by BJ Bourg
“So, he was abusing drugs?”
Gina hesitated.
“It’s okay to speak freely,” I coaxed. “He’s already gone, so there’s nothing you can say that’ll hurt him now. It can only help with the case. The more you tell me, the better our chances of finding the killer.”
She shifted in her chair. “I…I know he liked to drink a lot and he did cocaine from time to time. Um…”
She grew quiet. When she didn’t say anything more, I encouraged her to continue.
“Well, he’s got charges pending right now, and it might cause problems with his bar license.” She fidgeted again in her chair. “I know he was worried about getting suspended and not being able to practice law. It had been bothering him for quite a while, but then he recently told me everything would be okay. It even seemed like he was back to his normal, happy self, and he wasn’t as anxious anymore.”
“What kind of charges?”
“Driving while intoxicated, third offense, and I think they suspected him of using.” She lowered her eyes. “He’s a good man. He just had a problem with alcohol and, sometimes, drugs. But it wasn’t his fault. He had a rough life.”
I couldn’t pass judgment on anyone who abused alcohol or drugs to mask their problems. I had fallen into that ditch before, and I knew how hard it was to climb back out of it.
“You said he told you everything would be okay,” I said. “Did he explain how?”
She shook her head. “He never did say.”
“How long ago was he arrested?”
“Oh, it’s been about three weeks now. We were waiting to see what the district attorney’s office would do, but then he said everything was okay, so I figured he’d heard from them.”
“Why did it matter what the DA’s office did?”
“Well, if they charged him with third offense DWI, then it would be a felony and he could get his license suspended,” she explained. “If they went with a misdemeanor second offense DWI, then the most he might get from the Bar would be a written reprimand.”
I made a note to contact the district attorney’s office about the case and then continued my questioning.
Like Kim, Gina contended that Ralph didn’t have any enemies. She said everyone loved him and that he had lots of friends. She provided a list of his closest friends, and it mirrored the list I’d received from Kim.
“As his secretary, you know more about him that anyone else,” I said. “You probably know more about him than his own wife.”
This seemed to make Gina’s breasts swell with pride. She smiled and nodded her head in agreement.
“So, do you know if he’s stepped outside of his marriage with anyone?”
Gina blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Has he had any affairs with anyone?”
“He would never!” She straightened defiantly in her chair. “He might be a flirt, but he would never cheat on his wife. He’s a good man, detective.”
“Oh, I know he is, and I’m not trying to suggest otherwise.” I tried desperately to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but it was difficult. “I’m just trying to find out if there are any rumors about him and other women. You know how people love to gossip. A man smiles at a woman, she smiles back, someone sees the exchange, and suddenly they’re sleeping together.”
Gina nodded slowly, not knowing where I was going with my line of questioning.
“If someone were to accuse Ralph of having an affair with someone other than his wife, who might it be?”
Gina’s cheeks turned red and she pulled her shoulders back slightly. “Well, um, I’ve been accused of having an affair with him.”
She said it almost proudly, and I had to wonder if she was actually telling the truth. I also began to wonder if what Kim had said about Ralph liking powerful women was true. Of course, I knew that power and job titles were not synonymous, so it was quite possible Gina was a powerful woman, and that Kim had underestimated this woman sitting in front of me.
When I didn’t respond, Gina seemed offended. “I’m serious,” she said. “I’ve been accused of sleeping with Ralph—and on more than one occasion.”
“Have you now?” I asked, trying to sound impressed. “And who might’ve accused you two of having an affair?”
“Orrin.”
“Your boyfriend?”
She nodded smugly, and just like that, Orrin Cheramie moved straight to the top of my suspect list.
CHAPTER 11
As I continued interviewing Gina, she told me how Ralph would buy her gifts, give her extra money, and even invite her to special events only reserved for spouses.
“Did you attend any of these events?” I asked.
“I couldn’t.” Her mouth fell into an involuntary frown. “Orrin would’ve thrown a fit.”
“Has he ever thrown a fit in your presence before?”
“Yeah, a few times.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Well,” she said, pausing to recall an incident. “There was the time I came home with a dress that Ralph had bought me. It was an expensive dress, the nicest I’ve ever owned. When Orrin saw the bag I was carrying, he asked where I’d gotten it. I told him Ralph bought it for me and he nearly lost his shit.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry for cursing.”
“I’ve heard worse from the preschoolers down the street,” I joked. “So, Orrin became angry when you showed up with a dress that your boss had purchased for you?”
She nodded. “And he got even madder when I told him it actually fit. He wanted to know how Ralph knew my size and he accused me of having an affair with him. He threatened to tell Ralph’s wife and he even…”
Gina let her voice trail off. She seemed to sink into her chair.
“He put his hands on you, didn’t he?”
She nodded slowly. “He slapped me across the face and made my lip swell up. It was the first time he’d ever done anything like that to me. I’d heard from one of his friends that he hit his last girlfriend, but I never thought he’d do it to me. I thought he loved me.”
