ONE NIGHT....18

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG GUYS. I HAVE BEEN SO SICK.

Brandon’s head was pounding, and his insides felt like they were ripping apart.  He could not let her go.  He wanted to hold on to her and maybe his tears could bring her back, like in the movies. But he knew this was not a movie.  He knew that nothing he did could bring her back.  He lays her back down and touches her face.  She looks so peaceful, like she was sleeping.  He body is shaking from the force of his sobs. He can't control himself. He wants her to come back, even if it means being in her place.  He kisses her cheek, and buries his face in her hair. Her hair still smells like that mango-berry shampoo she used all the time.  That’s when Brandon notices her hair.  It was so curly. She must have gotten her hair done recently.  Something about the hair bothered him, but he could not think of what it was at the moment.  His grief consumes him.  He needs to know what happened.  Something went horribly wrong and he was going to the bottom of it.

“I’m so sorry baby. I never meant for this to happen.”  “It was not supposed to be this way, but I’m going to fix it.”   “I love you.”

Brandon pulls up the sheet and covered Donna.  He turns and walks out the door.  Where a few seconds ago there was grief, now there was seething anger.  He will find Jason, and ask him what the hell happened.  Then he will find Anthony, which he knew would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but he will find him.  If Brandon had to lay out more bodies next to Donna he would.  What ever he had to do he would.  One thing for sure, someone was definitely going to join Donna.

 Meanwhile….

 Vanessa sat in a chair in the corner of the room. She was watching the machine that was helping Jason breath… he was in ICU in critical condition.  She had just seen him a few hours ago, and now he was lying here fighting for his life.  She was in such shock that she could not wrap her head around the situation.  The doctors told her Jason would be out for a while.  She was sore and in pain herself but could not bring herself to leave him here like this, with no one near him.  Something was going on and she did not know what.  Vanessa felt a sharp pain, and figured that the pain meds were wearing off.  She left the room looking for a nurse. Once she found one she informed her of who she was and was taken back to her room.  The nurse inspects her, and sees that she has a lot of bleeding. The nurse leaves to go and tell the doctor while Vanessa gets in the shower.

 In the meantime….

Brandon heads up to the nurse’s station, and asks for Vanessa’s room. He also asks where Jason was and was told he was in ICU.  First thing Brandon was going to do was talk to Vanessa.  He needs to find out what happened.  After he talks to Vanessa he will try and call Anthony, something went wrong and Brandon needs to know what.  His brother never made mistakes, and everything he did was done with a reason.  Brandon has got to get to the bottom of this.  He goes to the 3^rd floor and finds Vanessa’s room but it’s empty. He turns to leave when he heard the shower going.  He decides to sit and wait for her to come out.  About 10 minutes go by when the door opens and Vanessa comes out in a robe and a towel around her head.  She looks like she was at a spa.  She jumps when she sees him sitting there.

“You scared me half to death.”

“Half?” “Then I’m almost there.”

Vanessa was confused by his comment.  She was also taken aback by his face.  His eyes were red and puffy, and he looked almost deranged.

“What is going on here Vanessa?”  “Why is Donna downstairs in the morgue and why is Jason just in ICU?”

“What?”  “Donna is where?”  “Oh my god she was the woman that was brought in with him.  When they said he was brought in with a woman, I thought it was some random person that just happened to be walking by. Especially when they said he was picked up from my apartment.  Oh my god! Donna is dead?  Jason is in a coma so he does not know.”

Vanessa never wanted anyone dead; she just wanted Jason all to himself.  She could not believe what Jason was saying.  She sat on the bed and removed the towel from her head.

Brandon had his head in his hands with his eyes closed. He could not stop seeing the image of Donna lying there, dead.  He could not believe she was gone. All the trouble he went to, all the money he had spent, and all the things he had done, and Donna was gone.  He was still in utter disbelief.  Everything he did was for her.  He looks up just in time to see Vanessa remove the towel from her head.  Her hair fell around her face, she had curls everywhere.  That’s when it hit him. That was what was different about Donna. Her hair was curly.  Her hair was never curly she always wore it straight or in layers.  Brandon felt like someone had punched him in the gut.  Oh my god, could he be the reason that Donna was lying on a cold slab in the morgue right now?  Was he responsible for all of this? Had everything gone the way it was supposed to go, he would be consoling Donna right now, and not needing to be consoled.  He needed to get in touch with Tony. To let him know he made a grave error.  He felt sick to his stomach.  Why didn’t he get to her sooner? Had he been with her she would still be alive and the people who were meant to be dead would be.

