by Roger Bray
“Todd?” Alice said, a little surprised as she stood back and invited him in.
Steve and Alex were in the kitchen when Alice came in.
“Hi, Alex,” he said, “I heard on the news what had happened, that you had been released, and I thought that I would check if you were here and say hi.”
“Thanks, Todd,” Alex said, turning to Steve, “This is Todd Bailey, Mrs. Bailey’s son.”
“Mrs. Bailey down the road, now in a retirement home in Bend, right?”
“That’s right,” Todd said taking a step forward and extending his hand to shake Steve’s. “And you are?”
“Steve, Steve Banks. I’m a friend of Alice’s.”
They shook hands and Steve took an instant dislike to the other man. There was nothing in the handshake which was firm. He seemed like a normal guy, but there was something in his eyes when he took Steve’s hand. They narrowed, as if he was trying to weigh Steve up and there was a coldness to them as Todd shook.
He was almost smirking, Steve decided. What reason he could have had for that he had no idea. An early flame of Alice’s maybe? Probably not, he was sure Alice would have mentioned that.
There was something about him that Steve couldn’t take to. He had met guys like this in the army. Self-assured, positive of their own power and abilities. There was nothing wrong with that, a bit of confidence goes a long way, but it was as though they needed to pretend to like someone when they were actually trying to screw them over.
A friend in his unit had once said to him, only half-jokingly, “Be nice to everyone you meet but always have a plan on how to kill them.” And that’s exactly how Steve felt now, but the other way around. Todd was being nice, but Steve was getting the feeling that what he was seeing was not the complete picture.
Todd broke the grip unable to hold Steve’s gaze, he looked down for a moment before turning to Alex.
“So, Alex, how are you? Happy to be out of jail? Stupid question, of course you are. I never thought you’d done it, you know, I always hoped the truth would come out. Now it has and here you are.”
Alex smiled slightly, “Thanks, Todd, yes I’m happy to be out.”
“Of course, you are, and all charges dropped I understand, completely exonerated?”
Alex nodded.
“Good,” he smiled his snaky little smile that Steve hated, “It wouldn’t have done to have that hanging over you. Better fully in or fully out, I reckon.”
“You reckon what, Todd?” Alice asked.
“Well, you know completely guilty and locked away or completely innocent and free. No halfway where people can still suspect things behind your back. Whispers and slander. At least now you can be free of all of that.”
“I suppose, though I don’t think I’ll ever be free of it.”
“No, maybe not. It was a horrible thing that happened, horrible. I never suspected you for a moment. I’ve said that haven’t I Alex?”
Alex nodded again, “Yes, Todd, you have, thank you.”
“How’s your mom?” Alice asked, changing the subject.
“Good. She likes it in the home in Bend. When I told her I would pop in and see how you were, she asked me to pass on her best regards. She always thought of you and Hazel as a lovely couple and always believed in you as well.”
“Well, thank her for me when you go in next. Maybe if I’m up in Bend, I might be able to see her.”
Todd nodded. “I don’t suppose there’s any news of Hazel?”
“Hazel?”
“Well, you know. Now that you’re out, they should be opening the investigation again. I mean, if you didn’t do it, then who did? Surely, they want to know. Surely, you want to know?
“I do, of course I do, but I think there’s little chance of them trying to reconstruct what happened on that night now. Too much time I think, too much embarrassment that they didn’t do a good enough job the first time.”
“Of course, they didn’t. If they had, you would never have been locked up at all, would you?”
Steve took the chance of the opening and asked, “Were you around that night?”
“That Hazel went missing?”
“Yes.”
“I was, yes. I mean it was over three years ago and normally I wouldn’t remember where I’d been. Except, it was a special occasion.”
“Special occasion?” Alice asked, now openly confirming by her tone what Steve suspected; she wasn’t too keen on Todd either. Todd guessed that his words had struck a nerve.
“Sorry, wrong words. I meant an event, you know like where were you when you heard that Elvis was dead, that sort of thing.”
“And Hazel going missing made you remember that night?”
“Well, yes, it did. Otherwise it would have been a normal evening, except I was here instead of at home in Bend. Yes, of course I remembered.”
“You were here?”
“Yes. It wasn’t too long after Mom had settled into the retirement home and she continually fretted about the house. Was it locked up all right, was the insurance up to date, had I checked it to make sure.”
“And that’s what you were doing? Checking on the house, I mean.”
“Absolutely, I got here early evening and left in the early morning, at a bit after five.”
“Do you always stay over and get up so early?”
“No, I had planned to stay over and leave about nine in the morning. I was going to get some breakfast at the truck stop out on the 126 but that night a customer rang me to say that he was having some problems, and could I come over and sort them out. He’s over in Prineville and I said that I’d be there at 8.00 a.m., so I needed to get an early start.”
“What is it you do, Todd?”
“Cabling mainly, for security systems and data, home cinemas and communications. That sort of thing.”
“All sort of lumped in together?”
