Worse Than Being Alone (11 page)

These thoughts occurred less frequently than in
those first few agonizing months after his work related car
accident. Back then, his company was growing, and he had become a
millionaire due to the explosion of building and profits during
those years.

Tall, with a muscular build prior to his injury,
David Weller had never thought of himself as handsome. His nose was
too big and his blue eyes were too close together to qualify so he
decided being handsome would have been distraction anyway.

Determined to succeed, he worked in construction and
still managed to get an engineering degree. Marriage and four sons
followed in quick succession. As the years went by, David Weller
was aware his marriage wasn’t perfect, but his devastating injury
seemed to be a catalyst for change as his wife tearfully told him
she hadn’t signed up to share her life with a quadriplegic.

Already depressed, David Weller poured all his
determination into figuring out a way to kill himself, not an easy
task for a quadriplegic. Afraid approaching someone on the hospital
staff would only land him on the psychiatric unit, he figured he
would have to wait until he got out of rehab. All that changed when
Roni Edelin stormed into his life. Immediate hate; that was the
thought that crossed his mind when the red-haired dynamo walked
into his room.

It only took Roni three visits to figure out he
wanted to die, so she presented him with a choice. Pour all his
energy into rehab and building another life or just tell her up
front he was going to give up so she didn’t have to waste her time
trying to save him.

The determination that had built his business now
became focused on his rehab. He exercised every day, using special
exercise equipment that stimulated his nerves and fired his
muscles. His pre-injury bulk had disappeared, but it was replaced
by a wiry strength. After rehab, he had convinced his sons to join
him in the business when they finished college. David Weller’s
million-dollar hotel building business was now a billion dollar
business.

His thoughts were interrupted when Ted Simmons, his
personal assistant, stepped into the room and said. “Roni is here,
David.”

“
Thanks, Ted,” David Weller said
as he blew into the mouth controller and turned his wheelchair
around. “Show her in.”

“
Is there anything else you need?”
Ted asked.

“
Not at the moment,” David said as
Ted disappeared and Roni took his place, smiling as she walked into
the room.

“
Hi, Red,” David Weller said,
using his personal nickname. “It’s been awhile.”

“
Yes, it has,” Roni said as she
leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I see you’re still using
that nickname.”

“
It’s a term of endearment, Roni,”
he said.

“
So, that was what you called me
on good days in rehab?” she asked. “What did you call me on bad
days?”

“
You don’t want to know,” David
said, laughing. “How are Harley and the kids?”

“
They’re good,” Roni said. “I’m
going to be a grandma.”

“
Wow, if the kid is anything like
you it won’t be pretty.”

“
Yeah, Harley said the same
thing,” Roni said. “How are you doing, David?”

“
Really good, Roni. My kids are
all involved in the business and we’ve become very close. Life is
good. You mentioned you needed some help. You know I’d do anything
for you.”

“
I appreciate that, David,” Roni
said. “There are actually two things I wanted to talk to you about.
I’ve got this new paraplegic. He has the same look in his eyes that
you had at first. It scares me.”

“
Did you give him your don’t waste
my time speech?’”

“
Of course,” Roni said. “It
doesn’t seem to be working like it did with you. He seems like he’d
rather just give up. I was hoping maybe you’d go see him. He needs
to see he can still have a life.”

“
I’d be happy to do that. What was
the other thing?”

“
I seem to remember you telling me
you had an ex FBI agent working for you. My father has married a
virtual stranger and I want to check her out. I was hoping he could
help me.”

“
You mean Lionel Phelps,” David
said. “He handles security issues, does background checks, and
fixes problems for me. He has an office here in the hotel since
this is our world headquarters.”

“
I’d be happy to,” Roni started
but Weller cut her off.

“
Don’t even think about trying to
pay me,” David said as puffed twice into his mouthpiece.

Ted Simmons stuck his head in the
door and asked. “Did you need something, David?”

“
Call Lionel and see if he can
join us.”

Ten minutes later a tall, gangly man dressed in
jeans and a loud Hawaiian shirt entered the room, looking somewhat
puzzled. Large glasses with black frames startled Roni because of
his pale complexion, green eyes, and blond hair.

“
Hey, David, Ted said to get up
here ASAP. Is everything OK?”

“
Yes, Lionel, everything is fine,”
David said. “I’d like you to meet Roni Edelin. She’s a very good
friend of mine and she has a problem I’d like you to help her with.
She wants you to do a background check on her father’s brand new
wife.”

“
Ah,” Lionel said.

“
That sounds awful,” Roni said,
blushing profusely. “I guess I didn’t realize how bad it sounded
until you said it out loud.”

“
Do you suspect her of something?”
Lionel asked.

“
I have no proof of anything,”
Roni said. “I’ve been a nurse for 25 years. I’ve learned to listen
to my little voice when it tells me something is off.”

“
I know just what you mean,”
Lionel said. “Every time I’ve ignored mine I’ve been sorry. It
won’t hurt to check her out. I usually keep going until I’m
convinced there’s nothing to my suspicions. If it all looks cut and
dried, it probably is. That’s when it’s time to quit. I’ll get the
basic information and we can go from there.”

“
That would be great,” Roni
said.

“
I think Lionel could help you
check out your other clients,” David said. “I want you to feel free
to call him anytime Roni, OK?”

“
I really appreciate that David,”
Roni said.

“
Before you start digging there’s
something I want you to consider,” Lionel said. “There’s a good
chance the person you’re investigating could find out.”

“
Yeah, I can see how that might be
a problem,” Roni said.

“
You have to decide if you want
your father to know,” Lionel said. “If you go back and talk to
relatives or old neighbors of this woman one of them might tell her
and she’d probably tell your father.”

