of action.
“What if there’s an element of truth to that story?” I asked.
“What, so now you’re telling me that you actually are a cop?”
I shook my head. “No. But I actually am an independent consultant for the Major Case Squad in Saint Louis.”
“Really?”
“Sometimes.”
“Define sometimes.”
“It largely depends on the case and who happens to be running it.”
“So, which is it right now? Sometimes yes, or sometimes no?”
I didn’t answer.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
Once again my mouth overrode my brain. “Look, Detective Fairbanks, you’re right. I impersonated a police officer. But it’s not like I did it to assault anyone, or to get free donuts or something.”
“Free donuts. That’s funny.” He wasn’t laughing.
I shook my head again. “Sorry. I haven’t had much sleep in the past few days.”
“Welcome to the club.”
“Okay, so, other than annoying you, what kind of mess have I managed to get myself into?”
“That would be up to the judge,” he told me. “Impersonating a law enforcement officer and violating a sealed homicide crime scene could get you five. Maybe a little more if we throw the donut comment in on top of it.”
I let my head hang for a moment as I felt my shoulders fall. “I suppose I should call my attorney then.”
“That would probably be a good idea, unless you can give me a damn good reason why you shouldn’t be charged.”
I wasn’t sure if he was just stringing me along, or what. However, I looked upon his comment as an invitation to get myself out of this debacle. Not having a reasonable explanation that didn’t sound utterly insane, however, I took the only course of action I could think of and played a card I wasn’t even sure I was truly holding.
“Any chance you could call Detective Benjamin Storm in Saint Louis?” I appealed. “I’m sure he could clear some of this up for you.”
“Storm,” he muttered as he leafed through the papers in the file folder then stopped at a handwritten page of notes. “Would that by any chance be the same Detective Benjamin Storm who said, and I quote, ‘Jeezus H Christ. Fuck me. Just throw the book at his sorry ass’?”
Obviously, I wasn’t holding the cards I thought I was. I nodded and said in a flat tone, “Yeah. That would be him.”
“Yeah. We found his card in your personal effects.”
“Maybe if you called…”
He cut me off, “Special Agent Constance Mandalay with the FBI Saint Louis field office? Storm said you’d probably toss her name out there too.”
“Sounds as if you two had a pretty in-depth conversation.”
“Yeah, we did. A couple of them, in fact. Nice guy.”
“At the moment I guess that assessment depends on which side of the table you happen to be sitting.”
“I guess I can understand why you’d think that, but actually, Mister Gant, you owe him big.”
“How do you figure?”
“Easy. Besides warning me that you’d probably make a nuisance of yourself-which was dead on the money, obviously-your friend filled me in on everything that’s happened to you and your wife in the past few weeks.”
“Everything?”
“Of relevance,” he replied with a nod.
“Then you should know that I’m doing all this to help her.”
“That’s what Storm says. And, fortunately for you, according to him there really is an underlying truth to your story, just like you said. He did, however, stress to me in no uncertain terms that you are not here in an official capacity with the Major Case Squad…or any other branch of law enforcement for that matter. The way he explained it, you’re here of your own volition, and you’re supposed to be on a quick fact finding trip, nothing more.”
“That was the original plan,” I agreed.
“Of course, it would appear that you got a bit overzealous in your search and deviated just a bit.”
“Maybe so, but if you…”
He interrupted me again, “Gant, just agree with me and call it good, okay?”
I paused as what he said filtered through to my temporarily dense grey matter, and then I nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“So, after his understandable initial reaction to my more recent call, he calmed down and had a change of heart about havin’ me throw the book at you. Actually, he even asked if I could do him a favor and cut you some slack.”
“And you said?”
“I told him I’d think about it, but I wanted to have a one-on-one with you first.”
“Which, I take it, we’ve pretty much just had.”
“Pretty much.”
“How did I do?”
He shrugged. “You proved to me you’re a bit of an asshole, but under the circumstances I think I’m willing to understand why that might be the case.”
“Reach any other conclusions?”
“Yeah, actually I have.”
We sat staring silently at one another for several heartbeats. Finally, I cleared my throat and asked, “Do you plan to share?”
He flipped the folder shut then scooped up my wallet and sat back in the chair. While he fiddled with the clasp on the toy badge, he said, “Storm said you told him you have a return flight to Saint Louis Saturday afternoon.”
“That’s true.”
“I’d suggest that you exchange your ticket for a flight leaving today. The earlier, the better.”
“So, you’re telling me to get out of town?”
“Pretty much,” he said with a nod as he stood up and tossed the empty wallet in front of me. “You can pick up the rest of your personal effects at the desk.”
“At the risk of getting myself in deeper,” I said. “What about the fact that I violated a crime scene?”
“You’re a lucky man, Mister Gant. To be perfectly honest, you didn’t violate much. The scene was officially cleared yesterday. The motel staff just hadn’t made it around to cleaning up yet.”
“I see, so no harm done.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he returned. “You managed to waste my time, and that’s another one of those things that tends to bother me.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
A quick impression from the motel settled into my gut as I stood from my chair. However, instead of being the horror that had gone on behind the door of room 7, it was the sick fear I had felt for the woman at the office when she had been so willing to open the door.
“Detective Fairbanks, is there any chance you could do me a favor?”
“I’m fairly certain I just did. Storm didn’t tell me you were greedy too.”
“I’m not. It’s not really for me,” I pressed. “It’s for the lady who runs the motel. Is there any chance you could go have a talk with her?”
“I did.” He tapped the folder. “Or did that slip past you?”
“I mean about something else.”
“What?”
“Safety, I guess. She was just too trusting. I mean, she just opened the door to the office and didn’t even ask to see my credentials up close. What if my aim had actually been to assault her?”
