The City PI and the Country Cop (17 page)

* * * *

Teague poured himself into what needed to be
done at the agency, dealing with clients, working on some of the
cases that needed his input or skills. Anything to keep his mind
off of Hoyt and what might have been.

When he came into work Monday morning, a week
after leaving Faircrest, he found a message from Captain Davis
asking him to call. He did, and once the usual polite opening words
were over with, the captain got down to business.

“I finally got to question Mr. Irwin.”

“With a lawyer present?”

“Yes. That didn’t stop Irwin from going on a
rant at one point, as hard as the lawyer tried to stop him.”

“Did he confess to killing the boys?”

“Yes and no. Let me read you the part of the
transcript where he goes off the deep end.” Teague heard a rustling
of papers then the chief came back on the line. “The questioning
was done in Irwin’s hospital room. All right. Verbatim.”

Chief Davis: Can you at least explain why you
went after street kids?

Attorney Hancock: Don’t answer that Mr.
Irwin.

Irwin: I think it’s
my
choice.

Attorney Hancock: Then why did you hire
me?

Irwin: I believe you were appointed, not
hired.

Attorney Hancock: Be that as it may, I’m here
to keep you from saying anything that might incriminate you.

Irwin (long pause): So if I tell the cop that
those punks were the scum of the earth—fags, selling their bodies
to the highest bidder. Infecting them with their sickness—that’s
going to incriminate me how? It’s the truth God damn it. One of
them infected my uncle.

“He was getting angrier, almost fanatical.
The more he talked, the worse it got,” Chief Davis said before
continuing to read the transcript.

Chief Davis: How do you know this, Mr.
Irwin?

Irwin: Ask my father. Oh, that’s right, you
can’t. He was killed by…By my bitch of a mother, because he was
going to reveal to the world what my uncle did to stop those…those
animals. She
should
have been proud of her brother.

“Whoa,” Teague said. “That’s what he thinks?
Based on the letter?”

“I suspect so. He apparently put two and two
together, and came to the wrong conclusion, completely ignoring the
fact that his father killed Carl Irwin to stop his rampage. There
was a bit more before the attorney stopped him.”

Attorney Hancock: Mr. Irwin. I must ask you
to be quiet. Chief Davis, it’s obvious that Mr. Irwin is
non
compos mentis
because of the drugs he’s on for the pain from
the surgery.

Chief Davis: Not according to his physician,
Mr. Hancock. Feel free to check with him if you don’t believe
me.

Irwin: This isn’t drugs talking. This is me!
Those bastards need to be—

Attorney Hancock: Mr. Irwin. I must insist
you stop talking. Chief Davis, I would like a few moments alone
with my client.

“And that was it,” the chief said. “The
lawyer got his time with Irwin and after that Irwin refused to say
another word.”

“Unfortunately, despite his ranting, nothing
he said could be used as a confession in a court of law.
Right?”

“Probably. The city attorney hasn’t said one
way or the other so far.”

“Not that it matters I suppose. Irwin will at
least face attempted murder charges. And if the prosecuting
attorney knows what he’s doing, he might be able to bring a case
against Irwin for the other two murders based on their similarity
to what he started to do to Keir.”

“One can hope so. All right, unless you have
any questions, I should let you go.”

Teague knew exactly what the chief was
implying, but he wasn’t going to ask about Hoyt no matter how much
he wanted to know how he was doing.
I can’t…I don’t think I can
deal with it if I hear he’s gotten worse, or isn’t handling my
leaving well.
“No, no questions,” Teague replied. “Thank you
for letting me know about Irwin. I’m sure when he goes to trial
Keir and I will be called as witnesses.”

“You will be. But lawyers and the court
system being what they are, that could be a long time down the
road. Especially if his lawyer knows what he’s doing.”

“True enough. All right. I’m sure we’ll talk
again when that happens.”

“Yep. Until then, take care.”

“Planning on it.”

When they hung up, Teague leaned back,
staring off into space.
Please, God, make it months before Irwin
does go to trial. Or better yet, let him cop the plea. Then I won’t
ever have to go back to Faircrest. I don’t need that, and neither
does Hoyt.

