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"Yeah. All right."
"I’ll meet you at the west entrance – at the Little Italy Pizza. Can you meet in half an hour?"
"Half an hour." She hung up, leaving me to wonder just how much stranger all this could get.
# # #
Linda Henson and I both walked up to the west entrance to the mall at the same time. She looked behind her and then scanned the area in front of us. At the door to the Little Italy Pizza, she continued to scope out the place like she was Secret Service or something.
We picked a table in the back after ordering and sodas.
As soon as we sat down, the first thing she said was, "I was once married to John Wilkins."
I nodded slowly, and waited.
"I loved him, but I cheated on him anyway," she went on. "Ronald Larch had had a thing for me for a long time and was intent on taking me away from John. I ended up falling hard for Ronald and demanded a divorce from John." She sighed. "I was the one who caused him to end up on the streets."
I managed to take sip of my diet Coke and wait for her to go on.
"But John didn't give up so easy. He kept trying to get me back. And to Ronald, that meant war."
She paused. "See – Ronald has a good friend who's in the DEA – the Drug Enforcement Agency. After John refused to go away, it wasn’t enough for Ronald to harass only him. He had to go after his brother, too.
"At that time, Steven had finally gotten off drugs. He was clean. I think Ronald somehow got some cocaine through his DEA buddy – something that had been confiscated – and planted them in Steven's apartment. And now Steven’s in prison for being in possession of drugs and trying to sell to an undercover cop."
My mind was racing at a million miles an hour. I was in shock. "Do you have proof of any of this?"
She shrugged. "I’m mainly telling you what I think happened. Ronald hinted at it without coming right out and telling me details."
"And here's another question," I said. "How did Larch persuade an officer to give him drugs to plant in an innocent man's apartment? That doesn’t make sense to me."
Linda shook her head. "I can only tell you that Ronald has always been jealous of the Wilkins brothers. There are times when I wonder if that’s really why he went for me – to get back at John for some reason."
"Then – well, why do you stay with him? It sounds like you don’t really care all that much about him."
She looked down. "I see him less and less all the time. I guess I’m finally growing up." Her eyes met mine again. "I think the police should be looking at Ronald Larch – if not for causing John’s death, then at least for setting Steven up."
Wow! "Are you telling me that you think Larch killed John?"
Linda’s hands shook when she picked up her drink. "I certainly don’t want to accuse Ronald of that," she said. "Please don’t take that part to the police. I don’t know what I was thinking. I meant that – he implied he planted drugs on Steven somehow."
She went
for her drink again. I waited as patiently as I could. This woman was getting herself in deep and I was curious about how she was going to dig out again.
"Ronald never said he had anything to do with John’s death. I do have to say though, that he was way too happy when he heard the news."
I shook my head. "I don’t know what I can do about any of this. You've told me some very serious stuff. If I take it all to the Chief of Police, it'll be just speculation on my part with no real evidence. But if you can prove what you're saying, we could go to Chief Hayes with it."
Turquoise eyes bored into me. "I don’t think John overdosed by his own hand. And you don’t either. I regret I missed out on a life with him. I want to find out exactly who caused his death. That's why I’m telling you what I picked up from Ronald."
I stared back at her, and tried to think. "It sounds like either you have good reason to suspect Larch of framing Steven, or you know for sure that he actually did it." I let that sink in for a few seconds. "And I have to ask – do you have a personal reason to point the finger at Larch?"
A shaking hand brushed luxurious blonde hair from the right side of her face. Once again, her eyes darted around as if clearing the shop of anyone she didn’t want to be there. I glanced into the mall corridor outside the pizza shop. I didn’t recognize anyone there.
"I only know what I told you," said Linda. "Ronald didn’t come right out and tell me he planted drugs in Steven's apartment. But he did imply it in a way to make me draw my own conclusions."
"I understand. But it's really just hearsay and speculation," I said. I knew Donald Hayes would think I was wasting his time if I went to him with this. "When you've got more, I’ll think about it."
