The Meet Up

Chapter 7

Daniel was so surprised to see Kate standing in his living room foyer. It had only been two days, but he had been trying very hard not to think about her at all, and now to see her again in reality made his heart start beating rapidly.

Kate stepped out from behind Max.

"Daniel," she said his name with a smile on her lips, "I can tell you're surprise to see me."

"We didn't exactly part in the best of circumstances," he readily admitted.

Kate swallowed hard, "I know. And I felt so bad about that. But then Max wisely convinced me that instead of miserably drowning myself with a tub of ice cream, I should come over here make amends. And I'm glad I did. And I see you're still thinking of the Yuss investigation."

"Of course, Kate," Daniel stared evenly at her, "How can I let it go when it concerns you?"

Kate's eyes widened slightly and her smile became even brighter. Although Daniel kept his most inner secrets to himself, when he did admit a sentiment, it was delivered with pure honesty, which she appreciated. Then she heard Max cough.

"Well," Max said, feeling like it was time he took a exit, "why don't you two sit in the living room while I make tea for the two of you?"

"Thanks, Max, that would be nice," Kate said, as Daniel and she went and sat on the living room couch.

Once seated, they both began talking at once.

"Daniel, I-"

"Kate, I-"

Looking slightly embarrassed, Kate stated, "You go first, Daniel."

"Alright; I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're here, Kate, " Daniel couldn't even look at her as he gazed down on his lap, "I guess when we were at the hospital visiting Donnie, I wasn't being very sensitive to the situation that your fiancé had been shot and almost died."

Kate shook her head, "No, Daniel, it's me who should apologize. I shouldn't have been so snappy with you..."

She then reached over to touch his arm to comfort him but got a different reaction instead. An intense shiver ran down her spine and she let her hand linger on his arm longer than necessary. Daniel must have had a similar reaction because the surprise in his eyes eventually turned to one of awareness as he didn't move his arm away and instead turned and directly looked at her.

He wanted to tell her how he felt.

"Kate, just seeing you today meant so much to me and-"

Max's voice came through loud and clear as he burst into the living room.

"...and here we go!" he said, setting down the tea and a small plate of chocolates, "exactly what the Doc ordered!"

It was then that he noticed Daniel and Kate's awkward reaction.

"What?" Max frustratingly asked and then looked over at Daniel, "Doc, you didn't just tell Kate the oatmeal joke, did you?"

"What oatmeal joke?" Kate wanted to know.

"Forget it; to repeat it would be gruel," Daniel said, feeling actually relieved that Max was here.

Kate looked puzzled, "I don't get-"

It's nothing, Kate," Daniel assured her, now convinced it would not be wise to admit his feelings to a woman who was about to be wedded.

There was an awkward silence.

"Welllllll," Max stated, already beginning to back up towards the stairs, "I've got some studying to do, so just give a yell if you need anything else, Doc."

He couldn't get out of there fast enough as he headed upstairs.

Once they were alone again, Kate decided to change the subject and the easiest way to do that was for her to talk about the investigation.

"Daniel, when I first entered, you were excitedly saying something about the Yuss case. What is it? Does it have to do with his disappearance?"

"Not about his disappearance," Daniel said, getting into investigation mode, "but I believe that the name Gene Yuss is a fake." He then explained to her how the name Gene Yuss sounded eerily like 'genius', ...I think he made up that name because it was his way of showing his brilliance while laughing at us at the same time," Daniel concluded.

Kate nodded.

"It actually makes sense, especially after what I discovered these last two days when I looked through Gene Yuss's records," Kate said, as she opened her briefcase, took out a thin file and handed it to Daniel, "this is all we have on him, which isn't much. Right now, we only have the man's home address, which is a post office box. He doesn't own a driver's license, and his social security number belongs to a dead guy in Detroit."

Daniel put on his black rimmed glasses and opened the file. Kate always liked Daniel wearing glasses, for it only heightened his intellectual appearance in a very sexy way. She mentally shook and head and tried to wipe that image away. Needed to stop thinking such random thoughts.

