Shadow of Death (23 page)

Last night, Troy and I were together again. His wife had been waiting
for him to come home so she could go to some meeting, but Troy told me to meet him at the gym and, together, we rode to the motel in his truck. We argued because he still hadn't told Natalie about us. He promised he'd do it, but I'm getting impatient. When I told him that I would tell
her, he asked if I would wait until after he spoke with a divorce attorney
.
He wanted to make sure he had a chance to get full custody of his children
. He said Natalie is vindictive and might try to prevent him from seeing them. He called her the wicked witch of the east.

“That never happened,” Troy said to Natalie. “I promise that I've never call you out of your name to her or anyone else.”

“Shh!” She was annoyed by his interruption and kept reading.

I don't know what to believe anymore. I told Troy that I would give him
until Monday morning to tell Natalie about our affair and, if he didn't,
I would. He got really mad at me and we got into a huge argument about
it. Eventually, we made up and made love. I'm still mad at him, though
. If he doesn't tell Natalie by Monday morning, I swear I will.

“See what I mean? You know that those pictures of the two of us were fake. Yet, she's writing that we made love. Look at the last entry.”

I'm sitting across from Nate's pre-school waiting for Natalie to arrive
. Troy left a threatening voice message on my cell phone Saturday night. He threatened to kill me. I don't know what's gotten into him. When
we made love Friday night, everything was fine. Then, Saturday he was
going off on me. I'm scared for my life. I'm scared for Natalie's life, too. That's why I'm going to tell her about our affair. Before, I was going to
do it because I thought I would have Troy to myself. Now, I'm in fear for
my life and hers. After the message Troy left me threatening my life, I
think it's best that I end our affair. I'm not telling Natalie to be revenge
ful. I'm telling her so she can know the kind of man she married and so I can apologize for the role I played in violating their vows. Troy is a dangerous man. Worse, he's a cop. He once told me that he knew how to plan the perfect murder and make it so that a body would never be found. I thought he was playing at the time, but after his threatening message on Saturday, I think he was forewarning me. Everyone thinks
Troy is a perfect husband, father, and officer of the law. I know different
. He's a man who thinks he can have whatever he wants, do whatever he wants without getting caught. I'm about to bring his perfect image to an end and it may very well cost me my life. If I don't write another entry
after today, then it means Troy has made good on his threat from Saturday
night. Gotta go…Natalie just pulled up.

Troy wasn't sure what to make of his wife's silence, so he asked, “What are you thinking?”

“I don't know what to think. I do see what you mean in terms of her making up stuff. She wrote as if she was planning to apologize to me and that couldn't be further from the truth. She took pleasure in telling me about y'all's affair.”

“We didn't have an affair,” he clarified.

“You know what I mean. She's good. If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to believe everything she wrote. It's good that you found it and not the police.”

“Something doesn't sit right about that either. It was too easy for me to find. Natalie, our guys are good. I know CPD has been all through her place and yet I found her diary under her bedroom pillow. It was too convenient. Whoever killed Cheryl knew that the cops would be back to search her place and I think they wanted the diary to look like it had been an oversight. It was purposely left there to incriminate me. I wasn't supposed to be the one who found it.”

“Okay, now you're not making sense. Cheryl wrote the diary. She didn't stab herself.”

“No, she didn't. I bet the plan was to only make it look like she'd been murdered, but then whoever was helping her flipped the script and actually killed her.”

“Who would do this? Surely, you still don't think it's Will, do you?”

Troy didn't know. The connection between Nugent and Cheryl was suspicious. Before he could verbalize this thought, his cell phone rang.

“Who is that?”

“I'm not sure. I don't recognize the number.” He answered anyway. “Hello.”

