by Dylan Keefer
“Who are you?” Greg questioned. She glanced at the other guy who nodded.
“My name is Micah, and this is Raine. We—um…” Micah stopped. They had talked about how they were going to introduce the idea that they were here to help figure out who had gone after his wife. Greg stared back at him with a confused look. Micah started again. “I’m Lieutenant Micah Duscane, and this is Dr. Raine Robinson. We’re here to help investigate what happened to your wife.”
Greg frowned. “There is no investigation. The police ruled this an accident.”
“We aren’t here with the police,” Raine said. “We’re here as—friends.”
She reached out with the cup of coffee again, and this time, he took it. “Duscane. I know that name.” Micah sighed. Greg stared down at his cup as he thought. Then he looked up. “You are Kyle Duscane’s brother?”
“That’s me,” Micah said. “Kyle’s the one that told me about Mya’s accident. He said you might need some help.”
Greg held the coffee cup up to his mouth but didn’t drink and didn’t take his eyes away from Micah. “You’re the one that she used to date. Mya talked about you a lot.”
That was a surprise to Micah. Why would Mya still mention his name for any reason? Greg took a deep breath. “I still don’t see why you’re here. There is no investigation.”
“Kyle said that you believe that what happened to your wife wasn’t just an accident. Is that true?”
Greg looked around the area and motioned for them to follow him. They followed him down the hallway. “I don’t like talking out in public. Maybe I’m paranoid, but Mya was a big deal. I don’t even know everything she was involved in, but I do know that my wife doesn’t drink, much less drink and drive.” He stopped in front of a room, and Micah felt his heart start to pound.
“This is her room?” Greg nodded with a sympathetic look.
“It’s the only privacy I know we’re going to have, but I understand if this is hard for you.”
“Hard for me?” Micah felt like he shouldn’t even be a factor in this at all. “I’m fine. Let’s go inside.”
The room was littered with flowers and cards. There were a few stuffed dolphins; which were her favorite animal. He wondered if she ever got to swim with them like she always wanted.
“Sorry for all of the flowers and stuff. Believe it or not, we actually took a couple of loads out and put them in a back room in our house.”
Micah walked over to her bed and looked at her face. There were some bumps and bruises, but not a lot of scars. She looked like she was sleeping. She looked the same. Older; obviously, and she had changed her hair color by adding in some red.
Raine smiled when she saw Mya. She looked like she was a firecracker. There was a distinct crease on her forehead that hinted she was either a frowner or a thinker.
“What was she doing that night? Can you tell us what happened before?” Raine asked.
Greg took a sip of his coffee. “We had dinner around six thirty. She was telling me about her day. Mya was running for governor, and that meant a lot of projects that she was involved in. She was still involved a lot with the schools. She has a big platform that deals with domestic violence and abuse. She has a huge heart for reform in the prison systems. I’ve learned to listen to her when she talks about it, but to be honest, there is always so much that she’s doing. I lose track. The only thing I remember was that she’s been going out on Tuesday nights to meet with a group in Uptown Minneapolis for the past two months to talk about education for foster children.”
“Does she have a campaign manager?” Raine said. “Wouldn’t they know where she was going?”
“Brooke? I’ve been trying to get in touch with her, but no luck. She’s a grad student in Political Science. The police didn’t see need to question her, and I haven’t been able to try to find her. Everything happened so quick.”
Micah turned from looking at Mya for the first time since he laid eyes on her. He had listened to the conversation with minimum effort. “So, she was just running for governor. No other jobs or responsibilities? You don’t have any kids, do you?”
“Mya couldn’t have kids,” Greg said. Before Micah could offer an apology, Greg shook his head. “It’s something she knew for a long time. We had come to grips with it. That’s why she had such a passion for education and reform. She lived for that sort of thing, and I fully supported her in it.”
“And what do you do?” Raine asked. Greg laughed.
“I’m an accountant,” he laughed. “Pretty boring right? Mya does all this great stuff, but I just play with numbers all day. I don’t know how we matched up together so well. I was not her pace. I always figured she needed someone more her level of intensity.”
Not the Mya I knew, Micah thought. She just wanted someone with drive and honest vigor.
“How are you going to figure this out?” Greg asked them. “How are you going to prove that my wife wasn’t just in an accident?”
“Don’t worry,” Raine said. “You just focus on her and yourself. Let us worry everything else. The only thing we may need is permission to look around her office and your house. Maybe someone can let us in?”
Greg looked at both of them for a few seconds and cleared his throat. “There’s a spare key behind the second step of the porch. I built a little shelf for it. Address is 1352 Old Wren Court.” He spoke to Micah. “My wife told me that the guy she dated in high school and college had the most squandered potential of anyone she had ever known.”
“Wow,” Micah said. “Sounds like something that she would say.”
“But,” Greg continued. “She also said she was waiting for you to change the world. She said you just needed the right person by your side to do it, and she wasn’t it. I trust you’ll do what you can for her.”
