aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 (18 page)

“What ever happened to hi, Will, welcome to your new job? How was your weekend—something like that?” I said weakly, feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

“Hi, Will! Welcome to your new job! How was your weekend? Think you got that in you?”

I laughed. “Hi Nikki. Thanks for the warm welcome.

My weekend was horrible and, yes, I think I have it in me.”

Nikki frowned. “Why was your weekend horrible?”

“My best friend died. That’s why I was late coming in this morning. It was Joey’s funeral.”

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“Oh my God! That was your friend on the news?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m so sorry, Will.”

“Well, we’d grown apart lately. Actually we had a huge fight just before he died.”

“It’s still hard to lose someone who was a friend. Were you friends long?”

“Since we were kids.”

“Do they know what happened yet?”

“If they do they’ve not told me. I know they think alcohol was involved. He was really drunk when I left him so I guess he could have fallen in and drowned.”

“How sad! What a waste. Are you sure you’re up to starting work today?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It helps me to keep my mind off of things, you know?”

She nodded. “Sure thing. Then let’s get to work.”

We went over my responsibilities, which for the most part consisted of standing around and doing nothing while I waited for customers to wander in. She showed me how to work the cash register and how to read a potential client by asking them leading questions and then steer them toward the kind of art they would be most interested in. The only thing I didn’t learn was how to do Derrick’s little appearing trick. Once she was confident that I was ready, Nikki retired to her office.

It was some time later when I noticed a well-dressed couple heading for the front door. I felt my palms begin to sweat as I anticipated my first customers. I stepped forward to greet them wishing I could pull Derrick’s trick since that seemed to put the salesperson in the dominant role right from the start.

“Hello, welcome to Avant Guard,” I said smoothly, 162

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or what I hoped was smoothly. “If I can be of any assistance, please let me know.” I hoped I sounded more sincere than Derrick had the first time we’d come here.

“We’re looking for Will Keegan,” the man said while the woman looked carefully around.

Uh oh. That didn’t seem like the kind of thing potential customers said, especially considering it was my first day here.

“I’m Will Keegan,” I said hesitantly.

The man reached into his jacket pocket and produced a badge. “I’m Detective Grafton and this is my partner, Detective Bernhardt. We’d like to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”

I looked closer at them and wondered how I could have mistaken them for a couple. They practically screamed law enforcement. Both wore no-nonsense expressions and business attire in dark, muted tones. Detective Grafton was middle-aged, with graying brown hair and a craggy, clean-shaven face. His bushy eyebrows hooded his dark eyes making him look slightly sinister. Detective Bernhardt was younger, in her thirties maybe, with a round face, pleasant if unremark-able. She had her light brown hair pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck. “Am I in trouble?” I asked, instinctively directing the question at Detective Bernhardt. I sounded guilty even to myself.

Detective Grafton gave me a sharp look. “I don’t know, are you?”

Detective Bernhardt stepped forward. “Were you at the party held at David Kemp’s house this past Friday night?”

“Briefly,” I said tightly. Could I be arrested for flee-ing the scene of a crime? Was I a material witness? I 163

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wasn’t even sure what a material witness was. I suddenly wished I had paid more attention to the police shows my mom liked to watch on TV.

“Is there somewhere we can speak a little more privately?” Bernhardt asked.

“Nikki?” There was a note of panic in my voice. Authority figures had always scared the pants off of me.

I’d been sent to the principal’s office once when I was in the 5th grade for something Joey had done and I’d gotten blamed for. I cried all the way there and was so hysterical by the time I got there they had to call my mom to come pick me up. I was feeling a bit like that now.

Nikki came out with a huge smile, obviously thinking I had gotten in over my head with some customers.

“These are detectives,” I told her and watched the smile vanish. “They want to talk to me about Joey.”

“Use my office,” she said immediately.

I led the two detectives to the office where they quickly took over, telling me to have a seat and rearranging Nikki’s furniture so that they were facing me.

