Broken Trust (Missing in Action Trilogy Book 1) (12 page)

“I surely did, and what about yourself?”

“She does not know too much about anything to be honest. There was nothing she was able to tell me that I didn’t already know, but I have a feeling she was playing me for a fool.”

“Did she happen to give you a first name?”

“No. We mostly talked about – well it is nothing important to be truthful.”

“Why do I get the sense that you are hiding something from me?”

Sheila shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe your perception is a little off, it has been a long week for the both of us.”

“I see. Well, do you think that instead of doing a web-chat we can actually go and see Castro?”

“Let me make a phone call and see if we would be able to do so. Don’t be surprised if they shoot us down though.”

John looked at her and he wondered what she was hiding. He knew she was upset with him, but she shouldn’t be. He had apologized for making them late to board the plane, but they did make it. While he was driving down the road, he wondered what was on her mind. He needed to know and he felt as though he should be apologizing for a lot more.

“Are you hungry?”

“I could eat,” she finally said.

***

They found a diner about three blocks away and he couldn’t help but notice how much better Doubles was than this. His father kept his diner maintained; impeccable – and here it was mediocre. He felt as if he couldn’t trust if the dishes his food was being served on were actually cleaned thoroughly.

He was looking at his plate of fries and felt as if he was going to be sick. He realized Sheila was on her tablet. She appeared to be monitoring something and looked up at him.

“I still haven’t heard anything about going to see him today. It is still possible they won’t allow us to see him. We really don’t have any real reason to actually go there. They were fine doing the web-chat.”

John shook his head. “It would be so much easier to see him in person. We can actually read his emotions to certain things.”

“Like you are any good at that,” she said as she began to eat a fry.

Looking at Sheila, he wasn’t too sure where any of this was coming from. He finally found his voice. “What is the matter with you? You aren’t ever like this.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know how to describe it,” he admitted. “But the normal you doesn’t let anything get to her and here you are letting everything seem to bother you. Obviously there is something on your mind, but for whatever reason you don’t seem to be comfortable talking to me.”

“You are my superior, not my friend. If something is bothering me I can deal with it on my own. That was something I was taught to do and that is something that is not going to be changing any time soon.”

“Sheila,” he said as he reached an open hand to her. She moved away from him and he moved back. “There is something affecting our working relationship and I will do anything I can to fix it.”

“Boss, after this case I don’t think I want to work with you anymore.”

John sat there unsure of what to do and he just watched her. There was something he should say – there had to be something to fix this but he was at a loss for words as always. He realized by him not saying something he had just lost whatever he and Sheila had.

“Why? I thought this is the type of work you wanted to get into.”

“I thought it was and now that I am working with you on this I think I want to do something else with my life. Thank you for this opportunity though.”

“Why do I get this feeling there is something else you aren’t telling me?”

“If something was truly upsetting me I would tell you, but I’m fine. My mind is a little preoccupied at the moment, but nothing on my mind concerns you.”

He could not help but feel the tension between them. He flagged down the waiter and asked for the check. John wasn’t too sure what was going to happen next.

Olivia was waking up and she looked at the clock that was on the bedside table. She couldn’t believe she had slept for seven hours. She did not even remember falling asleep. As she was sitting up in bed she noticed Marissa sitting in a chair reading a novel, from the looks of it. She looked up at her.

“It is about time you woke up,” she smiled softly. “Is everything alright? Are you feeling okay?”

It took her a minute to process everything that was going on in her mind and she thought about how she was feeling. She was not too sure about what was going on. She spoke, “I – I’m not too sure. I suppose I am a little confused, but I guess there is just a lot going on right now.”

Marissa got up and walked over towards her. “You have been under a lot of stress and you probably needed the sleep. You know what you need? – Coffee. You go ahead and get showered and I can go grab us something.”

Removing the covers, she got up and looked at her sister. “Have you heard anything new from our investigator?”

