by A R Kennedy
This question was harder. He again chose the truth, knowing it would hurt. “Most in town think an outsider killed a town son. No matter what they might of thought of Gabbert, he was one of them.”
“You think if Joey were here things would be different?” she asked.
Holden shrugged. They both knew if Joey were alive life would be much different.
“Have you noticed the mayor hasn’t spoken on the subject?” Holden asked.
She shook her head no. “No, I haven’t watched any news coverage. I really never watched the news before. Figured now would be a bad time to start.”
“That’s a good move.” Gabbert’s mother had been at Briscoe’s news conference. But no sign of her brother. The mayor couldn’t win either way. If he supported Briscoe, it would be nepotism. If he opposed him, he would alienate his family. Neutrality was Mayor Townsend’s best political move. “I’m sure your lawyer will use the fact that Mayor Townsend wants nothing to do with this case.”
Cecilia nodded, hoping the mayor wouldn’t change his mind. She didn’t need another opponent.
CHAPTER 24
Pugliese went through the files of Gabbert’s previous complaints and arrests.
Using Google and Facebook, he pulled up photos of the victims and printed them. He scanned them and he was still plagued with the question. “Why Cecilia?”
Armed with data, Pugliese marched into the Chief’s office and closed the door. “I told you I was wondering about Gabbert.”
Owens looked up from his computer and tried to hide his annoyance.
Pugliese spread out the photos and pointed to each one of them. Owens recognized the pretty young women from the town.
“Each one of them had a run-in with Gabbert.” Owens nodded. “Again, I’ll ask, why Cecilia?”
Run-in was a loose term. None had been physically assaulted by Gabbert. But each incident inched closer to one.
“Pug, I have no idea why this matters.”
Pugliese knew he had limited time to plead his case. The Chief was already annoyed. “She just doesn’t fit in.” Holden couldn’t argue with that. She had never fit into Folley.
“Are you saying Cecilia’s not pretty?” Holden did not want to argue about Cecilia’s attractiveness with Pugliese and fortunately didn’t have to.
Pugliese was bothered by the chief’s use of her first name. They always referred to suspects and arrestees by their last name. Referring to them by their first name was too personal.
“Oh no, Mrs. Chandler is striking, but Gabbert clearly has a type.” Holden looked at each photo again and could see their similarities. “And none of them had a dog. They were the most obvious women to attack. No dog. No alarm. Isolated home. Chandler’s home had that dog. It has a pretty sophisticated alarm.”
Holden looked up from the photos. “What are you saying?”
“A lot of people knew about Gabbert and his troubles. It was a secret.” Owens nodded. Briscoe and the mayor did what they could to keep it quiet. Pugliese leaned in. “But a well-known one.” Owens didn’t argue with that either. Mayor Townsend had succeeded in keeping it out of the local paper. But a small town talks.
“And…” Owens prompted him.
Cecilia wasn’t his usual victim and Pugliese suspected Gabbert didn’t have his usual motive. “I think he chose Cecilia for another reason.”
“And what reason would that be?” Owens asked.
Pugliese had been pondering the ‘Why did Gabbert chose Cecilia?’ question for days and he uttered the only plausible reason he had come up with. “Money.”
Owens contemplated that. The Chandlers lived in a nice home. Robbery wasn’t on Gabbert’s list of crimes but he could have been branching out. He shrugged. It was a stretch. “I don’t know, Pugliese.”
He explained further. “I think someone hired him to scare Cecilia.”
“What?” Now Owens knew Pugliese had stretched too far. “Ridiculous.”
“I want to check into his financials,” he told him.
“Financials?” Owens asked. Pugliese had lost him and any support he had toyed with. “He’s an eighteen-year-old delinquent. There are no financials.”
“Well…” Pugliese had expected the Chief’s support and struggled to find another way to support his claim. “Let me go through his phone. Go through his room. Talk to the mother.”
“We’d need warrants for the phone, the room. And harassing a grieving mother? No way. Can you imagine what the media would do with that?”
