CHAPTER: I'm Being Charged with Murder
This is the rough-rough, first draft of one of the chapters in my book. I will post chapters from time to time, in no apprarent order. All Random, but I welcome, I want your comments, suggestions and advice, Please, and be honest. If you are less than honest; I cannot grow as a writer. Thank you.
Lacy didn't remember driving to Danny' house any more than she remembered slamming her car into a stop sign, but there she was standing at the front door of his South Highland's home pounding with the brass knocker while simultaneously ringing the bell like an impatient child.
She must have awakened him. It wasn't quite five am. And suddenly she thought of his nosy neighbors who would see her car parked out front when they got up for the dog walks and paper fetching. Danny had to live on the busiest street in the snob filled neighborhood; just her luck. It didn't help that the majority of the homes in the historical area didn't even have garages.
Danny answered the door without asking who it was; her screaming undoubtedly alerted him long before he reached
“Shh, calm down baby.” He was stroking Lacy's hair, her head buried deep in his chest. She finally exhausted herself into silence. “ C'mon, slow down, breath. You're okay. I've got you and I would never let anything happen to you.” Danny Managed to calm her and she lit a cigarette while he poured her a drink.
“Little early to get me drunk, don't you think?” He didn't answer, but the comment showed a little of the Lacy spark that he relished. Taking the bloody Mary in one hand she tried again to answer his questions. Danny wanted to know why she thought the police would ever think she was involved in a homicide.
Dollar, one of the state's best criminal defense attorney's was notorious for keeping a straight face regardless of what bullshit his clients fed him. His facial expression clearly showed he was not expecting the answer he got from lacy.
Lacy was much more calm. After three bloody Mary's her words were slurred but undeniably sharp at the same time. She could hear Danny shuffling back from the kitchen on the parquet floors. Releaved that she couldn't see his face, nonetheless he wondered if she could see his heart beating like a Clydesdale trotting across his bare chest.
He knew that he had not mistaken what she said. As much as he had grown to love this woman, he could only think of himself as he replayed her words over and over again in his heard. It was like a tape recorder overpowered his brain, back up, rewind, play it again, “The dead girl is my daughter's birth mom.”
When Lacy conked out from exhaustion and a little help from her three bloody Mary morning cocktails, Danny ventured out onto the veranda. With coffee and cigarettes in each hand he took a seat on his chaise, where he normally relaxed before tackling his grueling day. Thoughts racing he lit another cigarette, the one before still smoldering in the ashtray stacked high like a wedding cake with cigarette butts smoked down to the filter. It wasn't the wind crippling his effort to light another, but his trembling hands. Just as his lit another the scorching coffee torched his arm and chest. It must have been the jolt from the seer that brought him back to reality.
Danny knew that Lacy wasn't capable of killing anyone, but what did that mean for him? Was life as he knew it about to end? Okay this is not as bad as it sounds. Absolutely no one could connect him to the dead girl. Could they? She had been a client, nothing more. Nothing earth shattering. What was it? He racked his brain, rubbing his free hand through the top of his hair. It had to be a minor charge, criminal mischief, theft, something unremarkable, he couldn't even remember what charge he represented her on. It was miniscule and he resolved it with a fine and community service without even having to make a court appearance; that much he could remember.
Relaxing a little, Danny popped open the prescription bottle and
tossed two tablets into his mouth, swallowing without anything to drink, his mind returned to the dead girl and her case. And of course there would be no reason for anyone to ever check his office files. Confident that there was absolutely no trail linking Tammy to him or his office he strolled inside and ran the water for his shower.
Looking at his face in the bathroom mirror, Danny quietly admired the way he had not aged. Women of all ages still found him irresistible. Ironic he thought, just when the desire for chasing women subsided and he finally thought he met the only one capable of taming his wild ways, this shit from his past could bite him on his ass and ruin everything. Lacy would never forgive him.
How did Lacy figure the dead girl for Tea's birth-mom? He needed to ask her; he had to be sure. Patting her gently on her back until her eyes opened and met his, he forced the unthinkable out of his mind. She smiled and he wasn't sure if it was acid reflux or if this was the early sign of a heart attack. A panic attack, he decided, self diagnosed, having never had one.
She was beautiful, so perfect even with two raccoon eyes, a puffy runny nose and black streaks resembling a member of KISS. Her smile and the way her eyes seductively yet innocently pulled him towards her lips aroused him unexpectedly. He kissed her gently and to his surprise she returned his kiss with a forceful hunger.
Lacy pulled back, “just hold me please,” and flopped her head into his lap weeping softly. “Danny, I haven't told anyone this, but I have to tell you cause I'm really scared. I've driven by the birth mother's house” her voice shaky, “a lot” she added after a lengthy pause.
“Why?”
“Curiosity, I guess.” Then her whimper turned into a loud sob.
“ Don't say anything else, baby. Let me think about how we need to play this just in case you are a suspect.”
“I am” letting out a heavy sigh. “I know her from somewhere. I can't place it but its playing in my head like a movie or a dream I can't remember, you know like when you wake up from a dream and its' all fuzzy?”
Startled he asked, “what do you mean?”
“I mean, Danny, I've met her before or I know her from somewhere, I mean from before the adoption, but I just cant get my finger on it. I know it will come to me eventually. M mm that feels good, keep doing that” she said pulling his hand from his mouth back down to her back.
His hand instinctively rubbed her lower back. His eyes looking straight ahead. There was nothing more to say now, just wait and see he thought. It's all going to come crashing down. It's just a matter of time, like she said.
Danny tried to swallow, but the lump in his throat wouldn't let him.
