Misery Loves Company (16 page)

“Sounds a little too good to be true.”

Chris sighed and finally looked at her. “It’s just not possible.”

“Chris, he was ‘randomly’ gunned down. But you’re a cop. You know that there is hardly a random act of violence. Right? Most often there’s a reason behind a crime.”

“And this guy knows the answer,” Chris said, waving the little piece of paper in the air.

“That’s not much to go on.”

Chris looked at the papers on the table. “No. But it’s all pointing toward the idea that Jason was concerned about something. He has part of a boat hull in his garage. He has police reports on stolen boats from other counties and towns. There’s something to this.”

“I agree,” Addy said. “But how do you find out who Roy is? Look up every person with the first name of Roy in Maine?”

Chris sat back, still absentmindedly waving the scrap of paper.
Narrow it down to Wissberry. The county. Maybe the next counties over.

He looked at Addy, who was deep in thought with the rim of her coffee mug hovering at her lips. Maybe he could look to see who’d been incarcerated in the last couple of years. It
wouldn’t hurt. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jason Belleno was above reproach. And it felt like a betrayal to think otherwise. But he also knew this Roy had answers, and he was going to do everything in his power to track this man down.

HEAVEN WAS A COCOON.
Every part of her was wrapped in warmth. She felt herself sleeping, which was an odd sensation and aggravating, too. She didn’t want to sleep. She wanted to see heaven. She wanted to see
Jason
.

Wake up,
she told herself over and over. But the warmth that enveloped her made it difficult to leave her present state. Once, she barely opened her eyes. Just a crack. She saw nothing but glowing light.

She smiled and returned to sleep. Jason had told her that heaven was full of light, that there was no darkness, no tears.

Later
 
—she didn’t know how much later, as there was no sense of time in heaven
 
—she began to feel herself awaken. At
first she felt perfectly comfortable. But that comfort seeped out of her like hot steam. Then she felt pain, like she was being pricked. The sensation that ants were crawling over her hands and feet caused her to breathe heavily.

She wasn’t supposed to feel pain in heaven.

Her eyes flew open. “Jason!”

“Shhh. Shhh,” she heard.

“Jason?”

“Just rest.”

“Why am I in pain?”

There was no answer. And her eyes wouldn’t focus. She saw light and dark and a shadow that looked like a man’s nearby.

Jules felt her head being lifted and water brought to her lips. Water. Yes. That was life-giving. Warm. That should be in heaven. But soon the pain returned, gnawing, agonizing.

Then it left. Floated away like a butterfly ascending onto the wind. If her eyes were open, she believed she would’ve seen it go.

She tried to rest, but something kept her from the perfect peace she’d known just a while before. It was the strangest sensation, like her soul was moving inside her body.

Maybe she wasn’t in heaven yet. Maybe she was still traveling there.

Then why was it so black?

So empty?

Jules wanted to scream, but instead she floated again, until she remembered nothing.

Before lineup, Chris asked Captain Perry for a moment in his office.

The captain shut his door, looking as weary as Chris felt. He cocked an eyebrow as he sat down behind the desk and gestured for Chris to take a seat. “You okay, son? You don’t look too good.”

Chris had only gotten three hours of sleep
 
—and hadn’t slept much at all since Jules had disappeared. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

The captain smirked. “Cream for those bags? You’ll have to talk to my wife.”

Chris smiled, trying to appreciate the captain for his sense of humor even though his own had seemed to disappear overnight.

“Sorry,” the captain said with a shrug. “You’re probably not here to listen to my bad jokes.”

“No, it’s not that. I just . . .” Chris stared at the ground. “I think I need to take some time off.”

“Time off?”

“Jules’s disappearance is hitting me hard.”

The captain leaned back in his chair. “That’s understandable. You know we’re doing what we can. I’ve got Walker on this, and he’s the best I have.”

“I know.”

The captain leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk. “Chris, time off is fine. I get that you need it. But I
don’t want you mavericking around, investigating this thing on your own. Jeff’s a great detective. We’ve got to follow protocol. If it turns out that we’ve got a criminal case going, but things get hinky with our investigation, we could blow the whole thing. You get what I’m saying?”

Chris nodded.

“We’ll alert you if anything at all pops up.” He smiled as he relaxed a bit, sat back in his chair. “You gonna get out of town? I wish I could get outta town right now.”

“Yeah. I think I will, actually.” Chris stood. “I really thought it’d be hard to get time off. I know we’re shorthanded right now since the city cut some of our funding.”

The captain nodded. “We are. But I want my officers in good mental health. That’s important. You’ve been a great officer for me ever since you came to work here, Chris. We take care of our own. So no worries. How much time do you want?”

Chris shrugged. “A few days.”

“Done.”

Chris shook his hand. “Thanks, Captain. I owe you. I’ll see you soon.”

If he had a job to come back to.

Chris headed up Highway 95 while listening to Maecoat chatter on the other end of the phone.

“You’re ditching me, man? What’s that about?”

“Just for a few days.”

“For time off? The captain said you needed some time?”

“Something like that.”

“Dude, I think you’re taking this Jules thing too hard. There’s absolutely no evidence that points to her being in danger.”

“I know. I just feel a lot of guilt right now.” He left it at that. He knew that telling his partner what was going down would only jeopardize Maecoat’s own career. If Maecoat knew nothing about what he was doing, then he wouldn’t have to lie for him. “I’ll be back soon.”

“This is indefinite? You didn’t even give the captain a return date?”

“Just a few days. I don’t really know.”

