Chapter 19 #4
“That’s the immediate problem.” Damn it.
He hadn’t meant to hint there was more, but why not?
There was more. He had no intention of elaborating, but one day soon, when he and Charlie parted ways at the end of the season and the end of the research protocol, there wouldn’t be as much surprise that it didn’t work out if his friend knew there’d been problems all along.
Damn it, the whole thing—the lying, the drugs, the secrets they shared, and worst of all, the inevitable end of their relationship—all made him feel sick, like he had a poison dart through the heart.
“Maybe I was hasty,” he said, “about my decision to propose.” The words felt like a betrayal of Charlie.
Jamie shook his head. “Nah. She’s the best thing that ever happened to you. I can see it. I can see you two have something special, a real connection.”
Trent snapped his head up to study the man, skeptical about whether he was serious, but he was.
“What the hell do you know?” He spoke without thinking, the way he did with Jamie because he was a trusted friend.
“What the hell do you mean? You’re the one walking around like a lovesick puppy.”
“The hell I am.”
Jamie laughed. “I could have sworn you were the one who said he couldn’t wait until the end of the season to pop the question? What is it with you? Are you in love with this woman or not?”
Trent caught himself up and realized he’d put himself in the worst possible spot with his friend. He’d been asked the worst, most direct question that there was, with no way to respond except with a flat-out lie.
“I . . . am. In love. I guess.”
“That was a resounding maybe. Then what is it you two got going on, man? Believe me when I tell you what it looks like from here. You look like a fool in love. Maybe a fool who has no experience and doesn’t know his ass from his elbow in matters of the heart.”
Trent felt relieved that Jamie had answered his own question about what the hell they had going on.
He was on dangerous ground with this conversation, but he’d needed to talk about it, needed to air his head.
Managing his relationship with Charlie was difficult, even if they weren’t really engaged.
Because they weren’t really engaged. But they had something together—besides secrets. He whipped his towel at Jamie.
“Shit. I’m not that bad.”
“Yes, my man, you are.”
Jamie’s sureness in his edict made Trent smile. Not because he’d fooled his friend, but because his friend might know more than Trent did. And because it felt good to have a real honest discussion, even if he had left out a lot of details.
Trent shrugged. One never knew. Maybe extreme lust could lead to more. He refused to think about the implications right now, wouldn’t contemplate the disaster of actually falling for Charlie until he had no choice. If ever.
Jamie laughed at him and pointed, then laughed some more. He was on the verge of hysteria before Trent slugged him in the arm.
“Shut up. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“Me?” This made Jamie laugh even more. Trent slid on his coat, shaking his head, and with great effort kept himself from laughing right along.
“Hey, how about if we all go out? You and Charlie and me and Violet,” Jamie said.
Trent picked up his bag, unsure whether it would be a good or bad thing, but knowing he needed to be seen in public with Charlie at least once in a while.
“Sure. Why not? Saturday night of the bye week. It’ll be about our only chance until the end of the season to go off program—”
“You and your program. Anyone ever tell you you’re too rigid?”
“Charlie tells me all the time.” Trent wiggled his eyebrows to suggest a different kind of rigid.
Jamie rolled his eyes. “Man, I don’t know what she sees in you. Act like a grown man and not some horny teenager and I’ll set it up.”
“Who are you to give lectures? I knew you before you talked Violet into marrying you—poor woman.”
“Hey—I’m a catch. Didn’t you know? A better catch than you. You’re practically an old man.”
Jamie ducked the friendly punch that had been meant for his arm and Trent followed him out the door.
“We have to go to my friend’s steak house,” Jamie said. “I promised him we’d go and it’s been a while.”
“Fine with me. It’s a plan.”
They got outside to the parking lot and went their separate ways with a goodbye fist bump.
The unease was still there, but it was buried under a feeling of well-being.
Trent figured the extra workout had helped him with extra endorphins.
And the heart-to-heart with Jamie. Sharing at least partially how he felt, as incomplete as it had been, had eased his stress.
Now all he had to do was face Charlie in the intimacy of his home and let her leave without going to bed with her. It would be good for him.
Good like a blow to the head.
Charline had left Trent’s place without friction, without him teasing her into staying, not even one little suggestive comment or sexy dimpled smile.
