In Case of Death (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 3) (12 page)

My guilt at not being able to save her had subsided after that, allowing me to get on with my life.
(1)

I thanked her daily for that.

“I love you,”
I whispered while standing over the toilet. I had to laugh then, thinking she would have enjoyed my profession of love over a commode.

Getting dressed, I made my way down to the kitchen to get the coffee going. As I was putting everything together, I wondered what Betty would think of my current client list. Two women, both of whom I had had feelings for before I had met her.

She would probably think my unpolished reaction to them was cute. But what did I
really
feel towards them?

My confusion was turning into aggravation, so I let the thoughts drop from my mind as I stuck two pieces of bread into the toaster.

“Get lucky last night?”

My grinning daughter had entered the kitchen soundlessly behind me. In response to my confused look, she added, “You were humming.”

I smiled then. “Sort of, Betty visited last night.”

Abby knew of my infrequent dreams of my late wife, and knew it usually put me in a good mood. Crossing the kitchen, she gave me a tight hug.

“Awesome!”

“Yeah, I think so too. Want some breakfast?”

Saying she was famished, we worked together to raise the bar of the breakfast menu, adding eggs and bacon to the lowly toast I had started.

As we worked, I told her of my discovery at Raven’s house yesterday, adding that I had seen an identical binder at May’s when I had been there.

Calling May from Raven’s, I had asked her about her copy, and if she would allow me to look it over. May had replied that she could do better than that. She was coming down to see her mom the next day, and would bring it by personally.

Realizing with a start that that was now today, I did a quick glance around the house to see if it was presentable to visitors. Abby and I both worked at keeping the old house tidy, but housework wasn’t the highest priority for either of us.

Noticing my glance, “Don’t worry, you clean up from breakfast and I’ll sweep the carpet. Everything else should be fine.”

Smiling at her ability to read my mind, I gave her another hug.

“I don’t know what I would do without you kid.”

“You got that right,” she said sassily as she stood and returned my hug. “And don’t forget it mister.”

Chapter 32

September 19, 1999

After a quick cleanup of the house, we dove into Raven’s ICOD binder. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that diving into estate planning was like going headfirst into a pile of sand. The first few inches aren’t bad, but you will soon come to a screeching halt and roll off of the side of the pile.

If you were lucky.

“My head hurts,” Abby said as she rubbed her temples with her fingers. “All of this legalese seems like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to me. Why can’t they just speak plain old English?”

She let out a string of Vietnamese cuss words to further express her frustration. 

I had to smile. The first thing about a language a sailor learns when going in-country are the local curse words.

The blasphemies she had just uttered would peel the paint off of a battleship.

“How about we take a break for a bit,” I said to ease the frustration. “I think we may need to recruit someone with higher brain function to help us with this part of the investigation.”

Abby glanced up at me with a quizzical look, “You mean like a lawyer?”

Nodding my head, I was mentally going through the long list of attorneys that I was familiar with. They were a mixed bag that was for sure.

Some were more or less ambulance chasers, so I immediately crossed them off. Most of the rest of the lawyers I knew either specialized in criminal defense or were in the prosecutor’s office. My lifetime spent in law enforcement was proving to be a hindrance in this instance.

“Got anyone in mind?” Abby asked after a few moments of silence.

“Not yet. I don’t know of anyone outside of the ones I’ve had to deal with over the years. Those are all criminal attorneys.”

I sighed, “I’m sure the phonebook is full of them. I’d rather work with one I know though.”

Abby giggled, “Sorry, but I haven’t met any that I cared for.”

We then quietly sat at the table, sipping coffee and trying to come up with a plan short of paging through the yellow pages.

Setting her cup down, Abby noticed the light blue corner of a piece of paper weighted down by the napkin holder. Pulling out a business card, a smile immediately crossed her face.

“What about this one?”

Handing the card to me, her smile was repeated on my lips as I read the name on the card.

“Perfect!” I exclaimed. I had picked up the card on my last visit there after she said it listed all of her contact information, including her cell and email address.

I had forgotten all about it until that moment.

Picking up the phone, I dialed the cell phone number printed on the card.

Hello?

“Hi May, it’s Gabe. We’ve run into a glitch going through Raven’s estate planner, and I think we could use that fabulous legal mind of yours interpreting these books.

I heard giggles through the phone.
I don’t know how fabulous my mind is anymore, but I would love to help! I just got to my mom’s house, if you give me an hour, I’ll be right over.

“Great!” I said with relief. “I’ll have lunch!”

***

Answering the quiet knock on the door forty-five minutes later, I was greeted by a beautiful woman.

“I’m a little early,” she confessed with a smile. “I’m excited to help on the case,” she added as she glided through the door and gave me a hug.

Returning her hug, I lingered a little too long as I inhaled her perfume. Apple blossoms I think.

She made no immediate move to pull away either, seeming to enjoy the moment. Finally separating with a smile, she looked around the kitchen.

“I always loved this house. It seems like I spent more time here than at home when I was younger.”

Memories of summers spent together came flooding back as I closed the door behind us.

“You were always a fixture here, that’s for sure,” I added as Abby entered the kitchen.

“This must be Abby!” May exclaimed as she immediately crossed the room to give Abby a hug.

