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“When I came in this morning, he was hunkered down on a park bench at Fourth and Middle Street. I reckon he’s probably still there.” Archie took a sip of his coffee, looked toward the coffee shop door, and lifted his chin to the left. “About two blocks.”
“Thanks.” Adam left a twenty on the table and headed out.
He had no idea what Burt looked like or what he was about to discover, but he left the shop, took a left, and began walking. Sure enough, two blocks down, he saw an older gentleman slouching on a park bench, hunched over as if carrying the weight of the world. As he approached the bench, he realized it was right outside the New Bern newspaper offices.
“May I?” he asked the man he presumed to be Burt. The man shrugged and put out a hand, offering the seat.
“I’m Adam. Adam King. I have a feeling you’ve heard of me.” The man’s head jerked up, and his eyes widened in surprise, then glared with suspicion. “You Burt?”
He gave Adam a sour look, but nodded. Adam sat and faced the building, just as Burt was. The reflection in the glass window made it seem they were looking into a mirror—one old man, one young, both haggard and with a lot on their minds.
“I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused,” Adam said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’d like to help fix things if I can.”
Burt stared straight ahead for a good thirty seconds before answering. “Edward isn’t laundering money. Or cheating on Sophie.”
“I figured.”
“It’s all my fault,” he said, hanging his head. “I have cancer. I’m dying of cancer,” he clarified.
Adam nodded, but remained silent.
“I haven’t told my wife, and Edward is helping me keep it from her, from everyone. I pay him, and then he pays the hospital so my wife won’t find out about the bills. That’s the money laundering he was talking about. And the ‘sneaking around on Sophie’ was a weekend away when I was sick from the chemo and Edward took care of me at a hotel in the next town over. We told everyone we went fishing. Also, so my wife wouldn’t find out. I’m sitting here gathering the guts to set the record straight with the newspaper, so they have all the facts to write up last night’s story. And then I’m going to tell my wife.”
“You’re trying to spare your wife the grief,” Adam said.
“She’s not well either, and I’m worried this might just push her over the edge to give up. I can’t lose her yet.”
“And even under false accusations, Edward kept your secret. Sounds like a pretty good friend.”
He looked sideways to see a tear slip down Burt’s face as he nodded.
“Would it help if I took care of telling the newspaper? There are a few other things I’d like to tell them about too. I can also help with your wife. If you want, I mean.”
Burt looked up, and a glimmer of hope crossed his face. “It’s not that I’m afraid to tell her, you know? Just that I don’t want to upset her. She has enough to worry about already.”
“I get it.”
“I’ve kept it from her for too long already. She needs to know, and it’ll be good for me to get it off my chest. You may have screwed Edward good, but you’ve done me a favor by forcing my hand. I walked here but am too weak to get home. Can you drive me? It’s not far.”
“My car’s just down the street. Stay here, and I’ll come pick you up.” He stood to go and paused, putting a hand on Burt’s bony shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
On the short car ride to Burt’s house, he found out Burt had been an eyewitness to the vandalism of Kate’s car.
“I was resting in the car before driving home, and I watched a man scratch her car and then look both ways before writing those nasty words on the windows.”
“Did you tell the police?” Adam asked. An eyewitness? This was exactly what they needed.
“I did. But I don’t know who he is, so it didn’t really help. I wanted to confront him, but I’m so weak I wouldn’t have been much of a threat. Plus, it all happened within seconds, and he was gone.”
“If you saw the man’s face, could you identify him?”
One shoulder rose and fell. “Probably.”
When they stopped at a red light, Adam pulled out his phone and searched Doug Doyle’s name. His real estate site popped up, topped with a photo. “This him?” Adam showed Burt the picture.
“Yep. For sure.”
“Awesome,” Adam said. “Mind if I let the police know you can identify him now?”
