by Sharon Sala
“Yes, but we don’t have the gun. Casings can’t prove ownership, and frankly, neither can a gun unless it’s been registered or used in a prior crime that might be traced back to a specific person during the commission of that crime.”
Poppy was angry. She wanted justice and all she was getting was the run-around. She unbuckled her seat belt.
“Give me back the check.”
“But-“
“If you aren’t interested in finding out the truth then I don’t need you. Give it back.”
Mike sighed. “That’s not what I said and you know it. Besides, I didn’t say it never happened, I just said right now we can’t prove it. You are not going to confront a suspect on your own, regardless.”
He started to hand over the check and then stopped.
“Oh. Wait. Son-of-a-bitch. She never cashed it. Talk about a statement. There was no doubt that she took it as the insult it was meant to be.”
Somewhat mollified by what he’d just said, Poppy nodded. “Ever since I found it, I’ve been thinking about that last entry in her diary.”
Mike nodded. “Where she threatened to kill herself if her father went to the family, and he reminded her she’d be murdering her own child?”
“Yes, and obviously, Grandpa Roberts did go because here’s the evidence. But Adam Caulfield didn’t pay him off. Mama was the one he wanted gone. He made the check out to her. He wanted her to know she was the one who was unsuitable. I can only imagine how frustrated Grandpa was when he saw it, and I am guessing there was one great big fight when she refused to cash it. It was her way of telling all the men in her life that she couldn’t be bought.”
Mike handed the check back to her. “What are you going to do with this?”
“Make sure he knows his dirty little secret isn’t a secret anymore. I hope it gives him nightmares. After that, he’s all yours.”
“I’ll make some calls. Find out for sure where he’s at before we start what could turn into a wild goose chase, okay?”
“I don’t care how you do it.”
“Where’s your brother?”
“Running errands. I left him a note.”
“Sit tight. I’ll see if Caulfield is at work,” Mike said. He found the number for the company headquarters and called it first.
“Caulfield Industries, Frances speaking. How may I direct your call?”
“This is Detective Amblin with Caulfield P.D. It’s imperative that I speak to Mr. Caulfield.”
“I’m sorry, but he’s already left the office for the day.” “Then I need the number to his cell phone.”
Frances hesitated. “We don’t give out the number to his private phone.”
“Look, Frances, I’m not selling tickets to a raffle. This is police business. The number. Please.”
Startled, she quickly gave it up.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” He hung up then before the secretary had time to think about what she’d done and call Caulfield herself, he made the call.
Justin answered on the second ring.
“Justin Caulfield.”
“Mr. Caulfield, this is Detective Amblin with Homicide. It is imperative that I speak with you, but your secretary said you’d already left for the day.”
Justin was a little curious, but nothing more. “Actually, I haven’t left the building. I’ve been staying in the apartment on the top floor for the past couple of days. Do you want me to meet you, or are you okay with coming here? All you have to do is go to the guard in the lobby. I’ll tell him to send you up.”
“We’ll come there,” Mike said, and hung up just as John pulled into the driveway. “Hey, looks like your brother is back.”
“Wait here,” Poppy said and got out.
Mike saw the frown on John Sadler’s face when he realized the police were back. Then he remembered Kenny needed to know where they were going and quickly sent him a text.
Mike watched their conversation without hearing it, but it didn’t take her long to state her case. When she started back to the car, John was behind her.
“He’s going with us,” she said.
John got in the back seat without speaking.
Mike put the car in gear and drove away. When they got to the office building of Caulfield Industries, Kenny was waiting.
“You made good time,” Mike said as they approached the building.
“Mouff’s numb. You talk.”
Mike frowned in sympathy then glanced back at the Sadlers. John’s hand was on Poppy’s shoulder. She was standing as close to him as she could get. He got the message. Whatever happened, they were in it together.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said, and led the way into the building and flashed his badge at the guard. “We’re here to see Mr. Caulfield. He’s expecting us.”
“Yes sir, he already alerted me to your arrival. Follow me.”
The guard led the way to the bank of elevators, then paused at a single elevator door and used a key to open it.
“As soon as the door closes, just press the button. There’s only one. It will take you straight to the penthouse.”
“Thank you,” Mike said, and within moments they were on their way up.
He looked at Poppy. She was pale and tense, but her head was up, her shoulders back. She didn’t appear nervous so much as braced for a fight.
The car stopped suddenly. When the door opened, Justin Caulfield was standing on the other side. Mike watched the expression on his face go from congenial to shock as the car emptied. He glanced back at Poppy. She wore anger well. Her skin was pale - her chin was up - her shoulders back. Then she separated herself from the others to face Justin alone.
****
Poppy felt the impact of this full-circle moment. From Sunny’s betrayal to Jessup’s murder to coming face to face with a child he had denied, Justin Caulfield had run out of places to hide. And then something happened that she wasn’t expecting. He started to cry.
“I didn’t know about you. I swear to God, I didn’t know,” he said.
