Bejewelled

CH 11

The news wasn’t good when Johnny called him the next day and informed him that they suspected that the fire had been deliberately lit. That the smoke detector batteries had indeed all been removed. Obviously, he still had to talk to her about that and if she did it, but he was certain that she wouldn’t have, seeing as James had been a fireman himself.

Gabe was sitting in his truck in the hospital car park, it was almost three in the afternoon. He’d left Cinda well enough alone for the day, though he’d called the hospital for an update, when they’d not wanted to give it, he’d informed them he was a police detective and quoted his badge number to get it.

Staying away from her, was to give both her and him the space that they both needed, he’d busied himself with going over James’ case. James Lewis, her husband’s name was, Gabe was curious if she’d taken the man’s name or not. Senior Sergeant Bentley had put a couple of calls in and he’d gotten access to James’ case, and spent the day at a local station going through it.

It was all there plain as day the driver who’d run James off the road had driven away, the witness of James’s accident stated the driver hadn’t even gotten out to check on the man he’d driven off the road. Just drove away like he was unconcerned about all that had transpired. Didn’t even speed off like he thought he was going to be in trouble. Just like he’d not realised what he’d done.

The witness himself had been killed in a hit and run 8 days later, by an unknown person driving a stolen car, which had been later found, burnt out. No evidence had been collected, so though the case was still open, it was unsolved and likely to stay that way as well as James’ would at this point.

It could read as just an accident, that by some unfortunate circumstance, the witness to James’s accident had also just been in an accident but his gut told him otherwise. It was always possible that those two things were unrelated, but even the reporting detective had a question mark on it, he thought that they were related.

It read more like the driver who’d run her husband off the road was making sure that the witness couldn’t identify him. Came to that because the car that’d run over the witness was found burnt out itself. It read as a suspicious crime with a motive, but what it was he didn’t actually know.

Surprised him that it had been Grey who had talked to Cinda, questioned her about everything, she had requested for him, or Johnny wouldn’t talk to anyone else. It was also Grey who had taken her and stayed with her while she’d watched her husband die. Sighed heavily, watched her husband die, that would not have been pleasant at all.

Jack had told him that her boss had died just six months ago, he’d queried Johnny about that, and the man had looked into it, a simple horse riding accident and not here, up in Port Macquarie at her home estate, her husband had been with her but unable to save her. Nothing suspicious, a simple accident.

Johnny had called just as Gabe had pulled into the hospital car park and he was now going over everything that Grey had told him last night, in his mind as well, and what Johnny had just said now and a knot was growing in his gut. He relied on his gut for a lot when it came to investigating crimes. Was not wrong often.

It all reeked, absolutely reeked of foul play to him. There was something else at play here, he just hadn’t figured it out was all, and he would get to the bottom of it. It appeared now, that Cinda herself was also in danger to him.

Her husband had been run off the road and the only witness had died a few days later in a hit and run accident, and now someone had tried to burn her apartment down or it looked like had done so, and with Cinda inside it, at that.

He was certain that whoever did that, knew she was in there, she’d not been home previously, had come home and gone to bed, he’d seen the fact she was just wearing pj’s sitting there with the paramedics. The fire had started after she’d gone to bed, they had waited until she was home. That was the logical path to take, for he didn’t believe for a second that she had tried to harm herself, not even while dealing with 3 deaths this year alone.

He sighed he’d had no idea of all that she had gone through this year, could very well be why she had toyed with him the other night, could be her way of coping with her grief for all he knew. Could very well be crying out for his attention but not knowing how to get it any other way due to their screwed-up relationship.

He was going to have to go in there and ask her the hard questions, and she wasn’t going to like it, not coming from him. That was really going to tick her off, and she was not going to want to talk to him about her husband, considering he’d had no idea about the man, nor had his mother. His mother would have announced it, seems she’d kept this part of her life completely secret from everyone back home, why? he wondered.

Well, not everyone had been in the dark, and he was still pissed off at all his friends who had kept quiet about that. It was unlike them to keep something from him. Gabe now wondered if Cinda had asked them not to tell him, or if they had just decided amongst themselves not to. Johnny had asked who’d gotten shot by him for being the messenger, perhaps they just didn’t want to, none of them, be the one to tell him.

Gabe sighed on all accounts, as he sat in his car in the carpark he was going to have to go in there and demand to know what the hell was going on with her. It wasn’t going to go down so well at all, and he knew it.

If someone had killed her husband on purpose, was she now the target? To him that was obviously a yes, but why was that? What had her husband gotten involved in and dragged her into now? and why a year later?

Christ, he had known that someday things were going to turn bad around her. His gut had told him that right from the get-go, the way he’d found her, the way she’d had no memory, none of it had ever sat well with him.

He closed his eyes, he had yet to call his parents and tell them the news about Cinda’s husband and the suspicious conditions surrounding his death. Gabe didn’t relish that chore, he got out of his truck and headed into the hospital. To have that very uncomfortable conversation.

She was awake and clean, she’d had a shower and was wearing a clean hospital gown, the oxygen mask was gone, and she wore nasal prongs now, there was a man sitting in her room talking with her. Big and burly at that, Gabe recalled him from last night. He was also showered and no longer covered in residual smoke and soot. Jack, if he recalled correctly.

The man who’d tried to intimidate him, where she was concerned. Wondered if the man was interested in her, glanced at the man's left hand, he was not married. It was possible, though he could simply have been her husband’s best friend and therefore concerned about his widow.

