Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “Uh…”

  “Come on, now. I don’t bite.” Kyle’s sultry, seductive voice made me blink several times and lose focus on what I had begun to write on the paperwork Alyssa handed me. What the hell was going on here? Was Dr. Dreamboat stepping up his game?

  “Uh…” Jesus, Chaz was starting to sound like a broken record. I did what any good friend would do. I subtly kicked him in the back of his leg to break him from his trance. “Okay.”

  I smiled as I watched Chaz follow Kyle back to an exam room. I thought they would make the most adorable couple. Alyssa cleared her throat, pulling my attention back to her.

  “That’s a new form, and perhaps I should go over it with you,” she said to me. I looked at the form and noted that it was a new format, but it asked the same questions that were on the old one. She gave me a conspiring wink when I returned my eyes to hers. “It could take a while.”

  Alyssa went over every line on the form as I completed it, which added an extra ten minutes to the process. I had expected to see Kyle halfway through his exam of Diva by the time I got back to the room, but instead, I saw Diva twining herself around Kyle’s legs trying to get his attention while he held Chaz’s bleeding finger in his hand.

  “Well, at least we know the little vixen is well-vaccinated,” Kyle said as he examined Chaz.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Your little slutty cat bit me when I didn’t hand her to Dr. Dimples quick enough,” Chaz said petulantly. Kyle stood up a little straighter and blinked at Chaz several times before a wide smile spread across his face that showed why he earned the nickname. Unfortunately for Chaz, Kyle didn’t know we called him that until just then. Poor Chaz turned an unnatural shade of white when he realized what he’d said.

  “Dr. Dimples, huh?” Kyle asked. “I like it. Maybe I should change my avatar name to that.”

  “Chaz plays World of Warcraft too,” I told him. “He’s really good at it.” I had no fucking clue if he was good or not, but that didn’t stop me. “Plays a lot at night and makes a lot of friends around the world.” I was starting to ramble, and Chaz was looking at me with bulging eyes that pleaded for me to shut the fuck up, but I didn’t know how once I was on a roll. “I think he’s met a guy online and just doesn’t want me to know about it. He worries I’ll make fun of him or something.”

  “Josh,” Chaz growled.

  “I would never!” I clutched my heart dramatically and blinked my eyes innocently. “We never know when we’ll find the other half of our soul. Sometimes they’re standing right in front of you all along.”

  Chaz and Kyle didn’t hear a word I was saying though because they were too busy staring into each other’s eyes. I was about to start patting my own back when Alyssa burst into the room.

  “Dr. Vaughn,” she said breathlessly, “Beth Handerneski called and said their bull got loose. They tracked him down and lured him back in the trailer, but not before he cut himself pretty bad on a fence. They want to know if you can come out and take a look at him.”

  Kyle broke eye contact with Chaz and looked at his receptionist. “Tell them I’ll be out there as soon as I finish up here.” When Alyssa left the room, Kyle was back to doctor mode. That’s some damn bullshit right there. “Come here, pretty girl,” Kyle cooed to Diva. He picked the cat up, and she purred loudly as she butted her head against his chin. Kyle talked to her the entire time he examined my shameless cat. He gave her ears an extra scratch before he handed my feline over to me. “I’ll let Molly give her the booster so that Diva doesn’t get mad at me.” His comment made me laugh. “I better get out to the Handerneski’s farm and look at Tank. I’ll see you guys around.” He stopped in front of Chaz and said, “Maybe I’ll find you online, and we can play together.” Oh, that sounded a little naughty! Kyle left the room without waiting to hear a response from Chaz.

  Once we were alone in the exam room, a hard shiver worked its way through Chaz’s body as if Kyle had asked him to play with his joystick. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who thought so. “I’m going to kill you,” Chaz said when he could finally talk again.

  “Gabe won’t let you,” I said smugly.

  “He’ll help me when he finds out what you just did,” Chaz said, sounding wounded.