She wanted to shoot him herself. “Ignorance is no excuse,” she snapped, and when he reached toward her, she slapped the check in his hand. “I believe this is yours.”
Justin’s stomach rolled as he recognized his father’s handwriting. If he had a snowball’s chance in hell of ever having a relationship with her, he had to dump his pride at her feet.
“I loved Sunny with every pore of my body and when I should have been a man and stood up to my father’s threat, I buckled instead. I was a fool. I’ve lived with the shame of that ever since. But I didn’t know anything about what happened in her life after the break-up. I went away to college and didn’t come back. Not for visits. Not for holidays. Nothing. I was angry at my parents and that was my juvenile pay-back for what they’d demanded. I didn’t know she was pregnant. I didn’t know my father paid her off. I didn’t know about you, about any of it until just before your mother’s funeral.”
Poppy was so mad she was shaking. “I don’t believe you.”
Justin felt sick. “I don’t blame you, but it’s why I’m here instead of in my own home. Would you please come sit? All of you? I ask because I don’t think my legs are going to hold me much longer.”
“I don’t need to hear this,” Poppy said.
John walked up behind Poppy. “Yes, you do, sister.”
“No, Johnny, I don’t want-“
“It’s to your advantage to know all there is to know about how you came to be.”
He took her by the elbow and led her toward the sofa while the others followed.
It never occurred to Justin that a police presence was unnecessary for this revelation. He was just grateful the secret was no longer an issue.
As for Mike and Kenny, they were curious as to where this was going. They had a better chance of gaining new information if Caulfield didn’t know he was a murder suspect.
Justin was transfixed by Poppy’s presence. She dominated the room with her rig
hteous indignation and he applauded her for it. She had not come to insinuate herself into his moneyed world. She’d come to annihilate the man who betrayed both her and her mother.
“It is painful to me that I have seen you off and on ever since you began working at The Depot and not know who you were. By that, I meant, not know you were Sunny’s child. I would have never imagined you were mine as well. As for your father’s death, I heard a body had been found in the river when I got to work. My office overlooks the Little Man. I could see police and rescue vehicles on the river bank but didn’t know what was happening or that the victim they found had been murdered. Even after I learned the victim’s name, I had no way of knowing he was your father or Sunny’s husband. I didn’t know your mother by any name other than Sunny. If someone had walked in and told me Helen Sadler died the same day her husband was murdered, I would have thought it a tragedy, but nothing would lead me to believe I was in any way connected to the family.”
“So it was just pity that caused you to give Daddy’s pension to me?” Poppy snapped.
Justin shrugged. “Compassion is a better word, but yes. He’d given thirty years of his life to Caulfield Industries. One error on a job lasting that long deserved a break. If that’s wrong, then I’m guilty.”
Poppy didn’t buy it and the tone of her voice gave it away.
“So, paying for the rest of Mama’s medical bills, all the flowers you sent to her funeral, and offering to pay for Daddy’s were just more gestures of compassion?”
“Yes and no. At the risk of making this sound insulting, your family lived in Coal Town. It costs a fortune to bury one person. I couldn’t imagine how a family from there could come up with the money to bury two. The outstanding medical bills would have not been an issue if Mr. Sadler had not been fired, so I considered it a company problem that had to be fixed. But the flowers were a different matter. I went to the funeral home. There were no flowers. Sunny loved flowers. It was too late to apologize to her. The flowers were a sop to my conscience, not a ploy to gain some kind of points from you. And you need to remember, at that point, I didn’t know of any connection to you.”
Poppy folded her arms. She’d heard him out. She was ready to leave then Mike changed her mind.
“If I may, I’d like to ask a few questions,” Mike said.
Justin was so overwhelmed that it still had not registered as to why there were actually police on the premises for what amounted to a very personal revelation.
“Ask whatever you want,” he said.
“When did you find out about Sunny’s pregnancy?”
The expression on Justin’s face shifted to one of anger.
“Right after I found out Callie was not my daughter.”
Mike’s first thought was ‘where the hell did that come from’ and then sat back and waited to see what came after.
Justin sighed as he shoved a shaky hand through his hair. “Considering what I’d caused, fate dealt me a good dose of payback, don’t you think?”
“I don’t follow,” Mike said.
“Look, for now, what I’m going to tell you needs to stay in this room. My fourteen-year-old daughter Callie is very ill and still knows none of this. The disease she’s been suffering from over the past year nearly killed her. She’s finally on the road to recovering from the disease, but it destroyed her kidneys. She needs a transplant to save her life. My mother and I were having an argument, which is nothing new, when something I said scared her into saying something she would never have revealed.”
“And that was what?” Mike asked.
Justin looked at Poppy. “I only have one kidney. But I said I’d do anything to save Callie’s life, including dying so that she could have mine.”
Poppy blinked. That didn’t fit in with the cheating, lying killer she believed him to be.
Mike frowned. “And that angered your mother?”