I gritted my teeth. I already didn’t like this Orrin Cheramie.
“You said that was the first time he’d ever done anything like that to you,” I said. “How many other times has he hit you?”
“Just a couple of other times, and it was all over his jealousy of Ralph.”
“When was the last time he hit you?”
“About three months ago, but that was the last time. I’ve had the upper hand ever since then.” She smirked, and it was then that I saw the powerful side of her. “Ralph had sent me flowers to thank me for staying late one day to help him meet an important deadline on a case. When Orrin saw the flowers he became enraged and grabbed me by the throat. I looked him right in the eyes and told him to squeeze hard enough to leave a mark. It stunned him and he actually released his grip. When he did, I slapped him as hard as I could in the face and told him to hit me back. I told him to leave another bruise on my lip so I could show it to Ralph and have him arrested.”
Gina stopped talking and laughed. “You should’ve seen the look on his face. I told him Ralph had the pictures of my last swollen lip in a safe place and he would turn them over to the police if Orrin ever hit me again. From then on, he would still get mad and threaten me, but he never laid another hand on me.”
“Why didn’t you just leave him?” I asked. “You had the courage to stand up to him, so why not just walk out the door?”
Her shoulders slumped. “To be honest, I really do love him, and I can’t afford to live on my own. I’ve got a car note and some credit card bills, so I don’t have enough to make it on my own.”
“What about your mom and dad? Couldn’t they help you until you were caught up on your bills?”
“I would never go to them for help!” She shook her head vigorously. “I’d never hear the end of it. They told me not to get involved with Orrin in the first place, but I loved him. If they knew what had happened, they’d do
everything in their power to wreck our relationship for good, and I’m not ready for it to be over with Orrin. Things are finally going good between us…”
Gina stop talking and her face fell into a deep scowl.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” She hesitated, and then shook her head. “It’s nothing really.”
“No, you definitely thought of something that troubled you.” When she didn’t go on, I told her I needed to know everything she knew, as it might help me solve the murder of Ralph. “You do want to see his killer brought to justice, right?”
She nodded and her eyes shifted around the room. “I don’t know what I’m thinking. I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”
I thought back to what she was saying at the exact moment she had shut down, and decided to play off of it.
“You’re happy now that things are going really well between you and Orrin, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir, I am.”
“And you don’t want to say or do anything to screw that up, right?”
“Right.”
“You believe Orrin’s the killer, don’t you?”
She gasped. “I didn’t say that!”
“No, but you’re thinking it.” I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. “What I want to know now is what makes you think it’s Orrin? What did he say or do that made you think it was him?”
She stammered for a moment, and then said, “Didn’t you say Ralph’s phone was missing?”
“I did.”
She began chewing on her fingernails. “Well, I told Orrin that I gave Ralph the pictures of my swollen lip, and I did. He had it saved on his cell phone. As long as Ralph had that cell phone with those pictures on it, I had the upper hand in our relationship.”
I pursed my lips. I didn’t know why someone would feel the need to have the upper hand in a relationship, but I wasn’t gonna judge. “So, you think Orrin killed Ralph and stole his phone to regain control over the relationship?”
“I don’t know! I don’t think Orrin did this, but…I…I just don’t know.”
“What else is there?” I pressed. “There’s something more—something you’re not telling me.”
She hesitated, but finally let out a long sigh. “Okay, when Orrin came to see me in here, he said that things would be different from now on, and that we were playing by his rules now.”
I nodded thoughtfully and pondered what she’d just said. While it was the best lead I had at the moment, something was bothering me.
“How would Orrin get close enough to shoot Ralph right in the head?” I asked. “Were they friendly?”
“No, they didn’t really like each other. They’ve never hung out or anything.”
I grunted as I watched my newfound theory start to unravel at the seams. And then there was the question of opportunity.
“Were you and Orrin together yesterday?”
“For most of the day,” she said. “We went to Gonzales and got back around three or four. He left to get some beer at around eight last night, but he didn’t come back until almost eleven. When I asked what took him so long, he said he ran into one of his buddies at the gas station.”
“Who was the buddy?”
“He didn’t say and I didn’t ask.” She shrugged. “He runs into people he knows everywhere we go. He works at a tire shop, and it seems everyone in this town has had a flat at one time or another.”
I made a mental note to find out the name of Orrin’s friend so I could verify his story. I then did a quick calculation in my head. The state of rigor mortis on Ralph’s body was consistent with him having been killed anywhere from yesterday evening to midnight, so unless Orrin had a witness to his whereabouts, he might be a likely candidate.
“Whoever killed him thought there was something important on his cell phone,” I said. “Other than the pictures of your swollen lip, do you know anything else that might be on his phone that someone might want to murder him over?”
She shook her head, but she got that strange look on her face again.
“What is it now?” I asked.
“I might know how you can find out what’s on his phone even though you don’t have the phone,” she said, picking her words carefully.
“Go on.” I was intrigued, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. “I’m listening.”
