Soft Case (Book 1 of the John Keegan Mystery Series)

by John Misak

it with a tight squeeze.

  “What’s this about it not being a good time?” I asked.

  She pointed inside. “You know how Laura and Donny get sometimes.”

  “No, I don’t. What’s going on?” My brother-in-law could get angry sometimes. He had a lot of stress. Sometimes, I thought he went a bit too far. Tough for me to judge from the outside.

  “Now, don’t get all riled up. They just had an argument, that’s all. It happens with married people sometimes. Nothing for you to get concerned about.”

  “Did he go overboard again?”

  Mom grabbed my arm. “What did I just finish telling you?”

  “I heard you. I just asked a question.”

  “They are both at fault. Trust me. You know how your sister can get.”

  I sure did. My sister was the type that loved to argue. She was three years younger than me, and she always tried to pick fights with me, despite the age difference. She knew more than I did, she would always say. I can’t say she was wrong most the time.

  “I do. Still—”

  “It isn’t your place. Don’t you get any ideas about making things worse,” my mother said.

  “I won’t.”

  “Good. Your father is in the garage, pretending to fix the weed whacker. Why don’t you go down there and talk to him?”

  “I will.”

  I walked off the porch and down toward the garage. I noticed the door was open a crack, so I lift it up, and found Dad sitting at his work bench, sipping a Michelob. It looked real good right about then.

  “John,” he said, swiveling to look at me.

  “Dad.”

  He got up and gave me a hug. That didn’t happen to often from Dad. He pulled away from me, and looked at my jaw.

  “Any pain?”

  “No, it’s okay. The jaw was a little sore last night, but other than that, it’s fine.”

  “Great. Want a beer?” he asked.

  Of course I did. “Yes.”

  He reached into the small refrigerator underneath his workbench and handed me a Michelob. It had frost on it. One of the true pleasures in life, a cold beer. I popped the cap and took a swig. It was fantastic.

  Dad looked me over for a moment. “Wait a minute,” he said, “What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on the Mullins case.”

  “Long story.”

  “What happened?”

  I went through the whole thing with Dad, from the trip to Sondra’s house right up to when I was released. He kept nodding, as if he were carefully ingesting everything I said. When I was finished, he looked up at the ceiling, then back at me.

  “Geiger.”

  “What?”

  “It has to be Geiger. You said he was the last one you would suspect would sell you out. That’s the one you need to look at first.”

  “Yeah, but Dad,” I said, stuttering like a little kid getting scolded. I hated that.

  “No buts. He is also the one you haven’t heard from yet, right? He was your direct boss, the one who sent Calhill home. He is the only one who could have set you up. Trust me on that.” I wanted to think otherwise. I respected Geiger. I didn’t want to think he sold me out.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Hell, maybe I am wrong. It just seems that whatever makes the least sense usually is the truth. At least in my experience it is.” Dad had a point, for certain. Whether or not I wanted to see it, that was a different matter for sure.

  “I knew you were going to dive into a river of shit,” Dad said, reaching down for another beer.

  “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “And you didn’t cover your ass.”

  “True,” I said.

  “You trusted other people, and they screwed you.”

  “They did.”

  “What are you going to do?” Dad asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what I can do.”

  “You can sue the shit out of them. That’s a start.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “It’s never more complicated than that. They are playing with your life here. You can’t just sit and let that happen. You have to fight back, let them know you mean business. It’s the only way.”

  “What about the case?”

  “What case? From what I can see, there is no case.”

  “Yes, but they are going to try and frame an innocent woman for the murder of her husband.”

  “You really think she is innocent?”

  “I think so.”

  “So who do you think did it?”

  “I keep coming back to Harold Chapman.”

  “Understandably so. What are you going to do about him?”

  “I’d like to strangle him.” I paused. “Well, seriously, I don’t know what I can do. If he is that tight with Agnelli, there really isn’t much I can do. I’d have to get him to admit the whole scheme, and then get it on tape. We see how far recording technology has gotten me.”

  “You think about speaking to Uncle Paulie?”

