Author's Note- The characters of Joe and Nicola mentioned in this chapter are original characters not based on any wrestlers.
June 5th, 1000 Hours
Trina and John were at the Blackwater Falls State Park again. They had taken the pictures of April out to the park to show to the rangers and staff and see if anyone knew her or remembered seeing her. That morning the local newspaper had printed the pictures of April asking for anyone who had seen her or had information to come forward.
They stepped out of the SUV outside the lodge. Jerry had called and arranged for as many of the staff as possible to be on hand to be questioned at one time. Trina looked around and spotted the construction crew working on the road a bit from the lodge.
"John, I wanna talk with the construction crew. They are here all day through the week, maybe one of them saw something." Trina said.
"You wanna do that and I'll take the park staff?" John asked.
"Yeah that sounds good. You mind?" she asked.
"No, talking to the construction crew is a good idea." He said. "See you in a bit."
John walked towards the park lodge while Trina walked down towards where the construction crew was working. She could see that they were breaking up with old road with equipment so they could lay down new road. They had one lane closed off and were directing the traffic in the one open lane.
"Good morning gentlemen." Trina greeted them politely as she walked up on them.
"Officer….what's going on?" an African American man holding the stop/slow sign asked.
"I'm officer Conley. I am sure you heard we found a girl dead in the park earlier this week. Would you mind looking at a few pictures?" she asked.
"Sure, anything to help." He shrugged.
"And you are?" she asked as she jotted down a few notes on the small pad she took from her pocket.
"Ron Simmons." He answered.
"Is there a problem here?" Another of the men walked up to them.
"Glenn, this officer is investigating the dead girl they found. She wants us to look at a few pictures." Ron explained.
Glenn nodded. "Callous, Sheffield, Swagger get over here. Quick break!" Glenn yelled to the other men.
The other men looked up, seeing Glenn waving them over they left their equipment and walked over to where Trina was standing with Ron and Glenn.
"Good morning gentlemen, this won't take long." She said. "I am investigating the woman found dead in the park a few days ago. I want you guys to look at these photos and tell me if any of you saw her in the park or around town maybe. Take as much time as you need to look." She said as she handed them the pictures to look at.
"What happened to her?" Glenn asked.
"The investigation is ongoing, all I can say is she was found deceased." Trina answered.
"I never saw her before. I would remember if I did, she is cute." Sheffield said.
"I have never seen her either. Shame such a thing happened." Callous said.
"How about the rest of you gentlemen?" Trina asked, writing down all their names.
"She doesn't look familiar. Of course I don't pay much attention to people as they come and go while I am at work." Ron said.
"No, sorry. I haven't seen her either." Glenn said.
"Any of you see a girl that maybe resembled her hitchhiking recently?" Trina asked.
"No, I don't pay attention to hitchhikers, that is a sure fire way to get in trouble." Swagger said.
"Not her, but I had a girl on a bike try to talk me into 'partying' the other night when I stopped for gas." Sheffield said.
"That was one of our local ladies. I know who you mean." Trina shook her head. "Okay gentlemen, I just need to get down your names and then you can get back to work. I will leave a few cards with the police department info on them. If you think of anything else, call the station."
Trina finished getting their information and the men returned to work. She walked back down the road a short distance to the lodge where John was walking down the path towards the SUV.
"Get anything from the construction crew?" John asked.
"No, but apparently our hookers on bikes have been up to their usual tricks….pun intended." Trina said. "How about the rangers and park staff?"
"No, none of them had seen her." John said. "I am starting to wonder if she was even in the park alive."
"Maybe, maybe not. We gotta keep all possibilities open right now." She answered as he unlocked the SUV. "Let's get back to the station."
1400 Hours
John and Trina walked back into the station. She was startled to see Seth sitting at his desk. She chuckled and gave him a hug.
"What was that for?" Seth chuckled.
"You're just so adorable the way you come in when it's not even your shift." She smiled and sat down at her desk across from him.
"I'm always adorable. I put your mail on your desk." Seth said. "How did it go at the park?"
"John is talking to Jerry about it now. We didn't find out anything new. No one said anything about seeing her." Trina said as she began sorting through her mail. "Any calls based on the newspaper story?"
"No, I was hoping someone saw her. At least that would tell us where she had been." Seth said.
"Well she could've been picked up anywhere between Charleston and Maryland and with the park being a tourist attraction her killer could've thrown her out on his way to…." She trailed off.
Seth looked up to see her staring at some of her mail, her face full of emotions. She had gone quiet.
"Trina…Trina….are you okay?" Seth asked.
