Chapter Eleven: Opaque Cloud Cover, Zero Visibility
"You're kidding right?"
David shook his head at the young man sitting in front of him.
"No, Paulie. I'm not. Someone tried to kill Agent Eppes Wednesday night by running his car into the river."
"Well, I believe that."
The man's smile faded as he realized the seriousness of the accusation and he paused to run his hand over his face.
"Well, you're full of crap if you think I had anything to do with it. I've been straight and clean since I got out, man. Ask my PO."
Leaning forward in his seat, David looked intently at the suspect.
"Don't you remember what you said to him at your trial Carpazo?"
"Yeah. I told him I was going to beat his freakin' head in with a baseball bat. Playing bumper cars on a bridge isn't exactly a follow through on that threat now, is it?"
Turning to look at the agent who had accompanied him, David almost laughed at the intent expression on the her face. Colby and Megan had gone to check out a possible lead from Sophia Damari's list of 'enemies' and David had selected Agent Holly Ardeljan to accompany him on this little visit. He was so certain Paul Carpazo would turn out to be a no-go, he almost came alone. He'd already talked to the guy's parole officer and sure enough, the man appeared to be running the straight and narrow. But he had made some pretty explicit threats against Don and had even written him several letters while he was serving his time.
Holly took a step forward, her severely humorless expression remaining.
"Paul, we're going to need to know where you were Wednesday around six."
The man gave her
an ear to ear grin.
"Wednesday? I was at AA."
He looked from Holly to David and then back again.
"I knew being an alcoholic would save my life one day."
………………………………
"His alibi checks out, Megan. He's been attending regular meetings since he got out of Folsom."
From David's voice, Megan could tell the agent was getting frustrated.
She put her hand over the phone receiver and turned to Colby.
"Carpazo is a big fat NO."
She spoke into the receiver again.
"Well, David. That wraps up Don's list. I just got a call from the lab. Both the cars are out of the river and we've got paint matches for a black 2005 F-Series Ford truck and a navy blue Chevy Tahoe. Not sure what year, the paint wasn't exclusive and from Don's description, I'd say anywhere from a 2001 to a 2006. If we can ever find a vehicle to compare them with…then we'll have something."
Colby stood next to the wall and listened to Megan as she wrapped up her conversation with David.
They had exhausted their list of suspects as well. Sophia Damari may have pissed a lot of people off, but no one seemed that eager to have the teenager killed. Her parents were Israeli immigrants and the Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services was looking into their history, but so far, they were coming up clean. After talking to her friends, the only feasible suspect they could come up with was the young woman's English Teacher. And that one seemed like a love-hate thing. Colby watched the man in question walk from the building and head for his car. When Megan snapped her cell phone shut, Colby headed back toward the SUV.
"I'll give you three to one he's sleeping with her."
She shook her
head.
"No bet. But he didn't do this. He was here……the
dean confirmed it. English department staff meeting….every
Wednesday night."
As he climbed into the driver's seat, Colby shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, but still……He could have hired someone. These teacher student relationships can get messy."
"Colby, she's not a minor. The only rules he is allegedly breaking are school policy. Besides, any of these people could have hired someone."
The teasing quality in her voice faded and the stress of the past two days became more apparent as she frowned at him.
"Now how often does a contract killer run a car full of little girls off the road. They're methods aren't quite so………… subtle."
Again shrugging his shoulders, Colby tuned the key in the ignition.
"Hey, I'm grasping at straws here."
He put the SUV in drive and pulled out of the school's parking lot. Maneuvering around the throngs of young people on their way home for the weekend, he turned to glance at Megan.
"What now?"
Megan sighed and pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket.
"I guess I'll check in with Don. If he doesn't hear from us soon; Alan, Charlie, and a team of Kentucky thoroughbreds won't be able to keep him there……cast or no cast."
………………………………
"They're running a cross reference on paint matches against the vehicles owned by those on our list of possible suspects, even the ones we've already cleared. I don't know what else to tell you, Don."
Standing outside the backdoor of Charlie's house, Don paused to adjust his crutches. Holding his phone to his ear between his shoulder and chin as best he could, he turned and hobbled down the driveway toward the mailbox.
"Just tell me you'll call me if anything comes up?"
"You know I will."
Megan's voice changed its tone and Don could hear her suppressing a giggle.
"Is Alan still a suspect?"
Grinning over the phone, Don failed to keep his voice serious despite his best efforts.
"No. In fact he's not."
He laughed as he closed the empty mailbox and almost dropped the phone. Readjusting his crutches, Don headed back toward the house.
"I think at this point, he'd run us off the road just to get us out of the house and at work where we belong. He got frustrated with Charlie for cheating during a poker game…claimed he was counting cards again. Now he's retreated to the garage and Dad is in the kitchen…casseroles."
Megan laughed at the way Don said the word as if it were secret code for something terrible. Figuring it was as good a time as any to mention it, Megan cleared her throat.
"Uh, Don. I sent Agent Henderson to talk to Stan."
"Megan."
His irritation at her was painfully apparent in his voice, but she shook it off.
"I should have mentioned it, but I figured……….well, it was Alan's car, Don. We had to look there too."
"Yeah….did you find anything?"
"Not a damn thing. Unless he has a few more skeletons in his closet?"
"Besides that whole hippie peace movement thing?"
Don sighed realizing the truth in Megan's words. It was another possibility that had to be eliminated.
"I'm thinking that's gonna be a no. But….If there are, I don't know about them."
Don paused outside the closed door to the garage to readjust his awkward walking apparatus.
"There has to be something we're missing here. I'm assuming since I haven't heard anything about that Oz character that we couldn't make a viable suspect out of him?"
"Nope…Colby went through the works with this guy…..scared the kid half to death. Charlie may have gotten Oswald expelled, but I think he's still a ranking member of the Dr. Eppes fan club."
When Megan spoke again, her voice had taken on a new tone.
Something with more of an edge to it than Don had heard there before.
"I'm looking at your dad's car, Don. The evidence team found your gun under the front seat."
"Oh, Good. I thought I'd lost it."
She was silent for a moment.
"You didn't tell me you'd shot out the rear window. You emptied the clip, Don."
Remembering the look of fear and panic on Charlie's face when he had announced the windows were electric and had realized that they were trapped brought an unexpected lump to Don's throat. He swallowed the rising emotion down.
"We'll, it seemed like the thing to do at the time."
Megan chortled at his comment and he could hear Colby's expletives in the background as he examined the cars. Megan's voice took on her typical psychoanalytical tone when she was trying to get him to talk about something.
"I can't imagine what that was like for you…Seeing him fall into the water like that."
Don exhaled loudly, but the sight of Charlie through the windows of the garage door softened his tone when answered.
"Yeah. You couldn't imagine. But I'd really rather not talk about it, Reeves. He's alright, I'm alright. Everybody walked away. Let's just find out who did it, okay?"
He listened to the silence from Megan and was starting to wonder if she was analyzing him when she finally spoke again.
"Damn, Don. Do you realize how lucky you two are?"
Don nodded and watched Charlie through the window trying to write on his blackboard with his left hand.
"Yeah. Yeah, Reeves. I do."
Authors Notes: Maybe that tied a few things together? Anyone still confused?
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Chapter Twelve: Just Below the Surface