The relief didn’t make up for the disappointment.
She knew she needed some separation from him, that their relationship was too complicated to allow him to get any closer than he already was.
At least it was mostly physical—but not entirely. She went home to her quiet house at night all week long to have dinner, albeit late dinner, with her mother and sister. Realizing she hadn’t been able to do that since she’d added John Doe to the protocol, it made her life seem more normal.
If she ignored thoughts of the impending meeting with the campus police detective, things might have seemed completely normal, even rosy.
Her mother hadn’t cried in days, thanks to Diggins’s attention.
And the antidepressant meds. Also thanks to Suzette adding a special chocolate dessert each night.
She was their resident chef and even on days when she ached, she didn’t let it stop her from cooking something delicious.
Walking in the back door tonight, she smelled the Friday night beef stew in the air which was perfect for a cold, dark, December evening. Suzette was about to greet her with her customary hug when Charlie’s phone rang.
“Sorry—let me get that.” She shrugged off her coat then fished the phone from her bag, dreading who it might be. There was only one person who could be calling that she wouldn’t mind hearing from, and she doubted Trent would be calling her now since she’d just left him. She answered the phone.
“Dr. Morneau, this is Chief Warnecki, university police. I’m sorry to call so late. I had to postpone our interview because we had a campus incident take precedence over this investigation into your lab’s stolen serum.”
“Not at all. I’m available anytime.” Charline could have done a cartwheel at the detective’s deferential tone.
Clearly he thought of Charline as the victim and not the perpetrator.
Maybe Hogarth hadn’t poisoned his perspective on the theft.
Not yet, anyway. She smiled at Suzette and motioned with her hand that she’d be back in a minute.
She walked up the back stairs to her room.
“Good. I appreciate your cooperation. I wanted to take your statement first since it’s your lab, your loss. You can give me all the background and then I’ll base the rest of the investigation on what I get from you.”
Too good to be true. She sat on her bed.
“You and Dr. Hogarth will be very helpful in giving me leads to develop. Otherwise, I’m not sure I’d have any idea where to go with this one.”
“I suppose this theft is a bit unusual.”
“Yes and no. Theft isn’t unusual. But most of the time the perpetrators are employees.”
Charline’s heart tumbled, shot through with fear. She didn’t trust her voice to speak, but she had to say something.
“I see.”
“I will need to speak with everyone at the lab, look at security measures, etc. It’s unfortunate that the trail is cold. I don’t think fingerprints will be useful at this point.”
“No, I don’t suppose so.”
“We can discuss all the possibilities when we meet. When will it be convenient for you?”
“Monday will be best.” She wouldn’t need to be at practice Monday since they’d likely be reviewing film if they won, maybe with a no-pads run-through. Tuesday through Friday were the Minutemen’s heavy days when they had a Sunday game.
When she finished the call, she felt an overwhelming need to talk to Trent. She needed to talk with someone, she reasoned, and she didn’t want to continually worry Suzette. There was no one else. No one who knew all the secrets, all the implications of the investigation.
Before she analyzed it any further, before reason and good sense could change her mind, she picked her phone back up and tapped in Trent’s number. She knew it without thinking, like everything about him. Only instincts and pure basic need.
The phone rang as he was driving home, disrupting his mental review of the film and the last play in particular. Taking a quick look at the dashboard screen, he saw the call was from Charlie. He punched the answer button without a thought.
“Charlie, everything all right?”
“Do I only call when something is wrong?”
“Maybe I’m paranoid.”
“No, you’re right. You have excellent instincts. I’ve observed that it helps you a lot on the field—your instincts.”
“Quit stalling. What’s going on?”
“Campus police called. They want to interview me—get a statement about the theft.”
“We knew they would. You’ll be fine. It’s campus police—how bad could it be?”
“I know. He seemed deferential and pleasant. At first.”
“And?”
“And then he said most thefts are committed by employees.”
Trent took that in for a beat. “It’s probably true, but that doesn’t mean he suspects you. He probably doesn’t. You’re the victim.”
“That was my impression—that he considers me the victim, not the thief. You know the only problem with this whole investigation is that Hogarth suspects me.”