Difficult Lessons (20 page)

“Have a seat, ladies.” Walters pulled out a chair on the side of the table. Sara and Cynthia sat beside each other opposite him. “I have the report taken by Officer Pierce. I mainly need to verify some of the information and get your signature on some papers to be able to charge the individual.”

“I am really shocked that you were able to find the person. I never expected it.”  Sara said as she watched him flip through the pages in the folder that he was holding.

“I’ll be honest with you; it is not often that we make an arrest in a case like this.  We got a lucky break on it.” 

“How did you find out who it was?” The curiosity was getting the best of Sara. She wanted to know who it was and how they found him or her. 

“We took a look at the foot prints around the window. There was one that looked like the person slipped a little. We found some fingerprints on the outside of the window where the person obviously caught himself when he slipped.  We matched the prints on the window frame to someone in our system. Once we questioned the person, he confessed to the vandalism.” 

“Can you tell me who it is?” Sara asked once again.

Investigator Walters avoided her question by asking her questions about the evening that it was discovered. Sara answered each of his questions. She could sense that he was avoiding telling her who had been arrested for vandalizing her house, but she was not going to give up. 

When asked again, he reluctantly answered. “Ms. Carson, this is a very difficult situation here. We didn’t find this person’s prints in the criminal database. I hate to say it, but it is one of our own that did this.”

“Was it Griffin?” The anger was evident in her voice. 

“I understand that you two have a little history.”

“We have more than a little history.” Sara’s voice grew louder. “I can’t believe that bastard is the one that did this. Did he not think he had caused me enough trouble?”

Cynthia reached for Sara’s hand. “Calm down, honey. They got him.”

“He has been arrested, Ms. Carson. He will be arraigned on the charges as soon as we get all of the paperwork in. I am pretty sure that he will plead guilty. You will not have to worry about a trial. He is currently in jail.”

“Is he in this jail? I want to see the bastard behind bars” Sara was hoping to get to confront him.

“No ma’am. We could not lock him up here for several reasons. Him being one of our officers, it is not ethical for him to be here. Plus, there is the fact that he would probably run across one or two people that he is responsible for putting in here. It wouldn’t be a safe place for him. He was taken to another facility to be held until he sees the judge.”   

Sara finished the paperwork at the police department and headed home with Cynthia. She was still irate when they left. Cynthia drove and tried to calm Sara on the way home. When they walked in the answering machine was flashing. Sara hit the play button.

“Sara, this is Elise. Please call me when you get this. I just heard something and was wondering if it was true.”

“Boy! Word sure travels fast in this town.” Cynthia called from the kitchen. She was making her and Sara a glass of ice water.

“Yeah it does. Always has. I guess I should go on and call her. Poor Shelly. As if her dad’s actions haven’t already been enough of a blow to her. This is going to be even harder on her. She doesn’t need all this stress in her senior year at school.”

“No she doesn’t,” Cynthia agreed. “You call Elise and I will make us something to eat for dinner.” Cynthia put her arms around Sara and kissed her gently. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Cynthia. I am so sorry that you have gotten involved in all this crap.”

“I am not the least bit sorry to be involved with you, crap or no crap. I am off to the kitchen. I will return soon with something sustaining for us.”

Sara laughed as she picked up the phone to call Elise. They talked for about fifteen minutes. Elise had heard from someone at the grocery store that Frank had been arrested. She had called Sara as soon as she got home to see if she had heard it. After she had left the message for Sara, Frank called her. He wanted her to bail him out of jail. She had refused and he got irate with her on the phone. An officer at the jail had taken the phone away from him and made sure she was all right before hanging up. 

Just as Sara put the phone down, Cynthia emerged from the kitchen with a sandwich and salad for each of them. She placed them on the table and directed Sara over to her chair. 

Chapter 33

“I have an idea, Sara.”

“Uh oh,” Sara joked.

“Seriously. Why don’t we call up that officer? What was her name? Pierce? Anyway, why don’t we call her up and invite her and a date out to dinner tonight? We don’t have to go to Mel’s. Just to dinner and then back home.”

“That sounds good.”

Sara found the number and dialed.

“Officer Pierce, this is Sara Carson. Cynthia and I were just sitting here talking and thought it would be nice to have dinner with you. Are you free tonight?”

Sara listened quietly.

“Sure. That would be great. We would love to meet her. We’ll meet you at La Fiesta at seven then.”

***

“Well, Frank confessed and was sentenced to thirty days. He is on leave from the department. He was ordered to go through some intensive counseling and cannot come back to work until the department psychiatrist says he is fit. That might be a long time. He really has some issues that he needs to resolve, but we know that. How are his wife and daughter?”

“I talked with Elise a few days ago. Her divorce will be final in a week. She is doing really well. She has a job at an attorney’s office. Shelly is just beginning her senior year and is doing really well so far. She has a new girlfriend and they are all getting along great. Neither Shelly nor Elise has spoken to Frank lately.”

“I am so glad that things are working out for them,” Michelle responded taking a sip of her margarita. “They are both so sweet. I know what Frank is like at work. I can’t imagine living with him. Now, what about you two? How are the jobs?” 

