Chapter Twenty-Two
Brenda’s brows furrowed with surprise. “What about him?”
“Anything and everything. I’m looking for perspective from way back when.”
Brenda gave that some thought. “He and your dad met at the academy, came up through the ranks together. Paul had some problems with alcohol, and your dad brought him home to stay with us for a while after his first marriage ended.”
“Why don’t I remember that?”
“You were really young. He stayed in your room while you slept with Angela.”
Sam tried to remember but drew a blank. “Were you friends with him, too?”
“I was friendly with him, but not friends the way I was with Joe, Jake and Steven.”
“Were they competitive with each other?”
“Somewhat. Your dad and Joe were the rock stars of the group. They all said that. Jake never wanted to be chief or move beyond captain. He’d say he didn’t want the headaches, but Joe and your dad…
They wanted to go as far as they could on the job.
Steven used to say he just wanted to go home to Alice every night. He didn’t think much beyond that.”
“What about Conklin?”
“I don’t recall him being part of those conversations, at least not while I was around. What has you asking about him?”
“I’m not supposed to talk about this, but we’ve learned that he knew more about Dad’s shooting than he let on.”
Brenda’s mouth fell open. “What did he know?”
“We interviewed a man who rendered aid to Dad, and that man has contacted Conklin on every anniversary of the shooting. I heard his name for the first time two days ago. Conklin swears he wasn’t on G Street that day, but we have a firefighter who can put him there.”
“But why? Why would he withhold that info? Your dad was his friend.”
“We don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”
Slumping in her chair, Brenda shook her head. “This is so hard to believe.”
“For all of us.”
“Joe must be reeling.”
“He is.”
“You should talk to Alice. She and Steven were closer to Paul and his first wife than we were. She might have some insight.”
“I’ll do that.” Sam checked her watch. “I need to get going. Thank you for breakfast and the insight.”
“Any time.”
Brenda got up to walk her to the door and gestured to the keypad lock. “The code is my birthday. Come by any time and let yourself in. My home is your home.”
Sam hugged her. “I’ll do that.”
“I’m here if I can help.”
“Thank you.”
When she was in the car, Sam put through a call to Malone.
“What’s up?” He sounded rushed and stressed.
“I’m doing some background work. I’ll be in shortly.”
“Okay.”
“I had a thought. I assume you and the chief spoke to Conklin the other night after I told you what Davis said?”
“We both did.”
“Might be worth a shot to dump his phone to see who he talked to after you guys were there.”
“Good thought, and if I wasn’t so shocked, I probably would’ve already done it. I’ll get a warrant and put Archie on it. People around here are buzzing about Conklin being arrested. We’re going to need to put up or shut up soon.”
“What’s Forrester saying?”
“That we need more.”
“Then let’s get it for him.”
“That’s the plan.”
“I’ll let you get back to it. I’ll be in shortly.
” Sam directed her car to the home of Alice Coyne Fitzgerald.
Sam knew where she lived these days because her son had been involved in an investigation last year.
Poor Alice had had more than her share of heartbreak.
In addition to losing her first husband on the job, a son from her second marriage had been kidnapped and killed.
The case had been the only one of her father’s career that had been left unsolved, and when Sam decided to dig into the cold case after taking command of the Homicide squad, her father had reacted badly.
Later, she’d learned that Tyler Fitzgerald was Alice Coyne’s youngest son from her second marriage, and her dad had been protecting Alice by not pursuing the case against her older son.
The situation had caused an unusual rift between Sam and her father, who’d pleaded with her to leave it alone.
Sam later learned that her dad had gone to great lengths to protect Alice’s family, risking his own job, reputation and marriage.
Allowing someone to get away with murder wasn’t her usual groove, but she’d deferred to her father’s wishes and left the case officially unsolved, even as all the evidence had pointed to Alice’s older son, Cameron.
Sam parked two blocks from the home Alice shared with her sons’ father, Jimmy Fitzgerald.
Sam had become acquainted with Alice after she reopened Tyler’s case and had seen her most recently at Skip’s funeral.
Sam rang the doorbell and waited, hoping someone would be home.
She didn’t think Alice worked anymore, but she honestly didn’t know what she did.
The inside door swung open, and Alice offered a warm, welcoming smile as she pushed open the storm door for Sam. “Hi there.”