“Troy, 'dis Shay. Will was at my house. I been tryin' to git in touch wit' him since you and me spoke last week, but he neva returned my calls. 'Den he show up ova here outta nowhere and try and git an attitude when I ask him where he been? I
almost
went off on him 'bout 'dat girl you told me 'bout, but you told me not to say nuttin', so I didn't.” Troy was surprised. He was sure Shay would have spilled the beans. She was more loyal than Troy had thought. “Plus, he was actin' weird, talkin' 'bout personal trainin' sessions at 'da gym, and cryin' for no reason. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong. He only said 'dat he did sumthin' bad. I didn't ask what 'cuz the less I know, the less I can testify to, huh-nee. He said he came ova to tell me bye 'cuz he's leavin' town again and 'dis time he wasn't comin' back. He said he had to go home first and 'den to 'da gym. I thought you'd wanna know.”

“Yes, thank you! How long ago did he leave?”

“Like three minutes ago. I called you right away.”

“Good. I'm glad you did. Thank you. I'm headed there right now.”

“No problem. I said I gotchu and I meant 'dat. Imma meet you 'dere cuz I wanna see how he act when you confront him 'bout all 'dis stuff wit' 'dat girl. 'Den Imma go off on him 'bout playin' me and havin' me do his work while he out messin' around. I ain't dressed yet, but give me a few and I'll be on my way.”

Troy hung up without giving a response. “What was that about?” Natalie asked.

“That was Shay.” He quickly recapped what Shay had told him. “I don't know where he lives, but I hope to catch him at the gym and see, once and for all, what he has to do with all of this.”

“I don't like this, Troy. Please, be careful. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he pledged before running upstairs and getting his personal firearm. He didn't anticipate having to use it unless he needed to make sure Will remained on the premises until the cops arrived. Troy couldn't resist the temptation to peek in on his children who all slept peacefully. On the way out, Troy kissed Natalie and once again affirmed his feelings for her. He grabbed the diary and put it back in his pocket despite her objections that she wanted to read through it. Troy was scared that if he left it there, Natalie's mind might get all discombobulated trying to separate between fact and fiction. She was on his side again. No need to risk messing that up.

W
ill's car wasn't in the lot when Troy arrived. He ran inside, looking for the day receptionist. The place was pretty empty for a mid-Monday afternoon. None of the regulars he knew were there, except for his neighbor, Ann, who ignored his head nod by rolling her eyes and giving him the finger. Clearly, she was still upset about the cereal bar thing.

Troy spotted a blonde walking from the back carrying a stack of towels. By process of elimination, he pegged her to be the front worker. “Has Will been here yet?”

“No. I haven't seen Will in over a week. Are you Shay's police friend?”

“Yeah.”

“She told me y'all were meeting here. You can wait in Will's office. Let me take these downstairs to the aerobics room and I'll be right back.”

Troy lingered at the front desk wrapping his mind around how he would confront Will while he waited. Having been forced to surrender his badge, he had no authority to hold Will if he tried to run.
Will doesn't know that,
he thought. Sure, it was illegal to impersonate an officer or act as one when suspended. But, if Will perceived that he still had the authority of his badge without Troy explicitly saying such, then Troy couldn't be held accountable for Will's assumptions. He'd simply play into them until his suspicions were confirmed and then those officially on the case could take it from there. If Will was a murderer and trying to frame him, the law would ultimately be on Troy's side in the end.

“All right. Follow me.” Troy walked behind the blonde—Heidi, according to her nametag—to the back where she'd come from with the towels. “I haven't seen you before. Are you a member here?'

“Yeah. I normally come in the evenings or sometimes on the weekends.”

“That explains it. I'm usually never here those times, except this last week we've all been working all kinds of crazy schedules trying to help Shay hold down the fort until Will gets back. He's lucky we all like him around here because everyone is pissed. He hasn't even had the decency to call in and check on things like he normally does when he's away. Even mom is angry. She called earlier looking for him and was upset because he hadn't communicated his plans with her. I don't know what's going on with Will, but this is my last time busting my butt while he's away.” Heidi motioned for him to go into a room. “Here ya go. Make yourself at home. Shay should be here soon.”