“How do you know we want to talk to you about your friend, Joey?” Bernhardt asked as soon as we were seated.

I blinked. “Why else would you want to talk to me about the party?”

She smiled. “Fair enough. Ask a dumb question—”

“We’re going to be taping this conversation if you don’t mind,” Grafton interrupted, “and I’ll be taking some notes as well.”

Detective Bernhardt produced a small tape recorder and started recording, reciting some preliminary data like my name, the date and the case they were 164

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working on.

“Did you speak to Joseph Taylor on the night in question?” Grafton asked.

“Joey? Yes…”

“Do you know what time it was?”

“No.”

“What did you talk about?”

“I wanted to talk to him, that’s the whole reason I was there. I’m not really into parties.” I knew I was giving them more information than they really needed, but I was nervous and having trouble organizing my thoughts. “He was drunk. He suggested we go upstairs, so we did.”

“What happened when you got upstairs?”

“We talked.”

“Where and about what?”

“Joey took me in a bedroom; he seemed to know where he was going. We talked about—our friendship.”

“Was it an argument? Did you raise your voice at any time?”

“I—yeah, we had an argument.”

“Over what?”

I felt my already flushed face blaze. I was getting quite dizzy. “I-I—uh, recently told Joey that I was—um—

gay—and he didn’t—take it well.”

“Did it become physical?”

I started. “What do you mean?”

Detective Grafton looked up from his notepad. “Were any punches thrown?”

“I—uh—hit Joey.”

“Why? Did you feel threatened?”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times but nothing came out.

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“Look, kid, you’d better tell us everything. We’re going to find out eventually anyway and it’s better if it comes from you.”

“It’s not like that,” I said quickly. “It’s just—Joey—

tried to…force himself on me,” I managed to choke it out then rushed on, “He was really drunk or he never would have done anything like that.”

“Is that why you hit him?”

I nodded. “I kneed him in the balls then hit him with my cast,” I told them, indicating my broken arm as if I was presenting Exhibit A in court.

The two detectives looked at each other, exchanging meaningful glances. “And then what happened?” he asked.

“Nothing. I mean I ran out. Ran back downstairs.”

“And then you left?”

“After I got sick in the bathroom.”

Grafton flipped the notebook closed. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Keegan. If we have any more questions we’ll be getting in touch with you.”

“That’s it?” I asked in surprise.

“You were expecting more?” Bernhardt said with a sardonic smile.

“Just—I mean, why were you asking me those questions? How did Joey die?”

They exchanged glances again, this time they almost seemed to be having a discussion without words. Finally Bernhardt sighed. “When the coroner checked your friend over there were some unexplained injuries; a slightly dislocated nose and some bruising in the groin area. Our job was to explain those injuries. You’ve just helped us do that. As long as he was alive when you left him—”

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“He was!” I asserted firmly.

“—then the official finding will cite the cause of death to be accidental drowning. We have to write our report up, but I expect that after you left he somehow managed to get downstairs and onto the pool deck without anyone seeing him. Everyone agreed that the yard was pretty much deserted and considering the amount of drugs seized at the party that isn’t really as hard to believe as one might think. Then in his drunken state, which is supported by other statements and his blood alcohol levels by the way, he fell into the pool, maybe hit his head and drowned. The medical examiner confirms that he had enough alcohol in his system to stun a bull elephant.”

Detective Grafton seemed eager to leave. “Once again, Mr. Keegan, thank you for your time and cooperation.

You’ve helped us close this case.”

I nodded uncertainly and walked them out. I returned to work with an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something didn’t feel right about this whole thing.

***

The next several days were uneventful except for the everyday business of living, work during the day and painting at night. Aidan and I were cautiously making an attempt to rebuild the trust I had broken and in turn, piece our friendship back together. It was a slow process. We were sleeping in our own rooms after that first night, but he would sit next to me while I painted, sometimes reading or doing homework, sometimes just watching, sometimes talking to me softly. The pictures I had taken had turned out great, so I had plenty of material to work from and it was a welcome escape from my thoughts.

