by W L Ripley
“Jake.” She stopped, looked down at her hands, and then lifted her face. “Jake, can’t we talk about this some time?”
Jake shook his head. “How’s that going to help anything? We did our talking years ago.” He let out a small breath, relaxing his shoulders. “What we had was good then. We all want to feel like we did when we were young.” Thinking about his dad now. “That’s why Buddy stayed and especially why Leo the Lion is working at the same school we all went to. That’s why the other night happened. Nostalgia sneaks into our thoughts and moves us to attempt to recover things that are unattainable. It was a good time and we have good memories of it. But that’s all they are. Memories. You can’t bring it back. We’re different now and the changes are what they are.”
It stopped her for a moment. She searched his face for something, anything. But Pam was not a person to give in. She said, “Listen to me. Just say you’ll talk to me some other time. At least give me that.”
Shaking his head.
Pam looked back over her shoulder. So did Jake and saw Alex standing beside the house, looking right at them, twisting the Tiger Eye ring absently.
Perfect.
Pam saying now,. “Maybe I have information that will help.”
Jake chewed a corner of his lip. “We’ll see. All I can say.”
Jake left her and walked back to the car. Buddy was sitting in the passenger seat. Jake slid in under the steering wheel.”
Jake said, “Went swell, didn’t it?”
Buddy scratched as his upper lip, smiling now. “You know when you said coming out here wasn’t the smartest thing you ever did? Well, that was only the second dumbest thing you’ve done today.”
“Be careful, Buddy.”
“You telling me you don’t have something going with Pam? Holy gee gosh, partner, you and Pam are a live soap opera.”
“You and Leo, huh?” He put both hands on the wheel, shaking his head then turned in his seat to look at Buddy. “Both of you think you have insight.”
“Well, there’s something going on and you just poked the hornet’s nest with your dick.”
“Colorful way of putting it.”
“I’m a black man, and we are wise in the ways of sexual adventure.”
Driving back to town it was working on him. The thing that was bothering him was this:
The lonely figure of Alex Mitchell standing in the background over Pam’s shoulder. Alex Mitchell standing there realizing his wife wasn’t faithful. An image that stuck in Jake’s head.
Hell of a time to start feeling sorry for Alex Mitchell.
And Vernon warily watching Pam.
What a family.
What a homecoming.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Driving back, Jake got a call from Cal Bannister. It was as Jake had predicted. No fingerprints on the truck. Nothing.
“Sorry, Jake,” Cal said. “We’ll stay on it here. By the way, did you and Buddy go out to the Mitchell place?”
“Maybe,” Jake said.
Quiet on the other line. Then, “Don’t screw around, Jake. This isn’t the time for it. I’ll need to speak with Buddy when he gets back.”
“Have you seen Tommy Mitchell around town?”
“That’s why you went out to the Mitchell’s,” Cal said. “Be careful elevating this scenario. Doc Kellogg doesn’t need more reason to become involved.”
“He’s already involved. Could’ve been anyone who stole my truck but I’m thinking Tommy is the best candidate.”
“We don’t have a positive ID so leave it alone until we have more information. I have more reason to burn him down than you. Dammit, Jake, I can’t have you running around like this was the Wild West.”
“Sorry about that, Cal.”
“I’ve got an idea may fix it.”
“Meaning?”
“Come in with Buddy and I’ll explain what I have in mind.”
He broke the connection. Jake looked at Buddy. Buddy saying now, “Am I in trouble?”
“Probably.”
“What I get for hanging around with you.”
“Like a dream come true, isn’t it?”
“Always has been, Jake. Always.”
Cal’s idea, which he revealed only after castigating both Jake and Buddy was to appoint Jake as a “Police Auxiliary Officer”.
“Gives you legal status,” Cal said. “Besides, I’ve talked with your Captain Parmalee. Though he says you’re a pain in the ass, which is general knowledge, he says you’re one hell of an investigative officer. I could use a good investigator.”
Cal reached in his drawer and produced a badge, handing it to Jake, who accepted it.
Jake nodded. “Parmalee good with this?”
“Not entirely but was more comfortable when I told him why I wanted you.”
“Why’s that?”
“I think Gage Burnell was murdered here in town and transported outside the city limits.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Just a hunch. Still working on it but I have limited intel. I’ll give you more when I get more.”
“Do I get a car with siren and one of those snappy uniforms like Buddy’s?”
Cal looked at him and smiled. “Not just no, hell no. Basically you’re going to work undercover.”
“I’m a secret agent? Do I get a double-O?”
“Maybe for IQ,” Buddy said.
Sometimes you go back to basics. When there is a death the first person to interview is the spouse, or in this case, the fiancée.
Hanna Stanislaus. Either tie her into it or eliminate her. It wouldn’t be the first time the obvious suspect wasn’t the killer. He wanted to know whose name she wouldn’t mention before and this time he could do it officially.
Jake Morgan, auxiliary police. Watch out, criminal element.
Hanna agreed to meet him at the Dinner Bell for lunch. Hanna arrived ahead of Jake. She looked different today because she wasn’t wearing the smock and her hair was down. She was dressed up and he’d forgotten how attractive she was. Even her body language was different.