Micah couldn’t look at his eyes, but he also couldn’t bring himself to turn away. “I will,” his voice croaked. He looked over at her body laying still on the bed. He wished she was awake right now. He wished that he could change the situation, but maybe he could start by finding out the truth. “I promise.”
The door opened. What immediately caught Raine’s attention was the amount of natural light that came into the house. The front living room and dining were bathed in it. Both she and Micah took their shoes off and placed them by the door.
“So, you want to take the upstairs, and I’ll take the downstairs?” Raine asked. “Call out if we get something?”
Micah nodded. He felt strange being in the house. Greg seemed to trust him though, and that stuff he said about Mya’s thoughts on him—it ran over in his mind a lot. The staircase led into a small hallway. All three rooms had their doors open, and the first had a bed and dresser in it. The walls were plastered full of framed quotes and sayings. Micah read a few of them. Always look forward, everything behind you is past. You never achieve greatness, you simply make it a habit to reach for it. Wake up each day ready for beauty to surprise you. It was a simple guest room with very little décor other than that. It was probably her way of getting people to focus on what was truly important.
The second room was the master bedroom. The sheets were half off the bed. The closet door was opened with a few shirts tossed onto the floor. Greg probably hadn’t stayed there much since the accident. The closet wasn’t huge. Both of them seemed to have a side. Mya always dressed nice, but she wasn’t a fancy dresser. She kept things casual, but always seemed to appear professional. It matched her attitude. Even in college while the other girls were caked with make-up and weighed down with lots of jewelry, Mya kept things as minimal as she could. Greg seemed to be the same way. He had a suit. One suit, and everything else was polo shirts and casual button-ups.
Micah sat on the edge of the bed on her side and pulled out the drawer on the nightstand. There was book on the inside. He grabbed and realized that it was a journal. He began to pour through the pages.
Raine walked around the living room. This wasn’t the house you expected from
someone who was running for Governor or an accountant. There was no television. Just a projector screen that faced a blank wall. Along the far wall was a giant bookcase filled with all sorts of materials. Fiction books, historical, mathematical, old literature, and—Raine laughed as she grabbed a familiar book from the bookshelf. Raine looked at her face on the back cover. So, Mya bought her book. She skimmed through it but didn’t see any markings.
Raine walked out of the room to her office. Each wall was loaded with pictures of Mya with other people. Some were of her travels. Many were of groups of school-aged children. Some were from events. Her desk held a picture of her and Greg from their wedding day, and that was the only picture there. There was no computer, and no filing cabinets. In the desk drawer; however, there was a box of USB flash drives. Raine grabbed them all and stuck them in her jean’s pockets. She would have to look over them. One thing did catch Raine’s eye. There were only a few pieces of trash in the trash can, and it was a torn-up greeting card. Rain spent a few moments putting the pieces back together on the desk.
Times like these are made better because of friends like you. That was on the outside. On the inside, the words seemed to contradict themselves. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please come back. I need you.
Seeing as it was the only piece of trash in the can, the card was probably not old. Raine rushed to the kitchen. She had seen a trash can there, and it had been empty. Maybe—just maybe the envelop that it came in was still there. After a few minutes of carefully inspecting the trash with consisted of a lot of junk mail, store brought meals, and swept up dirt, Raine found an envelope only torn on the side. Eve was the name above the address which was a P.O. Box in St. Paul. It wasn’t much, but it was a lead.
Micah’s footsteps echoed down the stairs. He appeared around the corner with a book in his hand, and his eyes were red from crying.
“What’s wrong,” Raine said leaving the table and rushing towards him. He shook his head and handed her the book. Raine looked at the place where his finger pointed. She read softly. “I’m finding it hard to breathe. The past several days have been meeting after meeting, and my mind hasn’t been able to wrap around it. I have to face Greg at some point, right? How do I tell him that I’ve been keeping the biggest secret of our lives from him? He was almost a father. Almost. And I was almost a mother. I wanted to celebrate when I heard the news, but I’m glad I didn’t. It would have made this all so much harder if people were consoling me. If I had to endure their pity looks, and Greg’s disappointment. I can hardly face my own.”
Raine swallowed hard. The pain was in her every word. She looked up at Micah. “He doesn’t know. This was written about seven months ago; which was when she officially decided to run for Governor.”
“Well, we know her motivation then,” Raine said. “I was looking around and—did Raine have any family? I don’t see any pictures of family other than the one of her and Greg in her office, and the few on the refrigerator over there of them.”
“Mya was adopted. Her real parents died overseas. Both were in the army. Her adopted parents were okay, but they thought Mya was more trouble that she was worth after a while. They had adopted her thinking they couldn’t have kids, and they wound up having one a year after that. Mya was an after-thought then.”
It was becoming more and more clear why Mya was so focused on children and reformation in the community. She was trying to make a difference in the lives of families. She was trying to change the whole dynamic. She couldn’t have a kid and change their world, but she could change the lives of others.
The front door flew open and a blonde-haired young woman came in wielding a gun. She spotted Raine and Micah and trained the gun on them.
“Don’t move! Get on your knees! I’m calling the police!”
