Shadow of Death (6 page)

When Natalie announced that she would take the kids to the reading area, his knee-jerk response was for her to
“wait!”

She gave him an awkward smile. “We'll just be over here. Nice seeing you again, Will. I'm sure I'll see you around sometime at a pre-school event.”

“For sure. Good to see you, too.” Will, who had no children of his own, often stepped in as the father-figure for his young nephew who was being raised by Will's mom because Will's sister and the child's father were both serving life sentences. He turned his attention back to Troy. “So what's up, man? You get a good workout in yesterday? I heard Charlie and Fudago got into it again.”

“Are you surprised?”

“Naw, not really. Charlie's at the gym so much that he might as well apply for a job.”

“Do you really want him working there? He'd run all of the female clients away.”

Will laughed. “Yeah, you're right. Charlie don't know how to keep his mouth shut. How long were you there yesterday?”

“About an hour and a half. I don't how we missed each other. I saw you, though, when you were leaving.”

“Leaving? I wasn't at the gym yesterday.”

“Then how'd you know I was there?”

“Shay told me last night when she came over.” Will spoke slowly as if Troy was hard of hearing, or maybe that was his high getting to him. “You know she has a crush on you, so I hear about
everything
you do.”

“It's a good thing I don't do much then, huh? Are you sure you weren't at the gym at all yesterday?”

“Yeh-uh.
You all right, man? Seems like you had a rough night. Hey, by any chance, have you ordered any personal training services?”

“No. Why?”

“No particular reason. Just wondering.”

Diversion.
That's the tactic Will seemed to be using to draw Troy's attention away from the fact that he was lying about being at the gym. But why lie about such a simple thing?

When Will's phone rang, he said, “I need to take this call. I'll see you at the gym next week.” As Will was walking away, Troy thought he'd heard him say, “Hey, Cheryl.”

Maybe it was Sherry…or, more realistically, Shay. Maybe he simply said “Hey” and Troy was imagining the rest. Confused, he set out to meet up with Natalie and the kids and almost lost his mind when he saw the guy with a black baseball hat standing in front of them. “What's your interest in my family?” Troy asked aggressively, shoving the man in the shoulder.

Natalie looked at him like he was a three-headed monkey and when the man turned around, Troy felt like one. There was no logical way that anyone could have confused this dark-skinned brother in his sixties with the Caucasian man Troy had seen staring at them earlier. The person talking to Natalie was Richard Griggs, a colleague and family friend; and the man responsible for introducing him and Natalie to each other. Richard was a district attorney and once the longtime boyfriend of Natalie's deceased mother. He was currently married to Natalie's godmother and, together, they served as surrogate grandparents to the Evans' children.

“Is everything okay?” Richard looked from Troy to Natalie with confusion.

“Yeah, my bad, man. I'm trippin'. I don't know what got into me. I guess I'm being overly protective.”

Richard didn't take the assault to heart. Though Troy wasn't feeling conversational, he still engaged in small talk. Troy learned that Richard's wife, Sylvia, was also at the Commons and, thus, he and his family spent the remainder of their time there hanging out with them. Troy thought he saw the mysterious man with the hat again, but like the times when he thought he saw Cheryl, he'd blink and the guy would be gone. The Geto Boys' song was playing again. This time the music was all in his head.

•  •  •

When they got home around 4:30, Natalie made all the kids lie down for a nap. Troy was in the process of changing into more comfortable clothing when he heard Natalie yell,
“Danggit!”
before entering their bedroom.

“What's wrong, babe?”

“I tripped over this stupid car again.” She came in holding Nate's toy vehicle. “I'm tired of finding it all around the house. I feel like getting rid of it and then pretending it's lost somewhere. I know…,” she said before Troy could interject, “that would be cruel.”

“Maybe put it up for a little while until he asks for it and then explain that he can only have it back if he agrees not to leave it everywhere.”

“That's a good idea.” Natalie sat the car on top the ottoman at the foot of their bed. “So, what's up with you? You've been pretty quiet today. Is your case bugging you?”

