“He was never really with the church, which is amazing.” She blew out air. “In roughly two weeks’ time, Belize managed to ruin all of our careful planning and hard work.”
“What happened?”
“The man was a goat…insatiable…some things never change.” She blotted tears. “I guess I didn’t satisfy him. Or maybe I just wasn’t around. He was living with Beth and Manny and Manny wasn’t always around. Beth was a beautiful girl.”
Decker thought a moment. “He made a pass at Beth?”
“Truly incredible, huh? Why I didn’t leave him years ago…I’m such an idiot!”
“People get caught in situations,” Decker said.
Lindie let out a small laugh. “You do a great job at playing ‘good cop.’ If I weren’t so distraught, I’d probably fall for you.”
Decker smiled. “I take it Beth told Manny about Belize’s pass?”
“She did. Manny was forgiving of his brother’s roving eye, but Beth wasn’t. She insisted that Belize move out and get his own place. Belize didn’t want to move out. He didn’t want to have to pay rent, he wasn’t paying for food, mostly he was lazy. And he really resented Beth telling him what to do. The two of them began to argue constantly. Manny tried to keep peace but it was useless. It was inevitable that things would come to a head.”
Decker nodded. “Tell me about it. I need to hear your side of the story.”
Her eyes moistened. “I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t there.”
“So tell me what you do know.”
Her tears had returned. “Something went awry…horribly out of control. Belize told me that he…he and Beth were arguing…” She started to pant. “That the argument got very heated…that Beth wouldn’t quit…that things escalated. They got physical. There was pushing and shoving and the next thing he knew…”
She took in a quick breath and forced it out.
“He told me that Beth had hit her head on the wall. He told me that I needed to come over and help him clean up the mess.”
“Mess?”
“That’s what I asked him. What mess?” She blinked repeatedly to rid her eyes of all the tears-like bailing out a sinking ship. Her voice was barely audible. “He begged me to come over. I never heard such desperation. Of course how well did I know him? Something like three weeks?”
“Did you go over to the apartment?”
She nodded slowly. “It was horrible…horrific. I didn’t know people had that much blood inside of them.”
“Describe the scene to me.”
“Blood was…everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling.” She regarded Decker with a trembling lip. “I think I threw up. It was sickening. It was the most…I had nightmares for years. I still have them. That’s why I remember everything so clearly.”
“Poor you,” Decker said, and meant it.
She started sobbing. “Thank you for saying that.”
Decker let her weep openly until her breathing had slowed to an acceptable rate. Then he said, “The scene wasn’t what you expected.”
“I don’t know what I expected. All I knew is that something horrible had happened. What I should have done was run like hell, drive back to my parents’ house, and call the police. Instead, I…” Her voice trailed off.
Decker said, “Who was at the apartment when you got there?”
“By the time I arrived, Manny and Beth were gone. Belize was making some pathetic attempt to scrub down the walls.”
“Did you ask him what happened?”
“No…not at that time. I couldn’t speak. I was in a state of shock and Belize was shaken to the core. He pleaded with me to help him clean up the mess. I took a rag and started wiping the blood from the walls. It was nauseating. The smell of fresh blood and knowing that something real bad happened. My punishment for all the hell I put my parents through.”
“You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s crime, Lindie.”
Again, she started crying. “I should have seen it coming! I should have left. I should have insisted that Belize leave! I should have, I should have, I should have.”
Decker had no words of solace. He waited a few moments then continued. “Did Manny return to the apartment?”
A long, suffering sigh. “He came back about four hours later. By then, Belize and I managed to clean most of it up…but it still reeked.”
She swallowed hard.
“Manny told us the apartment wasn’t clean enough. He said it needed to be spotless before we left. He also said that he needed to pack up his belongings and Beth’s as well. His plan was to wait until morning and make it look like he and Beth disappeared with the church funds. He said that he’d take out the money first thing in the morning and then we’d all take off together.”
“And what did Belize say to that?”
“Belize did whatever Manny told him to do.”
“I thought it was Manny who adored Belize.”
“Suddenly the roles reversed and Manny was telling us what to do. He was the only one who was thinking that night…preternaturally calm, actually. Maybe it was nerves. Mostly, I remember that he was very pissed at Belize. Unforgivingly so.”
“How could you tell?”
“Belize was constantly trying to talk to him and Manny didn’t answer. Finally Manny told Belize to shut the fuck up. Manny was always kind of a nice guy…seeing him like that, I was terrified. I don’t know who killed Beth; either one could have done it. Of course, I was way too petrified to ask.”
Decker was battling off a terrible hand cramp. “Tell me what happened next.”
Lindie kept shaking her head, trying to rid herself of the dreadful images. “We spent the entire night cleaning the place up. By morning, you could have eaten off the floor, it was that clean. As soon as the bank opened, Manny took out his own money that he had saved with Beth plus the church’s savings. We piled into Manny’s truck and headed for Vegas. We drove the entire six hours in total silence.”
She blew out air.
“I stayed in the hotel room, terrified, panicked, horrified, catatonic…waiting for the other shoe to drop. Manny and Belize spent the entire week gambling and getting drunk. Both men were constantly in bad moods and several times I had to lock myself in the bathroom to avoid being a punching bag. Mostly, it was Manny. He was acting like a wild man. Then…”
She turned away from Decker. Her profile showed tears running down her cheeks.”
“This is so hard.” Another swallow. “Toward the end of the week…around two in the morning, Belize came back to the hotel in a panic. He ordered me to pack the bags…that we had to leave. I was so scared and numb, I just mindlessly obeyed. I was constantly afraid that the police were going to arrest us. I thought they had finally caught up. In a way, I was relieved. But that wasn’t what happened at all.”
Decker waited.
“Manny got stabbed in a bar fight and the knife went right through the heart. He didn’t stand a chance. Belize had his brother’s body in the pickup. We needed to get rid of it before someone reported the incident.
“We were out in a flash. We drove and drove into the middle of the Mohave Desert. We buried him somewhere in the middle of nowhere. By the time we finished, it was close to daybreak. We left Nevada and drove to New Mexico because that’s where Belize wanted to go. As he drove he told me what had happened that night. He said that Beth had become enraged and suddenly charged Manny with a knife. That Manny reached for the first thing he could find just to fend her off. He said that Manny killed Beth in self-defense.”
“What did Belize say that Manny used to fend her off?” Decker asked.
“He didn’t say. He kept saying it was self-defense, but the law wouldn’t see it that way. Especially now that Manny was gone, it would look like the both of us killed Manny and Beth in order to steal the church money. He had this way of making me feel that I was part of it all, that I had no choice but to stick by him or else we’d both go down together.”