Trust (10 page)

He still did his fair share of networking though, getting his face out there in the community, going to Chamber of Commerce events, things like that. Lauren had even encouraged him to start going to church more often, to get more involved. He'd never been a big churchgoer, but he did like the idea of doing some volunteer work. He'd been thinking about getting involved for years, and Lauren had given him the nudge he’d needed. Plus, he knew she liked having him go with her.

His first volunteer mission was for the upcoming weekend. Their church participated along with other local churches in providing shelter and food for homeless men each night for a week. These overnights of hospitality rotated amongst six churches. David, along with several other chaperones, would be sleeping in the Parish hall Saturday night at the church along with a dozen or so homeless men. Lauren and a few of the women would be there earlier in the evening to prepare and serve hot meals. David was thinking about how awful it must be to be homeless in the winter when Chuck tapped on his door. The door was half-closed but he knew it was Chuck by the impeccable shine on his shoes. 

Every few days, Chuck stopped by the train station on his way into work and visited the shoeshine station. He was meticulous about his appearance, wearing only the best suits and keeping his blonde hair gelled to perfection. David suspected that he also got manicures, as his hands were in better condition than Lauren’s, and she got her nails done at least once, if not twice a month.

"Come on in. What's up?" David waved for Chuck to enter and have a seat, but he remained standing.

"I won't keep you long. I just wanted to see if you're still up for dinner tonight with the wives. We were thinking of Solstice. If that works for you, I'll have Mary make reservations."

"Um, sure. Lauren loves Solstice." David did too, but he'd completely forgotten about dinner tonight. When they gave him the promotion, Billy and Chuck also said that they wanted to go out and celebrate properly. He'd have to call Lauren and remind her in case she'd forgotten too.

"All right then. We'll catch up around seven for a drink at the bar first." Chuck was down the hall a moment later. They hadn't done dinner together as a group for several years, before he met Lauren actually, now that he thought about it. They'd met Lauren, of course, at the annual Christmas party and occasional visits to the office, but had never had a conversation of any length.

This could be interesting, especially once the cocktails started flowing. Billy and Chuck did enjoy their cocktails. Who was he kidding—he did too, though he usually didn't go too overboard. Billy, on the other hand, occasionally entered 'BillyLand', a nickname David came up with in college to refer to the point where Billy crossed over from being slightly inebriated to silly, and often manically, drunk. He didn't get that way often, and when he did, a good time was usually had by all, because Billy was generally a very happy drunk. Chuck, on the other hand, wasn't.

Chuck was more serious and reserved than Billy to begin with, and a few drinks usually loosened him up, making him more social and fun to be around. He never crossed the line though, the way Billy did. Chuck was always in complete control; he was very concerned about how others viewed him and prided himself on being a polished professional.

Billy was an open book, always the life of the party and wore his emotions on his sleeve. Chuck was much more private and low key. David realized that he didn't know a whole lot about Chuck except for the obvious, that he was a great investment manager and adored his wife Kate. He rubbed his temple and glanced at the stack of papers on his desk, which was quite a bit smaller than when he arrived this morning.

If he kept focused, he'd be able to get through everything and maybe even get a head start on tomorrow's work in case he needed to come in a little later. He smiled to himself, already planning ahead to have a good time tonight and perhaps would need a little extra shut-eye in the morning. He picked up the phone to call Lauren and remind her they were on for seven.

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Chapter Twenty-Two

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J
ack stared at his computer screen. He wasn't at all happy with the progress they'd made on the Eric Armstrong case. They had no suspects and even Lauren was about to be completely cleared as a person of interest. There wasn't a shred of real evidence to connect her to anything. Just a bit of hearsay and rumors of an affair with a student, which so far had not been corroborated in any way. The computer records from the school came back clean. They'd combed Lauren's email program looking for any correspondence between her and Eric. There was none. The only time his name was even there was in Outlook, on the calendar page, as a recurring appointment, "Counseling Session with Eric" every Monday afternoon. That fit with what she'd told them, and the school psychologist, Betty, vouched for her. Lauren was approaching squeaky-clean status. He was glad to see that, for her sake and for David's. But still, it really didn't help his case any. He was considering sending one of the officers back out to the parent’s to make sure they hadn't missed anything when his cell phone rang

"Jack?" He didn't recognize the number on his caller ID, but the voice sounded familiar.