He nodded, “Sometimes a bit of everything. People might want security cameras on a timer or stop-start motion detectors sometimes a whole system.”
“And the job that you went up to Prineville for?”
Todd laughed, “User error more than anything else. The nut between the chair and the keyboard.”
“He broke something?”
“I had set him up with a security system and it was linked up to IP cameras, so he could monitor his workshop from home. Or if the alarm was tripped, it would alert him and he could have a look before calling the cops.”
“It sounds quite a set up.”
“It is.”
“And he broke it?”
“Not actually broken. He put a new modem in without asking me and managed to lose the link to all the cameras. I had to go along and reset everything, so the cameras were back in the same network. Actually, I have the same sort of thing at Mom’s house.” He nodded in the direction of his family home a few doors down.
“So, you can monitor it from home.”
“Sure can, only two cameras: one on the back door because it’s a little hidden and one inside the house.”
“Have we had a wave of burglaries while I was away?” Alex asked.
Todd laughed in a little high-pitched giggle.
“No, nothing like that but as I have the gear and the ability, I set it up to save me coming down here too often.”
“And yet here you are,” Steve thought.
“Was there a problem? Something that you had to come here for?”
“Nope, it’s working fine. Mom wanted me to come over and pick up a few things for her. I took the opportunity to have a quick clean-up and throw some junk out. I’m paying for garbage disposal, I may as well use it.”
Steve nodded and fell silent.
They stood talking about the neighborhood and their old school. Once they had exhausted the news of mutual friends, the conversation exhausted itself. Todd made his excuses and went to leave. Steve followed him out of the door, making an excuse about moving Alice’s car to the driveway.
Once they w
ere outside, Todd nodded his goodbye and walked a few yards down the road to where his Transit Connect was parked. The sign-age on the van proclaimed that he was the guy to call for Data and Communications—Security Systems and Home Theater set ups. There was a Bend local number and a cell phone and artwork that to Steve, from the angle he was seeing it, looked like a duck, but as the Ford pulled out from the curb he saw was a stylized electron.
“That’s interesting,” he said as he watched Todd complete his U-turn and drive past him toward the highway.
“What is?” Steve didn’t realize that Alice had followed them out and was standing behind him.
“Todd,” he said simply.
“Interesting? I never thought so, more of a weird guy.”
Steve nodded and put his arm around her waist as they walked back to the house.
Todd watched them in the side mirror of his van as they walked away. They missed the worried look on his face as they walked back to the house. Todd was concerned. It may have been ideal chatter, but the way that Steve had spoken, Todd understood that he had been questioning him. Todd didn’t like that. Answering questions about his life was something he had always avoided. He enjoyed being his own boss and not having to talk to anyone. Some may have thought of him as a bit of a loner, but he had turned that to a different level. A lot of people would claim to know him, including his mom but if pushed, none could have answered more than a couple of questions about him.
That had been one of the reasons that he had left Eugene and moved to Bend and set up his business there. No one in Bend knew him and he lived in his big cabin, on ten acres with the big cellar, and a workshop out the back. He owned the place outright and the surrounding trees blocked the view from all his neighbors. Which was the way he liked it. The cabin looked rustic, but he had spent most of a summer some years before hard-wiring the whole place and had updated it constantly, so even when he was at his mom’s house in Eugene he could log into his network and keep an eye on the place. Outside and inside—he could watch his cabin.
His cameras kept a silent watch on his workshop and especially the cellar. Motion detectors alerted him of movement and sent him a text wherever he was, but he was starting to regret having that ability outside where wandering deer and stray cats would set off the alarm all the time. The false alarms were annoying, but at least, he thought, they showed him that the system was online and functioning correctly to protect and observe the inside areas that he wanted to cover.
He kept watching as they approached the house and for a moment had a small moment of regret. Alice was shapely in those tight Levi jeans, and he was jealous of that guy’s arm around her waist. She wasn’t his type, but she had certainly blossomed since the last time he had seen her when she had been checking on Alex’s empty house back in fall.
He had exchanged a few words like the good neighbor she obviously thought he was. How was Alex? And the usual words of comfort a good neighbor should have said. Then, she had appeared depressed and almost dowdy, covering her shapely figure in clothes that seemed shapeless.
Now? Now the little black cloud seemed to have left her and maybe, he considered, he should have tried a little harder. Maybe that’s what she had needed, a shoulder to cry on but he had probably missed his chance. Now this guy, who looked all too sure of himself, had made his move and as usual, Todd had been left behind with his life that everyone thought as a bit boring he supposed.
If pushed, he would have had to admit that he wasn’t worried he might have to explain himself some time. He had tried that once before and it hadn’t worked out at all well.
Todd took a last look at Steve and Alice as they went out of view and he looked up in time to swerve to the right before he sideswiped a Eugene Parks Department truck parked on the side of the road.
Steve was deep in thought as he walked back into the house and into the kitchen. Alex had started to make coffee and as they entered, he turned to say something but stopped as he saw the pensive look on Steve’s face.
