Chapter 25 Harrison
HARRISON
It’s a slow Monday morning.
I called in sick today. Bianca and I aren’t going to check out Rouge’s other clubs until later tonight, but I still wanted the day to myself to look into that past-due notice I found in Maddox’s mailbox.
I never take sick days, and Dinah seemed suspicious on the phone when I called and told her I was going to take one.
I said it’s probably just a sniffle, but that I had been exposed to a friend who turned out to have the flu. Since we work primarily around immunocompromised people, it was an easy out for me.
Dinah, like me, is concerned about Maddox and Alissa. She had that friend that told her that Alissa blew off that important audition with the symphony orchestra.
And Maddox is never one to skip out on his bills.
Even when he was scrambling for a living back when he first started the haberdashery and his dad was taking half his profits, he paid all his bills on time and in full.
He always found a way. Half the reason that shop is still standing is because he stayed on top of his debt.
He’s in decent financial shape now. He doesn’t make as much as I do, but he’s got a successful small business that covers his bills and allows him to sock away a little on the side. A speeding ticket would be an annoyance, but not something he wouldn’t be able to easily pay off.
A quick Google search reveals that Toby Brillig, the cop who wrote the ticket, works at a police station on the west side of town just off I-290.
Another question mark. Maddox and Alissa both live in Uptown, and Aces is right in the Loop.
Neither of them would have any reason to be traveling that far west. Most people only take I-290 when they’re headed to the airport.
If they were driving to and from Aces when Maddox got the ticket, it would have been a cop from a different jurisdiction.
After a quick cup of coffee, I head to the police station and greet the officer manning the front desk.
“Morning,” he grumbles from behind a large mug of coffee.
“Good morning.” I flash a smile. “I was wondering. Is Officer Brillig in today?”
The officer raises his bushy eyebrows. “Who’s asking?”
I hold up the past-due notice. “I’m…housesitting for a friend who’s on a big vacation right now.
This showed up in his mailbox. I guess Brillig wrote him a ticket that he forgot to pay.
My friend is in a pretty remote location and I’m not able to contact him.
I wanted to see if I could talk to the officer who issued him the ticket and get this taken care of before he incurs any serious penalties. ”
The officer rolls his eyes. “All requests and appeals for overdue tickets will have to be made through the clerk of the circuit court in the county the summons was issued, sir.” He waves me off.
“Wait, no. Even if he can’t help me, I would like to talk to the officer. Is he in today?”
The front desk officer wrinkles his forehead. “You seem awfully concerned for a guy who isn’t on the receiving end of a past-due notice. What’s going on, son?”
“I’d rather discuss it with Officer Brillig.”
The officer narrows his eyes but picks up a phone and dials an extension. “Toby, you have a visitor. Something about a ticket you issued a while back.”
Pause.
“Yeah, I already told him. But for some reason, he still wants to talk to you. Are you busy?”
Pause.
“All right. Thanks.” He hangs up the phone and looks back at me. “You’re in luck, kid. He’s not too busy today.” He gestures to the offices behind the front desk. “Go on back.”
“Thank you, Officer. I really appreciate it.”
I walk to the back of the police station where a series of cubicles line the space. I snake up and down the aisles until I find one with Officer Brillig’s nameplate on the exterior. I poke my head in. “Officer Brillig?”
A man with a thick gray mustache looks up from his computer monitor. “Yes?”
“May I come in and talk with you for a second?”
He shrugs. “Be my guest.”
I cross into the cubicle and sit in a small chair in the corner. Brillig swivels his chair around to face me. “So, this is about a ticket I issued?”
“Yes, sir.”
Brillig sighs. “Look, son, I’m afraid my hands are tied. Once a ticket is issued, you can contest—”
I hold up a hand. “I’m not trying to contest it, Officer. The ticket isn’t mine.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Then why are you back here?”
I hold up the copy of the ticket included in the past due notice. “You stopped a friend of mine back in February. It would have been in the early hours of a Monday morning. Does that ring a bell?”
“I had a lot of night shifts last month. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“You issued the ticket to Maddox Hathaway.”
Brillig widens his eyes. “Oh, yeah. The mayor’s son. I remember that evening. He was acting suspicious as all hell.”
“He was?”
“Yeah. He was with his wife.”
I cock my head. “His wife? Maddox isn’t married.”
“Right.” He scratches his chin. “He kept referring to her as his wife, or his fiancée, or his girlfriend. Couldn’t get the story straight.”
“The woman he was with… Was she a blonde? Fair skin, light-blue eyes?”
Brillig closes his eyes. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“And you caught them speeding in the dead of night?”
“Yeah. Very odd. Apparently the wife—or whatever the hell she was—is pregnant, and—”
I drop my jaw. “She’s pregnant?”
He shrugs. “That’s what they told me. Said she’d been experiencing some morning sickness and that late-night drives helped to settle her stomach.”
This can’t make sense. Maddox and Alissa would have been together for a week. Even if they’d fucked like bunnies the whole time—which, knowing Maddox, I’m pretty sure was the case—she wouldn’t know she was pregnant by that point.
Why would they lie to a cop about Alissa being pregnant?
They must have had some other reason for being out that late.
“Was there anything else that evening that tipped you off that something might have been up?” I ask.
“Let me think back. It was over a month ago.” He closes his eyes and rubs at the sides of his head. “Yes. They had an odd little box in the backseat.”
“A box?”
“Yeah. The kind you’d put a hat in.”
That’s not too strange. Maddox always wears a hat when he’s out and about.
“Was it a men’s hatbox?”
“I don’t think so. It had bright colors and a big ribbon. Definitely meant for a lady.”
Stranger and stranger. I can’t recall Alissa ever wearing a hat. Granted, we don’t hang out a whole lot outside of the hospital, but she doesn’t seem the Easter Parade type.
“Did you ask about the hatbox?”
“I did. They said they’d gone shopping earlier—Valentine’s Day gift, I think—and they accidentally left it in the car.”
“Did you look in the hatbox?”
He shakes his head. “I had no probable cause to conduct a search. They were acting a little odd, but not odd enough for me to look through the car. I’m a few years from retirement, and I’m not looking for a suspension on my record for an unlawful seizure of property.”
“Of course. Totally get it.” I look back down at the ticket. “Is there anything else you remember from that night?”
He inhales. “No, I don’t think so.”
I get to my feet. “Thank you, Officer.”
He stands and shakes my hand. “Of course. But I have to ask, why all these questions? Is there something going on with your friend?”
“I’m not sure. But I’m trying to get to the bottom of it.” I raise the past-due notice. “I can tell you that it’s very unlike Maddox to leave a bill or a ticket unpaid. But I don’t want to bore you with the details. Thank you for this information. I appreciate it.”
He lets go of my hand, his eyes narrowed. “Stay safe out there.”
“I will, Officer. Thank you.”
I walk out of the police station and back to my car.
Maddox got the ticket on Monday morning.
Meaning he and Alissa must have gone to Aces that previous Sunday.
They had just met. Maddox and I texted about Alissa after she and I realized that my best friend was the man she was dating.
They couldn’t have known each other for more than a few days, yet she was pretending to be pregnant with his child? To be engaged to him?
They were hiding something. Maybe it has something to do with the hatbox that Officer Brillig mentioned.
That Monday, Alissa was acting weird. She was…off. And when I mentioned that Rouge Montrose sat on the board of the hospital, she got really flustered.
It’s all linked somehow, but I’m still missing a lot of pieces to the puzzle.
The problem?
I have a feeling the more I discover, the more I’ll wish I’d never gotten involved.