SACRIFICES (35 page)

              “So let’s just get hypothetical for a minute. We have been working together for a long time…am I right?” Brad nods. “We are a great team and we have been through a lot together. We have spent countless years together, kind of like a marriage so to speak.” Todd winks.

              “Your right, we have been through a lot.” Brad grins.

              “If I did die that day, let’s just say, if I did actually die. I know that would have been tough on you. I know you would have felt the loss. We are great friends and we are as close as two straight men can be.” Todd smirks.

              Brad chuckles. “That is all very true, but I’m still tired from last night, I think I’m missing the point buddy.”

              “My point is if I had died that day, Brad you are still a cop, you’re a great detective. If I died you’d still be a cop and a great detective and down the road you’d get another partner and you’d keep doing your job. You wouldn’t feel the same way about it, but you’d have to move on. That’s life. Your new partner would never be me and you’d never be as close to him in the
same way
as you were close to me. But,” Todd smiles. “But, you’d still move on, because life goes on.” Todd smiles again and pats Brad on his hand softly.

              “I think I understand.”

              Todd nods his head. “You’re never going to replace Nicole. That would be impossible. And if someday someone else comes into your life they won’t be the same as Nicole, and they’ll never be Nicole. But life must go on.”

              Brad takes a deep breath and looks Todd directly into the eyes and whispers. “Thanks.”

              Brad and Todd talk over breakfast about a lot of things mostly Jenny at first. Brad, for the first time feels all right about what’s been going on with her. Todd put it to him in a way that he could see what he was doing was all right. He feels better now that they’ve had the chance to talk. Todd goes out to his truck and brings back his folder that he put together at his house this morning before he left. He’s anxious for Brad to see some of the things he found and for them to talk about it.

              Todd walks in and sits back down in the booth. He opens the folder and says. “I’ve put together a list that I think is going to point us in a direction that we haven’t been yet. I don’t know if it’s going to solve the case but I think it’s going to help us find a motive.”

              Brad takes the piece of paper from Todd that he hands him. “You know I almost forgot to tell you about the letter I was sent yesterday. I didn’t get it from Tammy until right before I left and it slipped my mind.”

              Todd leans back to give Brad his full attention. “What did this one say?” He picks up his coffee and listens.

              Brad tries to tell him from memory not having it in front of him. “It talked about how I haven’t taken his advice and now someone I care about is going to pay.”              “What else did they say in the letter?”

              Brad moves his hand as Mary walks over and pours the guys some more coffee and takes away some of the dishes. “It also made reference to my son and his friends and hoping that their having a good time in Texas, it also made reference to a red head.”

              Todd tilts his head and says. “That’s fucking great, the son of a bitch thinks their in Texas. That means all of our plans worked.” Todd takes a sip of his coffee and sits it back down. “How long have you and Jenny been seeing each other? I thought it was just a couple days.”

              “We have only been
together
for a couple days. But a little over a week ago is when I met her. We only went out for drinks and I didn’t see her or talk to her for about a week or so. Not until we got back from meeting with Stein and Howard.” Brad explains.

              “The letter that was sent, when was it postmarked?”

Todd wonders as he tries to fill in the blanks.

              “Four days ago, now,” Brad explains as he recalls the date looking at his watch.

              “Four days ago. And you and Jenny have only been quote
‘together’
for a couple days. I wonder how he knew about her then.” Todd tries to read into the letter.

              “My only guess is he has been watching me for a while. It would make sense if he has because after the press conference when Jenny and me went out for drinks we were only together for a couple hours that day. I never called her after that and I never seen her until after we got back. So I don’t know. He must have seen us together and assumed that we were a couple because the letter said I had nice taste in women. The son of a bitch even said he wouldn’t mind
‘you know’
with her. That scares me because this guy might just do that.” Brad sips his coffee as Todd lights a cigarette.

              Todd exhales his smoke away from Brad and makes the comment. “I think you ought to tell her about the letter...”

Brad interrupts and explains. “I told her all about everything.”

Todd continues. “What does she think about all of this?”

              Brad nods his head. “She’s scared. She won’t admit it but I can tell. But, can you blame her. She watches TV and reads the paper. She knows what‘s going on.” Brad slowly stirs his coffee and leans up and almost whispers. “You know what else? The morning after we were…you know…well before I got back home she said she noticed a black Camry in front of my house…” Todd perks up quickly. “…She even noticed a guy walking from the side of my house.”

              “Did she get a good look at the son of a bitch, anything we can go off of,
HEY?
What about all the surveillance at you house maybe we got a good shot of the guy on tape.”

              Brad exhales loudly nodding his head side to side. “I never turned it on that morning. I left her the keys, I wasn’t thinking to clearly…obviously. Then I came and got you at the house.”

              “We have got to find this guy.”

              Brad nods. “Yes we do. So when you were going over the files what did you find?” Brad exhales and takes another sip of his coffee.

              Todd repositions himself in his seat. He takes out his notebook and starts to read off items. “One of the things that stuck out in my mind, I don’t know why but I came across an article that said that the missing couple wasn’t a couple. They were just good friends.”

              Brad raises his eyebrows. “Yeah, that is strange. Howard even made the comment about boyfriend and girlfriend and even Betty thought that they were an item.”