* * * *

Two days after the call from Chief Davis,
Keir knocked on the door to Teague’s office then opened it enough
to ask, “Mind if I come in?”

Teague looked up from the file he was
reading, smiled, and beckoned for him to enter. “Why would I mind
talking to one of my best investigators?” Teague asked once Keir
was seated. “Something going on with one of your cases?” Teague
clicked on the file labeled ‘Keir’ that contained all the
information about his assignments.

“I…umm…have a question.” Keir twisted his
hands together, dropping his gaze to them.

“Go on. Whatever it is, I’ll try to
answer.”

“Why the hell didn’t you and Hoyt—”

“Stop right there. I don’t want to hear one
more word out of you on this subject.”

“But, Teague…”

“I mean it, Keir. No matter what you may
think, it wasn’t fated to happen. We’re two different people. He
loves his town and his life there. I like what I do and I’m not
about to give it up, any more than he’d give up his job. It
was—”

“So help me God if you say fun while it
lasted I’m going to coldcock you.” Keir jumped to his feet, his
hands fisted as if he meant what he said. And Teague had a strong
feeling that he did.

“Sit, please. Then I’ll tell you a few facts
of life.”

Keir looked mutinously at him, but did as
Teague asked.

“Thank you. All right. You’re young. Too
young to realize that just because you find someone interesting,
or…more than interesting, it doesn’t mean you give up everything
else in your life to be with them. Or vice versa.” Teague pressed
the palms of his hands together, staring at Keir. “Would we have
done something before I had to leave if he hadn’t been shot?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. We both knew I wasn’t going to stick around
after Irwin was caught.”

“But you like him, and he likes you.”

Teague smiled ruefully. “True enough.
Probably more than just like. But what good does
that
do? If
we’d been able to pursue our feelings beyond just talking about
them, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“You could have asked him to come with you,”
Keir protested.

“First off, he wasn’t in any shape to do
that, even if he’d been willing. Two. I seriously doubt he’d be
willing to pull up roots and move here. We don’t know if what we
were feeling was real or just the result of working together on a
tough job. Stress like that can make a person think they’re seeing
or feeling things that really aren’t real.”

“Love is real,” Keir stated adamantly.

“Agreed. If there really is love involved.”
Teague rubbed his temples between two fingers. “We never said the L
word or anything even close.”

“Never?”

“All right,” Teague admitted unwillingly, “we
said we cared—I think. And we kissed. Very briefly.”

Keir pumped a fist in the air. “Yes!”

Teague chuckled. “It was just a kiss. Nothing
more.”

“But you only kiss someone you love.”

“I see. So when you’ve gone to bed with
someone, and after it was over you kissed them, that was telling
them you were in love?”

“Well…no. I guess not.”

“I think I proved my point.”

Keir shook his head. “Not at all. You two
never went to bed so the kiss wasn’t a kind of, umm…’Thank you,
that was good. Let’s do it again’ thing.”

Teague shrugged. “No. But it also wasn’t an
‘I love you. I want you in my life forever’ thing either. I was
helping him get dressed…” He chuckled when Keir arched an eyebrow.
“Not because he was naked. He was having problems buttoning his
shirt because of the shoulder restraint, so I did it for him. That
was it. End of story.”

“But…”

“Keir. Enough already. I’m fine with things,
whether you believe it or not.”

Keir snorted. “Since you’ve been back you
spend every minute here, so…”

“Did that before all this went down if you
remember right.”

“I guess. But you
didn’t
walk around
looking like you’d lost your best friend and almost bite people’s
head off when they stop you to ask a question. You always had a
smile for everyone and a ready ear when they had something to say,
either about work or something that was bothering them.”

“He’s right,” Jake said from the doorway.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but since your door was open,
Teague, for almost the first time since you’ve been back…”

“I have a lot to catch up with, and cases I’m
working on,” Teague replied, feeling defensive.

“That never stopped you from leaving the door
open so we’d know we could interrupt you if necessary.”

“Did you have something you needed to talk
about, Jake?” Teague asked, trying to end his conversation with
Keir and deflect Jake if he was thinking of putting in his
two-cent’s worth.

