False Front (14 page)

‘No. You never do. But once you threw in Middleton’s name, it all got very interesting. My curiosity is craving gratification. I’ll put in a couple of hours at least and, hopefully, everything you need will be ready for you by lunchtime tomorrow.’

‘I couldn’t do it without you guys. Are you alone in the office?’

‘Nope. Vicki’s here, too.’

‘I’ll order a pizza for you – mushrooms, Canadian bacon and green pepper, right?’

‘Yes, ma’am. Thank you very much.’

After ordering dinner for the two in research, Lucinda printed out the Scott Technologies report so that she could write on it as she read along. She pulled her cell out and placed it on the desk. She was antsy about Jake’s call. She knew he’d phone as soon as he finished up for the day but she was anxious to know what he was thinking about Dylan’s death. And even more apprehensive about Jake and Ricky’s compatibility.

TWENTY-FIVE

J
ake looked through the glass of the door leading to the lobby. Becky Carpenter stared down at her feet. Her mother Dolly fussed with her hair, trying to push it back from her eyes. Becky shrugged her away and voiced her annoyance in one word that she stretched to three syllables, ‘Mo-o-om.’

Pushing open the door, Jake stretched out his hand to the mother, who took it loosely. Her short pixie cut framed a youthful face. Jake wondered if the pain he saw in her eyes was because of the situation of the moment or a permanent state. He reached out to shake Becky’s hand but she wouldn’t acknowledge it at all – she kept her hands wedged into the front pockets of her black jeans.

‘I have a room where we can talk in private. Follow me.’ The door buzzed and Jake ushered them through and down the hall to an open interrogation room. Inside he asked if he could get them anything to drink. ‘I would love a bottle of water if that isn’t too much trouble,’ Dolly said.

‘Becky? How about you?’

Becky shrugged and shook her head.

‘Becky?’ Dolly said and then turned to Jake. ‘She was just asking for a Dr Pepper while we were waiting. I’m sure she’d like one.’

‘Coming right up.’

When Jake returned with two waters and a Dr Pepper for Becky, Dolly was whispering urgently to her daughter. She looked up and said, ‘Thank you. I’ve told her how important it is to tell you everything she knows.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Carpenter,’ Jake said. ‘Now, Becky, what is it that you know?’

‘Nothing,’ she muttered, without looking up.

‘You did know Dylan O’Hara, didn’t you?’

Becky’s shoulders heaved as she choked off a sob.

‘Becky, please, look at me,’ Jake asked.

The blonde head rose, revealing tear-filled eyes and flushed cheeks. Jake’s heart went out to her. He didn’t want to press her but knew he must. ‘You knew Dylan, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know anything about his death?’

‘Yes.’

‘What do you know, Becky?’

She pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket, pressed buttons, scrolled down and handed it to Jake. ‘Here.’

Jake read a text message from Dylan: ‘Now is the time. Goodbye, Becky.’ He looked at the time. It was sent at the approximate moment of Dylan’s death.

‘It’s my fault,’ Becky blurted out.

‘Why is it your fault, Becky?’

‘I didn’t think he’d really do it.’

‘Do what Becky?’

‘Commit suicide.’

‘Do you know why he committed suicide?’

‘I told him it didn’t really matter,’ she sobbed, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

‘What didn’t matter, Becky?’

‘That no one that counted cared about that any longer.’

‘Cared about what, Becky?’

‘It was late but I should have snuck out of the house.’

‘Becky, what was bothering Dylan?’

‘I should have been with him.’

‘Why, Becky?’

‘I shouldn’t have cared if I got caught and grounded.’

‘Becky, why was Dylan so distressed?’

‘I was selfish and now he’s g-g-g-gone.’ She threw her head toward the table, cradling it on her folded arms as her wrenching sobs filled the room.

Jake exhaled and leaned back in his chair. Dolly threw an arm around Becky’s shoulders and whispered words of love and comfort. Both of the adults waited for Becky’s bout of grieving to run its course. After a long two minutes, Becky raised her head, sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of a hand.

‘That’s all I can tell you,’ Becky said.

‘Becky, do you know why Dylan committed suicide?’ Jake asked.

‘Yes,’ she said with a nod.

‘Will you tell me why?’

Becky shook her head side to side.

