Magic City Murder Read online

  “Her name wasn’t Mariza,” I said. “It was Stephanie. She was a student in Billings and was recently found dead in her home.”

  Raymond exhaled deeply and shook his head. “Man, that’s crazy. I can’t believe that. What happened to her?”

  I grinned and folded my arms. “Well, that’s a good question. The prevailing theory is she killed herself, but I don’t think she did.”

  “Someone murdered her?” asked Raymond, his eyes wide.

  “I think so. Did you do it?” I asked.

  Raymond sat up straight and had a look of disgust on his face. “Hell no, man. You serious?”

  I looked over my notes and read him the date Stephanie had died. “What were you doing that day?” I asked.

  “I was in my dorm room working on a paper, I did a lot of research on the internet. I’ve been taking a winter session class that’s a lot of info crammed into a short time, so I’ve been mostly in my dorm. Go check my browser history if you don’t believe me,” said Raymond.

  I nodded. It was a little interesting that he rattled off his whereabouts without having to think about them.

  “Can anyone vouch for you?” I asked.

  Raymond rubbed his face as he thought. “My roommate was gone until the next morning, but maybe some people in the dorm. I went down to the vending machines for a soda a couple of times. I think my RA saw me.” He was referring to his resident advisor. I remembered being in college and staying in dorms. I think I saw my RA twice in the two years I lived in dorms, once a year for orientation.

  Raymond shook his head and rubbed his temples.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I know it’s a lot to take in. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s going through your mind.”

  He threw up his hands. “Just none of it seems real. It’s like I’ve been living in some imaginary world and this is another part of it. I’m just ready to move on. I’m sad to hear she’s dead, but I don’t even feel like I know this Stephanie person you said died.”

  It made sense. What feelings did he have for a Stephanie who he had never met and whose life had been kept secret?

  Raymond asked, “What did she really look like?”

  I didn’t have a picture of Stephanie. I kicked myself for not thinking to bring one. “Kind of Norwegian. She was white, had a round face, was a little overweight.”

  Raymond raised his eyebrows and shook his head in disbelief. “That’s a lot different than what I thought she looked like. I guess it’s a little weird, I kind of do feel like Mariza died too even though that wasn’t really her.”

  “At least you know the truth. It’s a tough pill to swallow sometimes,” I said.

  He nodded in agreement. I did not feel like there was much more to gain out of talking to Raymond, so I thanked him for meeting with me and left him a business card if he needed anything. We both exited the coffee shop, Raymond walked to a red Toyota RAV4 and I walked to my Jeep.

  It was not too late, and I had something tug at my gut that told me to look into the clinic Stephanie worked at a bit more. If there was billing fraud going on, maybe there was something else happening. I headed over to Billings. It would be two hours there and yet another two hours back home. Working in this state was a pain in the ass sometimes because everything was extremely spread out.

  It was dark when I reached the clinic. The parking lot was empty, so I was not too worried about anyone seeing me. There did not seem to be cameras outside either. I made my way to the back of the building and parked next to the dumpster. Here’s a pro tip for any aspiring investigators, you can learn a lot about someone by what they throw away. Typically, if it’s in a dumpster, they no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy. You must be a little careful of trash cans and where they’re placed on the property. There’s a big difference in a trashcan next to the garage within the curtilage of the property and one that’s been pushed out to the street to be picked up.

  I hopped out of the Jeep and opened the small dumpster. Trash day must have been the previous Friday because there were only two bags inside. Unfortunately, this meant I could not reach them from standing on the ground so I had to throw the lid open completely and then lift myself up and inside the dumpster. I was not nearly as flexible as I used to be and it took a great deal of effort to get in. The smell brought back memories of being an agent who worked drug cases. I was in more dumpsters and combed through more trash bags than I care to admit, but most of it was worth it. After tossing the two bags out, I kicked a leg up over the side and finally got my body back out of the bin. I was sure all my clothes smelled like garbage at this point.

  One bag seemed to have mostly shredded paper, the other had a lot of stuff I could not decipher in the dark. I threw them both in my Jeep and drove off. Against my better judgement, I headed to the club in Lockwood. I did not see Eve’s car there so I drove around to a couple of nearby hotels I had guessed she might have been staying at. I was relieved to have not found her car anywhere. Maybe she had taken my advice and gone somewhere else.

  The windshield time was taking a toll on me. I felt less like an investigator and more like a truck driver. Driving at night was especially hard since I was passing mostly through rural areas with poor lighting or in most cases, no lighting.

  I reached the cabin and dragged my stinky self inside. Since I already stunk, I decided to go ahead and see what was inside the bags. I grabbed a couple of empty trash bags and went out to open the bags I had retrieved. The first bag was what I thought it was, all documents that had been shredded. The shredder used though was a cheap one. It had sliced the documents into strips about a ¼” wide. It would take a long time, but I was pretty sure I could tape most of them together and figure out what was on them.

