Chapter 20
After stopping by Wade’s apartment, we caught up with him at the Loose Cannon, where he tended bar.
JD and I ambled up to the bar, and I flashed my badge to get his attention.
Wade approached with some trepidation. "What can I do for you?”
"I'm sure you know why we're here.”
He frowned and nodded. "About Sheila, I assume.”
"When was the last time you talked to her?”
Wade thought about it and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe two weeks ago. She wouldn’t return my calls or texts.”
"Why is that?"
He gave me a look like it was a silly question. "I guess she didn't want to talk to me."
"I heard you had a pretty nasty breakup.”
"She was fucking everybody. How was it supposed to end?”
"You're the one who initiated the breakup?"
"What was I supposed to do? Act like it was cool? I wasn’t going to let her disrespect me like that."
"Made you mad, didn't it?”
"Damn right it did.”
"Mad enough to get into a car and do a drive-by with some of your friends?” I had to admit, it was a long shot.
Wade's face wrinkled, and he glared at me. "What are you talking about? That's crazy! No. I didn't gun down my ex-girlfriend because she couldn't keep her legs closed."
"Where were you yesterday evening?"
"Here, working."
"Can anyone else verify that?"
He huffed, annoyed, then shouted to a passing waitress. "Tammy, tell these good gentlemen where I was last night.”
"Standing right where you are now," she said with a twang as she passed, wearing impossibly short shorts and a tight tank top.
Wade smiled in triumph. "I came on around 5:00 PM. Left about 2:30 AM. Any other stupid questions?”
“Why did you keep calling Sheila if you're the one who broke up with her?"
He frowned and exhaled through his nostrils.
"Because… I missed her." He hung his head.
"I know. I'm a total cuck. I couldn't stop thinking about her, man.
It's so fucked up. What are you supposed to do in that situation?
I wasn't cool with it at all, but I just couldn't imagine my life without her.
" His throat tightened, and his eyes misted.
He tried to hold it all in and looked like he was going to explode.
"Now she's gone," he said, covering his eyes with his hand as he teared up.
He took a second to pull himself together. Wade growled to himself, sucked up the pain, then shoved it down into a cold, dark place in the back of his mind. "Fuck it. Onward and upward, right?”
"Did Sheila have any enemies? Anybody who might want her dead?”
Wade thought about it for a moment. "If she was dating me, and I thought I was the only one, how many other guys were in the same position? Maybe one of those guys found out that she was cheating, too. Maybe one of those guys gunned her down."
It was something to think about.
Then he added, "You know she was under investigation, right?”
My brow lifted with curiosity. "Investigation?”
"Yeah. The Department of Health.”
"What for?"
"I don't know the ins and outs of it," Wade said.
"Some old lady died. Her daughter bitched about something.
Said Sheila acted inappropriately." Wade shook his head.
"I don't really get it. The old woman was in hospice. She was going to die anyway. What did it really matter whether it was on Tuesday or Friday?”
“When did the investigation begin?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. A month or two ago.”
I gave him a card and told him to call if he thought of anything else relevant.
We left the bar, and I called the Department of Health.