In Case of Death (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 3) (22 page)

“To what end is this guy supposedly having people killed,” Allen asked thoughtfully as he stared at the paper. “What is he getting out of it?”

“We don’t know,” I answered truthfully.

“You don’t know?” Allen looked up, disbelief on his face.

“Not for sure,” I responded, “But we believe it revolves around a financial trust that at least two of the victims have had. Both Calvin Forrester and Tom Lassiter had in their possession copies of a leather-bound book containing Trust documents. May Lassiter and Abby have been working through them for a few days now, but they are full of some high-powered legal gibberish.”

“Books you say?” Allen said over his reading glasses with confusion.

“Yes, books titled ICOD…In Case of Death.”

Allen stared at me for a few seconds as he digested the information.

“I may be able to help with the legal gibberish at least,” he sighed as his eyes went back down to his notes.

“Anything else I need to know?” Allen asked then.

I shrugged, “Not that I can easily explain in words, I’ll have Abby get you what we’ve got this afternoon.”

Nodding in understanding…or maybe not trusting my answer, he waved toward the door, indicating the meeting was over.

Being used to Allan’s penchant for dismissing people without a second thought, I rose from my chair and headed for the door.

“Gabe,” he said suddenly as if forgetting something.

“Yeah Allen?” I asked as I turned to find him still going over his notes.

“We’ve missed you around here.”

I stared at him for a few lingering seconds as I thought back on our lifelong friendship. Giving no further indication that he wanted to talk, I turned back toward the door and continued on my way.

Exiting the office, Ellen handed me a folded note as I passed, seemingly not even looking up to notice my approach.

“What’s this?” I questioned, unfolding the note and finding a telephone number.

“That’s
my
number,” she said softly, a warm smile on her face. “In case you ever get…lonely, or need a friend…or a date for that matter.”

I blushed at the gesture, nodding my head and thanking her before sticking her number in my shirt pocket and proceeding out of the building.

Just what I need,
I mumbled under my breath.

Chapter 60

September 25, 1999

I suddenly found myself sitting on a stone wall in Miller’s Meadow, a tear working its way down my face as my heart breaks. I was mad at myself for being so stupid…for falling so hard for her, unable to see the deception right under my nose.

Her arm wrapped around my waist, comforting me as my body shuddered involuntarily. Putting her head on my shoulder, I feel a tear seep through from her eye and into my soul.

It’s comforting, and my heart jumped a little…the first time in days. It’s May who is with me now, but it is Raven I am heartbroken over.

I finally recognize that I am reliving a moment from when Raven unceremoniously dumped me in college. May had taken me for a walk out to Miller’s Meadow as she tried to help me through it.

       I reached around with my other hand and placed it on the side of her face, gently hugging it against my shoulder as I let out a shuddering breath.

“Thanks kid,” I whispered as I felt the love of my best friend warmly beside me, “You’re the best!”

“I’ll always be here for you Gabe…you know that.”

I nod sadly, my voice catching in my throat before I can answer.

“I know, but I bet you never thought I would use up all of your time with my continually shitty love life!”

May giggled, “You have no more failures than any of us Gabe…remember Jason?”

I nodded; Jason Applegate was a frat boy at May’s college that she thought she was in love with. It turned out that May was one of six girls that he was wooing simultaneously. I assumed that it wasn’t seven because he needed a day off during the week to recuperate.

“Yep…he was a bastard.”

May giggled again at that.

“And who helped me get through that old friend?”

I nodded again, “Not that I’m keeping score or anything, but I think you have a much harder job than I do.”

“You are right!” she said, raising her head off of my shoulder, “We are
not
keeping score!”

Laying her head back on my shoulder, she sighed. “Maybe
we
should just get together again.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Really?”

She moved her head up to my cheek and gave me a kiss. “Sure…why not?”

I couldn’t come up with an answer…not one I could verbalize anyway. We had been through it before, and ended up playing it safe to not jeopardize our friendship.

“Same old reasons May…we care
too
much for each other. Besides, you are looking so hot lately; I couldn’t guarantee we would ever get out of bed.”

May squealed!

Wrapping her arms around my neck, she nuzzled my ear as she whispered, “Damn straight we wouldn’t!”

I put my hand on her forearm gently, caressing the soft skin. “Hey, you did it again!”

“Did what Gabe?” May cooed from my shoulder.

“I forgot all about Raven, for a few seconds anyway. Now all I can think about is you!”

We both laughed at that. I gently pushed my friend away and jumped down off of the wall before reaching up to help May down. Pulling her close, we kissed.

A sweeter and gentler kiss I have never experienced, before or since.

Taking her hand then, I started walking toward home.

“Where are you taking me kind sir?” she asked as she hugged my arm.

I sighed. “Back to reality I’m afraid.”

Turning to face her, “Look, there is
nothing
on the whole of God’s green earth that I would rather do than to become a ‘couple’ with you. But you know it wouldn’t work May, what if
we
had problems? Who would we go to then?”

Her shoulders slumped a little then as she took my hand and started walking again.

“We would have each other Gabe.”