‘Why not, Becky?’

‘I promised.’

‘I respect your honor in keeping a promise, Becky. But Dylan is gone now. Nothing can hurt him. Telling me can only help. If I understand why Dylan took his life it will enable me to help his parents accept the reality of the situation and move on.’

‘Dylan did not want his parents to know.’

‘What did Dylan do that was so awful, Becky?’ Jake pushed.

Becky compressed her lips and shook her head as fresh tears began to fall.

‘Becky,’ Dolly said, ‘you need to tell him what you know. This is not a game.’

The teenager squeezed her mouth together even more tightly, making her lips nearly disappear. She blinked her eyes and gave a sharp negative jerk of her head.

‘You are not a child any longer, Rebecca. Stop acting like one,’ Dolly said.

Becky turned her head to stare at the wall on the opposite side of the room, her chin outthrust and her arms folded across her chest.

‘Rebecca Ann Carpenter, how do you think I would feel if you committed suicide and someone knew why but refused to tell me? That is how you are being selfish. That is how you are not being a good friend. Don’t you care about Dylan at all?’

Becky jerked to her feet, glared at her mother and walked to the side of the room where she rested her forehead on the concrete block wall, her back to both of them.

Jake stood and walked next to her with a business card in his hand. ‘Here, this is my card. Take it. Give me a call when you’re ready to talk.’

‘That will be never.’

‘I’m willing to wait. My office number and my cell are on here. Please take it and think about it.’

Becky wouldn’t touch it. She walked to the door and faced it. She said, ‘Can I go now?’ without turning around.

Jake sighed. ‘Yeah, it’s unlocked, go ahead.’

Becky left the room. Jake and Dolly listened to the shuffle of her feet as she went back down the hall. ‘I am sorry,’ Dolly said.

‘Don’t be, Mrs Carpenter. You tried. Now, we just need to give her time.’

‘I don’t know, Agent Lovett. I’ve never seen her acting this stubborn since she was a toddler.’

‘You have any idea of what Dylan’s secret might be?’

‘I wish I did,’ Dolly said. ‘Let me have your card. I’ll try to work on her.’

Jake slid the card into her hand. ‘Don’t push too hard. She’ll be ready when she’s ready. It shouldn’t take too long – the burden of carrying that secret will soon get too heavy for her to bear alone.’

Dolly walked to the door and then turned back. ‘I am very frightened, Agent Lovett.’

‘About what, Mrs Carpenter?’

‘I am afraid that she’ll try to follow Dylan’s example.’

Jake wasn’t going to mumble any phony platitudes. He knew the mother’s concerns were real. He knew the suicide risk was higher for every student in that school right now. He’d seen the epidemics happen elsewhere.

Dolly held Jake’s gaze for a moment, unshed tears welling beneath her eyes. And then, she was gone. Jake stood in that same spot, feeling impotent, frustrated and powerless over what would happen next.

TWENTY-SIX

J
ake checked his watch – 5:30 p.m. He had more than enough time to get back for the supper Lily had offered before he left that morning. After the meal, he’d call and see if Seth O’Hara was home and willing to talk. He had to follow up the lead pointing to Seth as a murder suspect but, most of all, he wanted to begin the work of Seth accepting the verdict of suicide. He really doubted it was anything else.

With a little bit of time on his hands, he called Lucinda.

‘Pierce,’ she answered.

‘The perfect way for you to answer my call.’

‘What? All I said was “Pierce.”’

‘But the sound of your voice pierces my heart every time.’

‘Stow it, Lovett.’

‘Not the effect I intended at all. What do I need to do to get back to “Jake?”’

‘Tell me something good about your progress investigating Dylan’s death.’

‘I am almost completely convinced it was a suicide. But in order to convince Seth, I think I’m going to have to find the reason why. From my conversation with your brother Ricky and his wife, I don’t think he’ll accept it otherwise.’

‘You’re probably right but with time such an issue now, maybe you could try talking to him,’ Lucinda urged.

‘I planned on it. I’m going to go talk to him after supper if he’s home.’

‘Oh, supper? It didn’t take you long out in the country to start picking up the lingo.’

Jake chuckled. ‘Lily invited me to supper and I accepted. She didn’t offer dinner. How’s your investigation going?’

