Fugitive Filling

by Jessica Beck

  The man coughed once, and then he said apologetically, “Sorry, Chief, but I need you to sign in on the visitors’ book. I hate to ask, but it’s policy, you know?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Darby. It was my policy in the first place, remember?” Jake asked him with a grin as he did as he was told.

  “I’m not about to forget it,” the cop said. “The chief called and told me that you both can wait in his office. He also said to tell you that he shouldn’t be long.”

  “That’s fine. We’ve got nothing but time at the moment,” Jake said as he led me to his former workspace.

  “I don’t want to be the one who brings this up,” I said once Jake and I were alone in his old digs, “but time really is kind of important in our investigation.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Jake asked calmly as he studied an old map on the wall that hadn’t been there when he’d been in charge. “I know we need to get busy with our own investigation, but we can’t let anyone here suspect that we’re going to try to solve this case ourselves. We need to keep a low profile as long as we can.”

  “Jake, you were the police chief not that long ago. How low do you think we can go?”

  “You’re probably right, but we at least have to try,” he said with a sigh. “To be honest with you, I’m not sure how I feel working a case from this side. I’m used to having a badge.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it, and I’m here to help with the transition.”

  “That’s what I’m counting on.”

  Less than half an hour later, Stephen Grant came in and joined us. He looked older somehow, as though the weight of his job was pressing heavily upon him. I’d taken a seat, but Jake had been standing behind the desk. He made his apologies as he quickly joined me on the other side. Stephen took it in stride. “You can sit there if you’d like.”

  “No, sir. I appreciate the offer, but you’ve got the responsibilities now, so that makes it your seat. I’m more than happy to sit on the other side.”

  “That’s one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about,” Stephen said gravely.

  “Would you like me to step outside?” I offered.

  “No. This concerns you as well, so I’d like you to stay, if you don’t mind.”

  “It’s fine with me,” I said, trying not to let them both know that I’d just been bluffing. If either man had tried to take me up on my offer to leave, I would have found an excuse to stay put. There was no way that I was going to miss whatever it was the police chief had to say.

  Chapter 3

  “Is there any reason in particular you two were taking pictures of the crime scene with your phones when I showed up earlier?” Chief Grant asked nonchalantly.

  I was about to deny it when Jake said, “I thought it was the prudent thing for us to do. We’re going to dig into this case on our own, if that’s okay with you.”

  So much for us keeping a low profile.

  “Just because the murder happened in Suzanne’s building?” the chief asked his former boss and mentor.

  “I’m afraid there’s more to it than that. If you haven’t heard this news yet, you’re going to find out soon enough, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather you heard from me first.”

  “I’m listening,” he said, folding his fingers into a tent in front of him. He didn’t show much reaction, and I wondered if the new job wasn’t maturing him already.

  “Last night Teresa Logan tried to kiss me in front of the Boxcar, and I overreacted.”

  “That’s not what I believe. I think you reacted exactly the right amount,” I said.

  Stephen sighed a moment. “How exactly did you overreact?”

  “I yelled at her and called her a few names that I’m not particularly proud of now, but I was upset.”

  “That she tried to kiss you?” the chief asked, his glance darting over to me for a moment to gauge my own reaction to the conversation. As a change of pace if nothing else, I was keeping my cool, at least for the moment.

  “Let me guess. There were witnesses,” the chief said slowly.

  “At least three that I noticed immediately, but perhaps more,” Jake admitted.

  “So, that not only makes you look suspicious,” he said as he looked at Jake, “but it makes you a suspect, too,” the police chief said as he turned to me.

  “I didn’t have any reason to kill her! I just found out about what happened today.”

  “So of course, your first reaction was to storm down there and confront her about what happened,” he said.

  “Would you expect me to do anything less after hearing that particular bit of news?” I asked him pointedly.

  “Take it easy, Suzanne. I’m not the enemy here. I’m just trying to establish a timeline as to what happened and when. After Jake told you what happened, I’m guessing that you weren’t going there to congratulate Teresa on her taste in men,” the police chief said.

  “I was going to evict her, and then I was going to teach her a lesson about trying to steal someone else’s husband, but I wasn’t going there to kill her.”

  “Chief, I didn’t tell her until half an hour ago,” Jake said, “and that’s the truth.”

  “I believe you both, but you know how folks around here are going to react. They’re going to naturally assume that you went straight home and told Suzanne what happened last night. Why didn’t you, by the way?”

  Jake looked a little sheepish as he explained, “At first I thought it might all just blow over. After all, I spanked Teresa pretty hard when I rejected her. I figured she’d accept my rejection and leave me alone once and for all, so there was no reason dragging Suzanne into it.”

  “What made you change your mind today?” he asked, this time avoiding all eye contact with me.

  Jake frowned for a moment before he spoke. “The truth of the matter is that I hated keeping it from my wife, no matter what the consequences that might arise by telling her.”

  “Why does everyone just assume that I’d go nuts over this?” I asked.

  “Maybe because we know you,” the police chief said, showing a slight grin for the first time since we’d seen him that day.