“No, for now he does not seem to be getting anywhere. Those reviews about how phenomenal he is must have been false. He keeps disappearing and whenever I ask him what is going on he doesn’t have an answer for me. Maybe you should just stop utilizing the services he claims to be giving you and start working this on your own.”

“I don’t even know where to start. There is just so much going on and if Castro is behind this maybe he is sending someone out here to take care of us. Maybe he is afraid we know something else.”

“Well he is in jail and we don’t know anything else about him. Maybe there is something else from James’ past that caught up with him. Or maybe he is with someone else.”

“Oh really,” she asked sharply. “He would seriously disappear from my life, on our anniversary, without an explanation. I don’t think he would actually do something like that.”

“Did you really know him though Olivia? Your relationship with him sprung out of nowhere. You had been left in the street for dead and he happened to save you. What if they left you in the streets knowing he would go out there to save you – and that the two of you would form a bond because of it? Maybe all of this has been a set up to get the two of you together, and you see how well it worked. Maybe that is why he didn’t change his name. He wanted you to be found.”

Olivia couldn’t help but feel doubt. No, James would never do that to her. They had been so attached to one another and yet here she was alone and had no idea where he was. Not even people from the police station wanted to help. Was it possible that he just didn’t want to deal with her any longer? Is it possible he was just playing her? She didn’t want to believe this was a possibility. She had given him her heart and she didn’t want any of this to be true. She loved him and she could not admit it to herself that he could do such a thing. She had to have known him better than that.

***

Morning had come too soon for his taste, but he was awake and sipping his coffee. He was reading over his newly printed files and wanted to know more about the Gemangini family. He was reading through everything he was able to find about them. On paper this family looked well respected, but the more he began to dig, the more he realized they were one of the crime families in the area, but they were never caught. They were smart and some of the people they would bring into the fold were those they could use to fall for their own crimes.

As he was continuing to read, he heard his phone start to ring. He didn’t like having it on and he wasn’t accustomed to it. He reached for it and saw it was Nancy calling. He didn’t want to talk to her, but he knew if he ignored her she would pitch a fit and he wasn’t ready to deal with that.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hey John. I was just wondering when you were planning on coming back to town. I wanted to make plans with you.”

“I should be back by this evening. We were able to get a meeting with someone out here that I need to speak with. Once we are done I will let you know and we can go ahead and plan for an evening together.”

“That sounds wonderful,” she said but she didn’t sound as if she was done talking. “I love you John.”

He didn’t know how to respond and then he heard a click. Looking at his phone he saw she had disconnected and he wondered why. He wondered if there was something he needed to do. Should he say it back? He didn’t feel as though he loved her though. He wondered what he should be doing, but he didn’t think he had to do anything.

Closing the files, he wondered if he needed to make a meeting with William Gemangini to see if he would be of any assistance. He knew he had been friends with Castro and he truthfully seemed to be more of a suspect as well. As he was reading over the files, he had known Daniella and from what he was aware of he had only heard of Lorraine and per his conversation with Jason he had known Kathleen, but he did not believe it was on a romantic level.

Shutting his eyes for a moment, he still didn’t know the significance in cutting out their tongues. He was curious to know if it was possible it was a way of silencing the dead. Maybe they were attempting to speak out about a crime that had been committed – whatever it was he wasn’t too sure about it. He wanted to have these answers, but at the same time he wanted to drag this out a bit longer that way he would be able to keep working with Sheila. He realized he needed to make a phone call.

He listened as it rang on and on then he heard a familiar voice on the other end of the line. “Rodney Link speaking, who do I have the pleasure of talking with today?”

“Hey Rod, this is John calling again. I am having issues right now and I am not too sure how to handle this.”

“What issues are you having?”

John was not sure what he should tell him, but then he remembered this was Rodney after all. He could trust him with everything and anything. “As you know I am dating Nancy,” he began slowly. “And she is wonderful and all, but I am just conflicted about everything.”