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Not a day went by that I didn’t think about Caitlin, but on Aidan’s advice, I waited for her to call me. The next move had to be hers.

A week went by, then two and still I hadn’t heard from Caitlin. I did, however, have fifteen paintings finished that I was very pleased with. I was at home painting when she finally called. I was alone for a change; Aidan had gone out with some friends from school. I’d received a half-hearted invitation, but he’d known before he asked that I would stay home to paint. I was in a place where I couldn’t stop when the phone started ringing. Eventually it stopped then immediately started up again. With a sigh, I dropped my paintbrush in the water well and grabbed up the insistently bleating instrument, stabbing the talk button as if it was the phone’s fault I was being interrupted.

“Will?” Caitlin said hesitantly to my annoyed hello.

“Caitlin!” I said immediately brightening. “I’ve been hoping you would call.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry I haven’t called before this, but this isn’t the kind of thing you decide overnight, you know?”

“Yeah, it’s okay, really. I’m just glad you called now.”

“Look, Will, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and—

well, I don’t really feel like going into this over the phone. Is there any way we can meet tomorrow around noon to talk about this?”

“Yeah, sure. Um—we can meet on my lunch break.

There’s an outdoor café on the plaza we can meet at if you want.”

“That’s fine; I’ve been there so I know where it is.”

“Great!”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”

“See you tomorrow.”

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I hung up wondering what kind of news I’d be getting the next day. I hadn’t been able to read anything from her voice, but I had a feeling whatever she decided would affect me very deeply.

I was at work the next morning when a uniformed deliveryman entered the gallery with a small box in hand.

“Will Keegan?” he said.

“That’s me,” I said in surprise.

“Got something for ya,” he said and held out his clipboard for me to sign. I did and we exchanged the clipboard for the box.

“Hey, wait—who’s it from?” I called to his retreating back. There was no return address on the box.

The deliveryman paused at the door long enough to yell back, “I dunno, boss. I only deliver ‘em.”

I looked at the box again. My name was written in black magic marker in careful block letters that revealed nothing. I gingerly pried open the top spilling packing peanuts everywhere in the process. The corner of a single sheet of paper stuck out of the Styrofoam squiggles and I pulled it free and read the lone sentence written in the same black block letters.

“IT WASN’T AN ACCIDENT!”

It felt like my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. A strange ringing started up in my ears and I suddenly felt dizzy. It couldn’t mean what I thought it did could it? This anonymous nondescript sheet of typing paper couldn’t be suggesting that Joey’s death wasn’t an accident, that it was something more sinister.

The box slipped from my numb fingers and bounced onto the floor, sending the packing peanuts cascading across the floor. Something else flew out of the box and 169

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skittered across the tiles and under an antique sofa that stood against one wall.

I snapped out of it and got down on my stomach to see what it was. I saw a flash of reflected light all the way against the wall. I stretched as far as I could but my fingers stopped just short of the mysterious object. I managed to drag the sofa away from the wall and stopped cold. I didn’t have to pick it up to know what it was. I’d seen it a million times before, but it had always been around Joey’s neck before. Lying on the floor in a small, innocuous pile of silver chain was Joey’s missing necklace.

I scooped it up and managed to get the gallery put back together before Nikki came back out. The whole time my mind was racing a hundred miles a second.

Why would someone send me that note and the necklace that was now burning a hole in my pocket? What was I supposed to do with it? Go to the police was the obvious answer. But how did I know it wasn’t some sort of sick prank played by someone at the party. Obviously, we had been overheard fighting upstairs. It may well be a hoax, but I decided I still had to go to the police. I would go right after work. I would have gone right then but it was time to meet Caitlin. I pulled the necklace out of my pocket and slipped it over my head, tucking it under my shirt for safekeeping.