AllFreeNovel
Share Us
8
On their way to the station, Alex, Logan, and Kaely stopped by a donut shop they’d noticed the night before. They bought a dozen donuts and coffee. Although Alex wanted to make a joke about the shop being so close to the police station, she wasn’t really in a humorous mood.
Of course, there hadn’t been anyone sitting in that chair last night. That was just her imagination. Kaely had stopped right after Alex’s hallucination. Alex had wanted to ask her questions about what she’d said, but Kaely told her it was late and they needed sleep. It was obvious Kaely was bothered about something too.
When they entered the station, they saw Chief Gorman on the phone in his office, so they just carried the donuts and coffee back to the empty conference room. Logan offered to get napkins and plates. When he returned, his expression was tight, his forehead creased.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know, but something’s going on. Chief Gorman looks upset.”
“This is a police station,” Kaely said. “It could be anything.”
Logan nodded. “True, but when he saw me, he put down the phone and stepped out his door. He wanted to make sure we were all here. Said he’d meet with us as soon as possible.”
Alex shrugged. “He probably wants to ask us about our profile. We need to wrap this up.”
“Maybe,” Logan said slowly, “but I get the feeling he’s getting ready to tell us something we don’t want to hear.”
Alex took a chocolate donut from the box and grabbed a paper plate from the stack on the table.
“Alex is right,” Kaely said. “We need to get our profile ready this morning.”
“I agree,” Logan said. “We’ll start work after we meet with the chief. But first, let’s finish breakfast.” He took a bite of his donut and washed it down with coffee.
Kaely took a cake donut with cherry frosting and nibbled at it. Alex found that amusing. Logan’s donut was gone in three bites, but Kaely might be working on hers for a while.
Alex had just taken another bite of her donut when the door opened and Monty walked in. “Sorry,” he said. “Grandmother still wasn’t feeling well this morning. I had to run to the drugstore for her.”
“Is it anything serious?” Alex asked.
He sat down next to Logan and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. To be honest, I don’t think she wanted me to leave. She seemed worried. I...” His eyes grew moist. “Sorry,” he said, his voice shaking a little. “My grandmother raised me. She... Well, she’s my only real family.”
Logan frowned. “Didn’t you mention your parents to me once?”
Monty nodded. “We’re not close. When I was young, they went back to China. I was in school and didn’t want to leave my friends, so Grandmother Wong offered to take me in. My parents moved to California a few years ago, but they don’t have much to do with either of us. It’s not that we’re really estranged. It’s just that they have their lives, and we have ours. And if my grandmother can’t care for herself, my father will probably want to put her in a nursing home.” He took a sip of the coffee he’d brought with him. “I won’t let that happen. I’ll take care of her if she needs assistance.” He chuckled. “She’s pretty stubborn, though. And strong. She’s eighty years old and determined to be independent.”
“She’s blessed to have someone like you in her life, Monty,” Kaely said.
He smiled at her. “Thanks. It goes both ways.”
The door swung open so suddenly it made Alex jump. Chief Gorman walked in without saying a word, then grabbed a chair at the head of the table and sat down.
“Something’s happened,” he said. “I think it might affect your profile.”
“Tell us,” Logan said, setting his cup on the table.
“Evan Bayne’s dead.”
“That’s terrible,” Kaely said slowly, “but he was getting kind of old, wasn’t he?”
“Seventy-one. But his death wasn’t due to natural causes.”
Suddenly Alex’s donut didn’t look so appetizing. “How did he die?” she asked.
“Like I told you, he and his wife live in Australia. On Monday, around noon, they were taking a walk at a location near Sydney called the Gap. They were vacationing there. It’s a beautiful place where high cliffs look out onto the sea. His wife, Gloria, said he got a phone call, and then his face turned white. He told her he loved her, put his phone on the ground, and jumped off the cliff. Gloria got to the edge just in time to see his body wash out to sea. By the time other people got there, he was gone. His body hasn’t been recovered.”
No one spoke. The chief opened a laptop on the table, then pressed a button on the large-screen TV that sat on a pedestal in the corner of the room. He brought up a grainy film that filled the screen. Although it was dark, a nearby streetlight showed a woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties walking down a sidewalk, holding a little girl’s hand. It was obvious they were being filmed from the interior of a car.