“Both of us love it at Cedar. I am teaching the same courses that I had at Mills. The kids are great.” Sara looked at Cynthia and smiled. “Cynthia won’t tell this, but her volleyball team made it to the finals this year. It was the first time in school history. They lost the championship game 25 to 23. That didn’t matter though. Everyone was ecstatic to be there. The girls love her and work really hard. It has been a good semester, but we are glad to be out for Christmas. Enough about us. Tell us about you two.”

“Well, I am plugging away at the department. Things don’t change too much around there. Kara works for Simon and Timmons. They’re an accounting firm. She has some pretty big clients around here. It keeps her busy, especially through tax time.”

“It’s really kind of boring,” Kara interjected.

“She loves it even though she won’t admit it,” Michelle said smiling at her. “Anyway, I want to hear about that surprise commitment ceremony.”

***

When they arrived home Sara noticed the light blinking on the answering machine.

“Leave it. I am sure that it isn’t anything that can’t wait until we get out of the shower.”

“You are such a tease, Cynthia. You know you’ll get me in there, get me all hot and bothered, and then we will both fall asleep.

“I won’t tease. I promise.” Cynthia winked at Sara.

“I better listen to the message. It could be Mom or Dad. It won’t take but a second.”

“I’ll be in the shower waiting on you.” Cynthia turned to go down the hall as Sara hit the play button.

“I am not sure if this is the right number,” the voice on the machine caught Cynthia’s attention and she stopped. “I am trying to reach Cynthia Wesley.”

“How in the hell did she get this number?” Cynthia’s surprised voice came from right behind Sara.

“If this is the right number, Cynthia please call me on my cell. The number has not changed.”

“Who is that?” Sara looked at Cynthia puzzled. “Is it an old girlfriend?”

“Hardly!” Cynthia plopped on the sofa. “That was my dear mother.”

”Your mother?”

“Yeah. I wonder how she found me. I haven’t talked with anyone in my family since I moved.”

Sara remembered the call she had made when she was planning their trip.  Cynthia’s mother must have saved the number then. “Well obviously she’s looking for you. Maybe you should go on and call her.”

“I am not calling her. I don’t know why she’s looking for me, but it can’t be good.”

“Baby, there might be something urgent that she needs to talk to you about. You should call.”

“All right. I’ll call,” Cynthia reluctantly picked up the phone and dialed the number.

“This is Cynthia.” Her tone was coarse. “You are trying to find me?” There was a short pause in Cynthia’s side of the conversation. “You are where?” Another pause. “We are about to go to bed right now. We have plans with Sara’s parents tomorrow. We’ve had these plans for a week or so and can’t break them at the last minute. After that we’re going Christmas shopping. How about tomorrow night?” One last pause before Cynthia ended the conversation. “I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk about it.”

“What?” Sara asked with anticipation as Cynthia placed the phone back on the table.

“It seems she is in town and wants to see me. She is staying at one of the hotels downtown. She wanted to meet tonight, but I put her off until tomorrow. I will come up with something between now and then to get out of it. She just needs to go back to Mobile and forget that I am here.” Cynthia was beginning to get upset.

Sara put her arms around her. “Honey that is your mother. Maybe she wants to make amends for whatever has happened in the past. I think you should see what she wants.”

“If I decide to, and that is a big if, will you go with me?” Cynthia sounded almost child-like.

“Do you think that is such a good idea?”

“Good idea or not, you are my partner and she will have to deal with it if she wants to talk with me.”

“If that’s what you want, I’ll go,” Sara agreed. “Now let’s get in that shower.”

Chapter 34

At half past six, they pulled into the parking lot of The Diner. Cynthia looked around for her mother, but did not see her immediately. “I think this is a bad idea,” she told Sara. 

“Give it a chance.” Sara reached for her hand. “You never know. Maybe you being away for so long with no contact has made her stop and think about things.”

“I am almost sure there is some kind of drama going on and she wants to drag me into it. That’s the way things work with them. My family has always loved drama. There she is,” Cynthia pointed to her mother walking up the sidewalk. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Cynthia, it is so good to see you. You look good.” A smile crossed her lips as she touched Cynthia’s arm.

“Thanks, Mom. So do you.”  Cynthia was very guarded in her response. “This is really a surprise.”

“You were not easy to find once you left town. It took me a while. Who is this?”  She pointed to Sara. Sara was hoping that she would not let on about the phone call.

“Mom, this is Sara Carson, my partner. Sara, this is my mother, Catherine Wesley.” Cynthia made the introduction apprehensively.

“So, you’ve met someone. Is that why you moved?”

Cynthia got defensive. “No, that is not why I moved. I met Sara after I came here.  Well, actually as I was preparing to move. She helped me find a house and get settled in.  We became really good friends and then fell in love. Can we go in and eat?”

They all walked in and were directed to a table quickly. After they ordered, Cynthia got right to the point. “Okay, there has to be a reason for you being here. Is something wrong?”

“No Cynthia nothing is wrong. I just wanted to find you. Believe it or not, I have missed you. I needed to see that you were all right.”

“Where is Dad? Did he come with you?”

“No. You know he would not come.”

“He still hates me, huh?”

“He does not hate you, Cynthia. He is just…”