  “What? I told Kyle that you like to play World of Warcraft too. Did I lie?” I asked.

  “You insinuated much more than that, and you know it. What the hell was that ‘sometimes they’re standing right in front of you all along’ bullshit?”

  “It wasn’t bullshit,” I replied. “Gabe had been right in front of me all along.” Well, we lived in the same damn town anyway, which was the same as Kyle and Chaz. Besides, maybe they had already connected online and didn’t even know it. That damn Tank had to get loose and ruin it. Lucky for him I loved all of God’s creatures, or I’d turn him into meatloaf.

  “Just because it happened to you doesn’t mean it will happen for me. You really embarrassed me, Jazz,” Chaz said softly. “I know you’re just trying to help, but please stop it. There’s no way a guy like that wants a guy like me.”

  My best friend was beautiful in every possible way, and I wished he could see what I saw in him. I let out a soft sigh and apologized. “I won’t do it again,” I added. The look in his blue eyes told me that he didn’t believe me for a second, but he didn’t argue.

  Molly came in and gave my cat her booster shot so that Kyle could remain in Diva’s good graces. Chaz was oddly silent on the way home, and I worried that I had gone too far. I pulled into his driveway and looked over at him after I put my car in park. Chaz was staring off into the distance as if lost in thought. A large grin split his face, and I looked through the windshield to see what made him smile, but didn’t see anything.

  “Care to let me in on the secret?” I asked him.

  Chaz jerked in his seat as if he forgot I was even with him. “Uh, I just had a thought.”

  “And?”

  “Strategy really,” he clarified. “For, um… my game.”

  “A strategy for your game can make you smile that big?” I asked doubtfully.

  “I just figured out the solution to a problematic part of the game, so, yeah,” Chaz replied. “No time like the present to get to it. I wish I could say it’s been fun today, but that would be a fucking lie.” He handed Diva’s cat carrier to me so that he could get out. “See you tomorrow,” he said absently before he shut the door. I could tell his mind had already gone back to his strategy.

  Buddy was anxiously awaiting our return as if he was worried about Diva. The two had become friends rather quickly, but only after Buddy let her know he wouldn’t give into her demanding behavior. Buddy was licking the side of Diva’s face in greeting when I left them to reunite in the living room so I could change the sheets on my bed and set up a romantic scene with fresh linen and candles throughout the room.

  I had just removed the comforter from my bed when movement across the alleyway caught my eye. A white moving van was backing into the driveway of the home that had belonged to my friend Bianca, who was murdered the year before. In fact, her case was the one that first brought Gabe to my door. Her house sat empty since she was killed, except for when my creepy ex-boyfriend squatted there to spy on Gabe and me, but it appeared the vacancy was coming to an end.

  I watched as two tall men exited the van and walked around to the back to open the large sliding door. Their uniforms were the same color as the moving company logo painted boldly on the side of the truck. My creative brain immediately started to imagine who might be moving in. A sexy single guy for my Meredith? A young family with children whose laughter would echo throughout the streets during the spring and summer months?

  One of the guys walked up the back steps to the door that opened into the kitchen. He disappeared inside for a few minutes then reappeared when the garage door opened from inside. I forgot all about my task and stood there gawking at the activity going on across the alley. I decided to guess who was
moving in based on the furniture they unloaded.

  The first item was a large ornately carved wooden headboard that took two of them to carry. Okay, that alone didn’t give much away. Next thing I saw was a gigantic flat screen TV that told me a man was moving in. But was he alone? I went to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee when the movers didn’t return to the van right away. I wasn’t gone long, but when I returned, I saw that there was a sleek black Mini Cooper with white racing stripes on the hood parked in the driveway next to the moving truck. I had serious stripe envy and wondered if Princess would look cute with a set of silver ones.

