Heartbreaker Hero: Eddie's Story (Maine Justice Book 4)

by Susan Page Davis

  “Sarah Benoit,” Mia said off-screen, “You’re a police officer with the Portland Police Department. Do you know Detective Thibodeau?”

  “Sure, I know him pretty well.”

  “Are you one of those women who admit to crying over this man?”

  Sarah gave a little smile. “I didn’t put my name on the list, but, yeah, I’ve shed a few tears for Eddie.”

  “Recently?”

  Eddie’s heart pounded like a jackhammer. How did they find Sarah? She could bust his chops royally if she wanted to.

  “We dated for two or three months last summer, and he’s the sweetest man I’ve ever met.”

  Eddie breathed.

  “What sort of dates did you have?”

  “We went to the lighthouse, a concert—lots of places. He was always a fun date, and always considerate.”

  “Ms. Benoit, more than two hundred women have admitted to crying over this man.”

  “I’m not surprised. Who wouldn’t want to marry him?” That was the smile Eddie used to watch for. Sarah had a fantastic smile.

  “But the two of you broke up a few months ago,” the reporter said. “Who broke it off?”

  “It was mutual,” Sarah said, as if it was no big deal. She didn’t look mad or bereaved. “We were headed down different paths.”

  “So, why did you cry?”

  “It was a difficult decision—for both of us. We came to the conclusion that we weren’t right for each other. But, yeah, I was sad about it.”

  “You still work for the same police department. Do you ever see Detective Thibodeau anymore?”

  “Of course,” Sarah said. “Several times a week. We’re still friends. But I’ll say this: Whoever takes Eddie Thibodeau to the altar is one lucky woman.”

  Mia passed the iPad to a minion and stuck the microphone in Eddie’s face. “Did you know we were going to interview your ex-girlfriend Sarah?”

  “No, I had no idea.”

  “She speaks well of you, even though she cried over you.”

  Eddie managed a strained smile. “Yeah, well, I probably cried a little, too, but that’s part of life, you know?”

  The reporter turned to face the camera and said brightly, “There you have it! Our heart-breaking hero has a heart himself.”

  *****

  All the guys were waiting when Eddie got back to the office. It was no secret the TV crew had been there, or that he’d gone with them to see Mason.

  “How’d it go?” Harvey asked.

  “Could have been worse. They’re going to show it tomorrow morning.”

  “Way to go,” Nate said.

  Jimmy grinned at him. “Cool, Eddie.”

  He looked at Harvey. “Did you know about Sarah?”

  “Sarah?” Harvey’s face went blank. “Sarah Benoit?”

  “Yeah, they interviewed her. My token ex-girlfriend, I guess.”

  “What did she say?” Harvey asked. They all waited, probably wondering if Sarah had put his head on a figurative pike.

  “She was nice.”

  “Were you surprised?” Nate asked.

  “Well, I think it could have gone either way.”

  Harvey laughed. “You’ll have to send her flowers.”

  “No, I don’t want her to get any ideas. I will say thank you, though.”

  “Why do you suppose they picked her?” Harvey asked.

  “I don’t—” Eddie stopped. “Mike. Remember what he said?”

  Harvey got this oh-no-he-wouldn’t look. “I remember.”

  “You don’t think he’d comp Sarah for not dumping on me, do you?”

  “What, like give her a bonus?” Jimmy said.

  “Yeah,” Eddie said slowly. “Or recommend her for a promotion or something.”

  “No,” Harvey said firmly. “Absolutely not. Mike wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  “Are you sure?” Eddie asked.

  Harvey said, “Ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine-nine percent sure. Excuse me.”

  He went over to his desk. Jimmy and Nate updated Eddie on what they’d learned about Hawkins’s henchmen. They weren’t ready yet to go after Hawkins himself, but they were compiling files on each of the drug runners they knew had worked for him.

  Harvey came to his side. “I’m going to run upstairs for a minute. After these guys bring you up to speed, see what you can do about Rooster Bentley, hmm?”

  “D’accord,” Eddie said.

