Jeff Shelby - Thread of Hope

If Bazer was moved by anything I’d said, he didn’t show it. Just knotted his hands on top of his desk. “I think a leave would be good for everyone.”

I unclipped the badge from my shirt and dropped it on the desk. I unbuckled my belt and let it and my weapon fall to the floor. “Fuck you, Lieutenant.”

I walked out of his office.

And the story about me screaming at my daughter before she vanished showed up in the next morning’s paper, anyway.

Bazer was right.

I probably had come to fight, the anger that I’d had toward him only building over the years since I’d dropped my badge and gun in his office. Seeing him in person was like adding gasoline to the fire.

But if I wanted to truly help Chuck, I needed to smother the flames.

“Chuck was jumped on the beach?”

Bazer nodded. “Far as we can tell.”

“You’re connecting it to the Jordan case?”

“Not yet. Keeping them separate as for right now.”

“They’re connected.”

Bazer shrugged. “We’ll see. We’ll do the legwork and we’ll see.”

Do the legwork. It was an expression he used often. He was methodical and he expected his department to be. It was something I learned from him. It was part of the reason I was a good cop and why I had become a good investigator.

But now the words sounded hollow and fake.

“Can I see your case files?” I asked, choking down my anger.

Bazer studied me for a long moment, his eyes hard and still. “Where are you staying?”

I told him.

“I’ll have both files sent over this afternoon.”

There was no reason he couldn’t just photocopy and give them to me right then, but he was letting me know he would control what came my way. And he could deny that he was paying me back in some minimal way for hanging me out to dry, but I knew better. There was absolutely zero chance he would’ve let me near those case files unless some part of him still felt guilty for what he’d done.

“Fine,” I said and stood.

“Stay out of the way, Joe,” Bazer warned. “I mean it. You aren’t a cop here anymore. Don’t try acting like one.”

A smile that nearly hurt curled my lips. “So I shouldn’t tell bullshit lies to reporters? Isn’t that what cops around here do?”

He stiffened but didn’t say anything.

“That was out of line,” I said, holding up a hand. “That’s not what cops around here do.” I stared at him, the smile falling away from my face. “That’s just what you do.”

I was back at the hotel, picking at lunch in a cafe downstairs and waiting for the case files to show up when two familiar faces approached my table.

Meg, wearing a purple T-shirt and a denim skirt, slid into the seat across from me. Matt, in a polo shirt and shorts long enough to be pants, loomed behind her, looking just as uncomfortable as he had when I’d caught him following me.

“Hi,” Meg said, smiling.

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” I asked, running a napkin across my mouth. I glanced at Matt. “Both of you?”

“We’re off this period,” Meg said. “It’s an open campus.”

“Right,” I said. “And you knew I was here how?”

She glanced at Matt.

He shrugged. “Word gets around.”

Apparently so. I just wondered who was spreading the word.

“What’s up?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“I think there’s something you should know,” Meg said.

I glanced at Matt, then back to her. “Okay.”

She twisted the silver bracelet circling her wrist, being careful not to look at me. “Things aren’t right with Meredith and her dad, okay?”

I looked at Matt again. He was staring down at Meg’s back.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She brought her gaze back to mine and sucked on her upper lip for a moment. “I think he might’ve been the one that hit her.”

Finally. Someone not afraid to call out Jon Jordan.

“Why do you think that?” I asked.

“Things she’s said to me.” She moved her hands to her hair and pulled it back. “He’s not a good guy.”

No kidding. “What has she said to you?”

She dropped her hands and her hair fanned out on her shoulders. “Just stuff.”

I shook my head. “That isn’t gonna get it done for me, Meg. You want me to believe you? I need more than that.”

She glanced up at Matt, who finally moved his eyes to me.

“He’s hit her before,” he said, his voice low, almost like he was tired. “I was there when it happened.”

“You were there?”

He gave a short nod. “Yeah. She goes out with my friend.”

“Derek?” I asked.

Surprise started to cross his face, but he put it together quickly. “Yeah. We were at her house. She and her dad were arguing out in the pool house. He came storming out, totally pissed off. Derek went in as soon as her dad left. They came out and Meredith’s face was totally swollen. He’d slapped the hell out of her.”

I looked down at my hand. It was clenched into a fist. I unclenched it and looked at Matt. “What did she say about it?”

“Nothing, to me,” Matt said, resting his hands on the back of Meg’s chair. “Derek told me later that night. She told him that it wasn’t the first time her father hit her.”

“You ever seen anything else?” I asked. “Either of you?”

Matt shook his head.

“A bruise on her back,” Meg said, wincing at the memory. “Like the size of a football, right in the middle of her back. We were changing after practice at the end of last season. I didn’t say anything because I figured it was just from practice or something. She’s always driving, getting knocked down and hitting the floor, getting pretty banged up. But after they told me about the thing with her dad, I don’t know. I’ve just assumed it wasn’t from practice.”

My fingers folded back into my palm. “What about her mom? You guys ever see anything weird with her?”

“She’s hardly ever around,” Meg said, shaking her head. “Never comes to games or stuff like that. She’s nice when I do see her at the house sometimes, but I’ve never seen anything.”

Matt nodded in agreement.

Maybe Jordan was hiding his wife to hide the bruises. I was making a leap but it made sense to me.

“So why would she blame Chuck?” I asked them. “Why him?”

Meg shook her head again, a perplexed look on her face. “I don’t know. I thought she really liked him. Because we all did.”

“She’s probably afraid of him,” Matt said. “Her dad. Everybody else is.”

“Then why would they even file a report?” I asked, thinking more out loud than expecting an answer. “Why even acknowledge it?”

“Her face was pretty messed up,” Meg said, wincing again. “I don’t know how they could’ve hidden it.”

That seemed reasonable and possible, but it still felt odd to me.

Meg turned and glanced up at Matt. I couldn’t see her face, but I could see his. He was frowning at her, shaking his head.

“What?” I asked.

They held each other’s gaze for a moment longer, then Matt shrugged and looked away.

Meg turned back to me. “There’s something else…but it’s kind of weird.”

I didn’t say anything.

“There’s always been this…rumor,” Meg said.

“What kind of rumor?”

“About Meredith,” she continued, choosing her words carefully. “I’ve never believed it and I’ve never seen anything to make me believe it. And I never asked her about it because I just figured it was jealous bullshit from other kids who didn’t like her.”

“What’s the rumor?” I asked, trying to keep a handle on my patience.