Southern Justice, Part 70
I’m Fixin’ To present part 70 of Southern Justice:
Later, on that same Thursday afternoon, Shanna Martin dived into her pool to begin her daily swimming routine. The pool was unusually large which allowed her to keep herself in superb condition. The last exercise she performed was underwater, swimming the length of the pool and back two times.
Afterward, she climbed out of the pool, patted herself dry and stretched out on the a lounge. As she relaxed, she closed her eyes and felt the warm mid-afternoon sun on her perfect skin, and began the same old daydream.
In her mind Chris Adams was splashing boyishly in the pool before he got out of it and leaned over her. She could almost feel his shadow and the droplets of water dripping from him onto her hot skin.
The ringing of her cell phone brought her back to reality. She rolled onto her side, looked at the phone screen and saw it was that disgustingly obese lawyer, B. Wendell Hormel.
Never again, she thought. She had gotten what she wanted from him, which was information and not money.
After silencing the ring tone on her cell phone she returned to her daydreams. Chris was the only man she had ever brought to her home. At first he had just been one of her favorite customers at the Gentlemen’s Club, who besides being so breathtakingly handsome, was always respectful, polite and courteous. Then one night he had slipped her his business card.
At first she assumed it was a fake, because that was a trick some guys used to impress her and get a date, but she was just enough interested in Chris to check him out.
After discovering he was indeed who the business card said he was, she had agreed to see him away from her work. Sunday and Monday were her favorite times because she didn’t have to work on those days. Soon, both those days were always reserved for Chris, plus he came by the club most of the other nights to spend a little time with her.
After four months Shanna had decided Chris was the man who could take her away from her current lifestyle. She knew she was deeply in love with him, and just pure liked him for being so charming and respectful. It never seemed to bother him that she was a dancer, and he wasn’t aware of some of her other activities.
Then the club got raided by the FBI and that damned picture of her appeared on the front page of the newspaper insinuating she was lady of the evening. After that she never heard from Chris again. He never called, sent flowers or candy. Nothing.
After all the time alone Shanna realized she missed Chris terribly, that she loved him and would remove any and all obstacles keeping him from her. The first thing she decided to do was call him and deny all the rumors about her, and would even give up her dancing career if they could be together.
The phone calls had never been answered. All she got was his answering machine, and he never returned her calls. That’s when she decided to go to his house, and that’s how she discovered another woman was living with him.
She spent several days pondering how to handle the situation, then one night while entertaining B. Wendell Hormel, she found the key. The sleazy lawyer had rambled on about his various lawsuits while she pretended to be interested, but when she heard him mention Pic-Ric Products, her interest became genuine.
So she plied him with bourbon and questions until she discovered every detail about the will and everyone involved in the whole affair.
Eventually she concluded there were two women who stood in her way—Jackie Payne-Haselton, who wanted to take Chris’ wealth, and Patty Osborn, who wanted to take Chris himself away. Both women had to be eliminated.
Getting rid of Jackie was easy after Hormel told her she was staying at his lake house, and where it was located. It was ironic that the house was very near the lake house she had visited with Chris on several occasions, and she knew exactly where the key was located.
On Tuesday, June sixth, Shanna had followed Patty downtown to Georgia State University. Realizing this could be an opportunity to place Patty at the crime scene, in the darkened parking lot, she easily removed the license plate from Chris’ Mustang.
During the drive to the airport, after three phone calls, Shanna reserved a black Mustang rental car. After parking at the airport, she walked to the curb where the rental car customers are picked up.
By ten o’clock that evening Shanna had put the original license plate back on the rental car, returned it and was at the Gentlemen’s club slipping into her brief costume.
She reattached Chris’ license plate on the following Sunday night in a restaurant parking lot, after she had followed Chris and Patty when they went out to dinner.
Yesterday, after watching the cops leave the Pic-Ric Products building without making an arrest, Shanna knew that somehow her plan to incriminate Patty had not worked, and that now she would have to eliminate her the same way she had Jackie. Her new plan was simple—to keep following Patty until the opportunity presented itself, then the news would just report another senseless drive-by shooting.
(tmdunagan@aol.com)