  I wanted to be mad, but the truth was that I couldn’t. After all, they were right. I had in fact marched over there to rip a wad of Teresa’s hair out for making a move on my husband. I wouldn’t have killed her, though. I stood by that belief, but I didn’t feel any need to voice it at the moment. Goodness knew I’d probably have plenty of opportunities to do that later.

  “You can see our position on this, Chief. That’s why we have to dig into this. I hope we have your blessing,” Jake said, letting his last word trail off into silence.

  “And if I don’t give it to you?” Stephen asked.

  Jake just shrugged, not answering what everyone in the room knew anyway. If the chief refused to allow our investigation to occur, we’d just do it behind his back, and from the next thing he said, it was clear that he knew exactly that.

  “You’ll investigate Teresa Logan’s murder anyway. Give me a second to wrap my head around this.” Stephen leaned back in his chair and stared off into space for a full count of twenty before he spoke again. I knew the man had enough stress in his life at the moment to break the strongest person in the world, and unfortunately, Jake and I were adding to it, but we didn’t have any more choice than he did. I just hoped he could see that. He’d been acting police chief for a while before Jake had stepped in, but the crown sat squarely on his brow now, and I had to wonder if the pressure of the job was already getting to him. Finally, he sat forward and put his palms on his desk. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You know I can’t deputize you, don’t you?” he asked Jake.

  “I wasn’t even going to ask you to,” my husband said.

  I wasn’t following their line of logic. “Why not?
I can’t believe I didn’t suggest it myself when you first walked into the room. Jake’s a great cop, and you know it. Are you saying that you’re beyond accepting help from a seasoned investigator?”

  “My skill level is not the issue,” Jake said patiently. “Look at it this way, Suzanne. I had his job not that long ago, and now, when his inaugural murder as permanent chief comes along, the first thing he does is make me his deputy. It screams that he doesn’t have enough faith in himself to do the job without me, and if enough people believe that, he’s sunk before he even has a chance to prove himself.” He paused and glanced at Stephen. “Does that state the situation fairly?”

  “I’d say so,” the chief said. “It’s nothing personal. If it were up to me, I’d put you on the case on the spot.”

  “Does that go for me, too?” I asked.

  “Let’s not cloud the issue,” Stephen said, neatly dodging my inquiry. “Jake, you can’t have any official status with this case, but we both know that I can’t keep you from digging into it as a private citizen.”

  “I’m happy to hear that,” Jake said with the hint of a victory smile.

  “You didn’t let me finish. That means that I can’t allow you any special privileges, either. You can poke around, but you need to give my official investigation a wide berth while you do it.”

  “I’m not quite sure how to do that,” my husband admitted.

  “Lucky for you, you’re married to an expert at it,” he said with another grin. “I assume you two will be working together on this, am I correct?”

  “I don’t think we have much choice, do you?” I asked him.

  “I can’t admit to having an opinion about that one way or the other. All I’m saying is that you two both need to be careful. If there’s any doubt in your minds about what you’re doing, just ask me, and if you uncover anything that I don’t know about, I expect an immediate report.”

  “That’s kind of tricky, since we won’t know everything you do unless you’re willing to keep us informed, as well,” I said. If we were lucky, the police chief would be reporting to us.

  “We all know that’s not happening. If you’re in doubt, then over-communicate with me.”

  Oh, well. It had been worth a shot asking for inside information.

  “If that’s it, Chief, then we’ve got work to do,” Jake said as he started to stand.

  “Not quite. I need full statements from each of you. I can take them myself, or I can have one of my people do it,” the chief offered.

  “You’ve got enough on your plate without dealing with us, too,” Jake said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll type them up, we’ll sign them, and then I’ll drop them back at your desk before we go. There’s no sense in tying up your staff with us.”

  “Jake, you can’t do that.”

  “Just watch me,” he said with a smile. “I’m a wiz of a typist.”

  “Maybe so, but we’re following standard procedure straight down the line on this case.” Chief Grant grabbed his phone and punched in a few numbers. “Rick, I’m sending Jake Bishop and Suzanne Hart to your desk. Take their statements, type them up, and have them sign them before they leave.”

  As Jake stood, the new chief said, “I’m sorry about this, but my hands are tied.”

  “I understand completely,” my husband said. “Thanks for the leeway you’ve given us with this.”

  “You’re getting a little rope, but not much.”

  “Understood,” he said, and then he turned to me. “Let’s go, Suzanne.”

  “Bye,” I said as I waved to Stephen. I’d known him since he’d been a lonely patrolman eating my donuts whenever he got the chance all the way to his rise to the top, and I wasn’t about to let his new title intimidate me. After all, my stepfather had once held his job, as well as my husband. He might be the top man with the police force at the moment, and even my best friend’s boyfriend, but he’d always be Stephen Grant to me.

  After Jake and I told our brief stories to the officer in question, we signed our statements and left the station, but not before we had a dozen people stop and say good-bye to Jake as we were walking out the door.

