Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. “After he took Stephen’s money, he told me the only way the tax bill would go away was if I slept with him.” The woman’s lower lip started to tremble. “You can’t tell Paul. He would be furious. It’s bad enough how Sonny leered at me, making comments when he was around, as if he wanted to throw it in Paul’s face. I know how people were talking, saying we were having a fling. I hated him.”
“We’re not here to judge you. We’re trying to figure out who killed Sonny and how they pulled it off. It wasn’t the fettuccine served at our engagement party,” Dernice said. “Do you know of anyone else in the group Sonny may have been taking payments from?”
Courtney looked away.
“Is it Reyna?”
“I…don’t know. What I do know is that Reyna hated Sonny too. She hated his guts.”
Luigi stepped closer. “Was Rocky involved?”
Courtney nervously licked her lips. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Dernice asked.
“Because Reyna, if she took Sonny out, did us all a favor. My brother still owes taxes. Sonny lied. He used us, promising to help and lied.”
“But did he deserve to die?”
“All I know is that I didn’t kill him.” Courtney’s eyes darted around the store. “Look, I've gotta get back to work. Sonny Skidz was a scumbag. If Rocky was in on taking money from people, then he’s a scumbag too.”
Dernice thanked her and followed Luigi out of the smoke shop. “I don’t disagree that what Sonny did was despicable. He took people’s money and made promises he couldn’t keep.”
“Looks like we need to swing by the police department and let them know what’s going on.”
Chapter 34
“Talk about a twist I didn’t see coming.” Carlita scratched her forehead. “All this time, I thought…we all thought Sonny was a womanizer. He wasn’t a womanizer. The man was an extortionist, taking money from people in exchange for not foreclosing on their property.”
“Reyna and Sonny were negotiating her payment to keep her house. Sonny decided it wasn’t enough. He wanted other favors and money. She agreed. Something went wrong the night Reyna showed up at Sonny’s house and they argued.”
Elvira interrupted. “I think Sonny was holding out for more—more money and more favors.”
“Sonny the Enforcer changed the terms,” Dernice said.
“Which is what Courtney admitted had happened to her. She was trying to prevent her brother’s home from being sold at auction. Her brother paid Sonny money. As soon as he had the cash in hand, he decided he wanted an additional favor. Paul Maul, her boyfriend, suspected something was going on and threatened to beat Sonny up,” Mercedes said.
“So Reyna came up with a plan to take Sonny out,” Carlita said. “The only problem was, she wasn’t very good at it. From what the detective said, she admitted to tampering with his brakes. She also inadvertently caused Creed’s accident.”
“When that didn’t work, she saw her opportunity at Luigi’s and my engagement party,” Dernice said. “She brought some rat poison. Knowing fettuccine was his favorite food, she sprinkled some in there. After he and Yvonne took some, she hid it under the buffet table’s cover so no one else would eat it.”
“When poisoning him at the party didn’t work, she went to the hospital with a fountain drink from a convenience store. She’d added a heavy dose of additional poison, and this is what finally killed him,” Carlita said. “An extreme dose which caused heart failure. He even mentioned feeling woozy and how the drink tasted like it was spiked with alcohol.”
“It was spiked all right,” Dernice said. “Spiked with rat poison.”
“Remind me again why Rocky didn’t tell the investigators Reyna might be behind Sonny’s death,” Elvira said.
“Because he was in on it. Rocky and Sonny were working as a team to extort money from homeowners. Sonny was the one who decided he wanted more than just money. He wanted favors plus the cash,” Carlita said. “Sonny was no lady’s man.”
“He was a dirtbag. For once, I was a terrible judge of character.”
“Once?” Dernice snickered.
Elvira bristled. “This isn’t about me.”
“So Rocky didn’t rat Reyna out even though he suspected she might have been behind Sonny’s death,” Mercedes said.
“Because he would be investigated and arrested for his part in the scheme,” Luigi said. “He had every intention of letting his brother’s killer go free to save his own butt. With family like that, who needs enemies?”
