Momma Lupe, Book 1 in the Ty Connell 'Novella Series. A Mystery/Suspense Thriller. Cooking or killing -- Momma Had Her Funny WAys by Michael C. Hughes

 
Momma Lupe
A Novella
    © Michael Hughes, Toronto, 2015
     
     
     
    “Ma was sadistic. A stone killer. I think she enjoyed
it. Watching.”
    Connell was doing the talking, leaned back in
the detective department of the C-11, Boston PD, a uniformed rookie
from traffic asking the questions.
    “It was like she, herself, was already dead
inside and that was the only thing left,” he said. “To destroy
other people. One of the most disturbing individuals you’re ever
likely to come across.”
    The rookie was curious and a little
surprised.
    “You actually met her?”
    “No. Hardly anyone outside her circle ever
met her. She didn’t go out much. Spent most of her life in her
kitchen. I just pieced it all together from interviews with those
who had. Statements people made. Intel from sources.”
    Connell fell silent for a moment, thinking
back to it all.
    “I heard it was more than a dozen girls
disappeared around her,” the other fellow said.
    Connell nodded. “That we know of. Confirmed.
Some males as well. I’m sure more we don’t know about. Maybe never
will.”
    “And you’re still on it? The case?”
    “Yeah,” Connell nodded, a little surprised
himself that he alone hadn’t given up.
    He didn’t mouth the next
words, but he still thought them from time to time: someone’s gonna pay.
    And he wasn’t letting it go until someone
did.
    Momma Lupe.

     
    One year earlier
     
    Early
morning. A late model black sedan pulled up to the curb on a leafy
street on Boston’s east side, a pocket of
ritzy homes near the bay. Two men in expensive suits exited and
briskly walked a short distance along the sidewalk beside an
ivy-covered stone wall, stopping at the entrance gates to No. 6
Currie Close.
    "Is Ma really the one who put out this
order?"
    The man he was asking the question of was
obviously the lead man. The one who had the answers.
    "She's the one all right.
And she's the one who said ' zactly how it's got to go down."
    "Really?"
    The other man nodded.
    "We really got to do it the
‘ zactly way we was
told?" the other asked.
    "Ex— zactly as we was told."
    "Well, I think it's sick.
I'm in the business, and I think it's sick. It's sick ."
    "OK. You made your point. You think it's
sick. You want your dough?"
    The other man let out a short sigh. "Yeah.
But it's sick. Why'd she want two of us on the job, anyways?"
    "In case Vinnie squeals and
runs for it. She's knows he's a fat slippery basotto . Like I said, Ma's a stickler
for getting things her way, and Vinnie ain't slipping
nowhere."
    Dawn had just broken over the city, but they
saw that no lights had yet come on inside the stately three-storey
stone mansion.
    "You sure he ain't gonna look out and see
us?" the nervous one whispered.
    "It's five fucking a.m. When was the last
time you was up at five a.m.?"
    "You sure it's not alarmed out here? Motion
detectors?"
    "I'm sure. It ain't. Just the sides and back
are alarmed. Just relax will ya? We got three hours to wait and
you're starting like this already? You'll drive me nuts."
    They had turned in an opening in the wall
that led to a broad circular driveway. They made quickly for the
first garage door, the one closest to the home's service
entrance.
    The lead man had a lock-pick set and the
garage door lock was easily jimmied. He
    eased the door up quietly, they stepped in,
and he eased it back down just as quietly.
    As they looked around, the lead man spotted a
couple of folding lawn chairs against a back wall. He went to them
and brought them over, pulling first one open and gently setting it
down, then the other.
    "Make yourself at home," he whispered, taking
one seat and indicating the other.
    The other man sat and glanced all
around. It was a large, tidy, garage: four doors with a tandem bay
at the end, making it a five-car. There was a Mercedes E-Class
sedan parked in the bay closest, a Ford Expedition SUV in the next,
and a 16-foot inboard/outboard speedboat backed in on a trailer in
the far tandem