Purrfect Revenge

Chapter 10

The last of the paparazzi had been caught and thrown off the property, but not before Shayonne and Shalonda had hit their marks and struck their poses, giving them what they came for. You don’t get to be in the world’s top-rated reality show without giving back to the fans. Kane the dog had been fished from the pool, and it was time to finally sit down for the interview.

The sisters refused to be interviewed separately and Chase decided not to fight them on this. What he did fight them on was their expressed desire that the entire interview was filmed for their show. What was more, they wanted the murder investigation taped, Chase and Odelia included for this special.

They’d even get screen credit and SAG minimum, whatever that was.

Chase vehemently refused, and so did Odelia, though less vehemently. She wouldn’t mind being on national TV. Her mom would freak if she saw her daughter strutting her stuff amongst all these celebs. But Chase muttered something about making a mockery of the investigation and that was that.

“Not gonna happen,” were his exact words, and no matter how much the sisters insisted, even turning on the waterworks again, this time he stood his ground. He obviously had no aspirations to be a celebrity cop.

Shalonda tossed her long hair. “You know what we’ll do, Shayonne?”

“What?”

“We’ll shoot a confessional. Tell our viewers all about the investigation. They can’t stop us from doing that, can they?”

Both sisters gave Chase an inquisitive look, but he just shook his head.

The sisters had chosen the pergola for the interview. The wooden structure, covered with vines and honeysuckle, stood fifty yards from the house, at the bottom of the garden, providing a nice view of the Atlantic Ocean. Dappled sunlight slanted down through the rafters, and as far as Odelia could see there were no paparazzi in sight. What she did see was the cameraman sneaking around, trying to get the best view of the sisters.

She decided not to tell Chase. This was a fight they couldn’t win.

The Kenspeckles made themselves comfortable on the wicker furniture, making sure the camera caught them from their best angle. Even during a police interview they were concerned about how they looked on camera.

In a surprising shift of protocol, Chase had decided to allow Odelia to take the lead in the interview. Maybe he figured Shayonne and Shalonda would open up to her more than to him. More so because she didn’t look anything like a cop. In fact she might have featured on the show herself.

“Did Shana have any enemies?” she asked, opening the interview.

“Oh, no,” Shalonda said immediately. “Shana was the most beloved person on earth. Literally everyone adored her. I mean, literally every single person on earth loved Shana to bits. I’m not kidding. I know this for a fact.”

“Yeah, Shana was a sweetheart,” Shayonne agreed. “She had the biggest heart. You could never hope to have a sweeter sister than her.” A tear stole down her cheek, and Shalonda reached out a hand and gave hers a squeeze.

Faced with tragedy, the Kenspeckle sisters offered a united front. It was touching, Odelia thought. Until she saw movement from the corner of her eye, and noticed the camera recording every last second of the teary scene.

“Can you think of anyone who would have wanted to cause her harm?”

Shayonne hesitated. “Well, there was this one incident with one of her ex-boyfriends, Robin Masters. When Shana got engaged to Damien, he made a big scene. I mean, the guy completely lost it. Went absolutely ballistic.”

“Oh, that’s right. Wasn’t that in season ten? Or was it eleven? I forget.”

“It was so horrible,” said Shayonne. “Robin drove up to the house and threatened to torch the place. Camille—that’s our mother, Camille Kenspeckle—had to intervene and calm him down. The cops got involved, and Shana had to file a restraining order against the guy. I was terrified.”

“He wasn’t the only one. There have been others. Other ex-boyfriends. But they’re usually pretty amenable once they get their five minutes of fame.”

“You mean fifteen minutes of fame,” Odelia said.

“What’s that, honey?” asked Shalonda. “You have to speak up, for the—”

But before she could say ‘microphone,’ Shayonne had squeezed her hand.

“The expression is fifteen minutes of fame, not five,” Odelia explained.

“Oh, but these guys only get five,” said Shalonda. “We’re the stars of the show. Bit players like Robin Masters don’t get to steal our limelights.”

“They sure don’t,” Shayonne agreed. “We worked too damn hard. No boyfriend gets first billing. Five minutes and that’s it. It’s all in the contract.”

“Does everybody sign a contract?” asked Odelia.

“Of course,” said Shayonne. “Girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives… Camille takes care of all of that. This is a business, honey. We need to protect the Kenspeckle brand. Nobody is going to come and mess with our brand.”

“And what is that brand, exactly?” Chase asked, unable to control himself.

“Beauty and grace,” said Shayonne instantly, as if she’d rehearsed the phrase, which she probably had.

“Wealth and power,” added Shalonda.

“Style and beauty.”

“I think you said beauty twice, honey,” said Shalonda.

“That’s because it’s important. The Kenspeckle brand is all about beauty.”

“And selfies,” Odelia said with a smile.

The two sisters laughed. “You said it, girl,” said Shalonda.

“Wasn’t Shana called the queen of selfies?” asked Odelia. “Maybe her habit of portraying her wealth and beauty made some people feel jealous?”

