Chapter 18

Jude saw the bloody photograph. It took a few seconds for it to register with her brain. Suddenly, her eyes grew big, and she covered her mouth and screamed. Marcel jumped up and tried to bolt, but I shoved him back into the booth, my gun pointed at his face. “Give me a reason, you sack of shit! Give me a fucking reason to pull the trigger.”

I heard a woman cry out behind me. I turned to see the waitress staring at me, eyes fixed on my gun. I held up my badge. “I’m a cop!” I blurted out. The waitress slowly backed away, then ran into the kitchen. Shit. I wouldn’t have much time now. She’d call 911 and cops would be swarming all over the place in about eight minutes.

“Bill! What are you doing!” my wife cried out.

“He killed her!” I declared. “He fucked Melissa, and then he killed her!”

Marcel raised his hands. “What?” He gasped out, trying to get away from me. “No way, man! I didn’t kill her! I swear it! She was alive when I left!”

“You left your DNA behind, Slick. You’re going to get a lethal injection for this.”

“We just met for sex, man, I swear it! We met every week to fuck. Why would I kill her? She was a good fuck! You got the wrong guy!”

I grabbed him by his hair and jerked him to his feet, then slammed him face first into the table top. “Marcel Beaufils, you’re under arrest. I yanked his arm behind his back and snapped handcuffs on the wrist, hard. Anything you say, never mind.” He tried to get up, so I elbowed him as hard as I could in between his shoulders, then twisted his free arm behind him and clicked the cuffs around his loose wrist.

“Bill, what are you doing?” my wife asked. She seemed lost. Confused. Terrified.

“Stay here and stay out of this,” I told her. “Marcel and I are going for a little ride out to the countryside.”

“No, Bill!” she cried, “You can’t do this! He’s not worth it. We didn’t do anything! I love you, Bill. Don’t throw away your life for this piece of shit!”

“Stay here!” I snapped at her. I pulled Slick to his feet and shoved him toward the door. He collapsed onto his knees.

“Please! I didn’t kill her!” he pleaded with me. Now, I was certain I smelled piss as a large wet spot appeared in the front of his pants. “I just love fucking married women! I didn’t hurt her! I couldn’t hurt anybody.”

“Get up!” I demanded as I dragged him by his cuffed hands. He stood, wobbly, and staggered forward as I shoved him through the door. I dragged him across the sidewalk, heading to my car, Marcel protesting his innocence.

The door behind me opened again, and Jude exited, shouting for me. She was holding her cell phone. “Bill! Stop! It’s your partner, Martinez!”

I hesitated and looked back at my wife. She was extending her cell phone toward me. “He said it’s urgent!” I stared at her, my anger flowing, my adrenaline pumping. I kept one hand on Marcel’s handcuffs and reached out for the phone.

“Make it quick,” I said.

“Fucking asshole, I been calling you non-stop!”

“I’m kind of busy, Martinez,” I started to say, cutting him off.

“It’s not him!” Martinez shouted.

“What?”

“The DNA. It was his DNA in the rape kit, but bro, he didn’t kill her! There was someone else’s DNA all over her body and all over the room. Whoever beat her to death wasn’t Beaufils.”

“You’re full of shit!” I fired back, “You just don’t want me to kill this mother fucker.”

“No! I swear, bro. Plus the DNA in the rape kit didn’t match the samples we got at two of the other rapes, either! It’s not him, Bill.”

“Bill!” Jude screamed. I looked up. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. She was staring behind me. I spun as the first shot rang out. I felt the impact as Slick was hit and the force of the bullet jerked his body out of my grasp. The second shot hit Slick in the forehead, making a distinct hole between his eyes and blowing the back half of his head off. I spun more, my hand instinctively going for my gun. Another shot rang out.

I saw the shooter.

Dave.

I raised my gun. Another shot. I fired. We traded shots. I put a cluster into Dave’s chest. He fired off one last round as he fell back, dead.

I turned back as I landed on my knees. Slick was dead, sprawled, face down on the sidewalk. It hurt to breathe.

“Bill!” I heard Jude calling to me. “You’re hit!”

She ran to me and threw her arms around my body as I fell backward. I looked up into the blue Texas sky before it was blocked out by the face of the one woman I’ve ever loved. She was crying. “No, Bill!” she called out, “Don’t leave me!”