“Aren’t you the diva of the department.”

“Funny.”

A loud sigh came through the phone. “Okay, man, I obviously can’t talk you out of this. You’re already hightailing it out of town. Just . . . relax, okay? Don’t let guilt bury you alive.”

“Just going to clear my head.”

“While you’re there, clear mine, will you?”

Chris laughed. “Will do. I’ll bring you a souvenir from the clear minds resort.”

They hung up and Chris looked at the dashboard clock. Two more hours and he’d be there.

He took the time to sort through his thoughts. He was convinced that Jason had been investigating the boat thefts on the side. All the documentation proved that. But the question was why. Chris’s first guess was that Jason might’ve
known someone who was caught up in it, a friend or family member, and he wanted to find out for himself if they were involved. Knowing Jason, it wasn’t so he could cover up for them, either. He would probably confront them himself, ask them to turn themselves in. Jason had always had an unbelievably rock-solid sense of conviction. There were no gray areas for him
 
—except for when it came to Jules.

Jason had loved Jules the instant he saw her, despite the fact that she didn’t share his faith in God. Early on in their conversations, Chris hadn’t understood what the big deal was. Jason was in love with her. So what that they didn’t share the same religious beliefs? A lot of people didn’t. But he knew as they grew closer, Jules’s lack of faith continued to weigh on Jason. At Jason’s very core, he wanted to take care of her fully, including spiritually. And up to the day he died, Chris believed Jason had every intention of doing that by showing Jules how much she was loved.

His deep convictions were annoying at times, but in some weird way, also comforting. Not very many people Chris knew stood for much of anything. It was kind of refreshing to know someone who would literally put himself in harm’s way to defend the truth he believed in.

Chris had often wished truth wasn’t so murky for him. He couldn’t just
believe
. For Jason, it was as uncomplicated as tying his shoes. He simply had faith in the Bible, that every ounce of it was true, that it was the standard by which to measure everything.

Jason often joked that he was certain he wasn’t going to
die because God put him on the earth to convince Chris and Jules to have faith in God, and it seemed like that task was going to take an eternity. As often as Jason would joke about it, though, he would also pull Chris aside, tell him things that he felt he should know. One day as they were about to dig into some barbecue at lunch, Jason said, “God loves you, Chris.”

Out of respect for their friendship, Chris had not sighed like he wanted to. Instead, with a sly smirk, he’d said, “Do you have a bumper sticker to go with that slogan?”

“It’s true.”

“Okay, fine. Whatever. God loves me.”

“I’m going to keep telling you that until you believe me.”

“What makes you think I don’t believe you?”

“Because there is no peace in your eyes.”

Chris had shaken his head, started eating. “That’s what you’re going by? Peace in the eyes? I’ve got news for you: I’m not the kind of guy that’s ever going to have peace. Too many demons, too many skeletons in the closet.” And that was just his college years.

“It’s achievable,” Jason said. “Perfect peace. Right here on earth.”

Chris had laughed it off and changed the subject, but the truth was that he actually believed it because he saw it every day in Jason’s eyes, in the way he conducted himself, in the way he interacted with Jules. The man brought a sense of calm wherever he arrived. And Chris had watched him in action a dozen times. Once, they’d been the first to respond
to a four-car accident. One of the cars had gone down the embankment and rolled. The wife had been thrown out of the car and was okay, but her husband was pinned and badly injured, and the car was on fire. The woman was hysterical and hindering their efforts to get him free.

Jason had grabbed her shoulders, looked her right in the eye, and said, “Pray with me.” While Chris tried to get the door open, Jason leaned in through a broken window and prayed for the man. The wife prayed too, still sobbing but saying everything Jason said.

When the flames were about to engulf the car, Chris had grabbed the woman to pull her to safety. “Jason, now!
Out
!
” he yelled.

Jason touched the man one more time, stepped backward, and all of a sudden, a downpour the likes of which Chris had never seen roared to the ground like a sky-wide bucket had been dumped. Bystanders cheered in awe as the firefighters peeled the door back and got the man out. It took about thirty minutes to free him. He would’ve never made it out in time had it not been for the rain.

It had been barely misting the hour before. No heavy rain had been predicted. Chris had checked when he got home. Yet still, he couldn’t quite believe it wasn’t a coincidence.

That heavy downpour was a perfect metaphor for Jason Belleno. After being around him, you felt totally drenched, in the best way possible. Since his death, it was like life was parched. A drought had struck in Chris’s soul.

That’s why he had to find Jules. He had to put some
meaning back into his life. Jason had always talked to him about meaning and purpose. Chris told him it was law enforcement. That’s what he lived for. But then one day, it failed to give him everything he needed or protect him in a way he thought it should.

Two hours passed, filled with memories of Jason. They’d had such good times. Jason had a wicked sense of humor and loved practical jokes. His favorite was to sneak into a fellow cop’s car at night, while he was handling something outside, and turn on the lights, the horn, sirens
 
—anything that made a sound or flashed. When the officer returned and started his car, everything would come on like crazy.

Memories were cut short by the voice on Chris’s GPS indicating it was time to turn off the highway. According to the computer’s directions, he only had three more miles to go before arriving at Ike Patterson’s home, where his widow lived.

Late last night, he’d woken up with the idea to visit her, that perhaps she knew something, knew where this cabin was. But now doubt trickled into his resolve. Was this the right thing to do? Was it even plausible that he might find a clue here? And did he have the guts to come as if on official police business? He’d already been reprimanded once.

What would Jason do?

Chris had three miles to figure it out.