STATE OF BETRAYAL: A Virgil Jones Mystery (Detective Virgil Jones Mystery Series Book 2) (25 page)

“You’re a regular riot sometimes,
you know that?”

“Sometimes?”

They got out of the car and made
their way up the sidewalk. Murton said, “Tell me more about this shindig you’re
having tomorrow afternoon.”

“It’s not a shindig. It’s just a
little get together with friends.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Big Party Coming on
Sunday.”

Virgil thought,
dear God.

__________

Murton knocked on
the door with the side of his fist, a cop knock. They waited a few minutes then
knocked again but no one answered. Virgil tried the knob, but it was locked.
The sirens they’d heard a few moments ago were now much closer, less than a
block away. Then, abruptly, they stopped. Virgil walked around to the side of
the house and saw the blue and red flashers bouncing off the houses where the
backyards met. Pearson’s kitchen window was right next to him, just above a
flower box filled with weeds. When he peeked into the kitchen window Virgil saw
the broken wine bottle on the floor. The rest of the kitchen looked normal, but
he was getting a bad feeling. The layout of the house prevented him from seeing
into any of the other rooms. He went back around to the front and saw Murton
trying to look through the front window, his gun in his hand. “What is it?”

“Pearson’s either the worst
housekeeper on the planet or those are the filthiest sheer curtains I’ve ever
seen. I can’t see inside so I’m not sure, but that looks like blood spatter on
the drapery.”

“We’ve got to find a way inside,”
Virgil said.

Murton took a giant step backwards,
raised his right foot and kicked the door. Hard. The door splintered and swung
inward and when it did he looked at Virgil and said, “Found one.”

Virgil pulled his gun and they
entered the house. When they turned into the living room Virgil saw Pearson’s
body on the couch, the gun still in his hand. “Ah, shit.”

Murton looked at Pearson, then
Virgil. “Bradley Pearson, Chief of Staff.”

28

__________

T
wo
city squad cars were the first to arrive, followed by Metro Homicide, then
three more city cars, along with paramedics, the coroner and the crime scene investigators.
Miles, Donatti and Rosencrantz showed up somewhere in the middle of it all.
They separated Virgil and Murton for questioning, which was standard procedure.
Donatti took Murton’s statement and Rosencrantz took Virgil’s. When they were
finished, Miles came out of the house, asked them a few repetitive questions
and then went back inside for a few more minutes.

“Where’s Cora?” Virgil said to
Rosencrantz.

“Hell if I know, dude. Miles said
he hasn’t been able to reach her.”

“Saturday night.”

“Yeah.”

Virgil tilted his head toward
Miles. “How’s he doing?”

Rosencrantz thought about the
question. “I’ll tell you something, Jonesy, he’s a fine investigator. He really
is. But the political aspects of the position might be a little more
significant than what he anticipated. Culture shock or something, you know?”

“I do know. Would you excuse me for
a minute, Rosie? I’ve got a couple of calls to make.”

“You bet. Tell her I said hello.”

“Say, listen, if you’re not doing
anything tomorrow afternoon, you and Donatti should stop by my place around one.
Tell Ed to bring his wife and kid.”

__________

Virgil called Cora
but she didn’t answer. He left her a message and asked her to call him back, or
preferably Ron Miles as soon as possible. He didn’t say why and did his best to
keep the tension out of his voice. Then he called Sandy. “I love you, Small.”

“Hi, Baby. I love you too. How are
you?”

“Missing you, that’s how I am.”

“Do you pine for me?”

“You have to ask?”

“Nope. Just like to hear it.”

“I do. I am. Pining. Listen, how
long would it take you to get packed up and ready to go?”

“Wow, you really
do
miss me,
don’t you?”

“I do, but—”

“I’m already packed, Virgil. We
leave at six tomorrow morning. The governor’s got some sort of prayer breakfast
or something he wants to be back for.”

“Yeah, okay. Where’s the governor
right now, do you know?”

“He’s in his room. I just talked to
him. What’s up?”

“Okay, listen, out of respect for
the governor I’m going to ask you to do something for me…for him. I want you
dressed and ready to go. Unless I’m mistaken, you’ll be coming back tonight.”

“Oh Virgil, what’s happened?”

“It’s Pearson,” Virgil said, and he
then told her the rest of it. “What I’d like you to do is wait two minutes,
then go knock on his door. He may need your…support, your guidance.”

“Are
you
okay?”

“That, Small, is why I love you.
Yes, I’m fine. Murton’s fine. We’re all good. Two minutes, Sandy. I’ll see you
tonight.”

