Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 01 - Jesters and Junkies (6 page)

It’s funny how you think you’ve forgotten something, only to have an event in the present dredge it back up. Fourteen years earlier, Lisa and I were in opposite positions. I was in a hospital bed and Lisa was sitting by my side. Hell, it was even the same exact hospital, Saint Mercy.

I was in a car accident. It was after our high school graduation party. And I may have had a couple of drinks. Fortunately, I was in the car alone. Lisa stayed behind to hook up with some guy whose name I’ve since forgotten.

There was no deer in the road. The weather was calm. I even had the brakes checked a week earlier. No, my accident was my fault.

One minute I was changing the track on my car CD player. The next I was off-road, heading down hill towards the woods. By the time I realized what was happening, the front left of my car hit a tree. There was a terrible crunching noise. It was my hood crumbling like a metal accordion. I felt a terrible pain. My car spun and hit another tree on the side. Then I blacked out.

I woke up to see Lisa curled up in a chair next to my hospital bed. She had been there since they had brought me in. She waited for me in the emergency room. She followed me up to my room. She called Richard and Molly.

The beeping of the machinery in Lisa’s hospital room was almost hypnotizing. I found myself slipping in and out of sleep. But no matter what, I wouldn’t leave her side. I’d stay until she woke up. I’d stay until I got the chance to apologize.

I hated the smell of the hospital. It was a mix of bleach, lemon cleaning fluid, rubbing alcohol and whatever god-awful detergent they used on the linens. There was also that indescribable odor of sickness everywhere. That animal part of you can sense it and wants to put as much distance between it and yourself as possible.

I held on to Lisa’s hand. Looking at her, it was hard not to cry. She had a brace on her neck. Layers of bandages were wrapped around her head. IV’s stuck out of arm and leads were stuck to her chest. Two days had passed since she fell through the jewelry store roof. And she still hadn’t awoken.

Lisa’s parents visited every day she was in the hospital. They were good people. Neither of them blamed me for what happened. In fact, they thanked me for staying with her. Under no circumstances would they allow me to apologize. I’ll always be thankful for that.

Someone knocked on the door to Lisa’s room. I looked over and saw Sam standing there. After wiping the sleep from my eyes, I greeted him with a “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” Sam entered the room. “Any updates?”

“The doctor said that she has a skull fracture and dislocated a disc in her neck. They did surgery last night to reduce the swelling in her head. No one knows when she’ll wake up.”

Sam put his hand on my shoulder. I found myself resting my chin on it. That was all I could do to stop myself from crying. It was the helplessness that terrified me. No matter how badly I wanted to heal Lisa, to ease her suffering, it was out of my hands. Only fate and the hospital staff could do her any good.

“The man you shot, he’s here.”

“Marty?”

“Martin Goldberg. Yes, he’s one floor down.”

I silently prayed to myself that he not only survived, but was in a lot of pain. “Is he…?”

“He’s not dead. And don’t worry, he’s going to be fine. You missed anything vital,” said Sam as he slid a chair from across the room next to mine.

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear but I feigned relief. What would Sam think of me if he knew I was pleased he was suffering, too.

“Did you question him?” I asked.

“I sure did.”

“Why do I have the feeling that there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

“But he didn’t tell us who sent him after you or why.”

“Well, that doesn’t help anybody.”

Sam slouched in his chair. “No, it does not.”

“Does he have a record?”

“Does he ever. At the tender age of twenty-five, our good friend Goldberg was already a five-time felony offender. Three of those five were for possession and the other two were for…,” Sam did a little drum roll with his knuckles against his chair, “Armed Robbery! He lives at home with his grandma. His last job was as an orderly at Fresh Horizons Rehab Center. I don’t even understand how that worked.”

“Wait, he worked at Fresh Horizons?”

“Yeah.”

I turned to Sam. “The same Fresh Horizons that Dennis Clark went to?”

“Your point?”

“Are you dense? Do you not see the connection? No alarms went off in your head?” I didn’t mean to but the tone of my voice was a bit nasty. It was probably the stress.

Sam couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“What!?”

“We have a warrant to search Fresh Horizons. We’re going to execute it in…,” Sam looked at his watch, “two hours.” He got up and stretched his back. “I just thought you might like to know.”

“Shit,” I mumbled as he started to leave. “But you said…?”

“I lied. You’re welcome.” said Sam as he left the room.

“Why don’t you two just hook up and get it over with?” I heard a weak voice. It was Lisa. She was awake and already giving me a hard time.

I got to ride along with Sam. It wasn’t that he wanted to take me with him, but I can be very persistent. Besides, he knew I’d be there for the raid before even telling me. Chances were that he wanted me there.

We pulled up to Fresh Horizons Rehabilitation Center as the sun rose. It was good timing. The place was still. I think the plan was to blindside them. Surprise brought the best results.

Sam originally didn’t plan on bringing me with. He wanted me to stay back at the station and wait. As much as I enjoyed Loretta’s company, there was no way I’d miss out on what could be a major break in my case. There was something wrong with Fresh Horizons. I was gong to find out what was wrong that night.