“I do, actually.” Jake waved the file he was
holding. “It concerns the Fontaine embezzlement case.”

“Then let’s go over it. Keir—” Teague looked
at the young man, “—if you don’t mind.”

Keir stood. “I know. Get my ass out of here
and back to work.”

Teague chuckled. “That works.”

* * * *

Days turned into weeks, and slowly but surely
Teague managed to put everything that happened in Faircrest behind
him. When he thought of Hoyt, it was a combination of wistfulness
for what could never be, and tenderness as he wondered if the
detective had found someone who would make him happy. Teague
hadn’t, but then he wasn’t looking. “Confirmed bachelor and likely
to remain that way,” he’d think so often that he finally convinced
himself it was true.

Then, when he opened his mail one Thursday
morning, he found a summons to report to the county court house in
Faircrest the following Monday as a witness in the trial of Bradley
Irwin.

“There goes time I can’t really afford to
lose,” he muttered, shoving the summons back into the envelope and
pushing it to one side of his desk.

Moments later Keir walked hastily into
Teague’s office, waving an envelope. “I’ve been summoned as a
witness at Irwin’s trial.”

“Aren’t we the lucky ones,” Teague said
dryly, nodding toward his matching missive. “Don’t worry too much
about it. I’m sure we’ll be there and back in less than a couple of
days.”

Keir chortled. “The way you put that, it’s
only going to take one day.”

“If the gods are willing,” Teague replied,
smiling. “I’ll make flight arrangements and let you know when we’ll
be leaving. It will be sometime Sunday since I’m certain the
prosecutor will call us soon to discuss our testimony, and then
he’ll probably want to talk to us again first thing Monday morning
before we go to court.”

“Okay. So while you’re setting up the flight,
don’t forget to get us motel rooms, a rental car…” Keir started
ticking things off on his fingers. “Find some place to rent skis.
Is it okay if I bring Mel along?”

“No, it’s not. And where do skis come into
this?”

“It is the season. Maybe we can leave
Saturday, get rooms at the ski lodge. That way—”

“Keir. This is not a vacation. I’ll get us
into a motel near the court house. If we have to hang around for
more than Monday, then you can go up to one of the resorts during
your free time to accommodate what sounds like your passion.”

“I’ve never been on skis in my life.”

Teague arched an eyebrow. “Then why now?”

“Because we’re there? The snow is there? What
better way to entertain myself?”

“Pack your laptop. I’m sure you can do
background checks to keep you occupied.”

Keir rolled his eyes and left. With an amused
shake of his head, Teague began opening the rest of his mail. But
at the back of his mind was the idea that he’d be seeing Hoyt
again—and he didn’t know how to handle it when he did.

* * * *

“You full name?” asked the prosecuting
attorney.

“Teague Alan Donovan.”

“Age?”

The attorney took Teague through the rest of
the basic questions, including his occupation and marital status.
Then he began questioning Teague about the night when Irwin had
kidnapped and tried to kill Keir. All the while, Teague kept his
gaze locked on the attorney, only twice when glancing at Irwin.
When he did, Teague caught a look of hateful loathing on the
defendant’s face.

Then Irwin’s attorney, Mr. Hancock began his
cross examination.

“Isn’t it true, Mr. Donovan, that you have a
vested interest in seeing that Mr. Irwin is found guilty of
attempted murder?”

“No, sir.”

“Weren’t you trying to entrap him using your
lover, Keir Upton, as bait? And didn’t you want to do this because
you believed Mr. Irwin was responsible for the death of a previous
lover of yours? Mr. Christian Frye?”

“No to both questions,” Teague said
firmly.

“Objection,” the prosecuting attorney called
out. “Mr. Hancock has no reason to believe either of those
statements is true.”

“I have a witness who will confirm,” Hancock
countered, “that Mr. Donovan and Mr. Upton shared a hotel room
while they were in town. I also have a second witness, Mr. Paul
Frye, who will state under oath if necessary, that Mr. Donovan and
Mr. Frye’s brother, Chris Frye, were involved with each other.”