  “Yeah. Merci.”

  Eddie tracked him with his eyes as he went to the stairway. Maybe he was going to find out what lay behind Sarah’s interview.

  Part of him wanted to call Leeanne, and part of him said that would be a bad idea right now. He held off. He wasn’t getting anywhere by phone or computer to find Rooster, and he teetered on the edge of frustration. Jimmy and Nate went out to get lunch.

  “Did you eat?” Harvey asked Eddie when he returned.

  “Not yet.”

  “Come home with me. I told Jennifer I might bring you.”

  Eddie put on his jacket and went down to the garage with him. On the way he said, “I’ve tapped every source I can without some legwork. I think I should go out in the field this afternoon. We need to get Rooster before he gets to Mike.”

  “If he’s really the one gunning for him now,” Harvey said.

  “Well, yeah. I’ve got informants who’ll only talk to me in person.”

  “Get a few twenties from Paula, from the petty cash.”

  “Right.”

  “And don’t go alone.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  “I said, don’t go alone.”

  “Who should I take?” Eddie asked. “Tony’s on the bench.”

  “See if Ron can loan us one of his detectives.”

  “Okay.”

  Harvey drove in silence for a minute then said, “I asked Mike about Sarah.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He’s not comping her, but he suggested her to Mia.”

  “Did he coach Sarah?”

  Harvey shook his head. “Mike says he just asked her if she’d be willing to help him out by telling a reporter how she honestly feels about you.”

  “Come on, Harv, you don’t know what she said.”

  “Yes, I do. They let Mike have a copy of Sarah’s interview.”

  “Wow. She made it sound like we were both okay with the breakup, and like we’re best buds now.”

  “Yeah, she went really easy on you. Do you think she had an ulterior motive?”

  “I don’t know what. She could have pulverized me.”

  “How? By telling the world you believe in Jesus Christ now, and you no longer date women who don’t believe in him?”

  “When you put it like that...”

  “It might sound a little snooty, but I don’t think people could hate you for that.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “Mike said he and Jack prayed about it before he approached Sarah to do it, and he swears he didn’t put words in her mouth. He’s thanking God for the outcome. Maybe you should do the same and not fret over it.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks, Harv.”

  *****

  Jennifer and Abby welcomed Eddie and put an extra plate on the table. While they ate turkey pie, Harvey told Jennifer how boring things were at the office. She could see through him. She knew he liked nothing better than untangling the knots in a tough case.

  “Did you have your big interview, Eddie?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “They’re showing it on Morning Nation tomorrow,” Harvey said.

  Jennifer smiled at Eddie. “That’s great.”

  Abby grinned. “We’ll tape it. Was it scary?”

  “Kind of.”

  “So, the new deputy turned out to be a keeper,” said Jennifer. Eddie felt like she was changing the subject to put him at ease.

  “Yeah,” Harvey said. “I prayed so hard about getting the right man in there, but I never presumed to ask for a Chris
tian.”

  “His wife seemed nice.” Jennifer reached for the water pitcher. “They’re eating here Sunday, right?”

  “Yes, and Mike and Sharon.”

  Jennifer nodded. “You can come, too, Eddie.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  When they’d finished, Harvey stood. “Excuse us if we eat and run.”

  “Can’t you please sit down with me for ten minutes?” Jennifer pleaded. “I hardly see you these days.”

  Harvey looked at his watch. “Five, but you sit on my lap.” They disappeared through the study door.

  “Think he’ll be back in five minutes?” asked Abby.

  “Yup. Harvey’s very punctual.”

  She started putting the food away. “Have you talked to Leeanne since she left?”

  “Yeah, last night.” Eddie hesitated. Abby was a friend who still thought in terms of singlehood. “I’m sort of afraid to, since the interview.”

  “Why?”

  “I dunno. She hasn’t seen it yet.”

  “You’re really serious about her, aren’t you?” Abby carried dishes to the sink.

  “I’m dead serious. I’d marry her tomorrow.”

  “Wow.” She turned the water on and looked at him. “When did this hit you?”