"You got him."

"Ted Bishop here, David's grandfather. You got a minute?”

"Of course. I didn't recognize your number."

"David got me a cell phone—one of those fancy iPhone things—and programmed in a bunch of numbers."

"That's great."

"So, the reason I'm calling is, I think you might want to come talk to my neighbor, Alan. He's here having coffee at my place. We got to talking and well, I think you might want to hear what he has to say. It's about that Eric Armstrong case. He might have seen something."

"I'll be right there." Jack grabbed his coat and half-full cup of coffee and headed out. David's grandfather was up there in years, but he was still sharper than most people were, and Jack knew how well thought of he was in the department.

Ten minutes later, he was sitting in the kitchen with David's grandfather and his friend Alan who lived across the street.

"You sure you don't want some of Lucy's Carrot Cake? It makes for a delicious breakfast." He and Alan were enjoying large slices of it along with their coffee.

"No, thanks. I'm all set. Had an egg sandwich on the way in." He took another sip of his coffee, which was barely lukewarm at this point.

"So Alan, tell Jack what you told me earlier. Don't leave anything out."

"Right. Well I work part-time down at the new cemetery." Older folks called Greystone Cemetery 'new', even though it was almost twenty years old. Still, it was the youngest cemetery in town. "And you know how it backs up to Pine Pond? Well, at the end of my shift, usually around three in the afternoon, if the weather is decent enough I'll often take a walk down there and see if the fish are biting. I always have my fishing gear in the back of the truck, just in case.

Jack nodded, and after swallowing a huge bite of carrot cake, Alan continued. "Well, I was telling Ed here that it was a real nice afternoon yesterday; sun was shining, it wasn't too cold and there was no wind, so I decided to check things out and settle in for an hour or two see if I might get lucky and land a striper or two."

"You catch stripers down there?" Jack was surprised.

"Well, no. I haven't actually yet. But I think it's possible."

"Hurry it up, get to the good stuff. Jack doesn't have all day here. He's a busy man, right Jack?" He winked at Jack and Jack realized he was enjoying this.

"Yeah, well like I said, I was going to settle in for a bit and was just about to set my chair up when out of the corner of my eye, something flashed in the sun and got my attention. I walked over to investigate, and sticking out of a pile of leaves was a shiny golf club. I thought that a little odd as the country club is clear on the other side of the lake. I remembered what Ed had said about how the murder weapon of that Armstrong kid might be a golf club so I knew not to touch it. I kicked the leaves away from the club head and sure enough, it looked as if there was something unusual. At first it just looked like dirt, but when I leaned over and got a closer look, I wondered if it might be dried blood."

"Is it here? Did you bring it home?" Jack felt a shiver of excitement. Finally, they might have a real lead if this was actually the murder weapon.

"Hell, no. I wasn't about to touch the thing. I know better than that. I've listened to Ed's stories over the years and I wasn't going to be blamed for screwing things up. I left it right where I found it. Well, I did kick a few more leaves over it, so the shiny part is covered, but I know exactly where it is. I can take you there."

"Great, let's go. I'll drive if you guys want to ride with me." Alan's eyes lit up and Jack smiled. "Why don't you ride shotgun? Let Ed see how the back seat feels." No matter what their age, most guys got a thrill out of riding around in a cop car.

Fifteen minutes later, Alan was leading them down the path to his favorite fishing spot. "It's right over there," he said as they got closer to the water. "Good, it's still here." About an inch of the club handle was all that was visible, the rest of the club was smothered in leaves. Jack pulled a glove out of his pocket, put it on, brushed the leaves away and then carefully lifted the club to get a closer look at the dark brown smudges on the club head.

"What do you think?" Alan asked. "Is it blood? Do you think it's the murder weapon?"

"That's not dirt," Ed said matter-of-factly.