  The second bag had mostly things I thought should be in a biohazard bin. There were syringes, paper towels with God knows what on them and used latex gloves. At the bottom of the bag was some vials of some sort of Vitamin B cocktail and a small vial of suxamethonium chloride. I would have to do some research on that one. I brought the vials and shredded paper inside and stuck the rest of the trash in my own bin. I placed the vial in an empty container that was sort of like a pill bottle and then placed it all inside a plastic bag that was self-sealing. I made a few notes and then went to shower the filth off of me.

  When I emerged from the shower and had put some sweats on to sleep, I heard something I never expected to hear this time of year: a knock at my door. I grabbed my Glock and held it behind me as I peered out the door. Eve’s face was illuminated by my porch light. The breath escaped my lungs and my pulse quickened. “Hang on,” I called to her.

  I stuck my pistol back under my mattress and then returned to open the door. She had a full face of makeup with her curly hair hanging down. The same long coat I had seen the night before covered her turtleneck sweater, jeans and some stylish leather boots that seemed to go up her legs forever.

  After staring at her like an idiot with my mouth agape, I beckoned her to come in. “How in the world did you get out here?” I asked.

  “I have a Subaru,” she said as if it was a ridiculous question to ask.

  “You’re all dolled up. Work tonight?” I asked.

  Eve shook her head and smiled shyly. “I just wanted to come give you this back,” she said extending her arm. Her hand held what appeared to be the money I had given her the last time I saw her.

  She explained she would be able to get into an apartment sooner than she thought and didn’t need the money. I told her she did not have to drive all that way just to give me the cash.

  “I thought you could use some help,” said Eve. She brushed a wisp of hair behind her ear with her hand.

  “But you don’t believe your sister was murdered,” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t. But you do, and I trust you. You wanted to help me so I feel like I should help you. So, what can I do?”

  I folded my arms for a minute and regarded her. She looked up at me li
ke a lost puppy. “Okay, fine. It just so happens that you caught me at a great time because there’s lots to do.”

  “Great!” said Eve with a smile. “Where do I start?”

  “How are you at puzzles?” I asked

  She furrowed her brow. “Not great, why?”

  I retrieved a few rolls of clear tape and handed them to Eve. “See that bag on the floor with the shredded documents?”

  Eve looked over and frowned. “What did I get myself into?”

  “Let me take your coat, it’s going to be a while.”

  I showed her what I wanted to do with the documents which was basically piece them back together. “Where are these from?” asked Eve

  “The clinic where your sister worked,” I replied.

  “You went through their trash?” she asked.

  “Yup.”

  Her lips frowned again. “Gross.”

  While Eve was at work taping documents back together, I sat down with Stephanie’s laptop and did some more digging. I was still getting tired, but having Eve show up unexpectedly gave me a little energy. The cynical part of me, which was a large part, questioned her motivation.

  I went through the social media history further back to review Stephanie’s catfishing exploits. I found that some kid named Logan had become very attached to her. At one point I guess Stephanie’s conscious got the best of her and she actually came clean and said it was not a real profile and to leave her alone. The kid was persistent and still wanted to meet her. He was borderline obsessive. Stephanie or Mariza, finally blocked him.

  I did some searching around for him to find out more. His name was Logan Miller and not long after they stopped talking, he died suddenly. I wondered if Stephanie ever knew what had happened to him.

  After about an hour, I stopped and stood in the doorway of the living room where Eve was still hard at work. She had patched together about half the bag which was very impressive. Looking up at me, she rubbed her neck and smiled.

  “I’m getting there,” she said.

  I nodded. “It’s getting late, you should get some sleep.”

  Eve agreed. “Do you mind if I use your shower, I feel like I have a garbage smell in my pores.”

  I chuckled because I could relate and said sure.

  After a couple of minutes, I could hear the shower next to the office turn on. I continued to search through the computer but did not kick up much of anything else. My eyes were getting heavy and I must have nodded off. I was awakened by Eve standing next to me with a towel wrapped around her.

  “It looks like you should get some rest too,” she said.

  I rubbed my eyes and looked up at her. The lustful look in her eyes told me she was not sleepy anymore. The towel dropped from around her and she threw a leg over my legs, straddling me in the chair I was sitting. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my face close to hers. Her lips were warm, and she smelled like vanilla. I knew this was probably a terrible idea, but I had already subconsciously decided when I let her in earlier that night.

  My mouth and body were hungry for her. I had not been with anyone since Sonia and I had split. It felt like I was in high school again, the nervous excitement reverberating through me. My mouth found her small perky breasts and she gasped. A moment later she helped me out of my sweats, and we were on the floor.

  Our lovemaking session was not as long as I had hoped for, but she did not seem to mind. We ended the night in my bed, and I slept with my face in the back of her neck. In the morning we had hardly moved all night and we were both keen to repeat our previous act. The sunlight coming through the window showed what a perfectly round ass she had. I kissed her shoulder while entering her from behind. This time went much longer, and we collapsed out of breath and sweaty.

  “I think I need another shower,” she gasped.

  I chuckled and replied, “Me too.”

