Shadow of Death (9 page)

“Yes. Aneetra will get him, too,” Natalie said by faith.

“Okay. Well, don't hesitate to call me if anything changes. I'm here for you.”

“Thank you so much.”

She gave Natalie a long hug. “No thanks needed.”

As soon as they drove away, Natalie sent Aneetra a text.

“Sumthn has come up. Can u get Nate from school & the twins from Lisa's when u get off?”

“Sure. No prob. Is everything ok?”

“Things r crazy. Plz pray for me.”

Instead of responding, Aneetra called. Natalie didn't answer. As much as Natalie trusted Aneetra and cherished their friendship, she wasn't ready to talk. But, Aneetra called again.

“I can't talk right now, Nee.” She tried hard to fight back the tears that forced their way out anyhow.

“Oh, honey.” Unlike Lisa, Aneetra was a little more persistent in her pursuit to know the matter. “Please tell me what's wrong?”

Natalie responded with more tears.

“Do you need me to come be with you?”

“No. I'm okay,” she lied. Maybe Natalie did need her best friend; she felt like she was on the verge of insanity. Those images were branded in her mind. Aneetra would understand how she felt after all Aneetra's marriage had been through. Lisa would have, too, but Natalie couldn't get a grasp on her own feelings well enough to share them with anyone else.

“You
are not
okay. Say the word and I'm there.”

Natalie was silent as moments passed.

“Okay. I get that you need to be alone right now. Before we hang up, I want to pray with you.” Natalie closed her eyes and listened to the heartfelt words that Aneetra sent to Heaven on her behalf. In the midst of her pain, it temporarily brought joy to Natalie's heart to hear Aneetra pray so fervently for her. Aneetra asked for comfort, wisdom, and peace. The woman prayed so hard that she had to be calling down fire and brimstone from the sky. Natalie could have sworn she heard lightning. “In the mighty and most precious Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.”

Natalie thanked Aneetra for everything. Like Lisa had done, Aneetra responded that no thanks was needed. She also offered to do whatever she could to help Natalie, including taking off of work tomorrow to keep the kids. “Thank you, but that won't be necessary.”

When they got off the phone, Natalie thought about calling Troy again. What would she say? That she was calling to end his clandestine meeting with his mistress? She didn't feel like hearing him try to lie his way out of this. This was the end of her marriage, she was sure. What she wasn't sure about is what life would look like without Troy.

T
roy was in the parking lot of the FBI office by seven as he waited until it opened at 8:15. He felt bad about leaving Natalie to take the babies with her when she took Nate to school. He knew it was more convenient for her when he stayed until she got back, but he wanted to be the first one through the FBI doors this morning. Cheryl's harassment was about to end, even if it meant temporarily inconveniencing his wife.

Being that this was Troy's first time coming to the federal office, he was a little taken aback by how secluded it was. It sat on the far west side of Nationwide Boulevard in a brick building that, in his mind, looked mysteriously important. Visitor parking wasn't free. There were a couple of pay-to-park meters that civilians used to purchase tickets for the spaces that were unassigned. Troy paid for his ticket and waited.

At first Troy got nervous as he watched agents pull into the lot and go inside. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to sit out here. What if he saw Cheryl? Or worse, what if she saw him? Who knew what kind of story she would concoct in rebuttal to his accusations. He really had no proof because he'd deleted all the text messages she'd sent prior to the weekend to prevent Natalie from ever seeing them. Her most recent ones weren't incriminating in the least bit.

The closer it got to 8:15, the more uncomfortable the thought of Cheryl spotting him made Troy feel. He was on her turf and had to ensure that she would be nowhere around, so he decided to send her a text.

“Sorry 4 such l8 notice. Need 2 c u. Can u meet at the Dublin Entre
preneurial Center?”

Her response didn't come until several minutes later.
“Y there??? Let's meet at my house instead.
I'm on my way home now.”

For good measure, she sent her address again, which he already had from the message she'd sent over the weekend. His plan for sending her to the northwestern suburb had been to make sure she was as far away from this office as possible. He knew she'd likely jump at the chance to meet him and he'd been banking on the flexibility of her job to allow her to do so. Apparently, his manipulative tactics had been in vain because Cheryl gave no indication that she was coming into work this morning. Had he known that, he would have left well enough alone. He didn't bother to reply. Instead, he felt a little more at ease, believing that after this visit to her place of employment, Cheryl's harassment of him would be nipped in the bud for good. Ignoring a call from Natalie, he got out of his car and went inside the building.

Having never been to this office or any FBI office, for that matter, Troy had a reality check when he walked in to find the lobby void of a receptionist or other personnel to greet him. There where two glass stairwells on either side, but it was clear that one could not access them without proper ID. He went to the elevator and made his way up to the third floor as indicated on the wall placard. He walked out the elevator and again, there was no one to greet him—nothing but plain painted walls and a door to the left with an intercom button and built-in camera.

“How can I help you?” came the voice after Troy pushed the button.

This was not the scenario he'd planned and he quickly used his law enforcement status so that he didn't seem like just another civilian. He'd even worn a suit this morning to appear more professional. “I'm Detective Troy Evans with the Columbus PD.” He held his badge up to the camera. “I have sensitive information I need to share with someone about one of your agents.

“What kind of information?”

Really? Did this person think he would spill the beans in front of a camera without knowing who was on the other end? “Please, may I speak to someone in person? It's regarding Agent Cheryl Hunter.” Knowing that she wasn't in the office made him more comfortable stating her name.