“Okay, thanks.” In retrospect, Troy should have told Shay to stay put when she said she would meet him here. Will might get spooked if he saw the both of them, especially considering that he'd gone to Shay's place to say good-bye. Troy tried calling the number displayed on his cell phone. “Hey, 'dis Shay. Leave a message and I'll hit you up another day.” He hung up.

Left alone in Will's office, Troy seized the moment to snoop. The place was pretty customary—a large steel-framed desk, a brown leather swivel chair, a bunch of health-conscious charts and sayings on the walls. The only thing of a personal nature was a picture of his young nephew whom Will looked after like a son. Poor little guy, now his parents and uncle would all be in jail. Will was an idiot!

Not surprisingly, the file cabinets and all the drawers on the desk were locked except the center one. Troy slid it open, finding nothing of importance, only regular office supplies. Frustrated, he slammed it shut.

Troy reflected on the last time, ten days ago, when he was at the gym. He knew Will had lied about being here. What else was he missing? Troy closed his eyes, trying to visualize that day.
Take slow
deep breaths,
he told himself, recalling the instructions once given to him when he'd undergone forensic memory recall, or what the rest of the world would call hypnosis. Mentally, he retraced his steps during that last visit. He remembered getting off the phone with Natalie as he pulled into the parking lot.
Was there anything strange in the parking lot?
Troy asked himself. He circled the area with his mind.
Nope.
He was also sure that Will's car hadn't been there. He went in and secured his things in the locker. He remembered seeing Charlie, Fudago, and the married couple. Fudago left prior to Troy finishing his programmed time on the elliptical. Charlie was not far behind though he first stopped to flirt with Shay. Miriam and Ted stayed a while. They were still there when Troy went to the weight room.

The weight room…that's where Troy saw the Naughty by Nature guy! He'd been eyeing Troy suspiciously the entire time and when Troy was finally ready to approach him, the dude was gone. Troy regretted not asking Shay about him. He wasn't going to wait until she got here to do it either; he ran back to the front to find Heidi.

“Hey, have you ever seen a guy around here, about my height and skin complexion, but probably like twenty years younger with a bunch of tattoos. Two of them are very distinguishable. On one arm, he has a picture of an Uzi, and on the other, the words ‘Naughty by Nature.' ”

“Oh, you're talking about Rio!” Heidi responded. “That's not his real name, but that's what everyone calls him. He's usually here about three or four times a week. He's a bit of a gym celebrity right now because he holds the record for the most personal training hours in one month. The trainer he was working with recently moved to L.A. and so now all of the others are competing for his business. It's funny to see the different incentives they're offering. Why do you ask about him?”

“[H]ave you ordered any personal training services?”
That was one of Will's last questions to Troy. Could there be a connection? “Oh, I was curious. Like you said, he's a bit of a celebrity. Maybe I'm a groupie. You wouldn't by chance be able to access his records and get his contact information for me, would you?”

“I'm not buying the groupie thing. What do you really want?”

“Shay told you I'm a detective, right? Truth is, I'm working on a case and I need to ask Mr. Rio a few questions.”

“Do you have a warrant?”

“Ah…not with me. Is it possible for you to give me the information now and I'll bring the paperwork back later? You know I'm legit because Shay told you about me.”

“Yeah, but we can't release information about our clients to a third party without their written consent or a warrant. Company policy.”

“Can't you make an exception this
one
time?” Troy softened his tone to a more seductive level and leaned across the counter. “I'm working on a big case and I really need Rio's information. No one has to know you gave it to me. I won't say anything if you don't.” Troy wasn't sure what bothered him most: that he'd become desperate enough to resort to such tactics to get what he wanted or the wary look he pretended not to see coming from Ann who'd walked past on her cell phone as she went out the door. He couldn't be certain, but it sounded like she was talking about him.