“What?” he silently mouthed to Alice, as she briefly shook her head recognizing that Steve was working through a problem in his mind.
He accepted the coffee when Alex had made it, took a mouthful and finally said,
“I don’t like that guy. There’s something that doesn’t sit quite right about him.”
“He is a bit weird, I know, but he’s harmless.”
“Do you think so?” Steve asked. “I’m not so sure.”
“Well, he was always a little creepy. He used to walk the neighborhood at night. His quiet time he used to call it.”
Steve turned and looked at him as Alex said this.
“Walking the streets at night for peace and quiet? From what, was his mother a bit overbearing, was Todd overwhelmed by her? Is he a mommy’s boy with issues?”
“Old Mrs. Bailey isn’t any of those things. She was always a bit loud and forthright, but I never thought of her as anything other than kind and generous. The neighborhood kids certainly thought so. Her house was one of their favorites at Halloween. Bowls of candy and treats and she gave them out by the handful.”
“Why is he here then? I thought the house was empty? Coming over once in a while to check the house, to keep an eye on things I can understand.”
“But?” Alice could sense that Steve wasn’t going to leave this alone.
He had gulped down his coffee and was tapping his thumb and index finger together. A sign that he was working through a problem.
Steve turned to Alex.
“Have you seen him since you got out, before today?”
Alex shook his head, “He did say that he doesn’t need to come over because he can monitor it remotely, but he needed to pick some things up for his mom.”
“So he says.”
“What about when Alex was in jail? Was he here much then?”
Alice shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. I saw him once or twice, but I wasn’t here all the time either. He could have come over a lot without me knowing.”
“It seems strange that he comes over now, when you get out, and makes a point of coming over to chat.”
“Maybe he misses the old place.” Alex suggested.
“Or he’s checking something out,” Alice said looking at Steve.
Alex laughed, “Like what?”
“It could be completely innocent Steve,” Alice said.
“He’d already moved away well before Hazel went missing. His mom had also left to go to a nursing home, yet he happens to be here the night that Hazel disappears. She’s gone to a facility in Bend to be closer to him, rather than him organize to come back here. He’s independent and can take time off when he likes. He has no set hours and no boss to answer to.”
“I’m still not seeing a problem with him.”
“Has he ever married?”
Alex shook his head, “No.”
“Girlfriends?”
“I’m not that close to him that I would know.”
“You were at school with him?”
“He was a few years ahead, seemed OK then, he was a bit of a jock. Football he wasn’t great at but he wasn’t that bad either. Good enough to play school football but not continue it into college.”
“Not good enough or not interested enough, or didn’t mommy want him to leave?”
Alex thought about it while Steve looked at Alice. She shook her head before he could ask the question.
“He was well before my time. I knew of him, but he was a senior and leaving when I was getting to high school. I came across him a bit after I left school, talked to him a bit but nothing more than that.”
“Did he have a girlfriend then?”
Alice turned to Alex, “What was that girl’s name, the one that you used to comment was a cheerleader version of Hazel? Shirley or something.”
“Cheryl, Cheryl James. Yeah, they were an item for a while now you mention it.”
Steve looked startled.
“A cheerleader version of
Hazel?”
Alex nodded as Alice described her as being about one-hundred and twenty pounds around five feet ten tall with long brown hair, and brown eyes.
He almost laughed, “Six feet? They would have made an odd couple, he’s quite a few inches shorter than that.”
Alex smiled, “It’s funny, now we’re talking about it, I seem to remember whenever they were standing together, he would be on his toes, trying not to look short next to her. We joked he liked Cuban heels to give himself another couple of inches in height when they were together.”
“So, this Cheryl, she was quite similar in appearance to Hazel?”
“Yes, she was.”
“And her figure?”
Alex laughed again.
“She had a great figure.”
“So why the laugh?”
“We always thought that she was a little top-heavy to be a cheerleader and used to joke that she must have been wearing one hell of a sports bra to keep things in place.” he smiled at the memory.
“Like Hazel?”
The smile faded, “Yes, like Hazel.”
“Where exactly are we going with this? Do you suspect Todd of, what exactly?” she spread her hands asking the question.
“I don’t like him but that’s no reason to try to pin anything on him. There are things about him that don’t add up though and more bits of the story of Hazel’s disappearance coming out bit by bit. Maybe Todd is another piece of the jigsaw that we haven’t quite figured out yet.”
Alice chewed her lip for a moment. “I honestly cannot say anything bad about him. But as you say, there’s something a bit strange about him.”
“Which still doesn’t prove anything,” Alex said.
“No,” Steve admitted, “It doesn’t prove anything at all but it doesn’t hang right with me.”
“Because Todd did what?”
“Something, maybe nothing. Maybe he has some evidence that he didn’t come forward with about that night.”
“Or not.”
Steve nodded, “Indeed, I have no idea, I just know that when I’ve had this feeling in the past, it’s because there’s something about the person that isn’t right and eventually I’ve found out what it is.”
