Mysterical-E

He Said, She Says

        The Diaz Case
                          by Andrew McIver

   I’m sitting in a crappy suburban sports bar in Hanson eating dry turkey tips and waiting for Joe Willis to show up. When I first met Joe Willis at Massasoit Community College he was a tall, gangly, goofy looking light skinned black kid from the south side of Brockton who smoked lots of pot and was a center on the school’s basketball team. Me and Joe were both in the law enforcement program so we took a lot of the same classes.

Eventually we started studying together and if it wasn’t for me Joe would have flunked the majority of his classes. After we graduated Joe went into the police academy. I wasn’t interested in becoming a cop so I got a job as a store detective. Three years later I used Joe Willis as a reference when I went to get my private investigator’s license.

When Joe finally does show up he comes walking in with a manila folder tucked underneath his left arm. Joe gets a glass of milk at the bar and plops down onto to the booth.

“Hey Joe. How’s it going?”

“Good. Just made it into the Detective Division.”

“Congratulations. Did you get your first case yet?”

“Yeah I did. Actually that’s why I asked you to meet me here. I’m working on a murder right now and I could really use some help right now Ray. I got a real whodunit on my hands.”

“Well have you tried asking anybody else in the detective division for help?”

“No. If I did that that it would make me look bad.”

“Do you know how asking a private detective for help on a murder investigation makes you look?”

“I know this looks bad. Why do you think I asked you to meet me all the way out here. Listen I really need your help on this one Ray. I got to solve this case.”

“And what makes you think that I can help you?”

“I know you can help me Ray Santos because you’re the smartest detective that I know.”

“Alright Joe. Tell me about this case your working on.”

“You hear about that murder in that apartment building on North Pearl St. that happened a four days ago?”
“Yeah, I think a read about it in Enterprise but I’m going to need you to refresh my memory on it.”

Joe hands me the manila folder he walked in with. It’s a murder book. When I open it up I see a photograph of a sultry looking Latin woman in her early thirties with wavy shoulder length jet black hair, an oval face, tan olive skin, big brown cat eyes, a small nose and a pair of plump lips attached to a copy of the crime scene report. When I turn the page up I see a photograph of her lying in a bed with a crushed skull.
“Her name was Laura Diaz and she was twenty-six years old when somebody decided to bash her head in with a lamp. She moved here four years ago with her husband Eduardo and her sister Tina from Costa Rica. Laura worked at a super market over on Belmont St. She was three months pregnant when she was murdered and her sister says that Laura didn’t know who the father was.”

“How many suspect do you got?”

“Three of them right now. There’s Laura’s estranged husband Eduardo Diaz. He’s twenty-nine years old and he works at the VA hospital on Belmont St. Laura’s sister Tina says Laura kicked Eduardo out of their apartment two months ago when she got bored of him. After Laura kicked him out of the apartment Eduardo moved into a rooming house in Whitman. Eduardo says he was sleeping in his room when Laura was murdered.

The next suspect is Joseph Tantillo. He’s twenty-four years old and he lives with his mother in an apartment in Clifton Heights. He has two arrests for DUIs and he has one drunk and disorderly from a bar fight he got into in Abington. Tantillo and Laura were coworkers. Tina says they were also fooling around. He says he was playing video games in his room when Laura was murdered.

And finally there’s Jean Baptiste Toussaint. He’s thirty- three years old and lives with his fiancé Mimi Thevenin at her father’s house in Randolph. Now Jean Baptiste has pretty long criminal record. The last time he got picked was four years. The Brockton PD caught him selling caps on Green Street. He did two years in Billerica for that one and since he ‘s been out he’s been clean. Right now he’s working at a cell phone kiosk in the West Gate Mall.

Tina says that after Laura and Jean Baptiste met each other in the West Gate Mall that they had a thing going on. When we questioned Jean Baptiste he said he was driving back to his fiancé’s from a strip club in Stoughton when Laura was murdered.”

“Did the coroner find any signs of sexual activity?”

“None.”

“Was there any signs that the apartment had been broken into?”

“No. Nothing in the room was out of place except for the lamp.”

“Did Laura get her locks changed when she kicked out Eduardo?”

“Laura’s Sister and the buildings super didn’t mention anything about the locks getting changed.”
“So then Eduardo probably still had a key to Laura’s apartment”

Joe raised his hands in the air and was about to shout a string of profanity when he looked remembered that he was in a crowded restaurant. So Joe rested his forehead on his right hand and shook his head.
“I can’t believe I missed that.”

I can’t believe Joe made it into the detective division. I wonder how he passed the detectives’ exam.
“Ah. Don’t beat yourself up over it Joe. We all mistakes every once in awhile.”

“Yeah I guest your right Ray…Listen I got to get back to headquarters. So I’ll see you around Ray.”
“You owe me a big one Joe.”

“Yeah. I know. I know.”