Reckless Eyeballin'

Book by SmithLevin Judith

CHAPTER ONE

Sergeant Dominic Paresi poured his second cup of coffee for the morning and watched the double doors opening into the squad room. His partner was late. He stirred a spoonful of sugar into the coffee and added some cream. As he walked back to his desk, she appeared.

“It’s about time,” he said, sitting down at the desk facing hers.

“Good morning to you, too.” Star took off her coat and hung it on the wooden rack behind her chair. “I had to go home and feed my cat. I’m ten minutes late.”

“Ten minutes really late,” her partner said cryptically.

“What’s going on?” She sat down, facing him.

Paresi leaned forward, beckoning her to do the same. “Willis Henderson’s wife shot him this morning.”

“SWAT Willis Henderson?” Star asked, her eyes wide.

“That be the man,” Paresi said. “His wife put one right between his eyes this morning over breakfast.”

“Yikes!” Star grimaced.

“Talk about starting your day with a bang,” Paresi said.

She looked at her partner. “Point-blank, between the eyes? That’s his speciality.”

Paresi nodded. “Neat as anything he’s ever done,” he said. “I guess sharpshooting runs in the family.”

“Between the eyes,” Star muttered.

“Boom!” Paresi indicated the center of his forehead. “Third eye, for real. I hear it was so neat it could’ve blinked.”

Star sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She looked at Paresi. “Though I was no fan of Willis Henderson’s. Truthfully, I thought the guy was a jerk.”

“You and everybody else with a brain,” Paresi said.

“Yeah, but nobody deserves that. I wonder what made her do it?”

Paresi shrugged. “Who knows? The way I heard it, she plugged him and then sat down and had a cup of coffee.”

Star’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

Paresi nodded. “Sergeant Greene got the call. He said she was perfectly calm. She told him what happened, asked for a squad and a meat wagon.” Paresi leaned forward. “Then she asked him how he was, and inquired after his wife and kids.”

Star shook her head. “Sounds like she was either in shock, or totally unspooled.”

“You be the judge,” Paresi said. “She’s here, in Interrogation Two.”

“She’s here?”

“Not only is she here,” her partner said, “she’s asking to talk to you.”

“Me?” Star looked surprised. “Why?”

Paresi shrugged. “Dunno. All I can tell you is that Lewis has been running out here every five minutes looking for you, so I suggest you trot on in and see what’s happening.”

Star was on her feet. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Any time.” Paresi watched her walk through the squad room and turn the corner, heading toward the interrogation rooms.

Captain Arthur Lewis looked up when Star entered. He glanced at the clock and back at her.

“Morning,” she said. “Sorry I’m late.”

“No problem,” Lewis said. He indicated the small, thin, mocha-colored woman seated across the table.

“Star, this is Mrs. Willis Henderson.”

Star sat down. “How are you, Mrs. Henderson?”

Ernestine smiled at her. The brightness of it unnerved Star, but she managed not to show it.

“I’m fine Lieutenant Duvall,” the woman said serenely. “In fact, I’m better than I’ve been in a long time, and I’m really glad to see you.”

Star looked at Lewis. She could see the woman’s cheerful smile had the same effect on him.

“When Mrs. Henderson was brought in, Lieutenant, she asked to speak with you,” Lewis said in the softest voice she’d ever heard him use.

Star looked at the woman across the table. “I heard what happened, Mrs. Henderson, and I’m very sorry.”

“Call me Ernestine.”

“Ernestine,” Star said. “If there’s anything I can do to help you, I’ll certainly try.”

Ernestine’s eyes teared up for the first time. She reached across the table. Star took both her hands.

“My husband, Willis . . .”

“Yes?” Star said.

“He was a very bad man.”

Star looked at Lewis. “Ernestine, I don’t think you should say another word.”

“She’s right,” Lewis said. “You’re not under arrest, Mrs. Henderson, you haven’t been charged. If you want to talk about the incident, you should have a lawyer present.”