              Todd continues. “It turns out that Beth was actually engaged to a guy in Bloomington. He was a good friend of Troy. Now maybe Beth and Troy really were good friends and Troy was just doing the good friend thing by hanging out with his buddy’s girl. You know, try and make sure she’s safe and keep an eye on her. That’s not a strange thing. I know if I were out of town I’d have you check up on Jessica. Hell that’s what friends are for,” Brad agrees by shaking his head as he listens. “So anyway; if they were just friends I started to think about the fiance. Just think about his side of it. Your girl comes up missing, as well as a good friend of yours. The press tries to implicate the football team. Rumors are the guys raped the girl and killed them both. I don’t know about you but if I’m him I’m going to be looking for a payback.” Todd turns the page as Brad interjects.

              “True. But why wait so long? If you want revenge why not take it now? Why would he have waited 16 years to do what he probably wanted to do the day he heard what people thought happened?” Brad explains.

              “I know what you’re saying Brad. But I still think it’s worth checking into.” Todd smiles as he hands Brad that page with the headline.

              “Absolutely I agree. But I think if he was the one this guy would have done it then. But you are right where there’s smoke there’s fire.” Brad reads the article while Todd pulls out another one.

“I know were going to have Tammy check the family of the guys to see if any of them had any kind of influential family members who could have been capable of a cover up. But another thing that stuck out like a soar thumb to me was Beth’s dad was a Judge. The headline talks about him being killed in a car accident.” Todd tries to locate that headline in his folder.

              “He was? What city was he a judge in?” Brad asks as he thumbs through another headline.

              Todd smiles as he pulls out the article. “Here it is.”

              Brad starts to read the article. “It say’s he was a judge in the appellate court in Springfield.”

              Todd shakes his head. “It also says he spent the final year of his life trying to find out what happened to his daughter and her friend. I wonder with his kind of influence why he couldn’t force the issue to get the case reopened after Champaign closed it.”

              Brad sits the article down. “He’s in Springfield. And since he was an appellate court judge his jurisdiction ended in Springfield. He wouldn’t have been able to reopen a case in Champaign. He wouldn‘t have had the authority.”

              Todd shakes his head. “It said in the article that he was a highly respected judge. If he were that respected why wouldn’t the state back him on this and help. It only makes sense to me that they would have done it for him.”

              Brad shakes his head as he sips his coffee. “There’s something in Champaign. Like we talked about before, it seems awfully funny that they closed that case so early.

With the speculation and rumors it would have only made sense to me to at least check out the possible crime scene. I mean why they wouldn’t have checked out thoroughly the last place that they were seen alive is a mystery to me, at a bare minimum. And if they did it seems to me with what Howard told us if they did just a basic investigation of the place where the attack supposedly took place they would have found blood. Hell if they dug a grave just a short distance from where the fire was it seems to me that any rookie would have noticed that the earth had been moved. If someone digs a hole in the ground and plants some flowers. You can tell that they dug there. You’re talking about a grave that has the bodies of two kids in it. Jesus Christ. If those rumors came out today here in Chicago,” Todd listens as he sips on his coffee and finishes off a piece of his bacon. “…the first thing you or I would do is to go to the place the bond fire took place. We would scour the area for clues. That’s the first thing we would do. And I’m talking about any case. Now when this went down sixteen years ago it was a national story. The team just won the National Championship. The team was questioned about the allegations. And not one investigator went to the scene to look for possible evidence,” Todd interrupts.
“Maybe they did?”
Brad looks away. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. And we’re talking about a story that was getting worldwide press. It just seems like a bunch of people that didn’t check things out.”

              Todd smiles and interrupts. “Or a bunch of people trying to hide something.”

              Brad looks at Todd and removes his smile. “Yeah, that makes sense, but why?” Brad looks at the article again and tells Todd. “Monday morning were going to Champaign my friend to find out what kind of police force was handling the case when it happened.”

              Todd smiles and says. “I like the way you think.”

              Brad starts to hand the articles and notes back to Todd. “Is there anything else?”

              Todd starts to neatly place the papers back into his folder and says. “Not a lot right now. But I’m just getting started. Dorothy and Betty are going to be checking the leads of the people last scene at the bond fire like I told you about from what Betty and me found out. Who knows? Maybe we’ll find something their.”

              Brad smiles and winks. “That’s good. Because when big daddy starts looking, shit gets found, plus between Betty and Dorothy checking we‘ll find something,” Brad lies a twenty-dollar bill down on the table. “Isn’t that right big daddy?”

              Todd winks. “You got that right.”

              Mary walks over and picks up the twenty. “You better take this back. You know momma doesn’t charge you boys.”

              “It’s not payment for the food. It’s a tip for having the privilege of being in the presence of such a lovely wonderful waitress like you my dear. You have to keep it. Isn’t that right big daddy?” Brad leans down and gives her a kiss on the cheek.

              Todd smiles and walks over and gives Mary a kiss on the other cheek. “That’s right sweetheart. You can‘t say no to big daddy.”

              Mary smiles and shakes her head. “Thanks. And you boys have a good weekend.” She places her hands on their backs as they leave.

CHAPTER 16

TODD DROPS OFF BRAD AT THE OASIS TO PICK UP HIS JEEP

             
Todd pulls up beside Brad’s Jeep and puts his truck in park. Brad opens the door and says. “Thanks for the ride.”

              Todd leans over. “I was suppose to buy
you
breakfast this morning. I just remembered you left the tip.” Todd starts to reach for his wallet.

              Brad closes the door. “I got it. Don’t worry about it.”