“Oh, but everybody was jealous of her,” Shayonne confirmed. “Shana was so gorgeous it was hard not to feel jealous. She was the center of attention wherever she went. I’ll admit even I felt jealous of her from time to time.”

“Yeah, she couldn’t walk into a room without getting everyone to turn.”

“Remember my wedding? How she upstaged me in front of everybody? That dress. That hair. She looked like she was the one getting married.”

“I hated her for that,” said Shalonda.

“Me too. Or that time when I was sixteen, going out on my first date and she was flirting with my date? The guy didn’t even look at me after that!”

“Shana was an attention whore, no doubt about it,” said Shalonda. “And we all loved her for it,” she quickly added when she saw Chase frown.

“She was the most popular star in the family, wasn’t she?” asked Odelia.

The two sisters stared at her, momentarily lost for words. Then Shayonne asked, “Who the hell told you that?”

“That’s not true,” Shalonda chimed in.

“We’re all stars. Just look at our contracts. We all get star credit.”

“There’s no denying Shana got the most attention,” said Chase. “She got the endorsement deals, the paid appearances… Even her app is a bestseller.”

Wow. Chase had obviously done his homework.

“Those are just rumors,” Shayonne said, sitting up.

“Filthy lies,” Shalonda chimed in, also sitting up.

“We all share equal billing on our show. There are no prima donnas.”

“Still,” Chase insisted. “You just said you hated your sister because she upstaged you, and tried to steal your boyfriends.”

“Oh, she did,” said Shayonne, nodding.

“She most definitely did,” Shalonda agreed.

“Which doesn’t mean we didn’t love her.”

“Oh, yeah. We loved her to pieces.”

“Tiny, little pieces,” said Shayonne, holding her nails millimeters apart.

“You told me that Shana was sleeping with your husband?” Odelia asked.

“You told her that?” asked Shalonda, turning to her sister. “What about putting up a united front for the outside world, like Camille told us to? Family first, Shayonne. Family always comes first.”

“This is a police investigation,” Chase reminded her. “You can speak freely. Nothing you say will go beyond Miss Poole and myself at this point.”

“All we want is to catch your sister’s killer,” Odelia assured them.

“Yes, I told her,” Shayonne said. “Because it’s true. Shana was sleeping with Dion. She told me so herself. She came clean to me last week.”

“I don’t believe this,” Shalonda said, shaking her head. Whether she didn’t believe that Shana had been sleeping with Dion or that her sister was confiding in the police wasn’t immediately clear. Odelia suspected the latter.

“Well, she was!” Shayonne exclaimed. “She finally confessed. Told me she couldn’t live with the lie anymore. She also told me she was done with Dion.”

“And how did you react?” asked Chase.

“I was stunned. Completely stunned. And then I dumped Dion’s ass.”

Odelia frowned. “So why is Dion still here?”

“Because Shana confessed to me off camera, and I broke up with Dion off camera. We needed to do it again, on camera, which is why we all flew out here, because this was going to be the highlight of the season. We were going to end on a big cliffhanger, with my relationship with Shana and my marriage in the balance.” She shook her head. “You obviously still have a lot to learn about TV, honey. This all happened already, and now we have to recreate it.”

“So Dion was only hanging around until you filmed the bit about the breakup?” asked Chase.

“Well, duh. We were going to milk this thing for all we could get.”

“What about Dion? How did he feel about this situation?” Odelia asked.

“Well, he’s not too happy,” said Shayonne. “He’s off the show, isn’t he?”

“You snooze, you lose,” said Shalonda.

“I don’t think that’s correct, honey,” said Shayonne. “More like, you cheat, you lose.”

“It doesn’t have the same ring to it. I like mine better.”

“What it all comes down to, Detective,” said Shayonne, touching Chase’s knee, “is that when you cheat on a Kenspeckle you’re out on your ass.”

“Amen to that,” said Shalonda.

Odelia shared a glance with Chase. This was definitely motivation for murder. If Dion was going to get kicked off the show, he stood to lose a lot of money. He might have wanted to plot revenge against Shana. Maybe even hoped that the murder would sink the entire show.

“What about Damien?” asked Chase.

Shayonne swatted away a fly. “What about him?”

“Did he know about Shana and Dion?”

“Of course he did. We don’t keep secrets in this family. Damien knew all about his wife’s infidelities.”

“Infidelities?” asked Odelia. “You mean this wasn’t a one-time thing?”

“Nope,” said Shayonne. “Now don’t get me wrong. Shana was the sweetest person in the world.”

“So sweet.”

“And I loved her, like, a lot.”

“A whole lot.”

“But let’s not kid ourselves. She was a skank.”

“They didn’t get any skankier than Shana.”

“She never met a guy she didn’t want to sleep with and who didn’t want to sleep with her.” She shrugged. “That’s the way she was. Take it or leave it.”