They ordered lunch and after the server left, Jake said, “I want to talk to you about Gage. I hope you don’t mind.”
“That’s fine,” she said, she turned her head, giving him a sideways look. “I was halfway hoping you had another reason.”
The café door opened, and Harper walked in. She saw Jake sitting with Hanna. She stopped, smiled and shook her head. She turned and walked back outside. “Excuse me,” Jake said to Hanna, and then hurried outside to catch Harper. She was opening her car door when he said, “Wait a minute, Harper.”
Slowly, she turned and looked at him. “What?”
“I need to explain what I’m doing.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You’re a free agent.”
Jake opened his hands to her, shaking his head. “It’s not what you think.”
She placed a fist on her hip. “What is it I ‘think’?” she said. Jake looking at her. Wow, she could get mad.
“Give me a break.” He told her that Cal had enlisted him and what he was doing talking with Hanna. How he was attempting to cover all his bases as he looked into the circumstances of Gage’s death. “I’m trying to put things together. I’m sure someone killed Gage and I’m going to find out who that person or persons were. Talking to his fiancée is part of that.”
Harper pursed her lips and smiled at him. “Okay.” Shaking her head now. “I’m sorry Jake. But I have a reason for feeling like that. Maybe not a reason, but there is some history there.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sweet little Hanna in there?” said Harper. “Hanna is one of the many reasons I divorced Tommy. She gets around. Start with that.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
He thought about what Harper said as he walked back into the restaurant. This would change his line of questioning and he would have to be careful not to put Hanna on the defensive. He wan
ted Hanna off-balance but not where she would walk out on him. He needed information and people had different hot buttons and different keys to open them up.
Hanna may have had an affair with Tommy Mitchell and...maybe someone else she was hiding. What else was going on? Better, who else was getting it on with whom here in Paradise place? How to untie this Gordian knot? He’d left Texas and landed in a Midwest soap opera.
When he returned to the café, he was aware of Hanna’s body language. As Jake sat, she leaned forward in her seat, brushed her hair away from her neck. Jake could smell her perfume. The jukebox was playing, and the lunch crowd was chattering away. If a stranger walked in, he or she would just see a normal small-town restaurant filled with nurses, accountants, farmers, bank employees and retired men and women enjoying lunch. Just another flavor of Americana.
But Jake saw it differently. As he always viewed things since the day they handed him his star. The curse of the investigator. People had hidden agendas. Some of those agendas were shadowy. How dark were Hanna’s secrets?
“Do you know Harper?” she asked.
“Yes,” Jake said. “For many years. Her father and I are good friends.”
“Is that all?”
He ignored the question. “I’m going to have to be a little indelicate here,” Jake said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
There it was a faint change in her facial muscles. If he wasn’t looking for it, Jake wouldn’t have noticed it. She leaned away from him and said, “It’s fine.”
“Look, Hanna,” Jake said. “Gage was my friend and I’m not going to ask this to hurt you but, was Gage...a, did he ever stray during your engagement?”
The server brought their order. Cheeseburger and fries for Jake. Club Sandwich and tomato soup that had the consistency of blood for her.
“You mean did he have an affair?”
“Like that. Yes.”
Hanna looked down. A tiny incisor chewed on her lower lip. “Well.” She let out a breath. “Well, yes, I had suspicions. It would’ve been unlike him. But I don’t know. There were just some things that seemed odd.”
Jake sat quietly. Waiting. Sometimes, in an interview, silence would draw out the interviewee. She stirred soup with a spoon, re-arranged her knife and fork. She took a small portion of soup on her spoon and delicately tasted it. She dabbed at her lip with a paper napkin.
She looked up, blinked twice and said, “You want to know who I think it was, don’t you?”
He nodded. Waited again.
She put her spoon down, leaned back against the seat and placed folded hands in her lap. “This is hard,” she said.
“It is.”
She thought about it some more. “Would you mind if we ate first and then we can talk about this?”
Jake was pretty sure he already had his answer except for the ‘who’ part. He had a good idea of the identity, but it wasn’t solid. Hanna was holding back. He was sure of it. She had a secret. One possible secret he knew about or had information from Harper. Hanna and Tommy. Tommy and Harper. Harper and Jake. Jake and Pam. Pam and Alex. Gage and...who?
He feared he knew the answer and suspected it from the first but would not allow himself to believe it because it robbed him of something. Changed the way he looked at himself, at Gage, and his past. Pam had access to the house; Gage had her phone number hidden in his file cabinet. Pam and Gage?
Did Hanna know? Or just suspect? What else did Hanna know or suspect?
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
Time passed and the working crowd began to scoot chairs, leave tips and return to their jobs. Jake and Hanna finished lunch, Hanna barely touching hers and asked for a container to take her sandwich back to work with her. Jake ordered coffee. The server filled their requests and Jake asked for the ticket.
“I probably need to get back to work,” Hanna said, without preamble.
“Who was the person?” Jake asked.
“It’s indelicate,” Hanna said.