‘Funny that you should ask. I could put on my detective hat and ask you why you felt such an urgent need to leave town.’

‘You know why, Lucinda,’ Jake said, knowing that she was jerking his chain and wondering where it would lead.

‘I know what you told me. But right now, I need to ask if you took Candace Eagleton’s life?’

‘What? How did I get involved in that case?’

‘Very simple. You remember that piece of paper with names and a phone number on it that you found at Rowland’s apartment?’

‘Sure. What about it?’

‘Do you recall that the name with the phone number beside it was Candy?’

‘Yes. Oh, no. You’ve got to be kidding. Are you saying “Candy” is Candace Eagleton?’

‘Yes, indeed. And if Sheriff Cummings has the timing right, if you’d made it to the house when he thinks you tried to the other day, you would have found me there on the other side of the yellow tape.’

‘Bizarre,’ Jake said. ‘Are you and Cummings working together on this now?’

‘For the time being, yes. We’re trying to figure out how there could be a connection between an upper-class supporter of the arts like Candace and a lowlife like Rowland. It seems unlikely but there has to be something or her name and number would not have been in his apartment.’

‘I’ll call the field office in the morning and see if I can’t get someone to run some reports for you. You can’t have too many details. I imagine that any relationship between the two would have had to have been rooted in the past before either of them settled into their current positions in society.’

‘Good point. I’ve got people working on it, too. I’ve been trying to run down Candace’s family but no one seems to recall her ever mentioning where she lived before moving to Virginia. We know she went to Sweet Briar College in Amherst but we can’t seem to find anything prior to that. The college is clutching its confidentiality tight to its chest and Frank Eagleton is no longer speaking to me.’

‘Listen, Lucy, I’ve got to run or I’ll be late for supper. You want me to call later?’

‘Yes, I’d very much like to know how it goes with Seth.’

‘Will do. Love you,’ Jake said.

Lucinda inhaled deeply. ‘Goodnight, Jake.’ As she hung up, she wondered why he did that. The ‘love you’ thing was happening with greater frequency. She told him she wasn’t ready for commitment yet, particularly not with an FBI agent. Her first husband was FBI and he once said ‘Love you’ a lot, too. It didn’t last long. One day, he just packed up his things while she was at work and left – no forwarding address. Bastard. She’d had to go through his mother to get the divorce finalized. That was a humiliating moment in her life – not the worst, but close.

A ding signaled incoming email. The message from Lara in the research department was marked urgent. A note read: See attached. Your link is in New Jersey. She scanned the detailed bios of Charles David Rowland and Candace Monroe, now Eagleton. Both went to Livingston High School in the middle of New Jersey. Both graduated in the class of ’78.

Unbelievable. It seemed very unlikely that the two former classmates had maintained a connection throughout the intervening years. They must have recently renewed contact. But why would they be reuniting now? What happened to stir it up? Does it have anything to do with Ted’s suspicions that Candace was blackmailing someone? It sure didn’t make sense that she was trying to extort Rowland – he had no money to give and no reputation to save. Was he Candace’s partner in crime? And does this high school make the connection with the other names on Rowland’s note?

She hit reply. ‘Please see if you can obtain a copy of the 1978 Livingston High School yearbook as soon as possible or sooner. Thanks!’

She hardly hit send before a reply came back: ‘I’m already on it – if they get it to the Fed-Ex box in time, we’ll have it tomorrow.’

Lucinda pulled down a victory fist and hissed, ‘Yes!’ Once again, she owed the whizzes in Research big time. Would she find the Bonnie person and unknown individual on Rowland’s list?

She printed out the reports, packed them and the rest of the documents connected with the investigation into an empty file folder box, closed the lid, tucked it under her arm and headed home to review it all once again.

TWENTY-SEVEN

‘
I
stopped in Reno and now I am in San Diego. Air flights and hotel bills are running my expenses high. I wanted to make sure you’re good with that. I don’t want to be cheated because I went through more money than you expected.’

‘Of course I’m good for it. Don’t be an ass.’

‘I know you have the money. But having it and giving it to me are two different things.’

‘I can’t believe you’re pulling this shit on me now. What do you want?’

‘I need more cash. I’m using currency when I book these flights and I’m running out.’

‘Doesn’t a cash transaction get you flagged with security? Might you be remembered?’