Murder in Pink

by Tanya Lynn

  

Author's note-I missed a couple of characters in the last part's cast of characters-

Karen Lamm- our heroes sister and a lawyer

Rusch Graham- a lawyer and friend of the hero.

Tom Rivera- a cop who hates Steve, our hero's cop buddy

 

I spent the night racking my brain trying to figure out what I knew. Sometimes the solution to a mystery I am reading will come to me in my sleep, but it didn't work. Steve called at about 9 am to tell me that the guys were all known foot soldiers in the Mexican Mafia. Great- now they were involved as well. I decided that I had better stay better armed. I made sure I had extra guns in the office for Carol (she was a crack shot with all kinds of stuff) and in my car and apartment. I carried a gun in my purse and strapped to my thigh. I had the advantage that people didn't expect a woman to be able to be a stone killer when necessary. But, I knew word of the shootout would get out.

It was Saturday, so I decided to relax for a couple of hours and watch the season two DVDs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I had just bought. A part of me always admired and wanted to be Willow, her best friend the witch. But, something about those episodes was driving me nuts. I had seen most of them many times, so I knew what was coming, and it was setting off all kinds of alarms in my head about the case, but nothing I could pin down. I figured it would come to me.

I decided to go to the weight room in my apartments and work out. I worked off some of the aggression and felt better. There was a guy who lived there that was always hitting on me. He was a lawyer in my building that I always tried to set up with my sister. I was a friend with him in my male identity. One of these days, I would tell him about me, but for now, I was having some fun with him. There was a Ping-Pong table there and we had a game and talked about the newest Steve Martini novel before I left and went back upstairs. I wasn't surprised when he showed up at my door after we had both had time to shower and asked me to dinner, but I told him the case had me tied up.

I went to my fridge and wondered if I shouldn't have accepted. I scrounged up an egg, some breadcrumbs, flour, and a chicken breast that didn't look too old and some macaroni and cheese. I breaded the chicken breast, adding some garlic and other spices and threw it in the oven while I made the macaroni and cheese. I found a package of frozen brussel sprouts and put them on the stove. I reflected that if I hadn't been inspired by Robert B. Parker's private eye Spenser, I might never have learned to cook and would have starved to death.

I went over to the office after eating to work on some paperwork. It was after hours, so I had to buzz the guard to let me in. it was another new one. This didn't sit well with me, because he forgot to ask me for ID like he was supposed to. With eighteen floors, there were too many people here to trust like that, even if six floors were garage. I heard him say under his breath, "stupid bitch- mind your own business and don't tell me how to do my job". I pulled my 9mm from my purse and told him if I really didn't belong there, he would be dead. He turned pale and peed himself. I said, "go clean yourself up" and went to my office. The cops were there in about ten minutes, but one of them knew me and took my word on what happened. I did paperwork for a few hours and when I left there was a new guard there. He was very polite to me as I signed out. I went home and smoked a bowl of pot and then put in a DVD that I had just bought, Dreamscape. I had seen it a number of times, but had just finally bought it and it served to take my mind off things. I put on my nightgown and went to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I knew it was time to deal with the joys of dressing. I took off my breastforms and washed them and let them air-dry. I pulled off my artificial vagina and cleaned it too. I had on a pair of sweats when the doorbell rang.

I looked through the hole and saw it was Steve with doughnuts and my paper. I made coffee and we sat and talked. I thought it was funny that he was uncomfortable with my being half-man, half woman. He could live with me one way or the other, but the details of the change made him nervous. Especially when the breastforms and vagina were laying out drying. I said, "this is payback for the crack about shaving my legs". We sat and talked about the case. He said "we have a ton of suspects, but no real true clues for who the killer is". I said "no, there are things that I have seen and heard that are kicking around in my mind, but no real pattern that I can find yet" I asked if they were doing construction again yet, but he said no. I suggested that we go and look around there while no one was around. After getting my breasts and vagina back on, we left.

We drove out to the estate and looked around. We ran into Hectors dad Juan, and two of his workers. He said, "we are just examining things for when we begin construction again". Steve warned them, "don't touch anything until it's cleared for you to work". They seemed nervous, but cops always seemed to have that effect anyway. As soon as we left, we could hear them arguing furiously with Juan yelling at the other two. We couldn't hear what they said, but it sounded nasty. Steve said, "they will probably take down the crime scene tape in the morning and let them go back to work". We had lunch at Little Anita's and he took me home. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching movies and reading. I ordered in pizza and went to bed.

I was up at my usual 5am on a weekday and worked out in the exercise room with headphones blasting Bachman Turner Overdrive into my head. Unfortunately, I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings. I felt a huge jolt go through me and I blacked out. I woke up as I was being jostled as I was lying on the floor of a van.

I could feel my hands and ankles were cuffed behind me so that I was hog-tied. I was also tightly gagged. I tried not to attract attention as I looked around and saw three men in the van as well. I knew I was in deep shit. I was among other things an escape artist, and had lockpicks concealed on my body in a few places, but I would still face three armed men. I decided to bide my time until I knew more. One of them came back and saw I was awake and squeezed my breastforms through my sports bra and T-shirt. It's a good thing they feel so real. He said, "you will give us a lot of fun before you die for what you did to our gang friends". These clowns were in for a hell of a surprise if I didn't get loose. I wasn't gay, and had no intention of letting this happen. They talked in Spanish of ungagging me and making me blow them and I knew I had to make a move. While they were preoccupied, I peeled some tape off of my wrist and got the pick from underneath. I opened the cuffs but left them on loose. The idiots had left a pistol on the floor near me. I carefully moved myself around where it was near my hands and while they were busy boasting of what they would do to me, I sprang up with it in my hands and shot the two others in the head and stuck it in the driver's ear and said, "if you don't want your ears cleaned out, pull over". He quickly did so, and I saw we were on the road into the mountains outside of town.

I called Steve and told him where I was and what had happened. He said he would send a car to pick me up and take the hood. I had to get to the estate now. I asked what had happened. He said that Juan and the two men we had seen arguing were all dead. Someone had shot all three in the back of the head and left them lay at the site. I thought, "holy shit- this was getting serious". Four dead by an unknown killer and I was running around in circles with a lot of ideas and no clear thoughts. Plus, the Mexican Mafia was involved and wanted me dead. Things couldn't get much worse. I went to the estate and met Steve. There were no clues as to the shooter or even whether it was a man or a woman. I figured it was someone they knew, but since that could have been any of the six surviving suspects, that didn't help. As I looked around the site, my cell phone rang. It was Carol, my secretary. She said that I needed to get to the office now. when I arrived, Tom Rivera greeted me. He said that he finally had me. I was under arrest for the murder of the two I had shot in the van. They didn't have weapons drawn, so he could make a case. I knew that it wouldn't stick for long, but I knew he wanted me in jail where the Mexican mob could take a shot at me. I told Carol to get Steve fast as I was led out in cuffs. The problem was, he was way out in the north valley and the jail was just across the street. I would have to stay alive from who knows what for at least that long.

  

  

  

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