Andrew Price - Without A Hitch

Beaumont smirked. “Roy got sentenced by Judge Colt and his jury of six. Shame too, right after he busted his paper.”

“Busted his-?”

“Finished his parole. Then the fool got hisself shot,” Beaumont explained.

“Who killed him?”

“I don’t know, we weren’t that close.”

“Do you know where he was killed?” Corbin asked.

“I ain’t got no idea. I never heard nothin’ about it.”

“Did they ever arrest anyone for it?”

“I said, I don’t know.”

“Where is David Carson today?” Corbin asked.

Beaumont froze for a second. “I don’t know.”

“Isn’t he in prison in Tennessee?” Corbin asked, pulling a court record from Tennessee from the file. It indicated that David Carson was convicted of the murder of Roy Jackson and an unidentified woman during, what Carson claimed, was a drug deal gone wrong.

“How would I know?!” he blurted out, stumbling over the words. He looked shocked.

“You said he was your friend.”

“No, I said he owed me money!”

“Do you know the name of the child services agent?”

“The what?!” Beaumont asked, completely surprised.

“What was the name of the child services agent who investigated CarrieFey?” Corbin sharpened his tone.

“I don’t know.”

“That’s easy enough to find out.” Corbin wrote something on his legal pad.

Beaumont’s face flushed. “They ain’t gonna remember,” he stammered.

“Child services keeps a record of all investigations,” Corbin said matter-of-factly, as he nonchalantly flipped through his notes.

“She might’a been lying.”

Corbin looked up. “Excuse me?!”

“When she said she was being investigated, she could’a been lying.”

“Let’s move on,” Corbin said, frowning and shaking his head. He paused to look at his notes, letting Beaumont sweat. It took about five seconds for Beaumont to break.

“Hold on, hold on! If that bitch lie to me, I don’t want you thinkin’ I did nothin’.”

“Are you telling me you want to change your story?” Corbin feigned surprise.

Beaumont looked around nervously, but remained silent. He bit his lip. Corbin took advantage of Beaumont’s nervousness to press harder.

“Tell me about Letricia Gittner.”

“What about her?”

“Oh, I don’t know. . tell me why you raped her and killed her?”

Beaumont almost jumped out of his chair, but the shackles yanked him back down. “I ain’t never raped nobody, and I didn’t kill her!”

“Then I take it you didn’t shoot your girlfriend Mona Hampton either?”

“I ain’t never shot or raped nobody!”

Corbin laughed. “Do you know your accent changes when you get angry?”

“Fuck you, man!”

Beckett started to interrupt, but Corbin cut him off. “Ok, you didn’t kill her. Tell me what happened?”

“What do you want to know?!” Beaumont barked.

“Do you deny being at the scene?”

“No.”

“Then tell us what happened. It’s a simple question.” Corbin stared unwaveringly into Beaumont’s eyes.

Beaumont breathed heavily. Sweat visibly soaked his shirt. His eyes shifted around the room. “I got a text. It was Letricia. Me and her been going at it behind my girl Mona’s back. Letricia tells me, she wants $10,000 or she’s gonna tell Mona. I agreed to meet her.” Beaumont paused, waiting to see if Corbin would interrupt; he didn’t. “When I get there, she tells me she don’t care about the money, she just wants me.”

“Was Mona present?” Beckett asked.

“No. Not at first.” Beaumont eased back into his chair and relaxed his shoulders. “I start thinking, I can keep a good thin’ going. So I start talkin’ to her like we still lovers. Soon we’re gettin’ down.”

“Where did you do it?” Corbin asked.

“Right there on the floor.”

“Not on the bed?”

“Naw, she’s freaky like that.” Beaumont glanced at Beckett before continuing. “When I’m getting dressed, Mona shows up. She’s pissed. She read the text and she followed me. She’s got a gun. . big fuckin’ cannon. She starts rantin’ and shit. Next thing I know, she puts the gun to Letricia’s head and pulls the trigger. Bam! I’m across the room, but I get covered in blood and shit. I’m thinking, ‘Fuck, this bitch gonna do me next,’ so I doved behind the television.” He glanced at Beckett again.

“And?” Corbin prodded him.

“Next thing I know she starts screamin’ and cryin’. I look up and see her blow her own brains out.”

“Mona shot Letricia and then turned the gun on herself?” Corbin repeated skeptically.

“It’s true man.”

“And what did you do next?”

“I ran like a motherfucker. Man, I know the cops. They were gonna pin this on me, so I took off.”

“Where did you run?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where did the police find you?”

“At home.”

“So you went straight home?”

“I don’t remember, it was all a blur.”

“Was Letricia sitting or standing when she was shot?”

“I don’t remember.”

Corbin took a deep breath. He pursed his lips and visibly ran his tongue over his teeth. He wanted Beaumont to know he didn’t believe Beaumont’s story. “A moment ago, you remembered every detail of everything that happened vividly. Now you’re telling me you don’t remember basic details from the critical moment, the moment that should be eternally seared into your brain?”

“Standing!” Beaumont blurted out. “She was standing. I was sittin’ on the couch behind her.”

“Other than the shooting, was there any fighting?”

“No, nobody touched nobody.”

“Did you ever touch the gun?”

“No.”

“Did you ever touch Mona?”

“No, man.”

Corbin closed his file and stared directly into Beaumont’s eyes. “Your index finger print was found on the trigger guard. Tell me how it got there.”

“I think we’ve gone far enough today,” Beckett suddenly interjected.

Corbin and Beaumont both looked at Beckett with surprise.

Beckett started collecting papers from the table. “We’re going to investigate what you’ve told us. Do you have any questions?”

Beaumont looked at Beckett suspiciously, then he looked at Corbin who still stared at Beckett. “No man, I don’t got no questions. When you comin’ back?”

“We’ll be back in about a week. We’ll talk about preparing a defense then.” Beckett shoved the last of the papers into the file folder. He rose. “Hang tight Beaumont, we’ll be in touch.”

Outside at the bus stop, a safe distance from the jail, Corbin spoke for the first time. “What the hell was that? Five more minutes and-”

“. . and you would have proven he killed two women. I know. But as an attorney, I can’t let him lie. So the less I know the better. That’s why I had to stop you. Plus, you did what you had to.”

“I could have broken him.”

“You did break him, he just doesn’t know it yet. Let the memory of what happened in there sink in. He’ll be in a panic by the end of the week. It’s better to let this eat at him, than it is to break him on the spot and let him have the week to save his pride. Fear is strongest as a motivator before you know how things are going to turn out. It diminishes once the deed is done and all you have to do is suffer to consequences. Let him sweat.”

Corbin sat in the hotel chair with his feet resting on the bed and his cell phone against his ear. The room was cold and dark. He was tired from the long day, but Alvarez insisted on going over the entire day in detail.

“This guy sounds like a real turd,” opined Alvarez.

“He is.” Corbin rubbed his eyes.