The woman’s grasp on Star’s hand grew tighter. “The officers that came to the house told me I wasn’t under arrest, but they told me my rights, just the same. They said they just wanted to bring me in to talk.”

Ernestine’s voice grew softer, and her eyes darted from Star to Captain Lewis. “But I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “There’s nothing to say. I did it. I killed him, and I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t.”

“Mrs. Henderson . . . Ernestine . . .” Star said.

“No.” A tear rolled down the woman’s cheek. “No, Lieutenant, you got to hear me out.” Her grip on Star’s hand tightened. “My husband was a liar.” She let go of one hand to wipe her face. “He was a lying dog.”

Star looked at Lewis.

“Ernestine . . .” she said, “please, don’t say anything else, let us get an attorney in.”

“No.” The woman wiped her face again, with her free hand. “I’m not going to say you didn’t give me my rights. I was married to a policeman for twenty-two years, I know how it works.” She looked at Lewis. “I know you all thought Willis was a good man, but he wasn’t.”

“Mrs. Henderson . . .” Captain Lewis said.

More tears rolled down her face. Lewis reached back to the table behind him and took a box of Kleenex. He slid it toward Ernestine Henderson. She ignored it, and continued to wipe her eyes with her free hand, while holding on to Star with the other.

“Willis was a liar,” she said softly. “He was always a liar. I was the one who always told the truth, and I’m telling it now.”

Her grip on Star’s hand tightened. Star winced as the hold grew painful, but she didn’t pull away.

“My husband did some evil things,” Ernestine said, her voice so soft the two cops leaned in to hear. “I had to do it,” she said, her eyes on Captain Lewis. “I killed him.” She looked at Star. “And you know why.”

Star looked confused.

“Mrs. Henderson . . .”

The woman’s eyes searched her face. “Ernestine, please call me Ernestine.”

“Ernestine,” Star continued, softly slipping her cramping fingers from the woman’s grasp. “I don’t have a clue as to why you’d kill your husband.”

“ ’Cause he beat me,” Ernestine said. “I killed him ’cause he beat me.” Her eyes again found Star’s. “You know how he used to do me, you even came to the house, you talked to him, remember?”

Star tried to massage some feeling back into her hand. “I don’t recall.”

“It was a long time back,” Ernestine said. “You were still in uniform. It was near Christmas, remember?”

Star looked at the woman and shook her head. “I’m sorry. . . .”

Ernestine leaned forward, her eyes boring into Star’s, seemingly willing her to recall that long-ago evening.

“Willis had beat me real bad,” she said. “You and your partner came in.”

“Do you remember what my partner looked like?” Star asked.

“I surely do,” Ernestine said. “He was real handsome, a fine-looking man. I remember he wasn’t tall as you, but he was real good-looking. He had a mustache, and dark skin, but he wasn’t a black man. He looked like one of those men from overseas, those men from the desert.”

Star’s mind raced back. “Tommy Bell,” she said.

“Belezorian,” Lewis said. “Tom Belezorian. . . .”

Star nodded. “Yes, I do remember now. I was riding with him then.” She looked at Ernestine. “It was a couple of days before Christmas. There had been a big snowstorm, and Willis was really drunk. He had thrown the tree, the decorations, and most of the presents out into the snow.”

“That’s right.” Ernestine almost smiled. “You and your partner came in, and he right away took Willis in another room, while you talked to me.”

“That was a very long time ago,” Star said.

“Yes, it was.” Ernestine nodded. “I asked for you, ’cause you can back me up. You can tell them that Willis had been beatin’ on me for a long time.”

“If it continued after that night, you’re right. That was more than twelve years ago.”

Ernestine wiped her eyes. “I’m not saying that he beat me every day; he didn’t. There were times when we had a good marriage, he’d be good to me, and then something would get into him, and he’d just beat on me for days on end.”

She seemed to shrink inside her clothes.

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