  “Now I know how it must feel to be married to a rock star,” I said out on the sidewalk.

  “Somehow I doubt that very much,” he answered with a grin. “Are you hungry? I’m hungry.”

  “Is that some kind of secret code for asking me to go to the Boxcar Grill with you and interview people who might know what happened to Teresa?”

  “No, it’s a way of telling you that my stomach is growling, and it’s time for lunch. We can work on the case after we eat, or even as we’re waiting, but food is the first priority.”

  “Is that how you did it when you were with the state police?” I asked him as we walked through town toward the diner.

  “Not usually, but then again, I never had a partner as pretty as you are. Why wouldn’t I want to sit across the table and eat while I’m looking at you?”

  “Don’t expect me to answer that,” I said with a smile. “I’m kind of surprised we got Stephen’s blessing. Are you?”

  “Not really, especially since he had to know that we were going to look into this anyway. At least this way he’s keeping himself in the loop of our investigation, which was pretty savvy on his part. When I was on the job, I’m not ashamed to admit that I took help from wherever I could get it, so I’m glad that he’s not being stubborn about it. Our hands are sort of tied, though, and I’m not sure how we’re going to get started.”

  “Watch and learn, my dear,” I said as we neared the Boxcar Grill.

  “You know what they say. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Go on. Show me your stuff, Sweetie.”

  “Out here, in front of everybody?” I asked, pretending to be shocked by his suggestion.

  “Not that stuff. At the moment, I’m more interested in your amateur sleuthing skills than your other considerable assets.”

  “I suppose I can do that, too, but it won’t be nearly as exciting,” I said as I winked at him.

  “You can save that particular exhibition for later,” he answered with a laugh. “Where do we start?”

  We were just at the diner’s steps. “The more I think about it, the more I realize that it might not be a bad idea if we table our discussion until after we’ve eaten after all. There are too many folks who will want to hear what we’re going to be talking about in there.”

  “How can you possibly know that? We haven’t even gone inside yet,” Jake said.

  “Trust me, I know the folks of April Springs. My investigations in the past have become some kind of fascination with a lot of them, so we really need to be careful about what we say in public.”

  “That’s fine. You’re the boss,” Jake said. “We’ll do whatever you say.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear that. Would you mind repeating it?”

  “What do you think?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Hey, it was worth a shot,” I answered as my husband and I went into the Boxcar together.

  “Hello,” Trish Granger said softly and dabbed at her eyes when we walked into the grill.

  “Have you been crying, Trish?” I asked her as I took off my jacket, and Jake did the same.

  She shook her head and tried to smile. “I’ve been helping out in the kitchen. I should know better than to chop onions. This always happens. It’s all over town that you were the ones who found Teresa Logan’s body. That’s just awful.”

  “It wasn’t pleasant,” I said. I’d been afraid that she’d mention the attempted kiss the night before right outside her diner’s door, but maybe she wasn’t aware of it.

  At least not yet.

  “Take any seat that’s free,” she said as she handed us a pair of menus. She once more did her best to smile at us. “Sweet tea?”

 
“I was thinking about just having water today,” I said.

  “I can do that. What about you, Jake?” she asked, not responding to my unusual request.

  “Actually, tea sounds good to me.”

  Trish nodded, and Jake and I found a table. We had barely sat when Trish showed up with two sweet teas.

  “Where’s my water?” I asked her as evenly as I could manage.

  She frowned for a moment before she spoke. “I honestly thought you were kidding.”

  “I was,” I said as I finally offered her a broad smile.

  Trish didn’t show much reaction, just offering a slight chuckle as she gave us our drinks. After she was gone, Jake asked me, “Suzanne, were you kidding with her earlier?”

  “Of course I was. I may drink a ton of water everywhere else, but here, it’s always going to be sweet tea, unless I get a soda as a change of pace, and Trish well knows that.”

  “You two are an odd pair of women; you know that, don’t you?” Jake asked.

  “That’s probably why we’re so close. Next to Grace, she’s the best friend I’ve got in the world, not including you and Momma, of course,” I said as I leaned over and patted his cheek.

  “It’s okay. I’m fine with that.” Jake looked around suddenly and a dozen heads jerked away: back to their menus, their food, their hands, or even the floor. “You were right. Evidently, we’re the stars of the show.”

  “Just wait until word gets out about what happened between you and Teresa last night,” I said grimly. I didn’t mind folks gossiping about us because we’d found the lawyer’s body, but when they started pointing accusatory fingers at us behind our backs because of what had happened between her and Jake, then we were going to have a problem. I’d been the subject of police investigations in the past, as well as rampant idle speculation from the town’s citizens about my guilt or innocence, and I didn’t like either situation.

  “We’ll deal with it when it happens,” Jake said as he reached over and patted my hand gently. It was a sweet gesture, and I was glad that I had someone like him in my life. Trish hadn’t had any luck at all finding love with the exception of a man who’d been murdered soon after they’d started dating, and I couldn’t help but hope that someday her Jake would find her, just as mine had found me.