  Uncle Paulie worked for the FBI, and had contacts all over the country. He had helped me one time before, but I generally didn’t think of using him to help me in this situation. He hadn’t even entered my mind.

  “I hadn’t even thought of him.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  “You’re right.”

  “Fathers always are.”

  We finished our beers, and went inside the house. I could hear a few people talking in the kitchen. I recognized my mother’s and sister’s voices. I didn’t hear the brother-in-law, Donny. He was being uncharacteristically quiet, I figured.

  “Mom tells you what’s going on here?” Dad asked.

  “She told me a little about it.”

  “It’s enough with the arguing. I get it and I want to understand completely, but to be honest, I just want some peace.”

  “Can’t blame you,” I said.

  “Well, you don’t get to see it firsthand. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Your mother’s always telling me, ‘Don’t say anything, it’s none of our business.’ Well, it is my business. They could be a little more quiet.”

  “It’s a tough situation, Dad. And nothing you say is going to change that. They’ll be back on their feet soon. Donny’s not a bad guy.”

  He nodded. “I know. It’s just that, being a father, I want to take my daughter’s side. Makes me want to strangle someone. And, yet, I know I wouldn’t want your grandmother meddling in my relationship with your mother. It’s complicated. But still, I’d like to wring a neck or two. For some peace.”

  “If you do, call me first. I’d like to see that.”

  Dad chuckled. I felt a bond with him. That didn’t happen too often. I didn’t get all sappy or anything. It just felt nice, considering what I had been through.

  “Listen, Dad,” I said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t tell Mom what we spoke about, okay? About the case I mean. I don’t want her getting all upset.” We Keegans liked our secrets, for sure.

  He smiled. “What do you take me for, an idiot? Of course I won’t say anything.” He gave me a stern look, and pointed at me. “You just make sure you take care of this, okay?”

  “I will.”

  We walked into the kitchen to find my mother with her arm around my sister. They sat upright when we came into the room. They were holding their own secrets.

  “Hey Johnny,” Laura said.

  “Hey.”

  I walked over and gave her a hug. It was more obligatory than out of genuine emotion. We just weren’t that way with each other. I would have felt more comfortable giving her a jab on the arm and messing up her hair.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “I’m fine, why?”

  “Just asking.” I didn’t need to know the details anyway. Plus, I’d hear her side and automatically blame Donny, who probably deserved better. Family politics. “Where’s Donny?”

  “He’s in the b
athroom. What are you doing here?”

  “I took the day off. Being that I don’t get to see you guys all that much, I figured I’d stop by.”

  “You in trouble?” Laura asked.

  “No.”

  “You sure? You look like you’ve been in some sort of trouble,” my mother said. She was good, I’ll give her that.

  “No. I just haven’t slept very well lately. A lot of stress at work.” That was the understatement of the year.

  “Okay.”

  From behind me, I heard Donny walk into the room. We got along okay. Sure, he and my sister fought a lot but that was their business. I knew how to be diplomatic when I had to be, and we had some things in common. He came over and shook my hand. “Hey, Johnny. What’s going on?”

  “Not much. Usual.”

  “You got that big case. Heard your name mentioned on TV.”

  “That’s me.”

  “My famous brother-in-law,” he said. He sounded proud. Not of himself, but of me. “So, what happened? Did that Mullins guy really kill himself?”

  “We don’t know yet.”

  “Yeah, I read about that,” Laura said. “Didn’t he run Microsoft or something?”

  “Not Microsoft. Techdata,” Donny said. He liked to correct her and she did the same to him. No wonder they fought all the time.

  “Whatever,” Laura said.

  “So what’s going on with the whole thing?” Donny asked.

  “I can’t talk about it.”

  “He-he, you always can’t talk about it, like it’s some CIA stuff or something. I think he was murdered.”

  I smiled. “We haven’t found anything yet,” I said. “Come on. Something’s going on.”

  “Maybe you didn’t hear him,” Laura said. “He’s trying to tell you that he can’t talk about it.”

  Donny seemed like he wanted to say something but wisely chose to disengage. He was learning. We all needed to do that. He looked directly at me. “You really can’t talk about it, huh?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, sorry. It’s just that it seems like such an interesting case,