Chapter Three
Both of them stood still with their hands raised. The gun waivered a little bit. It was a small 9mm which she probably carried in her purse.
“You’re Brooke, aren’t you?” Raine asked. The girl shifted her head in suspicion and curiosity.
“Who are you? What are you doing in here?”
“My name is Dr. Raine Michelson and this is Lt. Micah Duscane. We’re here investigating Mya’s accident. Greg knows we’re here.” Raine watched the gun lower a little bit. “We can show you our credentials.”
Brooke eyed the identifications and lowered her gun. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be here, and with everything going on—I’m just nervous.”
“Greg said he’s been trying to contact you.” Micah said.
“I know he has,” Brooke snorted. “You’re working for him?”
“Not really. I knew Mya a long time ago,” Micah said. “We’re doing this for her.”
“What’s your problem with Greg?” Raine asked. Brooke stepped into the kitchen and put her purse down.
“It’s a complicated story. One that I really don’t want to be in the middle of, but I am,” sighed.
“You’re Mya’s campaign manager?” Brooke nodded.
“I know I’m young. Mya became superintendent my senior year of high school. I was headed down some bad paths and making some stupid decisions, and she set me straight. She did that with a lot of students, but I don’t know. It meant something to me. I went to school to study political science, and I graduated right as Mya was looking to run for governor. She gave me the chance. What would be more amazing for her platform than one of the students she poured into being her campaign manager.”
“That must be great when you’re working for the person who changed your life?” Micah said.
“Tell me about it?” Brooke said. “The only problem is how close I’ve gotten to her—and I know the struggles she had getting pregnant. I also know how hard that was for Greg.”
Raine somehow sensed where she was going with this all. Mya never told her husband about the pregnancy. He didn’t know there was hope.
“Was he going to leave her?”
“No,” Brooke said quickly. “He wouldn’t do that, but—he was cheating on her. She never knew. She was so busy, and I wanted to tell her when everything was done. She—she just wasn’t going to be able to handle it.”
“Did you know she was pregnant?” Micah said holding the journal up. Brooke swallowed back the sickness she was feeling in her stomach as she nodded.
“She told me when she found out. She was so excited, but she wanted to be sure that everything was going to be okay before she told Greg. It didn’t last long. She miscarried, and that was that. She went on like nothing had ever happened.”
“These must have been hard secrets for you to keep,” Micah said. “I’m sorry that you had to keep them—alone.”
Brooke caught the connotation in his voice, and she shook her head emphatically. “I did keep them alone. No one else knew. Mya was already in the public eye for a lot of things, and I didn’t want all of this to hurt her.”
“So, what are you doing here, then?” Raine asked. “It’s strange that you would stop by the house when Greg isn’t here. There’s a dirt smudge on your arm that suggests you were fishing for the spare key under the porch.”
Brooke nervously pushed her hair behind her ear. Raine knew there was something more. She held up the box of flash drives and watched as the girl’s eyes widened.
“Those are very important,” she said softly. “Each one of them represents something that she was working on—fighting for?”
“Like what she was involved in the night of the accident,” Raine said. “Who did she go see?”
“I—don’t know,” Brooke said. “That’s the truth. It’s the one thing that she never included me on. Her calendar just mentions ‘the book club’. I came here because—I don’t want those falling into the wrong hands. When she gets better, she’s going to continue her fight, and she has a lot of ammo there to win.”
“That’s not it,” Micah said. Brooke gave a questioning look. “Unless you truly think that someone was after Mya for
some reason, you wouldn’t be trying to get these, and if these were really that important, she wouldn’t have had them in her desk where they would be easy to find.”
“Good job, babe,” Raine smiled. She was impressed with how he deduced that so easily. She crossed her arms and looked at Brooke.
“You aren’t in an official investigation,” the girl said. “I don’t have to tell you anything really.”
“True,” Raine said, “but if you don’t, then when it does become an investigation, and it comes out that you hid evidence…”
Brooke groaned. She began to walk away, and they followed. She walked into the living room and started to feel around the bookcase. She pulled out a couple of books and reached into the shelf. Something popped open behind the couch.
“Help me move it,” she said to Micah. They pulled the couch away from the wall and uncovered a safe behind a strange wall plate. The combination lock glared back.
“What is in there?” Raine asked. Brooke threw her hands up.
“There’s a reason that I know Greg’s a cheat, okay,” she said. “I was the first one. It was only once, but—once is enough. I threatened to tell her, and he told me that he had videotaped it. I don’t need that hanging over my head.”
She reached into her purse which she had laid on the floor and pulled out a small sock with something in it. “I learned how to open a safe with magnets. Pretty simple actually.”
Micah raised his eyebrow as the girl knelt in front of the safe and placed the magnets just above the combination. She rubbed it around for thirty seconds before they all heard an audible click. Brooked grabbed the small handle and popped the safe open. Inside there were nearly twenty tapes.
“All of them are named, but do you really think he cheated on Mya this much?” Micah said. Brooke shook her head.
“You can do what you want with the rest of the tapes,” she said holding up one and closing her fingers around it. “I only want this one.”
