much.
âHeâs on the floor,â Danny explained. âSo [Vonlee] said they start pouring alcohol, vodka, in his mouth.â
âWhy are you wasting this good vodka on him?â Vonlee supposedly asked her aunt when she realized what Billie Jean was doing.
âThe way they [did] it was one of them would hold his nose [and] he cannot breathe, [so] he opens his mouth,â Danny said.
âLetâs get some cheap vodka,â Vonlee allegedly told her aunt.
âAnd he would not die,â Danny continued. âShe said that he would not die. When they were doing that, she said . . . he was playing with [Vonleeâs] boobs.â
âYouâve got to help me, Vonlee,â Billie Jean said at that point. âYou need to help.â
At this point, with Don on the floor still alive and breathing, but totally out of it, Billie Jean allegedly told Vonlee that she would âup the money from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand.â
Money?
Danny gave the impression later that Vonlee said she and her aunt had made some sort of monetary agreement ahead of time: Billie Jean would pay Vonlee if she helped her kill Don.
âIf he wakes up tomorrow, Vonlee, heâll know what weâve done and there will be big trouble,â Billie Jean said. âWeâve got to do it right now!â
As Danny later told this story in court, he explained how Vonlee, every time she tried to help her aunt, couldnât bring herself to go through with it. Sheâd hold his nose, but when he gasped for air, sheâd let go and back away, scared and unwilling to follow through with a deed she apparently wanted no part of doing.
âI cannot do this, Billie. I just canât.â
According to Danny, Billie Jean then got really pissed off at her niece.
âYouâre no help.â
Danny said Vonlee told him that her aunt then left the room in a huff and came back sometime later with something in her hands.
A pillow.
While they sat inside the car outside the restaurant in the casino parking lot, by using her upper body to dramatize what happened next, Vonlee supposedly explained and demonstrated to Danny that her aunt had placed the pillow over Donâs head and finished the job, suffocating her husband until he breathed no more.
âWe threw the pillow and the empty bottles of vodka on the freeway,â Vonlee told Danny. Vonlee was crying. She was upset. Yet, at the same time, she was quite relieved sheâd gotten it off her chest.
âCome on, letâs go back inside,â Danny suggested.
As they walked toward the casino, Danny still felt that Vonlee might be lying about being a man. He had no idea why she would do such a thing, but based on what he had seen and the sex heâd had with her, it was hard for Danny to fathom that she was a male.
They found Billie Jean by a craps table.
âGive me some money,â Vonlee told her aunt.
Danny stood by and watched as Billie Jean took out a bankroll, peeled off several hundred-dollar bills, then opened up a small notebook and marked inside how much she had given Vonlee, as if keeping tabs for some reason.
The next day, Vonlee met Danny at his house.
âShow me,â Danny said. He was back on the male/ female thing. It was clear he was serious.
Vonlee felt she had no choice at this point. She dropped her pants.
And he sat in total amazement, staring at a very small penis.
âYou believe me now?â Vonlee said, lifting her trousers back up.
CHAPTER 23
DANNY CHAHINE WAS AT home a day after he learned not only that he had been dating (and had had sex with) a man he mistakenly thought was a woman, but also what he believed to be the truth about Don Rogersâs death: the guy had been murdered.
Who was more culpable, Vonlee or Billie Jean? That was not for Danny to decide. What Danny needed to do was think about his next move. Danny had information about a murder. What he did with that information
Jayne Ann Krentz
Tami Hoag
Jason Mott
Sita Brahmachari
Dorothy Phaire
Bram Stoker
Taryn Plendl
Sharon Page
Richard Paul Evans
Frank Herbert