“
I get it,” Roni said. “I’ve given
this a lot of thought, and I think I’ll take my chances. I can’t
just let it go.”

“
There’s something else you need
to consider,” Lionel said. “I’ve seen it a couple of times when I
started investigating someone. I call it the law of unintended
consequences.”

“
What is that?” Roni
asked.

“
Well, if there is something
questionable or even illegal in her past,’” Lionel began, but
stopped abruptly. “Here’s the deal. Sometimes, bad people feel safe
as long as nobody’s digging around. Especially when it’s something
that happened a long time ago. When somebody starts poking a stick
into their past, sometimes they panic and actually overreact. They
try to clean up their mess and tie up any loose ends.”

Chapter Eighteen

Roni was showing our new part time secretary, Cindy
Washington, how to use the computer in the recently leased space of
K&R Investigations when I walked through the door. The office
consisted of two small rooms; an outer reception area with a desk
that Cindy would man, and an inner office with a door and a couple
of desks that Roni and I would share.

Cindy Washington was a high school
classmate of ours. She had 10 years of secretarial experience under
her belt, but had difficulty keeping a job because of her OCD. The
entire student body of Hillsboro H
H
igh School had referred to her as
Crazy Cindy, and I had been less than enthusiastic about hiring
her.

Roni met Crazy Cindy when they were six years old.
Even then, it was obvious that Cindy was different. Roni told me
she caught glimpses of what was to come in grade school. Once when
Roni slept over at Cindy’s house, she found a machete under Cindy’s
bed. Cindy refused to explain the reason she had the weapon though
she made Roni swear not to tell Cindy’s parents.

Years later, Cindy finally admitted she hid the
machete so she could kill any snakes that she was convinced were
trying make it inside their house. A lifelong fear of snakes caused
her to block vents, drains, spaces under doors, and any other
access point Cindy considered at risk. The usual fear of germs and
frequent hand washing most people associate with OCD caused her to
have severely chapped hands. Despite her illness, she had managed
to stay married for 20 years and have two relatively normal
sons.

“
Hey, they finally put our name on
the door,” I said. “I guess we’re official now. How’s it going,
Cindy?”

“
Good, Kitty,” Cindy said. “Aren’t
you going to call me Crazy Cindy?”

“
Not to your face,” I said. “Hey,
I’m trying here, OK?”

“
Fair enough,” Cindy
said.

“
My job is not going to involve
being a referee,” Roni said as she started to walk back into our
office. “You two need to play nice in the sandbox.”

“
Yeah, yeah,” I said as I followed
her and closed the door.

“
I mean it, Kitty,” Roni said.
“Just give her a chance.”

“
OK, I promise to try,” I said. “I
get she needs friends and a job.”

“
How’s your burn patient?” Roni
asked.

“
Hanging in there,” I said. “She’s
in that precarious percentage of burn victims where it could go
either way. I met her daughter. She’s really something.”

“
She seems to have made quite an
impression on you.”

“
That’s true,” I said. “I don’t
think she has any interest in letting me be involved. She has a lot
of trust issues. How is David Weller?”

“
He’s doing well. He agreed to go
see Brad Henry. I talked to his investigator, Lionel Phelps. He’s
going to see what he can dig up on Marian.”

“
Good,” I said. “Then maybe we can
quiet our little voices a little.”

“
At least we’ll know if there’s
anything in her past. Lionel brought up something I hadn’t really
thought about. He wants me to get that Marian might find out and it
may drive a wedge between Billy and me.”

“
What if something bad happens?” I
asked. “Then you’ll have to live with the fact you didn’t do
anything.”

“
I guess there is no perfect
option. I’d rather check her out and live with that decision. On a
different note, how about trying for Ho again tomorrow? I’ve got
Harley and his dad lined up to help.”

“
Sounds good,” I said. “What’s the
plan?”

“
Box the black Mustang in front
and back and plant a GPS tracking device under the
carriage.”

“
I like it,” I said. “Then we
don’t have to worry about losing them. We can follow at a
distance.”

“
That’s right. We’ll need another
driver. I was thinking we could ask Cindy.”

“
I’m not so sure that’s a good
idea,” I said. “You know stress makes her symptoms
worse.”

“
I know but this won’t be a big
deal.”

“
I hope you’re right,” I said. “I
can just picture her losing it and standing in the middle of the
road blabbing about snakes. Are you going to have to go out of town
to follow up on what Lionel comes up with?”

“
Probably. Marian told me she was
born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. I’m sure I’ll start there.
She was very vague about where she lived before she moved to
Alton.”

“
Maybe this is a blessing in
disguise,” I said. “You know, we’d be branching out a little bit.
That might be a good thing.”

“
I was thinking the same thing.
I’ve started wondering if following comp cheats will get old after
awhile.”

We both stopped talking when we heard the office
phone ring. We could hear Crazy Cindy talking to someone and then
the phone on the desk buzzed. Roni hit the speaker button and we
heard Cindy say. “Roni, it’s Lionel Phelps.”

“
Hi Lionel,” Roni said as she
picked up the phone. “My partner Kitty is here. Is it OK if I put
you on speaker phone?”

“
Sure,” Lionel said as his voice
boomed in the room. “I’ve got some initial information on Marian
Cirillo. I’ll fax it over when we get done talking.”

“
That sounds great Lionel,” Roni
said. “What have you come up with?”

“
It’s interesting,” Lionel said.
“I think you’re definitely going to want to follow up on this
stuff.”

“
What do you mean?” Roni
asked.

“
Without going into all the
details on the phone,” he said. “Marian has been married six times
including your dad and it seems like it’s not good for your health
to be married to Marian. Beside your dad, only one of her husbands
is still alive.”