“Why are so worried about the media?” Pugliese snapped back.
Owens glared at him. “I’m only worried about this town.” And all of its residents, he didn’t add. If this could help Cecilia, he’d let Pugliese do whatever he wanted but he couldn’t see how it would. He picked up the photos and handed them back to Pugliese. “I hope you did this on your own time. And not wasting city time.” Pugliese took the photos and put it back in the file he had compiled. “This whole thing is ridiculous. I know people didn’t take to her but want her gone. No way. I cannot think of one person who would hire someone to scare Cecilia.”
But Pugliese could.
Cecilia waited for Clayton Hindel to arrive for their monthly meeting on the status of Chandler Construction. It was the one time each month, since Joey’s death, she would get dressed up and leave the house. Today, with the meeting being held in her home, she didn’t bother. She answered the door in jeans and Joey’s college sweatshirt.
“Thank you for coming here, Clayton,” Cecilia said when she answered the door.
“Don’t have much choice, do we?” Hearing himself, he apologized. He should have stopped at Glinton’s for his twenty-four-ounce cup coffee, which he always needed to start his day. “I didn’t mean it like that. Sorry.”
“Need coffee?”
He nodded and she poured him a cup. He longingly looked at the carafe, and she half expected him to grab the carafe and drink from it for his caffeine fix. With the small cup in his hand, Clayton followed her into the office. Ferris followed them and sat by Cecilia’s chair. She stopped at her desk, the small one in the corner. Clayton proceeded to the large one, JJ’s desk, and sat in the waiting chair. Cecilia hesitated but knew it was the obvious choice. As she sat behind their desk, she felt uncomfortable.
“I haven’t been in here since Mr. Chandler died,” Clayton commented as he pulled out a binder. “Joey’s dad, I mean.”
The office was as Joey had left it. And he had left it as his father had. Cecilia looked at the two framed wedding photos on the desk. Joey’s older sister and her husband. Joey and Cecilia.
Cecilia and Clayton ran the meeting as usual, reviewing payroll, current projects, and upcoming bids. Everything was running smoothly and profitably.
“Anything else?” Clayton asked.
“Have you heard from them?” Cecilia asked, pointing to Brittany and Jeremiah’s wedding photograph. If they wanted to strike again, this would be the time. She’d struggle to fight two court battles simultaneously.
“No,” Clayton answered.
“That’s odd isn’t it?” she asked.
CHAPTER 25
Then
Ferris was waiting at the foot of the stairs when Cecilia returned from the funeral. He jumped up when she opened the door. His head sagged when he saw it was only Cecilia. “It’s just you and me now,” she told him. He lay down, resting his head between his paws. She sat down next to him and patted him on the head. “I’m not happy it about it either.”
Moments later, his ears perked up and twitched from side to side. He jumped up and began running from the front door to the side door. Cecilia first thought he had to go to the bathroom, but he always went to the door to the backyard for that need. Instead, it was his excited run when he knew Joey was almost home. For a moment, she got excited too, before reality hit it her. Joey was not coming home.
Ferris began pawing at the side door and she let him out. She stared as Joey’s truck pulled into the dr
iveway. Ferris’s excitement doubled and he ran along the fence, as he waited for the driver to get out. Ferris growled when he did.
“Hi, Mrs. Chandler,” the employee from Chandler Construction said. “Hi, Ferris.”
The two stared him, as if they didn’t know who he was. “It’s Randy,” he introduced himself, although he’d met Cecilia a few times. Cecilia nodded and Ferris growled again. “I thought you’d want the truck here.”
“Thank you, Randy.” She tried to smile but her face forgot how.
Cars began pulling up in front of the house and Cecilia cursed herself for not remembering. This is what happened after her father-in-law’s funeral too. The mourners came to the house after the funeral to…she didn’t know what. It wasn’t to commiserate. Most had looked like they were having a good time, eating and drinking the food they had brought.
“Thank you,” she told Randy again before returning to the house. It took several attempts to get Ferris back into the house. He continued growling at Randy.