“Damien knew that going in,” said Shalonda. “In fact he sleeps around just as much as she does. They have a, quote unquote, arrangement.”

“So he was fine with this Dion situation?” Odelia asked.

The two sisters shared a look. “Well, fine would be overstating it,” said Shayonne.

“Yeah, he and Dion got into a big fight about it the other night.”

“They knocked the shit out of each other and then bonded over a couple of beers and hung out at the pool all night. It was crazy.”

“Dion is crazy.”

“Hey. Who you calling crazy? That’s my husband you’re talking about.”

“Ex-husband,” Shalonda specified.

“He’s not my ex-husband. I haven’t divorced him yet.”

Shalonda stared at her sister. “You’re not seriously thinking about keeping him, are you? After what he did to you?”

“But I still love him, honey. And maybe now that Shana’s gone we can start over.”

“You’re officially crazy. That man never treated you right.”

“He has. And anyway, better to have a man than no man at all.”

Shalonda’s eyebrows rose and she planted a hand on her hip. “Don’t hold back, honey. Just throw it all out there, why don’t you?”

“I’m saying you don’t get to give me marriage advice. I’m only going to take marriage advice from a person who’s in a successful marriage. And that person obviously isn’t you.”

“I would have had a successful marriage if Shana hadn’t stolen my man.”

“She wouldn’t have stolen your man if he wasn’t ready to be stolen.”

“Wait, you also had a man stolen from you by Shana?” Odelia asked. She was feeling as if she was on an episode of the Kenspeckles. Which she was.

“Of course. Didn’t you listen to a word we said? Shana stole all of our men. That’s what she did. She was a man-stealer.”

Chase shook his head and jotted something down in his notebook. It wasn’t hard to figure out what. Both Shalonda and Shayonne had a motive for murder. Both of them had had their men stolen by their sister.

“Did you notice anything about the intruder last night?” Odelia asked, deciding to change the subject.

“Not a thing,” said Shayonne. “I slept like a baby. Though when I woke up I was feeling nauseous. But I already told Detective Kingsley about that.”

“You were drugged,” Chase confirmed. “Both of you were.”

“Yeah, I was feeling nauseous too,” said Shalonda. “I thought I was pregnant.”

Both sisters laughed. “Good one, Shalonda,” said Shayonne.

“What about that?” Odelia asked.

Shalonda blinked. “What about what?”

“Any plans to add a new generation to the Kenspeckle family?”

“Well, Dion and I were planning our first baby,” said Shayonne.

“But that’s off now, right?” asked Shalonda. When her sister didn’t respond, she repeated emphatically, “I said, that’s off now. Right?”

Shayonne shrugged.

Shalonda’s jaw dropped dramatically. “Oh. My. God. You’re not seriously thinking to procreate with that man, are you? He cheated on you with your own sister!”

“That won’t happen again,” said Shayonne. “He promised.”

“Of course it won’t happen again! Shana is dead. It’s physically impossible for that to happen again. That don’t mean he won’t do it with some other skank.”

“He’s a good person,” Shayonne insisted. “And it’s not because he tripped up once that he should be punished for the rest of his life. He deserves a second chance and I am possibly willing to give him one. Maybe. I’m still thinking.”

“Think again! Once a cheater, always a cheater.”

“That’s not true. He promised he wouldn’t do it again and I believe him.”

Shalonda raised her eyes to the rafters, as if to draw strength from the honeysuckle. “I’m telling Camille,” she finally declared. “I’m so telling her.”

Odelia noticed how the cameraman had snuck up on them, and was so caught up in the dramatic scene that he'd dropped all pretenses and was openly filming. This was going to be another cliffhanger, she thought.

"So you didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, apart from the fact that you were both feeling nauseous this morning?" asked Chase, in a heroic effort to take back control of the interview.

“No, Detective,” said Shayonne. “I was out like a light all night.”

“Me too.”

“You are going to catch the killer, right?” asked Shayonne.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to find him, ma’am,” said Chase. Then he caught sight of the cameraman and cursed loudly.

The cameraman eyed him sheepishly. “Just doing my job, bub.”

“Get out of my face,” Chase said. “I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

“Better get used to it,” Odelia whispered. “You’re a TV detective now.”

“Thanks, ladies,” he said, ignoring her remark. “That’s all for now.”

“And it’s a wrap,” Shayonne cried. “Tell me you got all that?”

The cameraman gave her a toothy grin and a thumbs-up.

“You did great, Detective,” Shalonda said. “You’re a natural.”

“I don’t care,” he said wearily. “I just want to catch your sister’s killer.”

“Oh, but so do we,” said Shayonne.

“Yeah, that’s all we care about,” said Shalonda. “Now do you think we could do this again, Detective? Only this time I’ll sit there and you sit here.”

Chase sighed. “Just… shoot me already. Not you,” he said when the cameraman pointed his camera at him. “You shoot me and I’ll shoot you.”

Yep, this was shaping up to be a pretty interesting murder investigation.