“Hi. It’s nice to see you again.”
She ushered Sam into the house. “How’re you holding up? I was telling Jimmy that I was most worried about you. Skip talked about you all the time.”
Even though she knew that, it still struck Sam in the heart every time someone told her. “I’m holding up okay. As you know all too well, it’s a process.”
“It is indeed.” She led Sam to the back of the deep townhouse, into a sunny kitchen with white eyelet curtains on the window. “Can I get you anything?”
“A glass of water would be great.” She’d had more than enough coffee. Any more and she’d be jumpy, which was the last thing she needed.
When they were seated at the table, Sam took a close look at a still-pretty face lined with years that hadn’t been good to her. Sam took a sip of her water. “We’re taking another look at my dad’s case.”
“I heard that on the news. It makes sense with everyone talking about it again.”
“That’s what we think, too, and that’s why I’m here.”
“What can I do?”
“I’m looking for some background from the early days of my dad’s career, the time he spent in the academy and with Steven as his partner.”
“That was a very long time ago.” Alice’s wistful look indicated the lingering sadness over her first husband’s sudden death. “A very long time ago.” She stirred cream into her coffee, her gaze fixed on the swirl of the liquid.
“I’m sorry to resurrect old hurts, but I’m in bad need of some perspective.”
“The old hurts are never far from the surface, even after all this time. I love Jimmy. I really do. But Steven, he was…” She shrugged helplessly. “You never get over it. You learn to live with it.”
Sam ached for her.
“Your dad was so very good to me afterward. I wouldn’t have survived it without him.”
“He loved Steven like a brother.”
“The feeling was mutual. They were quite a pair, those two.” Alice chuckled and shook her head.
“Always laughing and joking. I used to tell them I felt left out because they had a language all their own, and I didn’t get their jokes half the time.
Steven would tell me not to fret because the jokes weren’t worth the bother of getting them. ”
“My partner and I are like that, too. You spend so much time together, you develop a shorthand.”
“Yes, that’s it exactly.”
“Who else were they close to at that time?”
“Well, Joe, of course, and Jake Malone, Paul Conklin, Roy Gallagher.”
“The councilman?”
“Yes, he graduated from the academy with the guys, but he didn’t last a year on the force. Said it wasn’t for him after all. After he left the job, he didn’t hang out with the guys as much as he had before, but he still came around from time to time.”
“What did he do for work after he left the department?”
“I’m not sure. We didn’t see much of him after he quit, but he ran for the council, and he’s been there ever since, as you know.”
Sam pulled out her notebook and made a note to check out Gallagher’s life after his short stint on the department. “I had no idea he’d been a cop or that he was friends with my dad and the others.”
“Roy wasn’t like the rest of them. He had lofty ambitions that went far beyond the mundane life of a beat cop. Steven used to say Roy was too good for the job. It was clear early on that he wasn’t going to last long on the force.”
Sam took notes as Alice spoke. “What about Conklin? What’re your recollections of him?”
“He was kind of a hot mess back in the day. He and his wife had one of those marriages that would be on reality TV nowadays. Always fighting and never caring who was listening, which made the rest of us so uncomfortable. They drank a lot, so much that we used to wonder how he managed to get up for work the next day. Then it all blew up—the marriage and the drinking. Your dad took him in for a time, helped him get sober and probably saved his career in the process.”
Sam took notes of everything she said. “What was the first wife’s name?”
“Jane.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“I have no idea. After they split, I never saw her again. She wasn’t close to the other wives.
We kept our distance, because the two of them were no fun to be around.
Truthfully, we wondered why she stayed with him.
He thought nothing of going off on her in front of everyone, and she’d sit there and take it, like she was so immune to his nonsense she barely heard him anymore. It was awful to witness.”
“Sounds like it.” Bad marriages, Sam had discovered, came in all shapes and sizes. Some were physically abusive, others emotionally abusive and still others were lacking in important elements that made it possible for two people to spend a lifetime together.
“What did you think of him, specifically?”
“At the time, I thought he was kind of a bully. He’d get drunk and mouthy, and Jane was his favorite target. I understand that he changed a lot after he quit drinking. I wouldn’t know. I never socialized with him again after Steven died.”
“Conklin wasn’t one of the officers who stepped up for you after he died?”