Troy opted to tell the truth, not wanting to drag out the triple homicide thing. “No. I have a headache and I've also been thinking about Will. Yesterday, I saw his car at the gym, but he told me today that he wasn't there. Then, out of the blue, he asked me if I had ordered any personal training sessions. It was weird.”

“What was so weird about it?”

“Why would he lie to me about being at the gym yesterday?”

“Maybe he didn't lie intentionally. I could tell he was high. He could have easily forgotten or maybe someone else had his car.”

“Naw, high or sober, Will's too crazy about that BMW to let it out of his sight.”

Natalie came up behind him and wrapped her hands around his waist. “Is talking to Will what had you walking up on Richard like he stole something?”

Humored, Troy turned to face her and put his arms around her as well. “What-
ever
. I didn't know who he was at first. I had to make sure everything was okay.”

“Um hmm. Everything
was
okay, but obviously you weren't. I think you're making way more of this Will thing than needs to be.”

“If you're telling me that I'm making too much of things, I must be because we both know that I'm the level-headed one in this relationship.”

“Oh be quiet!” She playfully shoved him in the chest.

Troy picked her up over his shoulders pretending he would drop her while she screamed for mercy. “Promise you'll never hit me again.”

“Okay,
okay
! I promise,” she said between giggles. When he put her down, she looked up at him adoringly. “I love you, crazy man.”

“I love you, too, crazy woman,” he responded as she leaned in for a kiss.

The overly exaggerated
“yuck!”
from their five-year-old both startled and amused them.

“If you were taking a nap like I told you, you wouldn't have seen that.”

“I'm not sleepy,” he said, yawning. “I wanna play a game with Daddy.”

“You need to—”

“It's okay,” Troy interrupted. “I need to make good on my promise from last night.”

“Okay, but if he starts trippin' from the lack of sleep, you're on your own, buddy.” After those words of warning, Natalie grabbed her iPad and headed to the restroom.

“You ready, li'l man?”

“Yep, 'cuz I'm not sleepy,” Nate managed to say in the midst of another yawn. Troy could only chuckle at his son's denial and insistence to take his toy car with them to the basement. He'd spotted it on their ottoman. Troy issued the warning that he and Natalie had agreed upon. Nate said he understood, Troy gave him the car, and the two of them headed downstairs. Not twenty minutes later, Nate had fallen asleep on the couch with the Xbox remote control in hand.

As much as Troy tried to let go, both the strange man at the Commons and the thing with Will kept nagging at him. Perhaps the incidents were nothing, but as a detective, Troy couldn't ignore his hunches. He could do nothing about the stranger, but he could investigate things further with Will. Troy gave him a call.

“Hey, man, I need clarity about something from earlier. Why'd you ask if I'd ordered any personal training services? The question came out of nowhere and threw me off guard,” Troy said into Will's voicemail. “I'm sure it's no big deal, but please give me a call when you get a chance.” He decided not to mention anything about seeing his car again. He'd wait until they spoke in person. However, the more Troy thought about it, the more he wondered if he should let the car thing go. Will's lying could have possibly been because of something related to his extracurricular activities. If that was the case, Troy preferred not to know.

Later that evening, Troy's head had finally started to feel better. Natalie ordered pizza for dinner and then she and Troy watched a Spider-Man movie with Nate that they'd seen more times than they could remember. Each parent took turns running after Ean and Ebony who tried to get into everything their little hands could reach. Corrine called to see if they were home and then stopped by for a short while to hang out. Ultimately, she ended up taking Nate with her upon his request. She normally got him overnight at least once a month. Sometimes she also took Ebony and Ean, but three little ones were a lot for a young girl. Plus, everyone could tell that, though Nate loved his younger siblings, he didn't like sharing his sissy's time with them. Corrine was his and the two of them had a special bond that Ebony and Ean would have to learn to live with when they got older.

“Hey, honey, when you finish, please come here. I want to show you something,” Natalie yelled down to Troy after Corrine and Nate had left and she'd put the twins to bed.