__________

The governor answered
almost immediately. “If you were to ask me what I’m doing right now, Jonesy, I’d
have to lie to you, so don’t ask.”

“I won’t, but now I am going to
wonder.”

“Oh, what the hell, I’ll tell you. But
you’ve got to promise that you won’t tell anyone. It’ll destroy my tough guy
image. I’m ironing my boxer shorts. Well, not just my boxers. I’m ironing
everything. Shirts, pants, the works. Even my socks. I’ve been doing it for
years, actually. It’s something of a meditational process, I think. I know I enjoy
it. I always have. I’ll tell you something else; I do not think that makes me
weird. Not too weird, anyway, no matter what my wife might tell you.”

“Governor, in about thirty seconds
or so, Sandy is going to knock on your door. I asked her to. I thought you
might need some…support.”

“Support? Support for what?”

“I’m afraid I have some bad news,
sir…” In the background, Virgil heard the knock on the governor’s door.

__________

The governor opened
the door and once Sandy was inside he put the phone on speaker and set it on
the table in the corner of his suite. The two of them sat down, the governor
took a breath then said, “Tell me.”

__________

He said the words
‘tell me’
and suddenly Virgil didn’t quite know how to say it. He let a
brief pause develop and in the silence the governor said, “It’s Pearson, isn’t
it?”

“Yes, sir, I’m afraid so. If you’ll
pardon the question, how did you know?”

“My wife is in South Carolina on
one of her mission trips. If it were her the call would come from the state
police Chaplin. If it were Cora, or perhaps any member of the House, Senate, or
my cabinet, the call would come from Bradley. An act of terrorism in the city
or anywhere in the state would prompt a call from the Indiana Director of
Homeland Security. The fact that you are calling me means…well, it means I’m
correct, aren’t I?”

“Yes, sir. I’m afraid so.”

“Just a moment, Jonesy.” Then
Virgil heard him say, “Sandy, let me see your phone for a minute, will you?”
After another brief pause he said, “Rich, it’s me. Are you guys sober? Okay. I
need to be wheels up inside of sixty minutes for Indy. Can you make that
happen? Good. See you then.

“Okay Virgil, I’m back. Tell me.
Tell me everything.”

And that’s what Virgil did.

__________

Ninety minutes later
they got off the plane and came through the security gate next to the parking
lot. Sandy gave Virgil a hug and a kiss.

“I brought your car,” Virgil said
to Sandy. “The keys are in the ignition. We’ll be right there.”

When she turned her back the
governor reached into his pocket and handed Virgil the ring. “I don’t think
I’ve ever met two people who belong together more than you and Sandy. Everybody
thinks that when they first get together, but with the two of you it’s actually
true, right down to the core.”

Virgil stuck the ring in his
pocket. “Thank you, Governor.”

He pointed his finger at him.
“Don’t fuck it up.”

“No, Sir. I won’t.”

“Let’s go then. It’s late and I’ve
got a long night ahead of me.”

Virgil and the governor tossed the
bags in the trunk and the three of them piled into Sandy’s car, the governor in
the back seat. Virgil put the car in gear, touched eyes with him in the
rearview mirror and said, “Office, or home, Sir?”

“Neither. Take me to Bradley’s
house, Detective.”

They rode mostly in silence. The
governor stared out the side window and watched the city lights move past. When
he spoke it was mostly to himself. “He was…necessary. Guys like Pearson always
are. Make no mistake, I knew what he was. He was a player, a manipulator, a
backroom dealmaker and a political operator of the highest order. That’s not
necessarily a compliment. He was all of those things but he was also my friend.
We came up together. I wouldn’t be here without him, so it’s probably safe to
say he wouldn’t be dead right now if it weren’t for me.”

Neither Virgil nor Sandy said
anything in response and they all rode in silence the rest of the way to
Pearson’s house. They were stopped a block away by two city squad cars parked
nose-to-nose in the street. One of the officers made a motion with his hands, a
back up and turn around motion, but Virgil crept forward anyway. The look of
anger on the cop’s face was evident and when Virgil buzzed the window down he
heard it in his voice as well. “What part of turn around and go the other way
don’t you understand?”

“Back your car out of the way,
Officer. We need to get through.”

The cop took a half step back and
unsnapped his holster strap. “Sir, turn the car off and step out. Keep your
hands where I can see them.”

The governor leaned forward from
the back seat. “Remember when cops used to be the good guys, Jonesy? They used
to be friendly and kind and considerate and helpful and caring. Serve and
Protect used to mean they served and protected
us
. Now if you don’t do
exactly what they say when they say it, you get a gun in your face. What’s
wrong with people anymore?”