“I need you to stay in here,” said Sam after parking. The SWAT team that was on loan from Norfolk spilled out of the van in front of us. They were preparing to enter the facility.

“Not going to happen,” I replied defiantly.

“Yes, it is. Look, you’re lucky to be here. Chief Owens almost fired me when I requested to let you ride along. Hell, the only reason he didn’t was the fact that I’m his only detective. And the grumpy old bastard is too lazy to hire another. So you stay here. This isn’t negotiable.” Sam wasn’t in the mood for debate. I’d be lying if I didn’t at least mention that seeing him with such a take-charge attitude was sort of hot. I squashed that thought as quickly as it arrived. I needed to focus.

“Fine.”

Sam looked at me as if I was growing horns out of my head. He was anticipating an argument. “Good.” My serious detective got out of the car.

I watched as Sam and the SWAT team entered Fresh Horizons. A short trail of Stone Harbor police followed closely behind. Through the flashing blue and red lights, I looked on as chaos broke out. There was screaming and hollering. Several Fresh Horizons employees and patients were dragged out in handcuffs. In all, I sat there and watched for almost an hour.

My cell phone rang. I looked to see who was calling. It was Sam.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“You probably want to come in here. There are some things you might want to see.” Sam then hung up.

I got out of Sam’s car and waltzed into the facility. People were lined up against one of the walls in the main lobby with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. An officer with his German Shepherd was scouring the room, sniffing at everything. The young front desk lady whom I had met when I was last there sobbed as a cop patted her down.

“Over here.” Sam was standing in one of the nearby hallways. Next to him was the large security guard I also met in my last visit, Reggie.

“Hey, Reggie. How’s it going?” I asked mockingly.

“Notice anything interesting about your friend?” asked Sam.

I looked Reggie up and down. “Should I?”

Sam turned to Reggie. “Lift up your pant leg.”

Reggie didn’t comply.

“Lift up you damn pant leg or I’ll do it for you.”

Reggie lifted up his pant leg. He had a cast on his shin.  It happened to be in the same area as the guy I had shot in my offices.

“And how’d you get that?”

Reggie didn’t say anything.

“There’s more.”

I followed Sam down to the cafeteria and into the kitchen. There was a large walk-in fridge near the back. We went into it. On the floor there were bricks of heroin and weed wrapped in layers of plastic wrap.

“We found them inside of boxes labeled ‘chicken’. There are fifteen kilos of black tar heroin and twice as many of medical grade marijuana. And I’m willing to bet that those are just the tip of the iceberg.” Sam was very proud of the work he and his men had done. And he had every reason to be.

“So they were running drugs out of here?” It felt good to have my suspicions verified. But as great as it was to play a role in taking the drug ring down, it didn’t get me any closer to finding out what happened to Dennis Clark.

“Yup, they were running one hell of a racket. Fresh Horizons supplied the drugs then treated the addicts they created. I’d almost admire it if it weren’t so despicable.” Sam picked up one of the bricks of heroin. “This isn’t all I got to show you.”

Sam and I left the walk-in fridge. We headed towards a pantry. He opened it up and went in. The detective came out with a large plastic bag. After dumping its contents on the counter, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was too good to be true. Clues were never just laid out in front of you like that.

The counter was covered with little baggies. All of them had a purple jester printed on them. Fresh Horizons provided the same drugs that Dennis overdosed on. Now all I needed was to find out if and why he was killed by someone out of the facility. After their attacks on me, it was clear that they had no problem getting their hands dirty.

I was at Fresh Horizons with Sam and the Stone Harbor Police for the whole morning. Like Sam predicted, we found more drugs on the premises. Several of the same white plastic rabbit masks worn by the men who invaded my offices turned up in the staff break room. A bunch of the employees were ex-convicts and current criminals. There was no question that the authorities had more than enough evidence to put just about everyone there away for awhile.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t stay any longer. Despite the amount of answers I got from the raid on Fresh Horizons, I was no closer to finding out what happened to Dennis Clark. I hoped that sitting down and having a talk with Holly Kennedy, his girlfriend, would help bring resolution to the case.

I found Holly Kennedy’s address online. Social media mixed with internet-based white pages made it easier than one might think. In fact, I even found it a little disturbing. She lived at the Hunters Glenn apartments.

Hunters Glenn was the only other apartment building in town. I’d been there once or twice before. Vaguely, I remember a party or a friend of a friend who resided there. But I didn’t remember anything about it. I just knew where it was.

To get to the Glenn took a mixture of foreknowledge and persistence. It was partly hidden from the road by thick tree cover. You couldn’t see the building at all, only the cars parked outside.

If you managed to find the apartment building then you’d get to see the all-brick behemoth. It was much bigger than Briar Gardens. Hunters Glenn was the first-ever apartment built in Stone Harbor. Originally it was meant to house one hundred and twenty units. Like the rest of town, Hunters Glenn suffered over the years. By the time I went there to talk to Holly Kennedy, there were only forty occupied apartments.