Several moments passed before there was any response. Next thing Troy knew, he was being approached in the hall by an agent who didn't seem pleased to start his Monday morning off with a visit from CPD. The guy was tall, like he-should-have-been-a-professional-basketball-player tall. He looked down at Troy with impatience. “What information do you have about Ms. Hunter that's so urgent?”

“Is there somewhere we can go to talk?”

“This is it. Now, what can I do for you?”

With no other options before him, Troy laid out the harassment he'd endured the last couple of years from Cheryl, leaving out the Friday night kidnapping and possible sexual assault after deciding that it sounded too strange. “I'm not trying to get her fired, but I do want her to leave me alone. Could you or one of her superiors have a talk with her, please?”

“I'm afraid that won't be possible. Cheryl Hunter is no longer with us. She was discharged over a year ago.”

The news was almost strong enough to knock the wind out of him. “Why?”

“I'm not at liberty to say. If everything you've said is true, you need to file a police report. Your boys should be able to handle this one.” He gave Troy a reassuring pat on the shoulder and walked away, disappearing around the corner.

Troy went back to his truck dumfounded. He'd been certain that coming here would be the leverage he needed against Cheryl. Knowing that she was unemployed, or at least no longer an agent, made her more dangerous than he'd anticipated. He was going to have to file a report for sure. First, he needed to come clean with Natalie and he planned to have a long talk with his wife tonight after the kids went to bed. It wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to having, but it was necessary.

When he got to the office, Troy started going over notes for his open cases. It was futile as he couldn't seem to concentrate. The guy didn't say that Cheryl had resigned; he'd said
discharged
. There was a big difference between those two words and the latter disturbed him. His thoughts were interrupted by a text.

“Is everything ok?”

“Yeah,”
Troy replied, certain that the brevity would indicate that he was running short on patience with Robert's inquiries. How ironic that Robert's text came at a time when Cheryl was preoccupying his mind.

“K. CheckN bcuz Lisa said Natalie was really upset this morn.”

Within a heartbeat's moment, Troy's mind was off Cheryl and on to his wife. Had Natalie been so mad at him for leaving early that she had to share it with Lisa? He shook his head.
Women.
Then, remembering that she'd called him when he was on his way into the FBI office, he tried calling her back. “Hey, babe. I'm sorry I took off so early this morning. I had to take care of some things. I hope you're not mad at me. Robert said something about you being upset and I wanted to talk to you and apologize. Please call me. I love you.”

Troy waited for what seemed like an hour when in actuality it had only been five minutes and called back. No answer. His mind began doing acrobatics, coming up with all kinds of scenarios, wondering if something had happened to Nate or the twins. He dialed his son's pre-school.

“Nate is doing fine, Mr. Evans,” said Ms. Fritz, the school administrator. “Your wife called to request an extended stay and said that Aneetra Bennett would be picking him up today. Is that still correct?”

“Uh, yes,” Troy replied, even though he didn't have a full understanding of what was going on. If anyone knew, it would be Aneetra and he wasted no time reaching out to her.

“Hey, Troy, what's up?”

“That's what I'm calling to ask you.” He shared the text message from Robert.

“Oh.”

“ ‘Oh,' what does that mean? What's going on with Natalie and why am I the last to know?”

“I don't even know. I got a text from her asking if I would get the kids after work. I called her and though she was clearly upset, she didn't want to talk.”

“Why didn't you call me?”

“I figured you already knew. Plus, you know I'm not the one to go behind Natalie's back and play private investigator. I know she'll reach out to me when she's ready.”

That was an obvious dig at Troy for his actions when he and Natalie were dating and she ran off without telling him. At the time, he hadn't met Aneetra yet, but he did find her telephone number in Natalie's caller ID and dialed it, snooping for information. “I'm only trying to figure out what's wrong.”

“If you don't know, then you need to get home and see about her. She sounded bad, Troy. I don't think I've ever heard her that upset before.”

Troy was out of his office and headed home within seconds of his call to Aneetra. Several times he'd tried reaching out to Natalie. Still, no answer.

“N
atalie!” Troy rushed in the house calling her name. It wasn't until he heard a crunch underneath his feet that he saw the broken glass and strewn pictures. He picked up one of the photographs and that's when he put two and two together. Immediately, rage occupied every fiber of his being. He leapt up the stairs at record speed and found his wife in the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was obvious that she'd finished a hefty cry fest. “Oh, honey, I'm so sorry.”

“Get off of me!” she hissed, jumping to her feet. “How could you do this to me, Troy? How could you do this to
us?”

He managed to keep his voice calm despite the boiling temperature inside of him. His rage wasn't with Natalie. It was with Cheryl. “All I can say is that it's not what you think. I swear this is a setup.”

“So that's not you?” She pointed to the image he didn't realize he still held in his hand.

He quickly threw it to the side. “Yes, but—”

“But what? I'm supposed to believe that you were butt-naked with this chick in a picture, but it's not what I think?”

“It's me, but—”

“Let me guess…you were both working on the triple homicide case and needed to comfort each other, right?”

Sarcastic wouldn't adequately describe Natalie's tone. It was beyond sarcasm as her eyes pierced him in a way that Troy had never seen before. They'd had their moments, but nothing like this. Hurt and hatred ran neck-in-neck behind her words and glare, with hatred increasingly taking the lead. “Honey, I can explain.”