“The current director leaves in thirty days. They’d want me in time for that.”
I took my leg from the chair and placed it back on the floor. Things were moving faster than I thought they would. Sandy and I had something though. Something strong. Still, could I ask her to leave her current position for something completely new and different just so we could be together as a couple? It didn’t seem fair. Would she ask that of me? Would I agree?
Then, as if she could read my mind, she said, “It’s just a job, Virgil. I know it might feel like things are moving pretty quick right now, but you and I both know that’s nobody’s business but our own. If I have to take this job so we can be together without the headache of hiding our relationship or dealing with someone else’s bullshit bureaucracy, then that’s what I think I should do. I won’t do it unless you say you want me to though. But I hope you do.”
I nodded my head, and the words were out of my mouth almost before I realized I was speaking. “I do.”
“Say that again, would you?”
I smiled at her. “I do.”
“I like the way that sounds. Big words though for a guy that only gives a girl one drawer.”
“Yeah, well, about that,” I said. “I was kidding about the closet. It’s mostly empty you know.”
“Yeah, I know. I looked.”
“So there’s probably something I should tell you,” I said. “I knew you applied for the job.”
“What? How?”
“Well, I know quite a few people over at the Academy, and when they saw your paperwork come through one of them called me. I think you wasted a favor with the Governor. From what they told me, unless you blew the interview or something, they were going to hire you anyway.”
“Virgil…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next day, late in the morning I was back at the kitchen table, my case notes and files spread out before me. I had tried working at my desk, but there were two problems: one, there was not enough desk space for everything I wanted to look at, and two, I just could not get comfortable. There was not any way to prop my leg up. Sandy helped me move everything to the kitchen, then kissed me goodbye before she left to go downtown and hammer out the details of her new position with the academy.
Two hours later I was halfway through my reports when the phone rang. I followed the ringing and saw the phone laying on the end table in the other room and swore under my breath. Should have thought about that. My machine was turned off, and by the time I got my crutches under myself and got up and over to the phone, the ringing had stopped. I brought up the caller I.D., saw who it was, and punched the number back in.
“Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. How may I direct your call?”
“Hi, Detective Virgil Jones, for Preston Elliott, please.”
“One moment, Detective, I’ll see if he’s in.”
I started to tell the receptionist that I knew he was in because I just missed his call, but she had already clicked off. But then she clicked right back on, again. “I’m sorry, did I cut you off? I think you were saying something.”
“No, no, that’s alright. I was just saying I just missed his call, is all.”
“Very well, sir. One moment.”
I thought by the tone of her voice I could hear her eyes rolling on the other end of the phone. A few seconds later, the line clicked again and Elliott picked up. “Jonesy, thanks for calling back.”
“Sorry I didn’t get to the phone. Takes me a little longer to get around than I’m used to. How are you, Preston?”
“I’m doing well. The question is, how are you?”
“Pretty good,” I said, then winced at my own bad grammar. “Behind on my paperwork, which I’m guessing is the reason you’re calling me?”
“I knew there was a reason they called you detective. We want to get everything filed and get this one closed off. How much time do you need for your reports, you being crippled and all?”
I thought about it, but instead of answering, I said, “How many times have you watched the tape?”
“The one with Pate where he takes the back of his head off, or the one with the Governor tossing his lunch?”
“The one with Pate,” I said, hoping the sarcasm was not as obvious as it sounded in my head.
“Only twice, unless you count the nightmares I’ve been having.”
“Anything jump out at you.”
“Like what?”
“That’s what I’m asking you, Preston. Anything at all?”
“Nothing other than the obvious,” Elliott said. “He cried a river, admitted he was not only a sexual deviant but a pedophile on top of it, admitted torching his Houston church and then, well, you know the rest of it. He punched his own ticket. Case closed.”
“Yeah, I guess we’ve seen the same tape, then.”
“What is it, Jonesy?” I could hear the impatience in his voice.
“It’s not what he admitted. It’s what he didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why pack every seat in the house, then go on TV and confess your sins and pop yourself without telling it all?”
“You’re speaking of the fact that he didn’t mention his connection with the Senior and Junior Wells?”
“You got it. But not only didn’t he confess, he didn’t even mention them. It doesn’t make sense to me. These two nut jobs are driving around the city taking people out with a sniper rifle, and we know they’re connected, Pate and the Wells. Just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Hey, who knows what these psychopaths are thinking? It was obvious he was going to go out on his own terms. Maybe he just got ahead of himself and flipped his switch before he said everything he wanted to say. I could sort of see that happening.”
“I don’t know. Seems off to me.”
“Hey, at their heart, suicides are cowards, right? Maybe he just didn’t have the stones to admit it.”
“But he had the balls to put a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger?”
“Do you have any physical evidence that puts him at the scene of any of the other murders?”
“No.”
“But we do have forensics that puts Wells and his daughter there, am I right?”
“And they’re both dead. So if Pate was pulling their strings, why not just admit it, along with everything else?” I said.
“You know what? I don’t know. But it’s case closed, Jonesy. Send me your reports so I can get on with my life, will you?”
“I’ll have Detective Small bring them over to you tomorrow.”
“Hey,” Elliott said. “How is Sandy? I’m hearing a rumor that you two are some kind of item. What’s the skinny on that?”
“So long, Preston.”
I carried the phone back to the kitchen table with me and as soon as I sat down it rang again.
“Hey good lookin’. What’s cookin’?”
Sandy. “Nothing much. Just doing the paper. You finished down there already?”
“Nope. That’s why I’m calling. I’m going to be here a little longer than I thought.”
“Well, God damn. How long?” I said, and instantly regretted the tone in my voice.
“What’s the matter, Jonesy?”
“Ah, nothing. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” I said. “These pills, they help with the pain, but they make me