“I’m not sure, Governor.”

“Neither am I. It’s less than a
block. I think I’ll walk from here.”

The cop had drawn his weapon. “Sir.
I will not ask you again. Step from the vehicle. Now.”

“Pearson wouldn’t kill himself. Not
in a million years. Suicides are cowards. Everyone knows that. No matter what
you or anyone thought of Bradley Pearson, I can tell you this, he was many
things, but he was not a coward. I expect you to find who did this. Do you hear
me, Virgil? You. I expect
you
to do it. You’ll have the full weight and
support of my office, badge or no badge. Anything you need.”

“Yes, Sir.”

McConnell opened the back door, got
out and walked up to the city cop. “My name is Hewitt McConnell. I’m the
Governor of the State of Indiana. Bradley Pearson was my Chief of Staff and my
friend. I’m going to walk up to his house now and I don’t need or require your
permission. Before I do though, let me ask you this: what is your name, young
man?”

Regardless of the circumstances
Virgil had to smile when he saw the look on the cop’s face. He turned the car
around and drove home.

29

__________

V
irgil
pulled the car into the garage and moved to grab Sandy’s bags from the trunk,
but she stopped him before he got the lid open. “Later,” she said. “Let’s sit
and unwind a little, if that’s okay. I’d like to talk to you about something.
It’s important.”

“Sure. Why don’t you head down by
the pond? I’ll grab us a couple of Red Stripes and be right there.”

“Hmm, it’s pretty late. Just water
for me.”

“No problem. I’ll be right down.”

Virgil grabbed two beers for himself
and a couple of bottles of water for Sandy, put them into a small cooler with
ice and went down to the pond.

He had the ring in his pocket and
his future wife was waiting for him.

__________

He handed Sandy
a bottle of water, opened
a beer for himself, lit a fire in the pit and then sat down next to her. “It
sounds like you’ve had a busy couple of days,” she said.

Before he could even respond his
phone rang. “Sorry,” Virgil said.

“It’s okay. A lot going on. Go ahead
and take it.”

Virgil looked at the screen before
he answered. “Hello, Cora. Thanks for calling back.”

“Would you kindly tell me just what
in the hell you were thinking?”

“Is there any chance that you could
be a little more specific?”

“Who takes it upon themselves to
pick up the phone and call the most powerful man in the state while he is out
of town on official state business and inform him of the death of one of his
closest advisors? Who transports him around in their personal vehicle without
protection, all while bypassing standard emergency protocols—protocols I
might add, that you happen to be intimately familiar with? If that’s not enough
for you, who in their right mind lets the governor of the state of Indiana out
of the car and makes him walk a full city block through a residential
neighborhood, right out in the open past God knows how many media people and
onto a crime scene in the middle of the night? Who fucking does all of that?
Have you lost your mind?”

“My first call was to you, Cora. I
got your voicemail. I left you a message to call me, or preferably Ron Miles
just as soon as possible. Have you spoken to Ron? Based on your attitude and
your characterization of the governor’s actions over the last half hour or so,
I’d say you have.”

“You would be mistaken. I was at
the movies. When I walked outside after the show and turned my phone on it was
already ringing. I found out about your little clusterfuck from the governor
himself when he called me.”

“My clusterfuck? How exactly does
this land in my lap?”

“It lands in your lap exactly this
way: You and your partner broke into a private residence, destroyed a crime
scene and obliterated any chance of gathering meaningful and untainted forensic
evidence directly related to what may turn out to be a capital murder case with
the victim being one of the highest ranking officials in the state.”

“It was a judgment call, Cora.
There was a very real possibility that Pearson wasn’t dead, but gravely
injured. Murton and I gained entry into the residence, discovered his body,
cleared the house, backed out and made the appropriate calls. One of those
calls was to the governor. He asked me to pick him up at the airport. What
would you have done?”

“Don’t you question me. You are in
no position whatsoever to—”

“Cora?”

“
WHAT
?”

“What’s wrong?”

“
What’s wrong
?”

“I mean what’s wrong between you
and me? I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to repair our relationship. I’ve
made some mistakes, I realize that and I’m doing everything I can to make that
right. But my mistakes…they were in my personal life and I don’t know why
you’ve been so angry with me. Help me understand what it is. Tell me what to do
to make it right and I promise you I’ll do everything I can to fix it.”

She hung up without responding.

Virgil was so caught up in his
conversation with Cora that he’d failed to notice Sandy as she stood from her
chair. After Cora hung up, he turned and looked at her just as she was coming
out from underneath the branches of the willow tree. “What’s this?” she said.