I parked my car outside the building. There were some kids leaning against the brick side, keeping their eyes on me. It was a little creepy. Part of me thought they were going to steal my car. Then I remembered my car was a piece of junk and not worth the effort.

Holly Kennedy lived in Apartment 210. From the layout of Hunters Glenn, it was clear that I needed to go to the second floor to reach her, so I headed towards the stairwell which was outdoors.

I walked up the metal and concrete stairs. They didn’t make a sound. At the top was a door that led inside the building. There was a lock on the door but it was long broken. All it took was the lightest of pushes to open it up.

Like the marina days earlier, I knew I’d seen the inside of Hunters Glenn before. At first, I thought it was because I had indeed been there in person. But the Glenn that I visited as a teen was different than the one I saw that day. Last time I was there was in my dreams while following Dennis Clark.

The wallpaper was an ugly green, similar to the color of pea soup. On the floors of the Hunters Glenn hallways were carpet that was once beige. Stains from dirt, cigarettes and mold had turned those carpets to an unidentifiable hue. Traces of black mold crept through the cracks between the ceilings and walls.

All the déjà vu I felt from my dream made me a little uneasy. I don’t claim any precognitive abilities. Nor do I feel special. With that said, I knew that I was seeing things in my sleep that came to pass.

It didn’t take me long to find Holly’s apartment. I lifted my fist to knock on the door. Before I could, it opened. There was a young African American man in the doorway. Again, déjà vu struck. Where had I seen him before? He was tall, and through is beard he scowled at me.

“Can I help you?” asked the man.

“I’m here to see Holly. Am I in the right place?”

“Yeah, she’s inside. Excuse me,” the man passed by and into the hallway. I watched as he left. It might’ve been important to remember him.

“Hello?” I called out from the hall. Inside, I could see inside the apartment. The layout was different, but it looked about the same size as my own.

I’d seen Holly once before in a photo at the Clark residence. It didn’t do her justice. She was practically glowing as I watched her waddle to the door. Never had I seen a lovelier pregnant woman.

“Hi … do I know you?” asked Holly.

“No, I’m afraid not.”

Holly pushed the long blonde hair from her face. “You sure I don’t know you. You look familiar. Did you go to Jefferson?”

“No, Ms. Kennedy. I’m actually a private investigator.”

The expression on Holly’s face changed from friendliness to defensiveness. “A private investigator? What do you want?”

“I was hired by the Clarks to … can I come in?”

It caught Holly off guard, just as I intended. “Uh, I guess.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t wait for her to direct me inside. Nope, I went right in. “As I was saying, the Clarks hired me to look into their son’s death. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. I know you’ve already talked to the police, but it’d really help me out. All I want to do is get some resolution for Dennis’s parents.”

“You want some coffee or something?” asked Holly after a minute or so pause.

“Yes, please. Black.”

I stood in Holly’s small apartment . My eyes searched around. There were pictures of her family, a poster of some band I’d never heard of, a couch, coffee table, a TV and a metal fold-up chair.

Holly met me with two coffees in her hands. One was for me and the other, herself. She handed me one. I sat on the metal chair. She took the couch.

“So, what do you need to know, Miss…?”

“Reid, Riley Reid. I just wanted to know about Dennis’s state of mind before he was found. Was he stressed about anything? Did he get into any fights or arguments with anybody? In your opinion, was he happy? Was he clean?”

Holly put down her coffee. “Wow. Okay, one at a time.” She laughed nervously.

I took a sip. The coffee was gross. “Fair enough. How was he, leading up to the night he passed away? Was he clean?”

“As far as I knew he hadn’t touched a needle in over a year. If he was using again, I’d know.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know, I just knew. I could see it in his eyes. I could hear it in the way he talked. I’d just know. Anyway, he was clean. And he seemed happy.” Holly touched her swollen belly. “He was really excited, you know? The baby was due in less than a month. He told me he got a new job. Every thing was good.”

“And did he have any beefs or grudges with anyone? Did he get into any fights that you know of?”

“No, not that I know of.”

I took out my notepad and started writing. Why didn’t I do so as she was talking? For one, that might be considered rude. The real reason, though, was that the silence of me writing would make whomever I was interviewing nervous. They’d sit there wondering what I was writing. They’d wonder if I’d figured out any lies that they might have told. Or, they wondered if I believed their truths.

“Is that all?” asked Holly.

I closed my notepad. “That’s all.” I stood up and shook her hand. “Thank you very much for your help. And good luck with…” I pointed at her belly.

“Thank you.”

Holly had given me more than she knew by simply letting me inside. What was that guy doing in her apartment? Dennis just died weeks before. Did she get over him that easily? There was something about the tone of her voice while answering my questions. I didn’t hear either grief or sincerity.

In my line of work, you learn to spot liars and those who are hiding information. Holly was both. I’m not saying she was a bad person. Hell, everyone lies. The only thing that separates all of us liars was who, if anyone, was hurt by them. And there was a grieving family on Bainbridge Road that Holly was hurting.