  We had a quick shower together and continued kissing and fondling one another. There was a certain novelty about first getting naked with someone. It’s like having a new toy to play with that you’re totally distracted by.

  Eve offered to grab some sandwiches from the bar in town. After she left, I heard a buzzing sound coming from the kitchen. She had plugged her phone into an outlet to charge. Curiosity got the better of me and I tried to open it. To my surprise, there was no screen lock. I felt like I was crossing some boundaries, but I said hell with it and poked around anyway.

  There was not much on her phone, a few text messages about working, covering shifts, going to a party. She had some emails from an apartment complex with some information about moving in the following week. She had apparently also booked a mover to help her for a few hours, so I guess she wasn’t just sleeping with me so I would lift boxes for her later.

  Her social media accounts were a little troubling. She had messages exchanged with Raymond. I had felt great when I woke up and the pendulum was swinging the other way. I read through the messages. It seemed that Eve had somehow discovered what Stephanie was doing with Raymond and had warned him. There had been nothing recent, at least nothing that had not been deleted. I replaced the phone the way I had found it and came up with some ideas of how I would address it with her.

  When Eve returned, she was bubbly and remarked how she had almost hit a deer on the way into Roscoe. She had a turkey on wheat and had my prosciutto on rye. We sat at my small kitchen table and munched on the sandwiches with a couple of beers.

  “So, I’ve been going through Stephanie’s laptop,” I said.

  “Yeah?” she asked.

  “It looks like she was using a fake profile on social media to talk to guys. She ever mention anything about that?” I asked. I regarded Eve intently while I waited for her response.

  She sighed and said, “Yeah, actually she talked quite a bit how she was pretending to be someone else and was meeting all these cute guys and I told her to knock that shit off.”

  “How long did that go on for?”

  Eve shrugged, “I don’t know. I was feeling weird about it because every time she told me she liked one of these guys it made me mad she was lying to them. I knew her password from using her computer for school, so I found out who she was messaging and went on my own account and told him to stay away from her because she was a liar who was going to hurt him.”

  “What guy was this?”

  “I don’t remember. Someone in Bozeman. I think his name was Jay or something.”

  “Ray?”

  Eve’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! Did you find his information already?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I actually already talked to him. This kind of explains why he didn’t seem too surprised when I told him Mariza was not Stephanie’s real name.”

  Eve thought as she chewed on her sandwich. “You don’t think he killed her, do you?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “There’s certainly some motive there. He was a bigger guy who could have manhandled her.”

  She stopped chewing. “What about me? Do I have a motive?”

  I nodded. “Sure,” I replied

  “What?” she asked, there were some concern and dejection in her eyes.

  I explained, “Well, you never felt like you fit in with your family, especially with your father being an abusive shit. There’s no telling what kind of mental trauma you’ve been through. You might have held a grudge against Stephanie for many years and finally snapped one day and decided to end her, thus ensuring you were completely done with your adopted family.”

  Eve’s eyes had welled up and she looked like she was about to throw up.

  I sipped my beer and waved a hand. “But I know you didn’t do it,” I said.

  She took a napkin from the table and wiped her eyes. “How do you know?” she asked.

  “You haven’t always been honest with me and I suspect you’ve made some poor decisions in your life, but who hasn’t? You’re not a killer. I don’t think you have it in you.”

  “But I have a motive, right?”

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sp; I shrugged. “A person doesn’t kill someone else because they have a motive, they do it because they’re a murderer.”

  Eve nodded and finished her sandwich. She wiped her mouth and sniffed. “I think maybe I should go,” she said. She looked up at me and nodded. “Yeah, I should go.”

  I caught her wrist gently as she stood. “I have a hard time asking for help and I have a feeling you do too, but I think we’re going to need each other's help to get through this. We both have something we need from one another.”

  “What do you need from me?” asked Eve. Her eyes were sad, and her mouth frowned.

  I grinned and held up the tape. “We’ve still got half a bag to get through. I don’t want to tape all those documents up myself.”

  Eve smiled and managed a laugh. “Okay, I’ll help you,” she said.

  Chapter 8

  After many hours, we had taped together a thick stack of documents. Most of what was in the stacks were things of no consequence. Eve had sorted everything, and the shorter stack was the most interesting. There were intake papers for about ten patients in that stack. I wondered aloud why anyone would be shredding the documents the patients had filled out. Then, I thought back to what Becky the receptionist had mentioned about suspecting Dr. Yu of healthcare fraud.

  “I suppose if you don’t have a record of what the patient originally came to the office for then you can make up whatever you want and justify all the extra stuff you’re doing,” I said.

  Eve looked over the papers. “Do you think this had anything to do with Stephanie?”

  I rubbed my face and looked over everything that was spread out on my table. “I don’t know yet. I think we’re still missing some pieces to this puzzle because I’m not getting a clear picture yet.”

  My phone rang on the counter next to me. I walked over and saw a number I did not immediately recognize. “This is Lockhart,” I said into the cellphone.

  “This is Walt Bean with the U.S. Marshals, you gave me your card a few days ago after we hit a house after an arrest,” said the voice.