“So’s murder.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t think that? Really? Oh my God.”
“A suspicion. Who was the woman?”
She made a face as if the soup had gone sour. “You’re...so blunt. This isn’t easy.”
“I’m sorry for that. Gage was my friend. He was your fiancé. We both have reason to learn what happened and achieve some semblance of closure. You want that, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes.” She took a breath. “I have a conflict that hinders revealing who she is.”
“What’s the conflict?”
“I have a lien on my business. With Green Summit bank. Does that help?”
It did, but Jake pressed on. “What about Gage?”
“There were...well, some things I wasn’t sure about with Gage. Like I said, we had a few problems just like anyone does in a relationship. Gage never looked ahead. I don’t think he understood, no, that’s not it. He lived in the present moment. That was a problem. I’m a planner and an organizer. They say opposites attract and Gage was such a free spirit. Well...Gage would do things and never stop to think about the unintended effects of his actions.”
“Did you argue over your suspicions?”
She stopped for a moment as if thinking of what she was going to say next.
Jake said nothing.
She shook her head slowly and looked blank. “I’m not sure I can do this. I’m not sure if it happened. And...and there’s more. I, well I wasn’t...I can’t do this.”
“I think you are sure, and you can do this.” From experience, Jake knew people were generally expansive about who they think is hitting on their spouse or beloved. They wanted the guilty to pay because in their imagination it was happening whether there was an adulterous relationship or not.
“I really have to go,” she said, rising from her chair.
“Pam Mitchell?” Jake said.
“What?”
“Was it Pam Mitchell?”
Hanna looked around the room as if she were about to slip the silverware into her purse. She leaned forward, and in a voice just barely audible, she said;
“Maybe.”
“What about Tommy Mitchell?” Bang, hit her with it.
The blood drained out of her face. “What? Why did you say that? What are you saying?”
“I think you know.”
She pushed her chair back and stood.
“Hang on,” Jake said. “I apologize. That was indelicate.”
“I had nothing to do with Tommy,” she said. “That was just a rumor around town. He hit on me, but I turned him down.”
“Please sit,” Jake said. “You really need to sit for the next thing I’m going to ask. I promise I mean no harm. You are not the focus of this and anything you say will not be shared.”
She looked towards the door, then sat. Her arms were crossed, and her facial muscles were tight. Jake had seen the look many times before in an interrogation. The person being interviewed wasn’t looking forward to the question but wanted to know what the interviewer was holding in reserve.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jake said. “Not my intention. But, to find out what happened to Gage requires questions that make people, even innocent people, uncomfortable. It’s the way it is. We both want to know what really happened to Gage. Someone stole Travis and treated him badly. Someone didn’t like Gage and wanted him dead. I think they used the dog to get at him.”
Her mouth turned down and she swallowed. “Okay. What is your question?”
“Who was the person you would not mention the day I spoke to you at your business?”
“That was a slip. I mean—” She exhaled.
“Did you stray from your relationship with Gage?”
“No.” Defiant. “We were on a break, that’s all.”
“So, you were on a break, right? And someone stepped into the picture.”
Her face was blank for a moment before she gathered herself and said, “Gage and I argued about...well, abou
t Pam Mitchell. There. I noticed her showing up a lot and didn’t like it. He denied it but wouldn’t keep her away. I told him I had enough, and we were split up for a time.”
“And during that time?”
“I was asked out by a younger man. Silly, isn’t it? Well, I wanted some measure of revenge on Gage.”
“You’re not the first and Gage should’ve respected your wish to avoid Pam.”
She nodded. “Thank you for that.”
“Who was it?”
“Steve Barb. You don’t know him. He works for the Mitchells. Just went out with Steve a couple of times. Gage and I reconciled, and we got engaged.”
Steve Barb. The employee at Vernon Mitchell’s place.
“How did Barb feel about that?” Jake asked.
“He was very angry. Kept calling.”
“Did you tell Gage?”
Shaking her head now, looking embarrassed. “No. No, I didn’t. But Gage asked me about it.”
“Was Pam more than just a suspicion?”
“Yes.” Animated now. “She’s puts herself out there. You should know that better than anyone, right?”
He was quiet.
“Well,” said Hanna, triumphant now. “Don’t like being questioned, do you? You think people in town don’t see her chasing after you?”
“Thanks for meeting me,” Jake said.
She placed a hand to her mouth. “Oh, Jake. I’m sorry. I had no right to say that.”
“Well,” Jake said and nodded. “Maybe you did.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“You shoulda been there, man,” Steve Barb said to Tommy Mitchell. They were standing outside the Mitchell’s grain elevator and feed store in town. “That asshole Morgan came out to your Dad’s place and got in everybody’s face.”
“So, what did you little girls do?” Tommy Mitchell asked.
“Nothing,” Steve said. “Mister Mitchell said he didn’t want that at his home. Vernon said let it go. Hey, your brother sat there and didn’t do anything either. Pam gave him one look and he sat there like a puppy. The guy had Buddy Johnson with him. Like to smack that spook. I was ready to go but Vernon stopped me.”