“Except I have a lousy track record May, and I don’t want to lose you forever. And I think that could be a very real possibility considering who you are dealing with.”

***

I woke up with a start, 5:30 showing plainly on the clock. Lying back on the pillow, I thought back to that night long ago with May.

Another missed opportunity?

That would almost seem to sum up the story of our lives.

I was still at a loss to discern why I kept having the recurring dreams about my old friend, but as of late I had accepted the situation as something that I apparently had no control over.

Be that as it may, I still found the constant reminders of our past life together to be confusing at the very least. Considering my past experiences with dreams, I realized that it may be some kind of bizarre play from above to get May and I together. But if
someone
was trying to point me into a relationship with her, why would they continually bring up our failures as a
couple?

Every single memory had served to reiterate the strength of our friendship, while simultaneously shoving my face in our failures at romance.

Betty suddenly popped into my head.

More to the point, I could imagine Betty grinning at me in that way that she did when I stressed over things that I had no control over.

“It’s only life,” she would say before taking me in her arms. “It’s gonna happen, whether we worry about it or not.”

Smiling, I proceeded to roll out of bed and head down to the kitchen to start the day.

I love you,
I whispered as I left the room.

Back-a-cha buddy,
I heard in my head as I made my way down the stairs lightheartedly.

Realizing that I smelled coffee, I was surprised to find Abby and Nate at the kitchen table, still going over the details of the case.

Abby had asked Nate over to the house for supper and to hand over the files instead of just copying them and handing them over in a box at his office. I had liked the idea. Since we were more or less forced into sharing our case, having Nate see where we were coming from seemed like a plus.

Not that our way was the only way, but at least our thought process wouldn’t get trampled over immediately.

“Morning,” I said as I passed them on the way to the coffee pot. “I know that it’s an involved case, but I never thought it would take this long to explain it to Nate,” I added good-naturedly.

Abby giggled, looking at Nate with a grin.

“Oh, we took a couple of hours off.”

Nate snickered.

“A really, really
fun
couple of hours,” Abby added unabashedly as she wrapped her arms around Nate and planted a kiss on his lips.

I smiled before turning to pour my coffee, “I don’t need to hear about it.”

I’m surprised he
didn’t
hear it,
Abby whispered loudly amid more snickering by the couple.

Shaking my head, I was nonetheless happy for my daughter. Whether or not their relationship went any farther in the future, it seemed that they had found in each other something very special for now. Maybe that was all that one could hope for?

“Anyway,” changing the subject, “I don’t suppose you have discovered anything new during the night have you?”

“As a matter of fact,” Abby beamed, “We have!”

I turned to face her, “Really?”

“Yep!” she said as she paged through some papers. “We just happened across this detail as we were going over the case last night. It may be nothing, but I can’t believe I didn’t think to look before!”

My interest was certainly centered on Abby for the next few moments as she dug through her notes. Taking the seat beside her, she laid a single sheet of paper beside me.

Global Printing & Binding

Schenectady, NY 

“What’s this?” I asked, unsure of the relevance.

“A printing company,” Abby said with a grin. “
The
printing company, the one that printed the leather-bound legal nightmare that now sits on the table in front of you!”

Chapter 61

September 25, 1999

I looked up at the two leather-bound tomes sitting on the table, as well as the reams of paper scattered around them.

Why hadn’t we thought of that earlier?

“It is also the only entity that we know of that has had a recurring collaboration with whoever is at the bottom of the case,” Abby continued. “And, it may also be a place that has a record of their customer that will help track him.”

Having screwed up or not, I smiled. This could be huge!

“Great work!” I beamed.

“Isn’t it awesome?” Abby replied. “And since we are now tied in with the Prosecutor, it will be easier to get access to their records!”

Nate nodded excitedly, “That should be no problem, we can talk to Allen about it this morning!”

Hopefully throwing the weight of Allen’s office behind the investigation
would
help our cause…at least in situations such as these. I had on my mind however, another detail I was anxious to investigate, one of a more
covert
nature.

“That is right up his alley,” I admitted, “I was also thinking that he could put some people on getting sketches of our Mr. Jones, or whatever he calls himself. Get with Jessica Jordan for starters, but there should be people in every county around us that has had dealings with him.”

“That’s a great idea,” Nate said excitedly, making a note on his legal pad.

“What are you going to do today Gabe?” Abby questioned as she got up to refill their coffee.

“I have a couple of things that I want to look at with Preacher,” I answered before cringing inwardly.

“Who’s Preacher?” Nate asked me innocently as Abby overfilled one of the cups.

“Oh crap,” she mumbled as she grabbed a rag to clean up her mess.

Preacher was more or less…
unofficial
…in every facet of the investigation. Because of his
circumstances,
we as a group had decided to keep him out of the limelight. May and Raven knew him of course as we thought it important for them to get to know him. Letting his name out of the bag to Nate had been a major screw-up on my part.

Maybe I’m getting too old and senile for this stuff!

“Who’s Preacher?” Nate repeated with a stiff smile as the heavy silence continued.