Cecilia accepted condolences with as much grace as she could, with Ferris at her side. She recognized few of the mourners. They introduced themselves as friends, employees, and neighbors. She registered none of their names.
Her in-laws arrived with the masses. Jeremiah and Brittany Coleman lived in the neighboring county. Cecilia didn’t know them well but felt Joey’s sister, Brittany, was the one person in the house who could be as sad as her. Cecilia hugged Brittany, who lightly returned the embrace.
When the stream of mourners ended, Cecilia sat in an armchair by the living room window, Ferris at her side. She watched as the strangers in her home ate, drank, and talked. A few tried to engage her in conversation. What was worth talking about? she thought.
There was one glaring absence, her sister Janna. She’d arrived late to the church and Cecilia hadn’t seen her since. She checked her phone and found the excuse. “Had to get back to the city. Concert tickets tonight.”
Cecilia shouldn’t be surprised but she was. Her sister always put herself first.
Exhausted from the day, Cecilia headed upstairs. She doubted anyone would notice. She felt like a stranger in her own home. She jumped when she found two people in her bedroom.
“Brittany? What are you doing in here?” Cecilia looked from Brittany to Jeremiah before noticing the tape measure in their hands. “What are you doing?” she asked again.
Brittany stuttered and Jeremiah answered for her. “We’re just taking some measurements. Making sure our furniture will fit in here. We figured you’d be taking your furniture.”
Brittany found her voice and added, “But leaving Daddy’s furniture, right?”
“Leaving it when?” Cecilia asked.
“When you move back to the city,” Brittany answered.
Cecilia’s only decision in the last few days had been to breathe. No other decisions ever entered her mind. The thought of moving? Who would think about that today? In that moment, before even asking herself the question, she decided. “This is our home. I will not be leaving it.”
“But, with Joey dead, it’s not your home,” Brittany told her. “It was Daddy’s.”
“This is our home. I will not be leaving it,” she repeated. Ferris pushed himself against her leg. She scratched behind his ear.
Jeremiah started to argue but Cecilia cut him off. She cleared her throat but struggled to find her voice. “Get out,” Cecilia told them.
They remained frozen. “Get out,” Cecilia said, again and again. Each time, she was louder. By the fourth time, her raised voice could be heard downstairs.
As she followed Brittany and Jeremiah to the front door, she was yelling for them to get out. The mourners did not have to be told twice to leave and scurried out.
CHAPTER 26
Vinnie saw his high school friend at the end of the bar. He pretended it was an accident.
“Hey, Randy!” he said, patting his former high school football teammate on the back. “Get us a round, will ya, Wendy?”
The bartender nodded and brought over two beers.
“Thanks,” Randy said. He raised the beer and they clinked bottles. “How’s work?”
Vinnie was grateful Randy had been the first one to bring up work. He didn’t want him getting suspicious if he had. But everyone was interested in Vinnie’s work these days.
“Busy,” he answered. Randy seemed appeased by the answer. “How about you?” Vinnie asked.
Randy shrugged. “The same.”
“Really? No changes at Chandler Construction?” Randy had been a foreman at Chandler Construction for the last five years.
Randy shook his head. “Not because of this.” He took a sip of beer and then added, “I don’t think anyone realizes Mrs. C runs it.”
Vinnie laughed. “You call her Mrs. C?”
“Mrs. Chandler to her face. Mrs. C among the guys.”
“Not Cecilia?” Vinnie asked. This surprised Vinnie. They weren’t too far apart in age.
“No. You call your boss by his first name?” Randy asked. He had a point. Vinnie couldn’t imagine what the Chief would do if he walked up to him and called him Holden. “Things have gotten back to normal. I was a little worried there after Mr. Chandler died.”
“Joey?” Vinnie asked to clarify. Both Chandler men had died while Randy had worked there.
“No, Mr. Chandler. The father. The son, he always told us to call him Joey. I think that was the problem.”