"What? Oh…fine." She hurriedly grabbed a few pieces of mail and threw them in the garbage. She stood up. "I am going to take a shower."
Before Seth could say anything else, she hurried away from her desk and to the back of the station where the small locker room/showers were. Seth sighed, he'd worried she would be upset.
John walks out of Jerry's office and goes to his desk near Seth's and Trina's. As he sat down he looked around. "Where is Trina?"
"She went to take a shower." Seth said.
"In the middle of the day?" John was surprised.
"You know her, when she is upset and wants to be alone she takes a shower." Seth said.
"What happened?" John asked, knowing that something must have happened to upset her.
"She was looking through her mail I left on her desk. When I sorted the mail I saw some wedding catalogs among her mail." Seth said.
"Awww hell. Why is it every time she seems to be healing something pops up and tears the wound open again?" John sighed. "Next time, throw them out before she sees them."
"You know, one of these days I am gonna knock out his teeth." Seth sighed.
"Get in line behind me." John said.
1900 Hours
Steve Borden walked in the front door of Almost Heaven. He had stopped by hoping to catch Trina to talk about the case. Randy nodded to him as he walked by the bar. He looked over and saw Seth, John and Jerry sitting at around a table together. John and Jerry were drinking beer while Seth just had a soda. He noticed Trina standing down by the jukebox that was playing more country music. She was dressed in civilian clothes; jeans and a blue tank top and her hair in a ponytail. Several patrons were dancing on the small dancefloor.
"Borden!" Jerry called out to him and waved him over to their table.
Steve walked over to them and sat down in the empty seat at the table. "Evening gentlemen."
"Steve, what brings you here?" John asked.
"I stopped by hoping to see Trina. What brings you guys in here?" Steve smiled as Jerry motioned for Randy to bring Steve a beer.
"Just having a beer and relaxing." Jerry said. "Except for Seth, he is on duty so he is just having a soda."
"What do you need to see Trina about?" Seth asked.
"Well she has been working on the case, I was wondering if she would be willing to look through the local sex offender registry with me. See if we can find any similarities…maybe someone who has moved from assault to murder." Steve said as Randy brought his beer.
"I would leave Trina alone tonight. But I am sure if you come by the station tomorrow she would be more than happy to go over local offenders with you." John said.
Steve was a bit confused but decided not to press the issue. He looked over and saw Trina still standing by the jukebox with a drink in her hand.
"I need to get back to the station." Seth said. "I don't like having the phone forwarded to my cell phone for too long."
"See ya in the morning." John said as Seth stood up. Seth nodded and walked out of the bar.
"So Steve, how did you get in law enforcement?" Jerry asked.
"Oh…well I was young bouncing around from job to job….but then I wanted to get married….had to be able to support my wife….decided to go to the police academy…found I loved it and the rest is history as they say." Steve said drinking his beer.
"How does your wife like West Virginia?" John asked as he looked over to where Trina was dancing with a few of the ladies, drink still in her hand.
"We're now divorced. It is part of why I moved here." Steve said. He glanced over and saw that Trina wasn't smiling much despite dancing.
"I am sure this is a big change from the LAPD." Jerry said.
"A welcome change believe me." Steve said.
The men sat chatting a while longer, getting to know each other and swapping stories of police work. Steve was impressed that Jerry kept his small police unit so well trained and up to date. Steve also noticed that both John and Jerry kept an eye on Trina as she danced a little, had a few more drinks and mostly stayed near the jukebox choosing various songs.
"What is going on with her?" Steve finally asked. "I don't mean to pry but she looks gloomy about something and has been staying to herself. And you two keep watching her. Is she okay?"
"Trina is a good cop and a good woman. She has a big heart and has a lot of great qualities. But she hasn't had much luck in her personal life." Jerry said. "And she was left heartbroken a few months ago. Right now she just needs to be alone."
"What happened?" Steve asked, watching as Randy handed Trina another drink by the jukebox.
"Last year Trina started dating one of the local mechanics, Joe; he runs a place here in town. Things were going great, they were really happy and she truly fell in love with him. They had started talking about getting engaged." John explained.
"Then a woman shows up, Nicola…..local girl who still lives with her mother on the outskirts of town. Nicola has a baby boy about seven months old and claimed it was Joe's son." Jerry said.
"Stupid bitch 'claimed' she didn't know how to get in touch with Joe to tell him she was pregnant or that she had a baby. Dumbest ass excuse ever because everyone in town knows Joe's garage." John said and Steve could tell John was truly disgusted with the actions of this woman.
"Personally, I think the woman just wanted a baby and used Joe as a free sperm donor. Then when she found out about Joe and Trina she got jealous and decided to come forward with that baby." Jerry said. "Joe admitted he had briefly dated Nicola."
