Alex Barclay - The Caller

‘All we can hope is that Blake does something to draw attention to himself,’ said Rufo. ‘Our first contact with him was because he reached out to us.’

‘Yeah,’ said Joe. ‘But I think that was his way of putting himself forward as the exact opposite of what he was, this pathological lying thing. He knew he was good at it. He could get close to us, get off on the whole victim role and maybe find some shit out at the same time.’

Rufo let out a breath.

‘You know Blake was the one who got in touch with Artie Blackwell about that article,’ said Joe.

‘Artie told you that?’ said Danny.

Joe nodded. ‘Yeah. Maybe our near-death experience brought something out in him…’

Cullen rushed into the room. ‘Guys. I’ve found something. I don’t really know what to make of it. But you might want to take a look.’

‘What’s this about?’ said Julia Embry, struggling to pull out the seat opposite Joe in a canteen reeking of disinfectant and vegetables.

Joe helped her with the seat. ‘It’s about your son, Robin.’

She held a hand to her chest. ‘Robin?’

‘I know you never got any answers from that night and the driver was never caught…’

‘Oh my God,’ she said, raising her hand to her mouth. ‘Did you find out who-’

Joe nodded. ‘Yes, I did. And if you want, I can let you know.’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘of course I want to know. Why wouldn’t I-’

‘You could trust me that I know who it is, that this person is not an evil person, that they’re not a danger or-’

‘I’m sorry, detective, I do trust you, you seem like a good person. But you know I’ve never got closure and I need closure and if it’s right here staring me in the face, I’m going to take it. Why wouldn’t I?’

‘Because it’s going to come as a shock-’

‘Who?’ she said. ‘Who did this to Robin? Just tell me.’

‘Stanley Frayte.’

Her eyes registered shock, but her whole face seemed to collapse with sadness and disappointment. Joe could barely look at her. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket. He was going to hand it to her, but her head was slumped onto her folded arms on the table and she was sobbing so hard, he could barely move. He tapped her arm lightly and put the handkerchief in front of her.

‘I’m so sorry to have had to tell you,’ he said. ‘But I know you never got closure. I know how hard that is. He may have taken the opportunity to leave because of the police attention. He probably felt we’d figure it out sooner or later.’

Julia shook her head and managed to draw breath long enough to tell Joe it wasn’t his fault. She reached out and dragged the handkerchief towards her, covering her entire face with it, then wiping her eyes and blowing her nose before she looked up at him. She broke down again and it was several minutes before she could speak. Joe sat quietly, looking out the window, listening to the sounds in the parking lot outside.

‘The Christmas lights in the house,’ she said. ‘Were…’ she sobbed, ‘… Robin and I always put them up. Then when Robin died – my husband. But when he left me… it was Stan who helped. He could do that with me and not… how could he do that? Why am I even thinking of Christmas lights right now? That’s the first thing I thought of…’

‘Stanley must have made the decision never to come forward for whatever reason. And then he realized he couldn’t live with that guilt. It takes a split second to decide to keep on driving. And there’s no going back. The next best thing for him was to reach out to you in some other way. I guess that eased his mind. I’m just guessing.’

‘You see all kinds of things in your job. Do you think what he – did not coming forward – was wrong?’

Joe shrugged. ‘Stan made a huge mistake. He had worked hard to get where he was at that time. He was thinking of his own family. He wasn’t thinking-’

‘Of mine. Of me. But he is such a…’ she choked on the words, ‘… kind man.’

‘I don’t doubt that.’

‘How did you know it was him?’

‘When we picked him up for mailing the letters for Mary, I thought we’d got our guy. He looked guilty. And when he was in the interview room, it was like he was relieved. But when we told him why we’d taken him in, he seemed surprised. We knew he wasn’t the killer, but after, I thought maybe there was something else going on with him. I thought it might have been some scam he was working… We checked him out… We reached out to the detectives on the case and they had the last few letters of the truck company’s name that a witness had seen leaving the crime. She’d got one of them wrong…’ He shrugged. ‘We put it together.’

‘Stan was here from the start of the building project – the Clinic,’ said Julia. ‘He offered us rates that I know were below his usual. He was never late. He was polite. He was loyal. He didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs. He had such a good heart.’ She shook her head. ‘How am I supposed to feel about this? What am I supposed to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Joe.

‘How did I not see it from him? Nothing. I never got any sense…’

‘I’m no shrink,’ said Joe. ‘I’ve never been to one in my life, but I’d say if you go back and start to think about every incident and every word that passed between you and Stanley Frayte, you might never make it through.’

Julia stared ahead. She nodded. ‘And maybe that would diminish all his good work,’ she said. ‘I’ve already gone over and over my last conversation with Robin and it’s enough to drive anyone crazy. It’s the old cliche – it was a fight. Our last exchange of words was angry. And I can never go back and change that. You’re so used to getting the chance to make up after an argument, that you expect the chance will always be there. The person storms off and you say “fine – go”, knowing you can apologize a little while later.’ She shrugged.

‘I’m sure he felt the same way,’ said Joe. ‘I’m sure he thought he’d be coming back in that door to sort it all out.’

Julia gave a small smile and turned her head to stare out the window.

It was late evening when they got back to the office. The atmosphere was grim. The only thing worse than a stalled investigation was riding a rollercoaster of promising leads to nowhere.

‘Do you know what it is tomorrow?’ said Joe.

‘No,’ said Danny.

‘My surgery.’

Danny laughed. ‘You looking for a way out? You looking for me to say – you can’t go now, you’re too tired or the case will fall apart without you?’

‘That’d be great,’ said Joe.

‘Yeah, well I’m not,’ said Danny. ‘You need this. You want to know it’s an expert who’s drilling into your face, right? Not some student doctor. This is your one chance.’

Joe bowed his head. ‘Drilling into my face…’

‘Yeah, well that’s what it is.’

Joe sighed. ‘So do I go or not?’

‘Go,’ said Danny. ‘You’re off work a day. We’ll survive without you. You can have a rest.’

‘Who the fuck rests in a hospital, I’d like to know.’

‘Well, whatever.’

Joe stood up. ‘OK. OK. I’ll go home, catch a few hours sleep, then I guess I’m going in.’

Danny stood up and reached out his hand. ‘Don’t worry. We got things under control.’

‘OK. Let me know.’

‘Man, I want to wish you the very best of luck with the operation.’

Joe paused. ‘Thank you.’

‘Any last words?’ said Danny.

‘Very and fucking and funny.’

‘I’ll store them up for you,’ said Danny.

‘Right,’ said Joe.

‘Right,’ said Danny. ‘I’ll see you…’

‘The day after tomorrow.’