Nancy Grace - Death on the D-List

“You piece of shit. You tell me where the log is right now or I’ll blow your greasy head off.”

The woman’s voice was low, almost like a hiss.

“Thank God I can finally tell you how much I loathe you, how much I’ve hated you all these years. You make me sick. You and your pathetic scooter and your sports cars and your women… your women… every single woman you’ve used in this network hates you. You’re disgusting. I don’t know what I ever saw in you. But I was young then… and stupid. But I’m not stupid anymore. Even after we were through, you paraded all your ‘girlfriends’ in front of me on purpose. I hate you, Noel… I hate you! Now for the last time… Where’s the damn log?”

There was another dull thud. But this time, there was no response, no groan, just silence.

Hailey gently turned the knob to the heavy door and eased it forward just a fraction of an inch. She couldn’t see much, so she pushed a tiny bit more.

There, across the room, her back to Hailey, stood Sookie Downs, still wearing the purple mini and lavender silk blouse, but now barefoot. Her hair was tumbling down her back and she was holding something in her hands, but Hailey could see nothing but her back, heaving as she breathed.

In front of her, in a deep and wide closet, sat Noel Fryer, strapped to a straight chair at both ankles and wrists, his biceps and chest also secured. The same thick, silver duct tape was wound across his mouth and all the way around the back of his head. Blood streamed down his face and his right eye was swollen, black and bleeding. Blood pooled like a lobster bib on the front of his shirt, staining nearly his whole chest a deep, dark red. His head was hanging down toward his right shoulder, and even though Hailey was now clearly in his eyesight, he didn’t look up. Hailey couldn’t tell whether he was unconscious.

“Are you ready to tell me, you piece of shit?” Sookie pulled back with her right arm and swung it hard straight at Noel’s face. It was then that Hailey saw what Sookie was holding in front of her.

It was a gun. The handle was painted red. Hailey recognized it immediately… it was the one that was pictured stuffed in the pants of Sookie Downs’s father in Burma. It all clicked in Hailey’s head. The maroon particles were red… maroon-red paint particles off the gun’s hand-painted butt.

Sookie held it by the barrel, pulled back like she was taking a swing at a baseball. It hit, hard at the side of Noel’s temple. Downs didn’t let up, relentlessly pistol-whipping Fryer back and forth across his face again and again, this time the barrel slashing across his nose with a sickening crunch. Blood squirted from the center of his face, gushing, unstopped, down to his waist. It didn’t have far to go. Fryer was bent nearly in half.

“I want the log and I want it now. You’re the only one with access to the company jet log and I know it. So help me God… I’ll kill you right here, Noel. I will throw you out that window down to the sidewalk. They’ll never be able to figure out what happened. Your body will be a mush. I’m giving you one last chance, you disgusting freak.” Sookie’s voice was pitching higher and higher, out of control.

Hailey shrank back into an alcove meant to show off a bronze sculpture perched on a rectangular block of wood. She wanted to kick herself; she’d left her cell phone on Tony Russo’s desk. She’d have to cross the length of the room to get to the only phone she could spot, near what appeared to be a Murphy bed hidden within a deep wall unit covering the room’s far wall.

Sookie reached forward and ripped the tape off Noel’s mouth. He groaned again, obviously semi-conscious. He’d taken a horrible beating about the face and head with the butt of Sookie’s gun, clearly while restrained.

“Tell me, you slimy shit. For the last time, where’s the jet log?”

Noel raised his eyes to Sookie, as if he didn’t have the strength to pull his whole head up off his chest.

“Sookie, don’t do this. I swear, if you let me go, I won’t tell a soul. We go back, Sookie, way back. Killing me will only make it worse…”

“Shut up, damn it! Shut up! I asked you one thing… where’s the jet log?”

Sookie was clearly beyond reason.

“Nobody will ever put it together, Sookie. Nobody…”

“Nobody but you, Noel… nobody but you. You’re the only one that knows I flew to LA and back the same day Cassie Lake was murdered. You’re the only one that can piece it together. It’s all your fault, don’t you see that? If you hadn’t threatened to cancel us, this would have never happened. You turned me into an animal that only cares about one thing… survival. This isn’t me, Noel. You know this isn’t me… It’s something you created.”

“I know, Sookie. Please forgive me… I was wrong. Just untie me and we’ll sort the whole thing out, I swear to God…”

“Shut up! I’ve listened to your BS for fifteen years. I don’t believe a single word you say… all you know how to do is lie. I swear to God, I’m going to blow your ugly face off and nobody will hear a thing. See this thing?”

Sookie held the gun up in front of her and for the first time, Hailey realized Sookie had a black silencer attached to the muzzle.

“Nobody will hear a damn thing… nothing. Nobody’s coming to save you, Noel. They all just think you’re out nailing another intern, another celebrity, another who-knows-what… nobody thinks you’re tied up in your office bedroom with a gun barrel in your face, you stupid schmuck…”

Noel opened his mouth to speak. Sookie was wild; she didn’t even seem to hear anymore.

“It was for the ratings. I had to do it. You didn’t give me any other choice…”

Sookie stepped closer to Noel, only three or four feet from his body, slumped in the chair. He was too out of it even to look up, to understand he was about to die.

Sookie held the gun up, gripping it with both hands, now aiming directly at Noel’s head.

At that precise moment, Will’s face flashed in Hailey’s mind, his blue eyes smiling at her… alive, vibrant, happy… just before he was gunned down, shot to death. She wasn’t there to save Will, he died alone. “God help me,” she whispered out loud, and without thinking another second, she ran for all she was worth, taking a leaping dive, her arms outstretched to tackle Sookie from behind. Hailey had to take her down before she pulled the trigger.

Hailey hit hard, and the impact of slamming into Sookie’s body and then hitting the floor hard nearly knocked the air out of Hailey’s lungs. Her shoulders banged into Sookie just above the back of her knees and the two careened forward. Immediately, Sookie started flailing at Hailey.

The two rolled over on the floor and somehow the gun fired into the dark. Hailey didn’t have time to figure out what or where the bullet hit, but she heard thick glass shatter and as she rolled, saw the bank of windows crashing down on them.

Sookie landed on top and straddled Hailey, who now had her back to the floor.

“You! Hailey Dean! You stupid bitch! Noel thought you were the star. Shows how much he knows… the murders were the stars , not you! Then, you saw the hair dye under my nails… and you just had to say something… you just had to notice, didn’t you! ” Sookie screamed it out. Looking up from the floor at Sookie’s face as she sat on Hailey, trying to hold her down, the woman looked possessed.

She was shrieking now; saliva flecked on her lips and spewed when she spoke. Hailey knew Sookie must have gone mad. “I thought I could let you live, that you wouldn’t put it together, but now you’ve got to go, right along with him …”