Cinda looked at him and frowned instantly. Jack wasn’t wrong in his impression that they didn’t get along, but the man stood and said, “I’ll give you some privacy.” He turned to Gabe and eyed him for a few seconds before heading out the door.

“Mum wants to come down, I told her to wait, on what you want?” Gabe stated as he sat down in the now vacated chair of the other man.

Cinda shrugged “I’ve no where she can stay at this point. Best if she stays where she is, I guess.” sounded a little less hoarse.

Gabe watched her, she was not the same person as just two days ago, too much had gone on in her life and she was probably still trying to catch up and deal with it all. This was something he was used to; he saw this sort of thing all the time in his line of work.

He was usually good at helping someone deal with grief and the all-consuming loneliness that came with the loss of a loved one, but right here with her, he felt out of place. He wanted to comfort her but knew it wouldn’t be welcomed at the same time, seeing as it was coming from him.

“What did the doctors say?” Gabe asked instead.

“I’ll be fine, a little hoarse for a few days, a sore throat, standard smoke inhalation stuff, all of which I knew from...” she trailed off, her eyes moving to the ring on her left thumb.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Tell mum and dad at least?” Gabe amended. He knew why she hadn’t told him, the same reason she had never come, to his wedding. They didn’t see fit to be a part of each other’s lives anymore, had to stay clear of each other for their parents’ sake, for their own sanity.

“It was sudden and unexpected, that was all.”

Gabe didn’t believe that, he knew she wouldn’t have wanted to hurt his mother by not inviting her, but to not have told her at all? That was outright rude and intentional, then he’d died and still she said nothing. The woman had her reasons, he was certain, but nothing was going to be a good enough explanation as far as he was concerned.

She wasn’t going to be able to explain her way out of not saying anything for a two-year period, not when he knew that she and Lori talked at least once a month, sometimes weekly. She had deliberately not said anything to anyone. A clear-cut decision on her part.

Though she wasn’t going to be the only one in trouble, all three of his best friends knew she’d been married, and they all knew that her husband had died as well. But none of them had told him or his parents either. Everyone had kept her secret, but had she asked them to? or had they done it because, as Grey had stated last night, none of them wanted to be the messenger.

“If there is nothing left for you here, I’ll take you home then, once the all clear is given.”

“No thank you.”

“It wasn’t a question, Lucinda.” He stated flatly.

“I’m sure my boss will put me up for a few days in the work apartment.” Her tone was bored and lifeless.

“I’m not asking Lucinda; I’m telling you what is going to happen. There will be no arguing with me at this point. I will not be the one to disappoint mother again. That is your department, I do believe.”

Her eyes flashed angrily at him, he’d known that they would, he’d been provoking her on purpose, though only lightly he felt, but still he knew what buttons to push with her, as she did with him. His parents were the easiest button to push for the both of them.

“Well clearly, I’m good at it, so what’s one more disappointment then?” she shot right back at him.

Gabe counted to ten or he was going to get into a yelling match with her. He kept his voice calm and let all the anger go. He had to if he wanted cooperation from her, though he was going to get his way regardless of what she wanted. Even if he had to pick her up and put her in his truck himself.

“If you do not go willingly, I will arrest you for reckless endangerment and dangerous driving, also resisting arrest whilst you were in town. I’ll hand cuff you, and drag you back like a criminal, if I have to.”

She said nothing at all, just stared at him for a full minute, she knew he wasn’t playing around and that he had every right to do as he’d just stated. She had broken more than one law and he could arrest her for all of them, she’d lose her license, that was for sure, and she did need it for her job, if she travelled all the time like she stated she did. “Fine.”

“Fine what? You’re coming willingly or I’m arresting you?” Gabe queried. She hadn’t really answered him, just agreed and to what, he wanted clarified.

“I’ll go, but I will ride my bike. You can follow and bring my cat with you.”

“No, I’ll borrow Johnny’s trailer and we’ll tow it. You’re in no state of mind to ride anywhere, let alone physically well enough for the 6-hour ride back.”

She was glaring at him again, but then she turned to stare out the window. “Fine, you win this one.” she muttered.

“I knew that coming in Lucinda.” He smiled all cockily. She didn’t react, disappointing him completely, he had gotten use to the jabs between them and suddenly realised, he actually liked it, made life a little more interesting.

“I do have some questions for you about James though, if I may, nothing personal” he assured her, when she flicked her eyes back to him. “About his accident, that is all.”

She nodded but didn’t have much to say, she knew of no one that wanted to hurt him, glared at him furiously when he asked if there was a possibility of James having gotten mixed up in something illegal, that had finally caught up with him. If he was, she clearly didn’t know about it. Certainly, she had not liked him posing that question about her husband, and clearly did not believe he could do anything like that.

Gabe did actually feel bad and even apologised for his line of questioning, explained that he was just doing his job, and looking into James’s case and when she queried as to why? He shrugged and told her he was just making sure everything checked out.

Gabe didn’t think that she bought his explanation, but she let it go thankfully. He didn’t want to go telling her that he thought she was now the target. There was no proof of that at this point. Just a haunch he had, and he didn’t want to upset her any more than he already had today.

Despite them not getting along, he did understand that she had been through more than one ordeal in the last twenty-four hours, and knew when to call it quits on their war with each other. Besides that if she called his mother and told Lori he was harassing her and making her feel worse than she already was, he would likely get a berating over the phone and a beating when he got back home with her. Did not need any of that.