"At least you have some pictures of him in this file," Daniel noted, picking up the blurry pics to view them.

"You can thank Donnie and social media for that," Kate explained, "those pictures were taken from a few Facebook postings at some office events. Yuss is in two of them."

"Donnie gave you these pictures?" Daniel asked.

"Like I've been trying to tell you, Daniel," Kate said evenly, "Donnie has been very cooperative with the investigation."

Instead of arguing with her, Daniel focused his attention on the pictures.

There were two pictures of Yuss. One was shot at the office Christmas party where Yuss dressed up like Santa with victim Larry Stevenson standing next to him, each of them holding a drink and smiling into a camera. Another function was a baseball game, this time Yuss was posed next to Donnie and victim Mary Ann Tilson, along with the DA, Ed Shaw. Yuss wore a baseball cap low on his face and his mustache hid whether he was smiling or not.

"So Yuss is real," Daniel said, sounding disappointed.

"Of course he's real," Kate said, "after all, he did work alongside Donnie and Larry Stevenson; and Mary Ann Tilson was the one who hired him. But thanks to you, we now know that he was probably working under an alias name."

"But the question is why did he go through all that trouble?" Daniel wondered, "the man spends time creating an identity, gets a job as a part time accountant, which, by the way, is not a very exciting or lucrative career move, and then ends up shooting an office full of people. Why?"

It was all so bizarre.

"I wish I knew, Daniel," Kate said, sounding tired and defeated.

"How did Yuss even get hired in the first place?" Daniel wondered, "wouldn't they have checked references?"

Kate had an answer, "the way Donnie explained it, when the three of them, he, Mary Ann and Larry, moved into the adjunct office, they were there to set up for other attorneys who would be moving in the following month. Mary Ann at the time was a paralegal and was feeling overwhelmed doing the billing and running the office, even for just the three of them. So after getting approval from the main office, she hired Yuss as a part time accountant and office manager and he was to assume full time status when the other attorneys moved in. But we now know that was never to be and instead, he went gun crazy. And unfortunately, as the officer in charge during the crisis, I let him get away," she sounded bitter at the end.

"It's not your fault, Kate," Daniel tried to comfort her.

"Oh yeah? Try telling the director that," Kate said sardonically, "we still have no leads as to his whereabouts."

"I think that if Yuss is a real person, there must be traces of him living a life," Daniel reasoned, "he must have slept somewhere, ate somewhere, changed his clothes somewhere, and got on a bus somewhere. Do you think Donnie would know anything more about Yuss outside of the office?"

Kate shrugged, "I doubt it. I've already questioned him extensively about that. Donnie said Yuss usually came into work, sat at his desk and did what he needed to do and then left."

"So where does the investigation lead you now?" Daniel asked.

"I need to get more answers, and do it fast." Kate stood, "Before I accidentally bumped into Max at the store, I had intended to interview the DA, Ed Shaw in the main building. So I guess I better be going."

Daniel stood, a bit disappointed she was leaving so soon, and looked down, "Oh, sure. That's a good idea."

"Soooo," Kate paused, "aren't you going to put on your jacket?"

His head shot up, "What? You want me to go with you?"

"You did say this would be our last investigation, didn't you?" she questioned, with a small glint in her eyes.

"I believe I did," Daniel agreed, his face brightening.

"However, before we go, Daniel, I do have a question to ask you," Kate said.

Daniel wasn't sure he was going to like it, "Alright. Just make sure we don't get into an argument over it."

She grinned, "My question is...why did you instruct Max to buy some chocolates? He told me he was looking for that when I bumped into him at the store, which caught me by surprise. Didn't you once say that chocolate is a government conspiracy to get the public addicted to sugar?"

"I've said it to you more than one time, Kate," Daniel admitted, as he continued putting on his coat and scarf, "But then I did some re-thinking. Chocolate comes from the small cacao tree, which is basically a plant, right? And as we know, plants are what we utilize to make salads, so technically chocolate is a salad. Therefore... are you ready to leave now or do you want to further discuss the merits of salads?"

Kate laughed, really laughed for the first time in many days, and it felt really good to her.

.