“Okay, give me a sec.” He was in the basement on his Xbox playing The Outfit, a World War II combat game set in Europe. Normally football or basketball were his go-to choices when he wanted to relax, but every now and then, he'd knock the dust off of something else in his collection.

Despite having spent the entire day with his family, Troy had been too worried to truly enjoy the time with them. Ironically, not hearing from Cheryl hadn't given him any peace. He couldn't help but wonder what was going through that crazy mind of hers. He prayed God would hinder any plans she had until Monday morning when he would finally be able to put a stop to all of this. He also hoped that somehow it could all be resolved without getting Natalie involved.

Not knowing what took place in that motel room bothered him most of all. He wanted to tell Natalie everything, but he didn't know what to say. He, himself, wasn't sure what had happened last night. Had he been sexually assaulted? Who, in their right mind, would believe that someone as petite as Cheryl could overpower and have her way with him? He wouldn't believe it had he not been the victim. Though there's no concrete evidence that they'd had sex, there was also nothing proving that they hadn't. His thoughts spiraled into a thousand scenarios. All of them were still fresh on his mind when he went up the stairs to see what Natalie had wanted and nearly tripped over Nate's toy car, which had been left in front of the basement door. “Here's your chance to take this thing if—” Troy froze. Having been so preoccupied with what might have happened with Cheryl was the reason why he felt uncomfortable, instead of excited, when he saw Natalie dressed in one of his favorite lingerie outfits adorned with stilettos.

“Instead of playing the game, I thought you might be interested in playing with me,” she flirted, seductively beckoning him with her index finger.

Under any other circumstances, Troy would have swept her into his arms and wasted no time exploring all of Victoria's Secrets. He'd actually been relieved when Nate came into their room earlier and asked him to play because, had all of the children been asleep, Natalie could have easily made her move then. Fearing such, Troy had remained in the basement after Nate dozed off until he heard the pitter-patter of the little ones. Now, Troy stood motionless, paralyzed by the unknown details about last night. If there was intercourse, was a condom used or had there been an exchange of bodily fluids? What if Cheryl had given him a sexually transmitted disease? He loved Natalie too much to put her at that kind of risk.

“What's wrong? I thought you'd like this.”

“I do, babe. It's just that I, um…”
Think, Troy, think…
He began fumbling with Nate's toy. “Um, I got a call from the station. I need to go interview some suspects.”

“Is it the case from last night?”

“Uh, yeah. Yep, the triple homicide.”

“Phooey.” Her bottom lip protruded, reminding him of their son sometimes when he didn't get his way.

“You have no idea how bad I want you.” Troy spoke truthfully as he walked closer and drew her into his arms. They engaged in a brief, but passionate kiss. “I'm so sorry, babe.”

“I'm horny, not mad.” She gave a half smile. “I understand; duty calls. You go take care of things and I'll be here when you return.”

They both went upstairs. Natalie put Nate's car on their chest so that it would be out of his reach. “I feel bad that we can't properly thank the person who sent this.”

“Oh, I'm sure they're not worried about it at this point,” he said, trying not to give too much thought that it could have very well been Cheryl. He watched in dismay as Natalie took off the heels and put on house shoes and a robe while Troy pretended to get ready for the fake call by changing his shirt and grabbing his service weapon from the safe. “Make sure you lock up after I leave,” he said to her.

“Ah, my protective detective.” She pretended to be annoyed by his instructions. “I love you for being so concerned about our safety. Now, hurry up and get out of here so you can get back home.” She tried to seem normal, but he saw it in her face. She was about to go into prayer mode, which was her custom whenever he left for night calls.

He felt like an idiot, knowing he was causing her prayers to be in vain! After one last peck, Troy left, uncertain where he was headed. He remembered a time when leaving so abruptly would have eventually worked its way into a future argument where Natalie would have accused him of inactive parenting, and he would have said that she was irrational and unappreciative. The fact that his wife was so understanding made him more infuriated with Cheryl. Without thinking twice, Troy called her. When she didn't answer, he left a nasty message on her voicemail, using words he'd surely have to repent for later.