“When I sent him the pictures of my lip, he told me what to tell Orrin and he said we’d always have the pictures to hold over his head. I asked what would happen if he lost his cell phone, because that happened already when he went deep sea fishing once.” She paused to rub her nose, and then continued. “He said he could get another phone and send the picture to that phone, too, but then I told him he could just get an iPad and synch the two devices. That way, he would always have a backup of everything on his phone.”
I glanced at Susan for verification.
“Yes, caveman,” Susan said with an amused smirk, “that’s a real thing.”
I smiled when I saw the dimple form on her chin. Although I loved every inch of my wife’s body, I sure loved seeing her dimple. I turned back to Gina.
“Okay, now that my IT expert tells me it’s possible, you can go on.”
“Ralph bought the iPad and brought it to the office. I showed him how to use it and then I connected the two devices. He told me he would keep it in his gun safe at home, and that it would be safe from everything, including a fire.”
“So, are you saying that everything he does on his cell phone automatically updates to the iPad?” I asked, a bit skeptical.
“Everything.” Gina nodded her head for emphasis. “When he receives or sends a text message, it automatically appears on his iPad. His email messages and phone calls also go to the iPad. It’s like a clone.”
“Wow,” I said. “I didn’t realize you could do that.”
Gina pointed to my phone on the desk. “Your phone could do it, too.”
“Oh, please,” Susan interjected, “we had to drag this man kicking and screaming into the age of smart phones. If he had his way, he would still be using that old flip phone he had when I first met him.”
Gina laughed with Susan, but I ignored both women. No matter how hard I tried not to, my hopes were way up. I was wondering at the possibilities now. What if Ralph had communicated with the killer moments before his murder? If we could get our hands on that iPad, we might be able to identify the killer within minutes. We might even be able to track the phone—if the iPad was smart enough to tell us that. I then began to worry that the battery on the iPad might’ve died before capturing anything.
“Did Ralph say if he charges the iPad on a regular basis?” I asked. “If it’s anything like my cell phone, I have to charge it almost every night. When I first bought it, it could run for a few days without needing a charge, but now it dies every night.”
“Oh, it’s constantly charging. He’s got a power outlet inside the gun safe and the iPad’s always plugged in.” She smirked. “He’s so rich he’s got a generator that can run his entire house when the power goes out for hurricanes. He’d often brag that while the rest of us are sweating buckets and praying our food doesn’t spoil in the freezer, he’s kicking back watching TV and eating ice cream. But, yeah, that iPad will synch to his cell phone forever—no matter what happens.”
Although she was still talking, I wasn’t listening anymore. I was already moving full speed ahead in my mind, making plans to contact Kimberly Plant and get permission to look at that iPad. I also wanted to find out why Kim hadn’t mentioned Ralph’s pending DWI. If he stood to lose his license to practice law, that would make his situation desperate. Desperate people do desperate things, and he might’ve done something to force someone’s hand.
CHAPTER 12
Once my interview with Gina was concluded, I offered to have Susan put her up in our empty—and rarely used anymore—battered women’s shelter. She smiled graciously, but declined.
“I do l
ove, Orrin, Detective Wolf,” she said. “Despite all of his faults, I don’t want to leave him.”
“And if he’s the one responsible for killing Ralph?”
She turned to stare off. “I don’t know.”
I led Gina to the dispatcher’s station and asked Lindsey Savoie—our weekday dispatcher—to contact Regan and ask if she could bring Gina to her car.
Lindsey placed the book she’d been reading on the counter and reached for the base station mic. She made the call and then reached for her book again.
“Are you okay, Lindsey?” I asked, worried that something might be wrong. She usually greeted everyone with enthusiasm.
“I think the hero’s dead.” There were tears in her eyes and her lower lip was trembling.
I glanced at the book she was reading. It was Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn.
“Is it any good?” I asked.
“The best,” she breathed, and jerked her eyes back to the page she was on. “I need to find out what happened to Mitch Rapp.”
I walked Gina out into the warm sunshine and we waited at the top of the large concrete steps that led to the front doors.
“That girl Lindsey sure likes to read, huh?” Gina asked.
“Yep,” I responded absently. “I’ve never known her to go anywhere without a book.”
Gina said something else, but I didn’t hear her. I was busy wondering why Kimberly Plant hadn’t told me about her husband’s iPad. Was it possible she knew nothing about it? While it was possible, I doubted it. She had acted weird when I’d asked about Ralph’s cell phone, and it seemed she was holding something back—
“Detective Wolf?” Gina said loudly, breaking through my thoughts. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, yeah, my mind’s just on this case.”
Gina nodded and frowned. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight—or tomorrow. I don’t know that I’ll ever sleep again. I’m afraid when I close my eyes I’ll see Ralph slumped over his desk.”
“Well, this I can tell you with certainty—if you put enough time and distance between yourself and any traumatic event, the effects start to wear away.” I frowned as I remembered my first wife and daughter. “The pain never goes away, but you learn to manage it better.”