  My musings were interrupted when a tall, slender man walked out of the garage. I squinted my eyes and leaned closer to the window to get a better look. He appeared to be wearing a pair of AG jeans that cost as much as an hour in my salon chair. His shirt was a dove gray, long-sleeved T-shirt that bore the Hermes logo on it. I would’ve bet money that Gucci made the black leather biker boots he wore on his feet. Just who was this stylish man and what was he doing in Blissville?

  The wind kicked up and blew his longish locks of dark brown hair away from his face making it look like a model shoot. It was hard to tell from where I stood, but I thought I saw strands of caramel highlighted hair when the sun came out from behind the clouds. I was willing to bet those highlights weren’t natural either. The man tilted his head back as if he was worshiping the early spring sun.

  Suddenly, as if he felt my intense gaze focused on him, he lowered his head and looked in my direction. He was too far away to be certain, but it felt like our eyes locked regardless of the distance between us.

  My heart raced suddenly while an inexplicable fear washed over me. I took a step back from the window and pulled the curtains closed, severing my connection with the man. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but the stranger’s appearance in our neighborhood wasn’t an accident. I couldn’t be sure of what it meant, but I was certain I’d be the first to find out.

  The interviews with the club employees didn’t turn up any new leads. According to them, Nate hadn’t acted strangely leading up to his death, none of them were aware of any illegal activity occurring at the club, and none of them knew that Jonathon Silver existed until he bought the nightclub. On the surface, the interviews looked like a complete waste of time, but I wasn’t a surface guy.

  “Did you notice how similar their answers are to one another?” I asked Dorchester and Weston. “As if they rehearsed what they were going to say before coming in.”

  “I thought so too,” Weston replied.

  “That may be,” Dorchester answered, “but their answers are nearly identical to the ones they gave the first time around. Typically, if they weren’t honest they would’ve deviated from their original answers.”

  “Unless they were afraid for their lives,” I replied.

  “True,” Dorchester and Weston agreed.

  The interviews wrapped up early enough that I had time to think about my line of questioning for both Silver and his attorney. Admittedly, the original interview questions for the attorney, Rick Spizer, were pretty basic. It wasn’t that I expected to get a big confession that he helped cover up Nate’s illegal activity from him, but I hoped that I could at least rattle him enough to give us something.

  The two men arrived fifteen minutes early, but I made them wait. I wanted them annoyed when the interview began in hopes that they’d let something fly. It worked well in some cases, but I wasn’t holding my breath with these two. One was a well-educated attorney, and the other was… I didn’t yet know, but I had already seen that he didn’t rattle easily.

  “We’re going to question you first, Mr. Spizer,” I told the attorney as I led him to the first available interview room. “Then you can be present when we talk to Mr. Silver as he requested.”

  “Fine,” Spizer said. Jonathon Silver said nothing as he followed Weston to another interview room down the hall.

  I went through the routine of identifying myself and Dorchester for the recording before asking Spizer to state his full name and relation to Nate Turner. “Did Nate Turner tell you he was being harassed and threatened?” I asked, jumping right into the fire once he finished identifying himself for the recording.

  “No,” Spizer replied calmly.

  “Did Nate Turner involve you in covering up any illegal activities for him?”

  “No.” Spizer’s tone remained steady.

  “When did you learn that Jonathon Silver existed?” Dorchester asked.

  I saw a slight crack in the attorney’s calm. He had to walk a fine line because he represented both the brother who died and the one who was sitting inside an interview room down the hall. He was limited to what he could say without a court order, which no judge would sign off on with the little evidence we found up to that point. I didn’t want to make an enemy of this guy, so I went easy on him.

  “I’m not asking you to break confidentiality ethics, counselor. I’m simply asking when you became aware that Nate Turner had a twin brother, not how you found out,” I told him.

  “It was June of last year, so around nine months,” he said after a short pause.

  “A few months before Nate began receiving threats to his life,” I remarked. Spizer opened his mouth to argue, but I held up my hand to stop him. “Save your comments and defense for when I interview him. Let’s start with why you didn’t feel the need to tell the police about Silver during your first interview.”