__________

She held a packaged
toy
fishing pole in her hands. It was the same toy pole that the young
boy, Wyatt, had been carrying when Virgil had encountered him in the park. The
same pole that he had dropped on the hill before he ran off...the same pole
Virgil had carried back to his truck. Earlier in the day the tow-truck driver
had given Virgil his card with a cell phone number on the back. He punched in
the number and waited for the connection to go through.

“Virgil, what’s going on? Sandy
said.

“I’m sorry, baby, this will only
take a second.”

Virgil got the driver on the phone
and asked him to check the truck. A few minutes later he came back on the line
with an answer Virgil didn’t know how to process.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m positive. Sorry Mr. Jones, but
it’s not there. I looked under the seat and behind it, too. Nothing on the
floor or in the bed. If you think the fault is ours, we’ve got insurance to
cover this sort of thing.”

“No, no, that’s all right. I’m sure
I must have misplaced it. Thank you.”

Virgil took the pole from Sandy and
examined it carefully. There was no question in his mind that it was the same
one Wyatt had carried in the park, the same one he’d taken with him in his
truck. Try as he might though, he could not remember if he had seen the pole
anywhere inside the truck when he and Murton drove to the industrial park, or
to Brackett’s house. He set the pole in the grass. “Let’s sit down.”

“You didn’t answer me. What’s with
the toy pole? Getting back to basics?” Sandy said with a smile on her face.

“Maybe.”

“I’ve got something I need to tell
you, Virgil. It’s important. Can we turn the phones off and put all the drama
of Pearson and the governor and Cora and everything else aside for a few
minutes?”

The night was one of the most
beautiful summer nights Virgil could remember. A blue moon hung full and bright
in the sky, the air was still, the tree frogs were croaking, the Bass and Bluegill
were feeding across the surface of the pond, the fire light flickered around
them and as he glanced at the toy fishing pole at their feet, Virgil suddenly
knew what Sandy was going to tell him.

“Do you trust me?” Virgil said.

“Of course I do. You know that.”

“I have something too. To tell
you…ask you. I’d like to go first.”

Sandy let her eyelids droop. “Why
am I not surprised?”

“I had all these different
scenarios laid out. All kinds of different ideas and plans, some of them
simple, some of them grand, but they all seemed so…contrived.” He got down on both
knees in front of her. “This one isn’t. This is me, Virgil Francis Jones,
talking to Andrew Small’s daughter. I’ve waited my entire life for you, Sandy. I
know I’ve put you through hell these last few weeks and months, but if you ever
find yourself doubting or wondering how much I love you, all you’ll ever have
to do is remember this very moment. I love you, Sandy. With my whole heart, I
love you.” He pulled the ring out of his pocket and held it out to her in the soft
glow of the firelight. “Will you marry me?”

__________

Sandy took the ring
from
his hand, held it in the light for a moment, smiled in a melancholy sort of way
and then closed it inside her fist. “Virgil, it’s beautiful and I love you. I
do. I know you know that. But…”

And Virgil thought,
oh no
…

__________

“I can’t answer you,”
Sandy said. “At least not yet. You should have let me go first. I have to tell
you something and it matters, Virgil. It matters more than anything else you
and I have ever been through. It wouldn’t change my answer, nothing could. But
I have to know if it would change the question.”

“Sandy…”

“No, Virgil, you’ve got to let me
say it. I don’t think it will affect your proposal, but I can’t live my life
wondering. I can’t answer you until you hear what I have to say.”

“Would you be upset if I told you I
already knew?”

Sandy made a funny noise with her
lips. “No, it wouldn’t, because you don’t know this.”

“Yes, I do.”

“You couldn’t possibly, Virgil.
Nobody knows. I haven’t told a soul.”

Interesting choice of words
,
Virgil thought.

“I’m pregnant, Virgil.”

He wrapped his arms around her and
kissed her hard on the lips. “I know, baby, I know. I don’t think I’ve known
for long, but I have known. I just wasn’t paying close enough attention.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“It will be a boy. We’ll name him
Wyatt. He’ll have one blue eye from you and one green eye from me. I’ll teach
him to fish right here in this pond and you’ll show him how to love and be loved,
just like you’ve taught me.”

“How did you know? I didn’t even
know until earlier today.”

Sandy’s back was to the willow
tree. A moment ago, just before he’d gotten down on his knees, Virgil saw his
father as he stood behind Wyatt, his hands on his grandson’s shoulders. He
wasn’t sure what would happen, but he took the chance. “Turn around and look at
the tree.”