I stared at Jude’s face and smiled as everything slowly faded to black.

Epilogue

I wanted to sleep. But a loud noise kept going off in my head, making it hard to stay in my dreamy state. It was a beep that resonated harshly between my ears. For a moment, I thought someone was calling my phone, non-stop. I opened my eyes.

Jude was there. “Turn that fucking beep off!” I croaked out, through parched lips. The sound that escaped didn’t sound like words, more like scratchy groans.

“Bill!” Jude gasped and clung more tightly to me. I felt her grip and looked down at her as she kissed my hand, her tears flowing freely. “Oh, Bill, you’re awake.”

I nodded slightly. Just then a bunch of people surrounded the bed and started poking and prodding me. I tried to push them away, but I couldn’t find the strength to lift my arm. I closed my eyes momentarily, and when I opened them again, the room was dark. Everyone had gone, except for Jude. She was sitting next to the bed, her head lying on my arm.

I stirred, and she woke up, looking at me apprehensively. I tried to speak, again, but realized there were tubes in my nose and mouth. I reached up with my left hand and tried to pull them out.

“No, Bill, stop!” Jude exclaimed. “You need to leave them in.”

I looked at my wife and remembered what she had done. I felt tears running down my cheeks. Jude had betrayed me with Slick. She was the last person I wanted to see. I jerked on the tubes and ripped them out of my face. Jude tried to stop me, but she was too late. When I got them out, I spoke, but my voice was weak, and she didn’t understand me. I took a long, deep breath and repeated it.

“Get the fuck out of here, you slut!” I said as the monitor alarms started sounding.

“Bill, I love you! I’m sorry!” she cried. I shook my head violently as the duty nurse burst into the room.

“Cheating, whore!” I managed to spit out before the nurse, and several other pounced on me, restraining my arms and forcing the tubes back in place. I passed out again.

When I woke again, I saw my kids and Jude asleep, huddled together on a nearby sofa. I drifted back to sleep, and as I awoke, I heard someone having a conversation.

“I can’t live if he dies believing I cheated on him,” spoke a female voice.

“Didn’t you?” came a man’s voice with a Texas drawl.

“No! I never did,” the woman said, insisting on her innocence. “I went to the hotel with Marcel with the intention of doing it, but I changed my mind and couldn’t go through with it. Marcel was insistent and pushy and tried to get me to go with him anyway. He was really trying hard, and I was tempted. I’m so glad I didn’t. I can’t believe how I fell for his bullshit.”

“Then, why did Bill think you did?” Martinez asked.

“He saw some pictures or a video or something that Marcel had taken of us in his office. I don’t know where the pictures came from, but Bill saw them and was convinced I was making out with Marcel. In one picture, he had his hand inside my yoga pants.”

“So, then you were fucking him?”

“No,” she muttered, “I don’t know how Marcel got pictures like that. He must have had hidden cameras. But, those pictures were all out of context.”

Martinez laughed. “They seem pretty much in context to me,” he replied.

“Marcel kissed me. I never kissed him. Every time he did, I pushed him away and told him to stop. But, you don’t see that in the pictures. You just see what looks like us kissing. But, I swear on my kids’ lives, we never made out.”

“Then why was he fingering you?” Martinez asked.

“He wasn’t!” she said, denying what I had seen with my own eyes. “After a private yoga lesson, we sat down on his sofa. He was giving me a foot massage. I was uncomfortable with it, but he insisted. Then he asked me if I wanted to learn an advanced yoga technique, called a yoni massage. I didn’t know what it was. I said ok. He told me to relax and close my eyes. I did. Then suddenly, he shoved his hand inside the front of my yoga pants! As soon as I felt it, I yelled at him to stop and shoved him away. I was pissed, but he was able to calm me down and rationalize his behavior. I was embarrassed and decided to let it go. I never told Bill, because I was afraid he’d say ‘I told you so.’”

“You know he’s never going to believe you?” Martinez said. “Hell, I don’t believe you, and I’m not your husband.”

“But it’s the truth!” Jude declared.

“Yeah, well, sometimes a lie is easier to believe than the truth,” he said.

“Are you suggesting I lie to Bill about it?” she asked.

“Something like that, yeah,” he replied.