In the back of her mind Vanessa was hoping that Jason pulled through and that maybe he would want to be with her now that Donna was gone.  No, no, what was she thinking?  He does not want her now. Especially since Donna is gone, she would never be able to fill her shoes, especially now.  How do you compete with a man’s dead wife?

Vanessa looked over at Brandon. He looked as if he was on the verge of a break down. He was staring off into space, not looking at anything, and is eyes had this wild look about them.  He looked almost scary, like he was about to snap. They way he was acting were strange.

Brandon got up form his chair and started to pace.  He looked at Vanessa, and again was shocked to see her sitting there looking at her now with her hair all curly, her hair resembled Donna’s.  If you did not know them, you would say they were related. The only difference was Vanessa almonds shaped eyes.

“What floor is the ICU?”

Although Brandon was looking right at her it was as if he did not even see her.  “ICU is on the 5^th floor.”  “Let me get dressed and I’ll go with you.”  “

“No, that’s not necessary, plus I want to be alone right now.”

Vanessa watched Brandon leave, and a sense of dread filled her. Again she did not know what to make of it.  But her intuition told her it was time to get out of dodge.  She has a substantial amount of money, and once she sold her condo she would have over 1 million dollars. That was enought to start over anywhere. Not bad for a foster child, turned stripper, to personal whore.  She would go somewhere and start over. Where nobody knew her or her past.  She had a cousin that lived in Miami, and she has been begging her to come for a visit, and you know what she just might make it down to Miami for a visit.  Vanessa paged the nurse and asked if it was ok for her to leave, since she felt much better.  The nurse said she would go ask the doctor to see if it was ok.  Vanessa quickly pulled on the hospital pants they had given her and the t-shirt she came in.  She called a cab and waited to sign herself out. Once she got home she will start getting her stuff  ready to leave.  There was nothing left for her here anyway. She could feel something was about to happen, and it was not something she thinks she should be around for.

Brandon walks into Jason's room.  He lied to the nurse and told them he was his brother in order to see him… Well actually there was more truth to that then Brandon cared to admit.  Brandon’s chest filled with anger.  He was filled with such rage he could barely breathe.  How dare he lay there breathing, while his Donna was in a drawer downstairs?  Just looking at Jason made Brandon so mad.  His hate for Jason began years ago before Donna even came into the picture.  He spent years biding his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to finally be rid of him.  Brandon looks at all the monitors and wires.  He wondered what would happened if he pulled one of these IV wires by accident.  Or gave him too much of what ever was in there.  How long would it take for him to die?  No matter how long Brandon knew he would enjoy every second of it.

Vanessa was waiting for the doctor when some guy walked in her room.  “Vanessa Lee?”

“Yes, who are you?”

“I’m detective Taylor.”  “Can I get a few moments of your time?”  “I just have a few questions about what happened tonight.”

“Sure, please have a seat.  I’ll help in anyway I can.”

 “Ms. Lee, how do you know the victims?”

“Well, Jason is my boss, and Donna is his wife.”

“Do you know if either of them had enemies?”

“No, not that I know of, no.”

“Ok, would you happen to why Mr. and Mrs. Brooks happened to be outside your apartment?”

“I don’t know what Donna was doing there but….Vanessa stopped not sure if she should tell him what Jason was doing there.

Detective Taylor noticed Vanessa hesitation, and said; Ms. Lee I would like to inform you that this is official investigation to a homicide, and attempted homicide.”  “If you have any information that can help, I suggest you tell me now, and not let me find out about it later.”

“Ok, fine.  Jason was at my apartment getting me a change of clothes, so I could leave the hospital today.”

“Where you with Jason earlier, or did you call him?”

“Yes I was with him.”

“Ms. Lee, can you please inform me of what happened within the last 24 hours.”

“Maybe I should call a lawyer or something.”

“Why, do you think you need one?”

“No, but on Law & Order, this is the part where the suspect asks for a lawyer.”

“Are you saying that you are a suspect?”

“No, that is not what I am saying.  You said...

“I never said you were a suspect. I am just asking you some questions, but if you have something to hide, and need a lawyer to help you, then we can go downtown and…”

“No that’s not necessary I have nothing to hide. It’s just that things are complicated, and.”