Justin nodded. “I guess she was afraid I’d do something crazy to make that happen. Basically, she said I’d be killing myself for nothing because I wouldn’t be a match. That’s when it hit the fan. Long story short, I found out my deceased wife had been pregnant when she married me. I made some kind of remark about fate and irony then said at least that hadn’t happened to Sunny. It was the look on my mother’s face that gave her away. I lost it. She finally admitted Sunny’s father had come demanding compensation after I’d left for college, that they didn’t really believe him about her pregnancy, but in any case wanted her paid off and out of their lives. I told her they’d had no right to keep that information from me, and that they were merciless in the way they’d treated her. Of course she disagreed, but that was that. I told her to get out of the house and not to come back, but she’s still there, which is why I’m here.”
Mike glanced at Kenny who shrugged and looked away. Once again, if they believed this story, their theory of how the murder could have happened just tanked.
Justin caught the look. “What? What am I missing here?”
Mike knew what he was about to do was risky, but the whole case was full of holes. Might as well put another one in it and see what leaked out.
“There’s a witness to Jessup Sadler’s murder,” Mike said.
Justin waited, when no one said anything else, he frowned, then leaned forward.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It is for us,” Mike said.
Justin glanced at Poppy. “I’m sure that’s good news for you and your brother, as well.”
John squeezed her hand to keep her quiet. Poppy got the message and leaned back against him. This was overwhelming on so many levels.
Justin frowned. Everyone was staring at him, like they were waiting for a lit fuse to blow.
“Look, I may be a world-class louse, but I’m not stupid. What aren’t you saying?”
“Where were you Tuesday night?” Mike asked.
Justin leaned back. “At the hospital with Callie.”
“Jessup Sadler was at the hospital that night, too. A few days prior he’d found out Poppy wasn’t his child, but that’s all he knew. We know nurses on duty heard him he and his wife arguing about it that night.”
Poppy suddenly moaned then covered her face as John pulled her close.
Mike sighed. Damn. He’d forgotten the family knew none of this, but it was too late to take it back.
“I’m still not following,” Justin said.
“We have reason to believe Helen Sadler gave up your name, and that you and Jessup might have met up and had words. You left the hospital only minutes ahead of Sadler, who sped out of the parking lot right behind you.”
Justin’s eyes widened. “You think I had something to do with his murder? You can’t be serious? Why would I kill him for news like that? My God, if I’d known it then, I might have had a chance to make my peace with Sunny before she died.”
“So you’re saying he didn’t show up at your house, that you two did not argue, and that you did not follow him to the river?”
“I didn’t go home from the hospital. I drove straight to the office and was almost late, at that. My secretary, Frances, can vouch for my arrival. I had an overseas conference call that lasted until just after 1:00 a.m. The records will reflect that. I don’t know what Mr. Sadler did when he left the hospital, but if he thought he would catch up with me at home, he would have soon realized he was mistaken.”
“What do you mean?” Mike asked.
“He would have had to deal with Mother. If he had gotten loud or pushy, she would have had Newton send him packing.”
“Who’s Newton?”
The tone of Justin’s voice was nothing short of sarcastic.
“Mother’s driver-slash-bodyguard, as if she needed one. It gives her a false sense of entitlement to think she’s so damn special she needs to be sheltered from the masses. He worked for us for years when I was growing up, then retired after Dad died and Mother moved to Florida. He came out of retirement at Mother’s request when she came back to hel
p me with Callie.”
“Would you consider him capable of murder?”
Justin’s expression went blank and then a muscle suddenly jerked at the side of his jaw.
“I don’t suppose I ever thought about it.”
“So, now that you are thinking about it, do you consider him capable of murder?”
All of a sudden, Justin remembered the fury on his mother’s face when she’d told him if it had been left up to her, she would have had Sunny and her baby tossed into the Little Man like an unwanted cur and her litter.
He stood abruptly. “I need a drink.”
Chapter Nineteen
Justin headed for the mini-bar, then suddenly diverted and made a dash for the bathroom.
They heard the door slam, then the sounds of retching.
“Is he lying?” Poppy asked.
“Right now there’s no way of knowing for sure,” Mike said.
“What’s your instinct telling you,” Poppy persisted.
“That he’s telling the truth.”
Poppy glanced up at her brother. “Johnny?”
John threw it back on her. “It doesn’t matter what I think. What do you think about what he’s said so far?”
“That I don’t want to be related in any way to people who behave like this.”
Moments later, Justin came back carrying a wet washcloth. He paused at the mini-bar, but instead of getting liquor, he got a bottle of water, took a drink then carried it with him as he sat back down.
“I apologize,” he said softly, took another sip of the water, then leaned back and closed his eyes.
“You never did answer my question,” Mike said. “Do you think this Newton fellow capable of murder?”
He swiped the cold cloth across his face and then sat up. The calm in his voice was out of context with the upset he’d just suffered.
“Given the right set of circumstances, I think some people are capable of doing almost anything to achieve what they want.”
“What does that mean?” Mike asked.
Justin shrugged as his focus suddenly shifted from reaction to action.