  “End of October, I think, when she came down here. I’m done looking.”

  “Whew. I don’t know, Eddie. She hasn’t really had many serious boyfriends.”

  “I know. That’s okay. Don’t you think the first one can be the right one?”

  Abby frowned as she squeezed out the dishcloth. She went over to wipe the table. “I never really had a serious boyfriend, either.”

  “Oh, come on, you’ve got two now.” Eddie had heard something about a doctor up in Waterville, too, when Abby worked at the hospital there, but that relationship seemed to be history.

  “No. If either one of them was serious—for me, I mean—then I’d send the other one packing.”

  Eddie eyed her in disbelief. “You don’t take either one of these guys seriously, but you keep them both around? I don’t get it.” He used to go out with a lot of different girls, but it was mostly for fun. If they started talking commitment, he said goodbye. But he was over that. And he knew Peter, at least, was in dead earnest.

  “It’s not that way,” Abby said. “I like them both. I think I could be serious about either one of them. But how do I choose? How do I know which one is really the one for me? It’s for life.” She shook her head. “I’ve been praying about it. I don’t want to hurt either one of them. But every time I think Peter’s the one, Greg calls and I get this feeling … and every time I think Greg’s the one, Peter does something that makes me reevaluate.”

  “Has either one said anything? About marriage, I mean?”

  She laughed. “Peter proposed on our second date. I told him I couldn’t answer then. I need to marry a man I can love forever, not just two adorable boys I’d love to mother.”

  “You don’t feel that way about Peter?”

  “Well, sometimes … but if I really loved him God’s way, I wouldn’t get all giddy whenever Greg calls, would I?”

  “They might not hang around forever.”

  “I know,” she said miserably. “Maybe, subconsciously, I’m waiting for one of them to throw in the towel.”

  “Marry the other by default?”

  “Well, persistence is a good quality.”

  Eddie said, “I hope in a year or two, you and I can sit down and laugh over this conversation.”

  “We’ll probably both still be single,” Abby said.

  “I hope not. I’m tired of being a bachelor.”

  “Well, if both my guys give up, I’ll let you know.”

  “Forget it,” Eddie said. “We tested those waters. It’s your sister I’m after.”

  She smiled. “You’re a good friend, Eddie. I’ll tell you something.”

  “What?”

  She pushed her long, blonde braid back over her shoulder. “When Leeanne puts her mind to something, she stays with it. She’s had those stupid goats for ten years. Ten years! She was in 4-H for six, but she kept those animals afterward. She could have just sold them, but no, she has a commitment. You see what I’m driving at?”

  “If she loves me, she’ll stick with me, even if she outgrows me?”

  Abby laughed. “Not so long ago you were taking a different girl out every weekend. And you’re suddenly ready to give up your freedom?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked at him with eyes somewhere between Jennifer’s gray-blue and Harvey’s ultra-blue. “Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Maybe I’m just not ready.”

  “Then don’t do anything drastic,” Eddie said.

  Harvey came out through the study. “Time to go, Ed.”

  Eddie saw Abby check the clock.

  *****

  The full autopsy report on Kyle Quinlan was waiting when they got back to the station. Harvey sent Eddie a copy, and he dove into it. After Harvey had read it thoroughly, he sat all of the men down in the interview room to discuss it.

  “Everything lines up with what the medical examiner told us last week,” he said, “but the amount of cocaine in Kyle’s system was surprisingly high. And they found residue in his nostrils and on his fingers.”

  “Do you think he was using on the way over to Mike’s?” Eddie asked.

  “Maybe. Or shortly before he left the apartment. Misty wouldn’t know how much was in his system.”

  “How did she get him to take all those sleeping pills, anyway?” Nate asked.

  “Three pills, according to the M.E. It’s more than is safe, but it’s really not that many. They think it was the cocaine—or the combination—that stopped his heart.”

  “So, did Misty kill him or not?” Eddie asked.

  “I guess that’s for a court to decide. I’m going see if I can get in to have another talk with Misty this afternoon, and Jordan, too, if they’ll let me. Meanwhile, preserving the chief’s life is still our main goal. You guys get to work on Hawkins’s crew.”

