Trust (19 page)

“What does he think about us getting married now?” Lauren looked nervous to hear the answer.

“He thinks we should do it and be proud of it. He doesn’t believe in doing things half-way.”

“I’ve always loved your grandfather.” Lauren looked relieved.

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T
he wedding went off without a hitch. Well, except for the parade of media vans lined up outside the reception hall. But, Lauren and David had instructed their guests to simply ignore them and to please not even stop for a 'no comment.' Even though there was a somber air that permeated the room at first, their family and friends shook it off and rallied around them to celebrate and support their union.

Lauren's dress fit like a dream and even the weather cooperated with a light and pretty dusting of snow, just enough to create a romantic mood. They were married at St. David's Episcopal Church where Lauren was a parishioner and then the reception was at the Brentley Hotel, just outside Waverly's town line.

The evening flew by and before she knew it, Lauren and David were alone together in the honeymoon suite.

"Mrs. Bishop, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you." David made a show of carrying her over the threshold and then they were in the suite and kissing like they'd been apart for too long.

Lauren woke the next morning and felt a great sense of peace and contentment. She and David were officially husband and wife. She glanced over at him and felt a sense of wonder that this man was in love with her. She stretched and enjoyed the richness of the luxurious high thread-count sheets, which were satiny smooth and soft. They had all day to relax and enjoy themselves before heading home tonight.

The one thing they had agreed to postpone was the honeymoon. Since Lauren was supposed to stay local, they didn't want to push their luck by jetting off to the Caribbean, which is where they were originally scheduled to go. She didn’t exactly know which island though  because David wanted to surprise her. He said it had been a simple matter to postpone the trip.

When they arrived home the next night, there were several media vans waiting. Lauren was finding that the sight of them bothered her less and less. She'd developed the ability to finally put her blinders on and ignore them, no matter what they said.

"Lauren, were you thinking of Eric at all during your wedding? Do you regret killing him?" This came from a petite red-haired reporter that Lauren didn't recall seeing before.

"Lauren, is your marriage a cover? A ploy to make you look trustworthy?" Lauren recognized the voice before she saw the fluffy blond hair of Barbie Montgomery. She opened her mouth automatically to tell her where to go, but David grabbed her arm and shot her a look that warned her to be quiet, to not let Barbie get to her. Thankfully, she bit her tongue and ducked inside as soon as David had the door open. Just when she'd thought she had such strong control, it was disconcerting to see how easily she'd almost lost it.

"She is evil," Lauren said as they put down their bags and took off their coats.

"She's just doing her job. Not that I could imagine having her job"

"I don't know how those people sleep at night."

"Come here." David pulled her towards him and kissed her thoroughly. When they broke apart he added, "Don't waste another moment of energy stressing about those goons. Let's go upstairs."

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Chapter Forty

"I
've been tailing them," David's grandfather said proudly. The Tuesday after the wedding, David and his grandfather were having their usual pizza dinner at the pub. David hadn't seen his grandfather this energized and excited in a long time.

"You've been tailing Randy AND Chuck?" David was amused and intrigued. "For how long? Did you see anything interesting?"

"For the past few days. They're the last two people Jack's been asking about so I thought I'd see what's what."

"I didn't know Jack was even talking to Chuck."

"I don't think he has yet. He was out at the Armstrong's place asking them about Chuck. He was Eric's godfather you know."

"I didn't know that. How did you find out?"

"I still have friends inside. They keep me posted on the interesting cases. Chuck is out of town until tomorrow. I imagine Jack will want to talk to him first thing."

David was impressed. Chuck was indeed away for a few days. He'd been out since last Wednesday, actually. His great Aunt had died unexpectedly and Chuck was the administrator for her estate. He flew back for the wedding, but had to return the next day to handle all the funeral arrangements.

Something just occurred to David. "So, if Chuck has been out of town, how have you been able to tail him?"

"Well, I followed him to the airport of course, to see if he really was going back to his Aunt's place. Looked like he was. He got on a flight to Minnesota again and I confirmed that's where she lives."

"So, you mostly followed Randy? Did you see anything interesting?"

"Sort of. Doesn't interest me much. I find this kind of thing disgusting, as you well know, but your friend Randy apparently has a lady on the side."

"Randy is not a friend, he's a client," David corrected and the fact that he had a mistress was not surprising.

"Whatever, he's a cheat. That's about all I saw though. He travels a lot too. Flew out to Vegas and Chicago this week, and to Dallas and Atlanta last week."

"Are you sure you want to be doing this? If Jack thought it was important to follow these guys he'd have someone doing it."

"Jack doesn't have the resources to have them followed, or enough of a reason to demand it if he did. This gives me something to do. I used to be quite good at this kind of thing you know."  He reached for another slice of pizza and David did the same.

"I know you're good at it. I just wish they were closer on someone, so Lauren could get her life back."

Well, I'm on it. Chuck will be back tomorrow and we'll see what he's up to."

"I wouldn't waste too much energy there. Chuck's a decent guy. There's no way he's involved in this."

"You never know what people are involved with 'til you poke around and find out. What are you doing tomorrow night? You want to ride along?"

"While you tail my client and partner? I don't know about that."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun. We'll make a big thermos of hot chocolate and Peppermint Schnapps."

"Drinking and driving and tailing? Doesn't sound very law abiding to me." David grinned at his grandfather. He knew he wasn't a drinker and that there'd only be a splash of schnapps, just enough to add the minty flavor. It was fun to tease him, though.