“Really?” Vinnie couldn’t see how that could lead to problems at the company.
“Too familiar. Too nice.” Another former schoolmate entered the bar and they both waved to him.
“And Mrs. Chandler isn’t nice?” Vinnie asked.
“No, she’s fine.” He took another sip of beer. “Mrs. Chandler is a lot like the old man. No nonsense.”
Vinnie couldn’t decide if Chandler Construction workers had positive or negative feelings for their newest boss. “So the workers don’t like her?” he asked.
“Oh no, we like her plenty,” Randy answered. “She’s fair.”
“How so?”
Randy finished his beer and signaled the bartender for another round, despite Vinnie barely touching his. “Between us?” he asked. “I don’t want this turning into a police matter.” Vinnie nodded. “You know Kevin McNulty?”
“Sure. A couple years behind us in high school.”
Randy leaned into Vinnie, not wanting the other patrons to hear. “Yep. Well, Joey found out he was stealing from the company. And he did nothing. Told him he’d give him another shot.”
“That’s very nice,” Vinnie commented.
Randy leaned back and shook his head. “A new boss needs to set a tone. He set one that said he was soft.”
“And Mrs. Chandler?”
With an eyebrow raised, he answered, “Well, this should come as no surprise—”
“Kevin kept stealing…” Vinnie completed the sentence.
“Of course. Mrs. C found out and fired him.” The bartender dropped off the second round of beers. Randy waited until she was out of earshot before he continued. “She’s hands off and a lot better than the alternative.”
“Who?” Vinnie asked, pretending he didn’t know.
“Mr. Chandler’s son-in-law, Jeremiah. He’d have Chandler Construction bankrupt in a week.”
Vinnie nodded, having already heard the stories about Jeremiah from him before. “Does Mrs. Chandler ever come by the construction sites?”
“Not usually.” He took a sip from his second beer. “She did come once, though. To see where her husband died.”
CHAPTER 27
Then
“I think this is a bad idea,” Clayton said.
“You’ve said that,” Cecilia responded. Clayton pointed to the upcoming turn and Cecilia made the right.
“I just—”
She cut him off. “I know, Clayton. If I could have found the place on my own I would have, but I needed you for directions.”
“Well, I tried—”
“Your directions of turn left when you pass where the Garrison shop used to be weren’t helpful. I’ve lived here two years, Clayton. I don’t know where things are, never mind where they used to be.”
“Okay, but—”
She cut him off again. “You are not going to win this argument, Clayton.”
“I never win fights with my wife either. You’d think as a lawyer I’d argue better.” He pointed again and she turned onto the dirt road.
Randy, the foreman, was waiting for them when they arrived. He met her on the driver’s side door as she exited her purple Escort. Ferris jumped out after her.
Randy noted her clothing. It wasn’t the usual attire she wore when he had seen her with Joey. When he had seen them in town together, she was always dressed up—skirts or dresses, something nice. His wife always commented on how fancy she was. Today, she wore no makeup and was dressed in black leggings and Joey’s old jacket. “How are you, Mrs. Chandler?”
After her mother died, she learned that people did not want the truth when they asked. So she didn’t give it.
“I don’t want to take up much of your time, Randy. I assume we’re behind on this project.” He nodded. Most would have been surprised by her matter-of-fact tone. But he had seen her at the funeral. She was devastated by Joey’s death. “Please just take me to where it happened.”
Randy didn’t bother to argue. He knew it was a terrible idea but Mrs. Chandler did not appear to be a woman to contend with. Plus, he did not want to argue with the new boss. Randy headed off to the accident site. Cecilia, Ferris, and Clayton followed him. When he stopped, Randy didn’t speak and they both knew this was where Joey had died.
“Clayton, I’ll meet you in the trailer. If you need anything from us, Randy, please be there when I get there.” They knew they were being dismissed and left Cecilia and Ferris at the spot.
They stood at the site for a few minutes. She didn’t know why she had come. It certainly didn’t make her feel better. And she certainly couldn’t feel worse.