  “No one asked,” Spizer fired back. “I only answered the questions they asked.”

  “Counselor, Detective Jade asked for names of people who might give more information about what was going on in Nate’s life, and you said that you couldn’t provide any. Now, I’m not accusing you of lying, but I feel like you deliberately mislead the investigators.”

  “I didn’t mention Jonathon because he tragically lost the brother he’d just found and was in a state of shock.” His answer was asinine.

  “Mr. Spizer, let me be frank with you right now. Your actions don’t look like those of an attorney representing a client. If that had been the case, you would’ve notified the police that Nate Turner had a long-lost brother and would’ve asked for some time to let him adjust to the news before the interview or you would’ve made yourself available when he was questioned. You may not have a high opinion of police in general, but we are trained on how to handle bereaved family members.”

  It was obvious by the way he stiffened in his chair that he was offended by my admonishment. He was in for a real treat if he thought that was bad. I asked a few more questions that received “no” or “I don’t know” answers before I ended the interview. I hadn’t expected to get much out of Spizer anyway, but I at least found out how long he’d known about Jonathon Silver.

  The three of us walked to the interview room where Silver was waiting for us, sipping coffee from the disposable cup like he didn’t have a care in the world. I went through the same routine as I did with Spizer, but went a step further. Even though he wasn’t under arrest, I read Jonathon Silver his Miranda Rights and watched him closely to gauge his reaction. His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened hard enough that I expected to hear his teeth crack, which told me he wasn’t happy at all.

  “Thank you for coming in today,” I said once I was ready to begin. “Can you please state your full name for the recording and relationship to the victim, Nathaniel Turner.” I saw Silver flinch slightly when I said his brother’s name. The reaction was so minuscule that I would’ve missed it had I not been trained to look for it.

  “Jonathon David Silver and Nathaniel Turner is… was my brother.” His words faltered a bit toward the end. Earlier that morning in his office, Silver exhibited anger and arrogance, neither of which were present a few hours later. He was more soft-spoken and subdued. Was it genuine or an act in front of the attorney?

  “Can you tell us who might’ve wanted to kill your brother?” I asked.

  “No,” he said softly. “He told me about the
threats, of course, but he said he didn’t know why he was receiving them.”

  “Did you believe him?” Dorchester asked from beside me.

  Silver released a long frustrated sigh. “Honestly? No. Nate was a very private man and getting to know him had been hard. He was totally shocked to learn he had a twin brother and that he didn’t really know the parents who raised him, so you can imagine that he had some serious trust issues.”

  “What do you mean that he didn’t know his adoptive parents very well?” I asked. Silver made it sound like they were shady in some way.

  “They never told him about me so he began to wonder what other secrets they might’ve been hiding,” Silver replied.

  “Are you implying that him digging into their background had something to do with the threats?” Dorchester asked.

  Silver shrugged and said, “The timing works.”

  “As does your appearance in his life,” I told Nate’s brother. “It’s pretty easy to deflect guilt on the dealings of a deceased couple.” I turned to Spizer, who had reportedly been the family attorney for decades. “Could there be any truth to what Silver said?”

  “Not that I’m aware of, Detective. I wasn’t Charles and Marie’s attorney at the time of Nate’s adoption. I found out about Jonathon from Nate,” Spizer replied. “I can attest that Nate was angry and bitter that he’d gone his entire life without knowing about Jonathon.”

  “How’d you find out about Nate?” I asked Jonathon.

  “Nate was given up for adoption, but I was not. Our birth mom raised me, and she told me about Nate before she died.” He swallowed hard, and I could tell it was still an emotional thing for him to discuss. It appeared to be the first honest reaction I’d gotten out of him. “The details about the adoption are irrelevant to Nate’s death, and I prefer not to speak about them.”

  “I take it that you are the beneficiary of your brother’s estate,” I commented.

  “Yes,” Silver answered between gritted teeth, clearly not liking where my line of questioning was going.