"Certainly looks like dried blood to me," Jack said. "We'll have to get it into the lab and run some tests, see if we can get any finger prints off the club and a match from the blood."

"Alan, you done good." Ed gave Alan a hard slap on the back.

"Thanks. You were the one that made the connection though, and said to call it into Jack.

"Thank you, both of you." Jack said. "If this is the murder weapon it could be just the break we needed. To be perfectly frank, we don't have much of anything else to go on."

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Chapter Twenty-Three

D
avid checked his watch; it was only quarter past six. They had plenty of time to meet everyone at Solstice by seven. He'd called Lauren earlier to remind her about the dinner tonight and she said it was on her calendar and she was looking forward to it. She even knew what she was going to wear. She'd dropped one of her favorite dresses off a few days ago at the dry cleaner and asked David if he wouldn't mind picking it up on his way home as it was a few doors down from his office. Since it was so early, he reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. The restaurant they were going to was only a five minute drive away, and knowing Lauren as he did, she wouldn't be downstairs for a least a half-hour.

He wasn't looking forward to tonight. He'd been feeling edgy all day. The beer was definitely helping to calm his nerves a little. It bothered him that he was feeling this way. He told himself it was ridiculous. So what if Billy did recognize Lauren finally? They were just kids back then and neither one did anything wrong. Still, he couldn't shake a disturbing sense of foreboding.  He took the last sip of his beer just as Lauren came down the stairs, looking drop dead gorgeous in a long silky midnight blue dress that made her hazel eyes seem more blue and dazzling.

"You look amazing."

"Thank you. You look pretty good yourself." All David had done to get ready was to give himself a quick shave and swap his tie for a dressier blue-gray one that Lauren had picked out for him.

They hit a little traffic, but still made it to the restaurant a minute or two before seven. Chuck and his wife Katy were already enjoying a drink at the bar and Chuck lifted his glass to wave them over.

"What are you having? I've got this one," he said as the bartender came over to take their drink order.

"Lauren, what are you having?" David asked.

"Chardonnay, please."

"I'll go with a dirty martini with plenty of extra olives. Thanks."

"Make that Grey Goose," Chuck added as the bartender was about to grab the house vodka. He and Katy were both drinking martinis as well. Chuck always raved about Grey Goose vodka, said it was the best and the smoothest. David didn't drink vodka as often as beer, so he wasn't as familiar with the nuances among them. He took a sip when Chuck handed him the drink and it was pretty smooth, he had to admit.

"Billy called and said they were running about twenty minutes late." Katy told them as they settled at a high-topped table in the corner. Katy sold real estate and had one of the busiest offices in town. She and Chuck had recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary.

"I can't believe it's already been over a year. It seems like just a short time ago when I was running around getting ready for our wedding like you are now." She smiled. "We're both looking forward to the wedding."

"The two week countdown has started," Lauren said then asked, "So how did you and Chuck meet? I always love to hear people's 'how we met' stories.

"He walked in the office one day looking to buy a house, and it was my turn to take a walk-in. It's funny too, because friends had been saying for years that they thought my job would be a great way to meet people, but I had never met anyone I wanted to date until Chuck showed up. Of course, that was almost ten years ago, and then we were engaged for five years. I think my mom just about gave up hope that the wedding would actually happen."

"So, I'm a little slow. What can I say?" Chuck smiled and then added, "I think your mom would agree the wedding itself was worth the wait." David caught Lauren’s eye and smiled. He’d told her about Chuck’s wedding as an example of what he didn’t want. He had never been to such an over-the-top wedding. He didn't want to imagine what it must have cost Chuck.

They had six hundred people in attendance easily. All of Chuck's clients were invited and it seemed like almost the entire town was there. Plus Katy was from a large family. She had eight siblings and loads of cousins. No expense was spared. The hotel was the most expensive in town and was on a huge cliff overlooking the water with spectacular views. Chuck had booked and paid for the entire hotel that night, all one hundred twenty rooms. There was a ten-piece band and the food was decadent. There was even a caviar and vodka bar. And that was just what David could remember. A good time was definitely had by all.