“Why? According to her the two of you seem to be hitting it off rather well.”

“I want to be honest, I agreed to date her because I wanted to get Sheila off of my mind. I was hoping to have more feelings towards her that would cancel out all of my feelings for Sheila, but it isn’t working. Sheila seems to be upset with me and I don’t want her to be. Also I don’t want to tell Nancy about this because I feel that we
could
have a future together.”

Rodney was silent for a moment and he had to double check that he was still on the line. “You know what? We should grab a drink when you get back and then we can talk about this further. This is the sort of conversation we need to have in person.”

“I agree with you. When I get the chance to leave here I will surely give you a call.”

“Great,” he said. “If I don’t answer, just leave a message and I’ll call you the moment I get it.”

“I can do that.”

He heard as the line disconnected and John knew he had probably made a decision about what he was feeling. Now he needed to go ahead and put everything to the test. He was not in a relationship with Nancy was he? If he was than what he was planning on doing was going to change everything.

***

Sheila had barely spoken to him and now they were walking down hallways that all had metal doors. None of them had handles. They automatically opened by someone who was somewhere else. John had never thought he would be able to see what it was like in a prison before this and he could not help but want to get out. He could also tell Sheila was uncomfortable at the moment as well. The hallways seemed to be getting narrower as they continued on and he wondered if she was holding up alright.

“Here we are,” the guard said as they reached the last faded blue door. They heard as it buzzed and he gestured for them to go in first. “If you need anything I will be right outside the door and we have cameras in there as well.”

John was not too sure how he felt about cameras monitoring their interaction, but he nodded. He knew he was not going to be able to change anything about that. As they both stepped in, they saw Carlisle Castro sitting there. He appeared to be paranoid and he also seemed to have not been able to get any sleep.

“Mr. Castro,” John began. “My name is John Watson and this is my,”

“I am his assistant Sheila,” she said formally introducing herself. “We are here to talk to you about the murders of Kathleen, Lorraine, and Daniella.”

“I am not stupid,” he said harshly. “There is no other reason for you to be here. So please can you do me a favor and just cut to the chase as to why this is coming up again.”

“We know they convicted you with the help of your daughters.”

“Ha! They are no daughters of mine! Their mother made sure they knew nothing about me and she wanted it to remain as such.”

“I thought you were the one who walked out of their lives?”

“No. I told Daniella I could not be with her because of the choices she was making, but I was going to stay around for my children. I was not going to leave them behind the same way my father did to me and my mom, but she went ahead and she banished me from their lives. She took out a restraining order and she made sure I could not be around my daughters. Hell I had already lost two other children because Lorraine didn’t want me around.”

“And what about Kathleen?”

“Kathleen was someone I had a fling with. I knew she was with me because of how fat my wallet was, but I really didn’t give two shits because she was gorgeous and we had a great time, even if it lasted for a moment. She made me happy.”

“Until you met Angela, is that right?”

“I knew Angela. She was my accountant and she was an angel sent straight from heaven. We were not in a serious relationship at first. I will admit having money had its props. I got to be with a lot of different women and I pretty much could choose anyone I wanted. I was sleeping with Kathleen until I found out she was with Jason. I stopped and realized I was too old for that life-style. I just wanted to settle down and maybe have a family – a family I wanted. A family that would not just up and leave me the way they all seemed to do.”

“Did you want any of them dead?”

“Me, no, not at all. However they made me appear to be some sort of monster, didn’t they? Telling me my motive to kill Lorraine was because she rejected me. You know what, at least I got to see Felicia and Wyatt. Maybe not in person but I knew they were growing up right. Lorraine was wanting to move to Boston so they would be closer to me while they were going to high school. Not many people knew this, but Lorraine was getting ill and she didn’t know how much longer she would be living. If she hadn’t brought them back in the area then they would be without any family somewhere in Maine.