Not usually one to warm up to strangers immediately, Abby seemed more at ease than usual with the sudden friendliness thrust upon her, hugging her back with a smile.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Abby said with a sly grin my way. “Gabe talks about you all of the time.”

I’m sure I was blushing when they both turned then to look at me. I was pretty sure I was innocent of the charges, but thought it best to avoid the situation.

“I thought I would just go to Lenny’s for sandwiches if that’s ok,” I said as a temporary escape. “Sound good?”

“Sounds great to me,” May said in response, “Maybe Abby and I can get started on the binders while you are gone.”

It seemed like a plan, and I left the two women chattering like old friends while I made my exit.

Heading across town in the Jeep, I tried to concentrate on the case, but my mind kept returning to May. She had looked even better today than the last time I saw her, and the closeness we had once experienced seemed like only yesterday.

Chiding myself for getting once more off point on the case, I worried that my current clients were too much of a distraction for my feeble mind to handle. Glancing to my left as I walked up to Lenny’s, I noticed the pharmacy next door.

“I wonder if they have a pill for this,” I grumbled to myself.

Chapter 33

September 19, 1999

The mood in the kitchen had shifted 180 degrees by the time I arrived back with the sandwiches. A bespectacled May was carefully combing through the legal papers, while Abby concentrated on taking notes of what May would find.

“Find anything yet ladies?”

They both looked up in surprise at my voice, apparently having not heard me enter the kitchen.

“A little,” Abby said with a smile, “May is amazing at this!”

“She’s cutting through the crap and decoding it into normal English.”

May chuckled at Abby’s pronouncement, removing her glasses before speaking.

“Still, we’ve only scratched the surface so far, but we are making good headway. It’s quite fascinating actually! Do you mind if we wait a bit to eat, maybe an hour?”

Saying that was fine with me, they immediately started ignoring me as they worked through the binder. Any qualms I had about asking for May’s help appeared to vanish as I watched her plow through the legal papers in front of her. She really seemed to be enjoying herself!

Walking over to the phone, I punched in another number that I had recently committed to memory. Waiting for him to pick up, I wondered again about our secretive partner that had suddenly appeared at just the right moment.

“Yessir?” he said as he picked up the phone.

“You busy?” I asked, hoping he hadn’t made other plans for the day.

“Bored stiff,” he responded, “It’s dead around here on Saturdays.”

“Good! Why don’t you come over for lunch? I found a friend to help with the legal papers and we can compare notes so far.”

“Groovy, see ya in a few.”

He immediately clicked off. Hanging up my phone, I gave some more thought to our mysterious new friend. There was still so much that we didn’t know about him, and yet I already felt as if I had known him for years.

Not normally comfortable working with someone that I knew so little about, I found that I was growing quite comfortable around Preacher. Even though much of his past was an unknown, what he had let us in on seemed to be quite genuine. He really appeared to care about his work, and he definitely had some skills that we needed right then.

I paused as Frank entered my thoughts. My sometimes growly old partner had become like a brother to me over the years that we had worked together, and his heinous murder last year had driven me to the depths of despair. Even though we had eventually caught his killer, there would always be a piece of me missing with his passing.
(1)

Whether or not Preacher and I would ever become that close was an unknown, but I definitely liked the guy. And I think Frank would have liked him too, and that’s saying a lot!

Stepping out onto the front porch to wait for Preacher’s arrival, I looked up at the clear blue sky of the day.

If you guys aren’t too busy,
I said quietly to the sky above,
we could use some help around here.

As if in answer, I heard the deep throated and melodious rumble of the Road Runner as it turned up our street. While the bright red car pulled up outside of the house and parked, I looked once more toward the sky.

Was this their answer? Had Frank and Betty somehow arranged for Preacher to show up just when we needed him?

I guess if that’s your answer,
I mumbled with a smile,
I’ll take it!

***

You could tell May wasn’t quite sure what to make of Preacher when they met. The slicked back hair and the Elvis glasses, combined with the light blue blazer and the ever-present Bible gave her much pause I’m sure. She was at least a little relieved when he volunteered to say grace before we ate, May being a very devout Methodist.

“So Preacher,” May said trying to break the ice, “Where do you hail from?”

“Well, ummm…” he started as he tried to decide what to tell her.

“Preacher has led a very interesting life May,” I interjected quickly, feeling I should try to stem the flow of personal questions that I could tell May was dying to ask.

“So interesting in fact, that much of his history is, shall we say, secret. He came to us up front with this, letting us know that we would have full access to his experience, but not all of his history. I guess you could say we took him on with faith, and it has worked out well so far.”

Nodding at me, she moved her eyes back toward Preacher, holding his gaze with hers.

“I’ve never known a man with better judgment in people than Gabe,” she started seriously, then smiled. “I’d be impressed with anyone he approves of, so you must be a hell of a man!”

Grinning back at her, “Thank you Miss May… that means a lot to me.”

Relieved, I handed out the sandwiches I had picked up earlier, offering paper plates to save on cleanup. As I took my first bite, I noticed Preacher cutting his sandwich up into four pieces with what looked like a sharpened letter opener. Apparently this tool had also magically appeared from within the Bible laying next to him on the table.