  Eddie went over his leads on Rooster, put on a ragged sweatshirt and a beat-up lumberman jacket from his locker, got the petty cash from Paula, and went down to the second floor where the detective squad was housed. Sergeant Legere listened to his explanation and grudgingly told Joey Bolduc to go with Eddie.

  “I got a case I’m working on, boss,” Joey said.

  “I know, but this is more urgent. It’s the chief’s life we’re talking about.”

  Joey swore but took off his tie and sport jacket and went with Eddie.

  They scoured the worst neighborhood in Portland. Eddie caught up with a couple of his informants. One guy, who went by the name of Silver, had sworn to give him straight intel whenever Eddie came to him. A pornographer had lured his thirteen-year-old sister away from home, and Eddie had tracked them down and brought her home. Silver considered he still owed Eddie, two years later. He tried not to call in favors too often, so Silver wouldn’t get sick of him. Silver had given some good tips in the past, and he hadn’t burned Eddie yet.

  Eddie took Joey into a dive he knew Silver liked and spotted him shooting eight-ball with another dude. They watched until the black ball sank. Silver lost a fiver.

  “Tough luck, Silver,” Eddie said, and the informant looked full at him for the first time.

  “Eddie, my man.”

  “Yeah, let me buy your next drink.”

  Silver handed off his pool cue and followed Eddie and Joey to the bar. Before Eddie could tell the bartender to give him a draft, Silver said, “We better take it outside.”

  Eddie arched his eyebrows. Silver jerked his head toward the door.

  “Okay.” Maybe somebody was watching Silver. Outside, Eddie asked, “What’s up?”

  Silver scowled at him. “Your mug is all over the tube these days, that’s what.”

  Eddie swore and was hit but a jolt of guilt. “Sorry.”

  “Sorry? You gone so
ft, Eddie?”

  “No.”

  “He got religion,” Joey said.

  Silver scowled at him. “Do I know you?”

  “He’s with me,” Eddie said.

  “Looks familiar.”

  “Well, don’t tell the world.”

  “Right.” Silver walked around the corner of the building, and they followed. “Awright, what do you need?” he asked.

  “Two things. Rooster Bentley...”

  “Hmm. Maybe.”

  “And Al Hawkins.”

  “Can’t do that.”

  “Can’t get the data, or can’t give him up?” Eddie stuck a twenty in his hand.

  Silver looked down at it. “My life’s worth more than a twenty, man.”

  Eddie took another from a different pocket.

  Silver nodded. “Okay, this Rooster guy, he’s tight with Al.”

  “Tight how?”

  “He’s one of his top men. What do you like him for?”

  Eddie glanced at Joey. “You heard about the hit on Chief Browning?”

  Silver nodded. “Heard the kid who was supposed to do it wimped out, and Al had him skewered.”

  “That’s not quite accurate,” Eddie said.

  “What happened, then?”

  “Who’s paying who here?” Joey said.

  Silver glared at him. “Whom.”

  “Why, you punk.” Joey drew back his fist, and Eddie grabbed his arm.

  “Easy, Bolduc. Silver and I understand each other, right, pal?”

  “Sure, Eddie.” Silver shrugged and shivered.

  “Hey, man, you don’t have a coat.” Eddie started to take off his plaid jacket.

  “Left it inside,” Silver said.

  “You sure?”

  He lifted his chin, like Eddie had offended him.

  “Okay,” Eddie said. “Is Rooster on tap for that job?”

  “What, rubbing out the chief? Maybe. Yeah, probably. You understand, I ain’t privy to Al’s business, but things I’ve heard, yeah. The word is they’ll be looking for a new chief before MLK Day.”

  “Martin Luther King Day?” Joey said.

  Silver gave him a withering look.

  “Where can I find Rooster?” Eddie asked.

  “I seen him come out of a place on the waterfront.” He gave Eddie the street and described the building.

  “Okay, good. What about Al?” Eddie asked.