“Just relax and tell me what happened during the last 24 hrs.”

“Ok, well I went to work and…

Vanessa started to tell her story…

Brandon was about to reach over to one of the IV bags when the door opened, and a nurse walked in.

“Hello, I’m sorry, you will have to step out now.”  “I need to change his dressing and don’t want him to get an infection.  You can wait outside I should be done shortly.”  “It’ll give you the chance to talk to the detective in the hall.”

“What detective?”

“Oh there is a detective here to ask you some questions.  When ever there is a person brought in with gunshots, we have to alert the police.”  “He is right outside.”  She smiled not knowing the severity of the situation.

Brandon leaves the room and looks around but does not see anyone.  He walks over to the nurse’s station and asks them where the detective had gone to.  One of the nurses tells him that he went to talk to Ms. Lee and to tell you he would be back after speaking to her.  Brandon’s heart leaps into his throat. The last person the police needed to talk to was Vanessa.  He did not need that dumb bitch saying things to implicate herself, cause by doing so his name would not be far behind.  He headed for the elevator, and since it was taking to long he decided to take the stairs.  He needed to get to Vanessa’s room before she says something she should not.  Brandon got to Vanessa’s room and slowly pushed open the door, just in time to hear her say that she argued with Jason at her apartment.

“He came by thinking that I had told Donna bout the affair, but I didn’t.   We fought physically and he pushed me. I lost my footing and fell down the stairs.”  That’s how I ended up here.”  “ I was pregnant and due to the fall, I lost the baby."

 Brandon had not known any of this and was shocked to hear it.  He steps further into the room and the detective and Vanessa finally notice he is there.  The detective turns to him.

“Hi I’m Brandon; the nurse told me I could find you here.

“Oh, ok, you did not have to come looking for me I was almost done with Ms. Lee here, and would have been back up to talk to you.”

“It’s no problem; I actually had to come back down to check on Vanessa.”

“Ok well I guess I can ask you a few questions now as well.”

He turned back to Vanessa and asked her if she had seen Donna at all yesterday.

“No I did not.”

“Do you have any idea who would want either of them dead?”

“No.”

“Ms Lee, surely you wanted Jason all to yourself. You said you are in love with him,”

“Yes I did but not at the cost of Donna dying.  I just wanted him to leave her and be with me.  I wanted him to be with me and the baby.  And he was going to, until she found out that she was pregnant too.”

“That must have pissed you off.”

“Yes but, I knew that I had been defeated. I knew that Jason loved his wife, and the only reason he would leave her was because I was having a baby. But to have his wife carrying his child, he would never leave her.”

The detective turned to Brandon suddenly and asks…

“Mr. West.  What about you, do you know if anyone who would want Jason and Donna dead, and why?”

“As far as Donna, no, but in the business that Jason and I are in, we often receive threats.”  But we thought nothing of them.  We take over companies from their original owners and sell them piece by piece for profit, I’m sure we ruffled some feathers during the process.”

“Did you know about the affair between Ms Lee and Jason?’

“Of course I did he was my best friend.”

“One more question Mr. West?”  “Where were you tonight between the hours of 1am and 4:30 am?”

“I was home, and then Donna called me to ask why I did not tell her about Vanessa, and Jason.

"Did she seem upset?"

"Of course she was upset, she just found out that her husband was having an affair."

"anything else?"

“Did you stop anywhere, did anyone see you?” Brandon did not hesitate to answer, hell it was not the first tie he was being interrogated by a police officer.  He knew to stay calm, look him in the eye and keep his voice steady.

“No, it was almost 3 am when I left my house, no one was out and about at that time.”

“Well someone was, and they murdered Mrs. Brooks and put her husband in ICU.” 

“Well that will be all for now.  If I have anymore questions. I will contact you.”  Here is my card if you guys should think of anything useful, please feel free to contact me.  He hands Vanessa the card and shakes hands with Brandon, then he leaves. Brandon waits a minute before he walks over to Vanessa pulling her up by her hair.

“If you even think about telling that detective that I paid you to break up Donna and Jason, I swear to you will be lying right where Donna is.  But unlike Donna no one will come and claim you.  Do you understand?”

Maybe it was the way he was looking at her, or the danger she saw in his eyes; whatever the reason Vanessa was not going to tell anyone anything about how she ended up here.  Because right then and there she knew he meant every word.

“Yeah I understand.”