"Right. So, I'll pick you up at 5:30 then." And before David could protest, he added, "After all, what else do you have to do?"

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Chapter Forty-One

"W
e've decided to hold off on adding new members right now. We'll be in touch in the spring once things open up again. We hope you understand. Happy holidays!" The e-mail message was from Chuck's wife, Katy, on behalf of the Girl's Group, the one that Julie and Katy had been so eager to include her in—before she was arrested. She deleted the e-mail and sighed. She supposed she couldn't really blame them. It wouldn't look good to have their newest member accused of murder. Might dim their luster just a bit. She was disappointed though, as it had sounded like a fun group and she was eager to make more friends in town. Her only close friend was Amy and she called her to commiserate.

"They're a bunch of stuck up snobs anyway if you ask me. You're better off without them. Why don't you come with me tonight to the women's group at church? We're going to bake pies for the holiday sale next week to raise money." Amy went to the same Episcopal Church that Lauren attended, but she was more involved. Lauren had been thinking about doing more at Church, maybe this was the right time.

"Okay, I'm in. I'll meet you there at 6:00."

Lauren pulled into the church parking lot a few minutes before six and saw that Amy's car was already there. She walked into the parish hall and as soon as Amy spotted her, she waved her over to where she and several other women were just starting to peel apples.

"Mindy and Sue, you know my friend Lauren?" Amy introduced them.

"I think I've seen you at the services before. Welcome." Mindy said and Sue added, "Great to see you here. Pull up a chair and dive in. There should be another peeler around."

Lauren spotted one a few chairs down, grabbed it and settled in next to Amy to start peeling. As other women joined them, Amy introduced Lauren to each person and all were friendly and welcoming. There wasn't a single hesitation or awkward moment. The evening flew by and Lauren found herself thoroughly enjoying it.

She thought more than once about the difference between these women and those in the girl's group. She didn't know those women well, but she knew them more than the women in the church group. Many of these women recognized her face from attending services, but they didn't know her. Still, they didn't judge her the way the women in the group did. It was enough that she was here with them, and she appreciated their warmth and kindness.

Lauren felt tears threaten as a rush of emotion overwhelmed her and she realized how tense and stressed she'd been these past few weeks. There was really nothing worse than being accused of something you didn't do and feeling defenseless to prove it. She hoped that Jack was having some luck surfacing other suspects. She was due in Court in two days to set a trial date and the thought of that terrified her.

Chapter Forty-Two

J
ack had a meeting set with Chuck for 1:00 p.m. He was going to duck out of the office during lunch to meet Chuck for a cup of coffee at Lola's diner. Jack had suggested that, as he knew it would be awkward for him to come to Chuck and David's office or, with Waverly being such a small town, for him to come to the police station. People were bound to talk and there was nothing really to talk about—yet.

Jack arrived a little before one and settled into a booth with a view of the front door. He ordered a cup of black coffee while he waited and kept an eye out for Chuck. It was his habit to always sit facing the entrance, so he'd be fully aware of his surroundings and see everyone that entered the restaurant. Not that it was so important in sleepy Waverly, but it had been in Boston and was ingrained in him now. He couldn't relax if he sat with his back to a door.

At one o'clock on the dot, Chuck walked in and Jack waved him over to their table. They'd both already had lunch and since this wasn't exactly a social call, Jack got down to business as soon as Chuck's tea arrived.

"Appreciate you coming down here," he began, and Chuck nodded. "As I mentioned, it's nothing to be alarmed about, really just a formality. We're making sure all our i’s are dotted and our t's are crossed. When I was going through the thick stack of paperwork on Eric Armstrong, I noticed that you were listed as the boy's godfather and I just wanted to follow up on that, find out more about your relationship to the family and to Eric. Your name hadn't been mentioned previously, and as you may know we don't have much to go on."

"I thought you had a murder weapon with finger prints belonging to Lauren Stanhope?" Chuck seemed surprised to discover that Jack was still investigating other leads.

"I'm not convinced that Lauren did this, and her prints aren't the only ones on the golf club. She lost that club and anyone could have picked it up, maybe even intentionally, to throw blame her way."

"That seems a little far-fetched." Jack noted with interest that Chuck's jaw clenched and he seemed uncomfortable. Though to be fair, most people did seem uncomfortable when they were being questioned by the police.

"You'd be amazed how unbelievable the truth often is." Jack said, then added "You were at Lauren's wedding, right? Do you think she's capable of something like this?"

Chuck shrugged. "David is my business partner. I don't know Lauren well at all. Like you said, you never know what people are capable of."

"Right, well let's get back to your connection to Eric then. How did you come to be his godfather?"

"Ed and I were tight in college. He was two years ahead of me at MIT and we were in a few of the same classes and worked on some outside projects together. We were both into algorithmic research. We spent hours together working on different computer formulas and programs. We became best friends and when Eric was born, he asked me to be his godfather. He didn't have any brothers."

"So what happened? You two had a falling out? Judy said you haven't spoken in years."

"Yeah, we had a disagreement over a computer program I wrote. We both worked on it, but Ted wanted to continue our research together in grad school and I joined Billy at the investment firm instead and kept refining the program on the side. I told Ted I wanted to continue my research on my own and see if I could apply it to the stock market. He was furious; said I was selling out. I disagreed, and like they said, we haven't spoken since. It's kind of stupid I know, but it is what it is."

"But you still stayed close to Eric? Saw him often?"