DA Ed Shaw was a distinguished looking man, tall with a full set of white hair and wearing wired-framed glasses. He sat straight and composed behind his huge wooden desk, surrounded by a bookshelf of law books, but his haggard face showed how the tragedy these last few days had taken its toll.

"Kate, good to see you again," he said as Daniel and Kate took a seat and Kate introduced Daniel.

"I'm just sorry it wasn't under happier circumstances," Kate noted.

"So Gene Yuss managed to elude everyone, including police, SWAT and FBI agents," Ed Shaw seemed to have aged another 5 years from when Daniel and Kate first entered his office.

"We have our best people working on the case," Kate assured him.

He wasn't convinced as his tone now sounded accusatory, "You mean, the same people who allowed him to get away scot-free?"

Kate did not back away, "As you know, Ed, our investigation has been hindered by outside circumstances. For example, it would have been of great help had your office installed security cameras."

Shaw let out a tired sigh.

"It was in the works, but the adjunct building was new and I am under a strict budget, so I do take responsibility for that." He ruefully shook his head.

"Ed, it doesn't help to put the blame on yourself or anyone else; we just need to move forward," Kate needed to bring him back to the investigation, "I know you were well acquainted with Donnie, but how well did you know the two victims?"

"I knew the other two as well as I knew Donnie," Shaw explained, "the other attorney, Larry Stevenson was one of my better attorneys. He had recently been divorced and I figured he would welcome the change in offices. The paralegal, Mary Ann Tilson was single and excellent with legal research. That's why I sent them, along with Donnie to open the new office. They worked well together and were doing a great job for the six months they were over there...until...the...the tragedy occurred."

"Did you ever meet Gene Yuss?" Kate asked, as Daniel remained silent.

"No. Like I've said, I've been overwhelmed with work," Shaw admitted, "I've only spoken to Mr. Yuss on the phone. He sounded competent; and from Donnie's feedback, it seemed Mr. Yuss certainly knew how to work the numbers."

"Anything else you remember about your interaction with Yuss?" Kate asked, "Sometimes the smallest detail becomes an important clue."

"Nothing else stood out," Shaw said, reminiscing, then his face lit up, "Wait. I remembered that when I spoke with Mr. Yuss over the phone, he had a southern accent. But it was slight. But I don't see that detail as being very important."

"Seems strange that after six months and working only a building away that neither you nor Yuss made an effort to meet," Daniel commented at last.

Shaw took out his handkerchief to wipe his brow before continuing, "I trust my people and they were doing an excellent job with their caseload over at the adjunct building. And on top of dealing with the heavy number of cases I've received over here, I've had to deal with the expansion of the DA's office, so I've been busy and it had been hard coordinating our time schedules. Nevertheless, I HAD planned to meet with Yuss soon."

"Oh?" Daniel questioned, "And when was that?"

"I had Mr. Yuss penciled in for the end of this week. You can check my appointment book if you don't believe me."

Poirot suddenly appeared. He was dressed perfectly head to toe in a gray suit. Daniel watched as Poirot popped a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

"Quite a puzzle, this DA Shaw, est-il-pas?" he questioned, "He states he is overbooked, yet he suddenly makes time to see someone who is a part time employee?"

While Daniel pondered the words, Poirot then popped another chocolate in his mouth.

"I say it is a crime for him to do so!" Poirot declared.

Daniel looked knowingly at Poirot. He now understood.

"So, Mr. Shaw," Daniel began slowly, "regarding the appointment you set with Mr. Yuss for later this week. Were you going to visit his office over at building B, or had Mr. Yuss been scheduled to visit your office?" Daniel asked.

"I had planned to see Mr. Yuss in his office." he answered, as he unceremoniously pushed his glasses up, "Why?"

Kate was giving Daniel a look as in: does it really matter?

"So you were going over to talk with Yuss at his office, right?" Daniel repeated the question.

Shaw shrugged, "Yes, but why is that so important for you to know that?"

Daniel didn't skip a beat, "I think you suspected Yuss of stealing from you."

Kate was taken aback while Shaw's mouth dropped.

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