was pale. “I saw it, okay? So no, I’m not gonna be okay.”
Vivian paused on the sidewalk in front of the police station, as if unsure of her next move. The world of the living was everywhere around her, but all she saw was Joanna’s b****y corpse playing in her head like a snuff movie she just couldn't turn off.
- Writer