"Trina was devastated, but being a good woman and being truly in love with him….she stood by him when the paternity test revealed he was the baby's father. They did one of those home tests because that jackass refused to go to court." John said. "We all knew this was a bad situation but held our tongues."
Jerry glanced over to where Trina was still standing at the jukebox and saw she was singing along with whatever was playing. "But Joe told Trina this didn't change how he felt about her, and that he wanted to marry her. So they started making wedding plans…but then things got weird." Jerry said.
"Weird how?" Steve asked.
"Joe kept putting things off. He kept putting off buying her engagement ring even though she picked out a nice ring that was reasonably priced. And he refused to accept a loan to buy them a house together even though they were approved for several." John said. "And the dipshit kept saying he didn't want to live at Trina's farm even though it is a very nice place."
"We immediately began to suspect that Joe was just putting off marrying her for whatever reason." Jerry said.
"I began to suspect Joe was sneaking around with Nicola. Nicola kept saying she wanted Joe to get to know the baby without Trina involved. When Joe told Nicola in front of Trina that he was marrying her, Nicola did not take it well. I suspect the dumbass was sneaking around with Nicola so she wouldn't take his ass to court for child support despite the fact that Trina was begging him to go to court and get everything in legal writing. Trina wanted to get child support and custody visits in writing so that Nicola couldn't pull any stunts but Joe refused." John said and Steve could then tell John had no liking for this Joe guy.
"Well Joe's refusal to get her ring, buy a house he was insisting on and the business with Nicola all began to wear on Trina. They were fighting a lot and we were all hoping Trina would get fed up and leave him. But she loved him and kept that hope that things would get better." Jerry said.
"One day around Christmas, Trina came into the station and announced she had finally broken things off with Joe. Apparently they got in a fight and he went bat shit crazy and smacked her. Didn't leave any bruises and she immediately left and never looked back. Thank God she is smart enough to know one time is never the only time." John said.
"He hit her? A woman he was supposedly in love with?" Steve said. "I don't know why I am surprised, I have seen it before."
"I think he was wanting to break up and that is why he kept putting things off and picking fights with her. When that didn't work he went to violence." Jerry said. "We begged her to press charges but she refused, saying she just wanted to move on."
"She doesn't know it…and this does not leave this table. But I made a point to confront Joe. I won't go into details but I let him know that West Virginia is full of abandoned coal mines where a body would never be found." John said and calmly took a drink of his beer. Steve realized how much John and Jerry cared about Trina and found himself feeling sympathy for what she had been through.
"I am glad she is away from him." Steve said.
"So are we, believe me. She still has some hurt from it all and has bad days. And it left her with trust issues. And Nicola has been hanging around the garage so it seems she and Joe are together." Jerry said. "I am gonna take her home. I don't want her getting drunk or anything."
Jerry got up and walked over to the jukebox where Trina was standing. She gave him a small smile and whatever he said to her she didn't complain and walked with him back over to the table. She waved to Steve and then hugged John. John kissed her cheek and then she left with Jerry. Steve watched this thinking it was nice to see the small police department taking care of each other.
"It just pisses me off that anyone could treat a good woman that way. Some men just don't realize what a good thing they have." John said as he finished off his beer. "That asshole ruined the best thing that ever happened to him."
"I just don't understand going back to Nicola….she had already proven that she couldn't be trusted. I mean hiding a kid from him." Steve finished off his beer as well.
"Preaching to the choir." John said. "And since Trina left his ass….the police department and all our families have been boycotting Joe's garage. We go elsewhere…even for service to the police cars."
Steve stood up. "It was nice chatting with you guys. I will be in the station tomorrow morning."
"See you then." John said as Steve walked out of the bar into the cool evening air.
Song Inspiration for this chapter- 'Straight Tequila Night' by John Anderson
Author's Note- A HUGE thank you for all the feedback on the last chapter and people adding story alerts. It was a great motivation to write more and gave me some areas to improve. I know this chapter was a lot of backstory and introduced a few more people but I promise it is all vital to the story. Keep the feedback coming. Special thanks to Jcott3, cdajr, Batistasprincess, Paisley2, carlyrosanna83 for all the feedback.
Author's Note:If you are reading this story (or any story posted on here) please take a few minutes to review. For every chapter that you enjoy, an author has spent time and effort working on it. If you don't enjoy a chapter, tell the author why in a mature manner as that will give the author areas to improve, expand on etc. Nothing is more frustrating to me than putting my all into a story and getting no reviews or feedback and I am sure other authors feel the same way.
