Web of Silence: A Ray Schiller Novel (The Ray Schiller Series Book 4)

by Marjorie Doering

  “I’m just enjoying my dessert.”

  “Baloney,” she said.

  “No, butterscotch budino.”

  Gail set her fork down and leaned closer. “Ray, something’s bothering you. Seventeen years, remember? I can tell.” When he didn’t reply, she sighed. “You’re disappointed with what I gave you. That’s it, isn’t it? Be honest with me, hon.”

  He wanted to request the same of her, but held back. “Gail, I like your gift. I really do.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  She was boxing him into a corner; it wasn’t a place he wanted to be. “All right, I am puzzled about something.” He shoved his dessert aside. “What was in that bag in the back of the Traverse the other day?”

  She drew back, her eyes widening. “I hoped you hadn’t seen it.”

  “Well, I did. I almost looked inside, but when I saw the Men’s Warehouse logo on it, I thought it might be my anniversary gift. I didn’t want to spoil it if you meant for it to be a surprise.”

  “So you didn’t look?”

  “No. What was it? I’m curious.”

  Pinching the stem of her wineglass, Gail twisted it back and forth. Her eyes finally lifted to meet his. “What did you think it might be, Ray?”

  “Maybe a bomber jacket.”

  “Good guess.” A moment of hesitation stretched into two, then three. “Now I really feel horrible,” she said at last. Her eyelids flickered as she broke eye contact. “I had to return the jacket… just for the time being, honey. With my car repair and some of the other unexpected expenses we’ve run into lately… I’ll get you another one as soon as the checking account looks a little healthier again.”

  Ray captured her hand under his. “It’s not a problem, Gail. I just wondered what was going on.”

  She slipped her hand away and fingered the new ring glistening on her hand. “We should return the ring, too. I love it, Ray, but this must have cost even more than the jacket.”

  “No way. Our ‘cushion’ may be a little thinner than usual, but it’s not threadbare yet.”

  “You didn’t break the bank for the ring, did you?”

  “I might’ve given it a hairline fracture. Nothing major. It’s yours. You’re keeping it.”

  “Honey, thank you, but keeping it would make me feel so guilty I—”

  “There’s no need for that.” He watched her drain her wine glass more hastily than expected. “More?” he asked.

  “I’d better not.” Gail pushed her barely touched piece of cake aside. “Julie’s going to drive the girls to school in the morning and then bring Joey home. I don’t want to greet her with bloodshot eyes. You know what wine does to me.”

  “Yes, I do.” He waggled his eyebrows and scooped the last of his dessert into his mouth. “What do you say we go home and make use of that?”

  “Are you making improper advances, sir?”

  He gave her a roguish smile. “As your husband, is there such a thing?”

  Ray couldn’t help but notice that something had extinguished the sparkle in Gail’s eyes. He couldn’t put his finger on the precise moment the change had taken place, then he realized there was no particular moment. It had been more like a flame slowly dying for lack of oxygen. He motioned for the waitress to bring their bill.

  “Is everything okay, babe?”

  “Absolutely. Everything’s wonderful.”

  He decided not to press Gail for the truth, but couldn’t mistake the lie resonating within her unequivocal response. He paid the bill and saw Gail into their car as frustration built inside him.

  32

  Enjoying the unusual peace and quiet in the house the next morning, Ray lingered over his coffee. Whatever was troubling Gail at the restaurant the night before, seemed to have been forgotten… by her at least. He tried to tell himself he’d made too much out of it… whatever it was, but that wasn’t working. As hard as he’d been trying to accept excuses for Gail’s increasingly odd moods and questionable absences, his level of trust was wearing thin. Once burned, twice shy. Twice burned… He couldn’t even imagine.

  Already dressed for Julie’s arrival with Joey, Gail said, “Shouldn’t you get going, hon?”

  “I’ve got a little time yet. I’m counting on caffeine to get me through the day.” He winked at her. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, in case you’ve forgotten.”

  “No. In fact, I’m relishing remembering it.”

  He enjoyed hearing that, but wondered if it was nothing but another lie.

  “Think I’ll have one more cup,” he said.

  She brought the pot over and filled his mug halfway.

  “Only half? Are you trying to get rid of me this morning?”

  “Don’t be silly.” The doorbell rang. With a sigh, she set the pot down. “I’m saving some coffee for Julie. That’s got to be her now.” She went to the door.

  “After taking the kids last night, she deserves a fresh pot,” Ray called after her. He stood and topped off his cup as Julie Monroe came into the kitchen. Joey catapulted himself into Ray’s arms.

  “Hi, Daddy.”

  “Hey, big guy.” He kissed Joey’s cheek before the boy scrambled out of his arms in pursuit of only he knew what. Ray turned to Julie. “It’s good to see you. Thanks for last night. We owe you.”

  “And don’t you forget it,” she said, laughing. “In another couple of months, Dan and I have an anniversary coming up, too. Hint, hint.”

  “We’ll mark it down on the calendar.” Ray went to start a new pot of coffee. “Pull up a chair.”

  Gail hustled to get ahead of him. “I’ll take care of this, honey. Go ahead and finish your coffee or you’re going to be late getting to work.”

  “All right, I get it. I’ll get out of your hair so the two of you can talk.” He grabbed his cup and downed the contents as though it were a shot of whiskey, wishing it were. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward Gail. “She’s been trying to rush me out of the house all morning.”

  “Okay,” Gail said, “I admit it. It’s girl-talk time. Here, Ray,” she said, handing his thermos to him. “See you later, honey.”

  He took it and gave her a one-armed hug and a quick kiss. Mindful of their company, he tried to keep his mood light. In Gail’s ear, he whispered, “To be continued later.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  “I make good on mine,” he told her. “Julie, thanks again. Hey, how’s Dan doing with your latest project?”

  “Project?”

  “You know,” he said, “the one Gail went to help you with Monday.”

  Julie’s eyes flicked in Gail’s direction.

  “The remodeling,” he said.

  “Uh… oh,” Julie stammered a second later. “Yeah, Monday. Um…”

  “Redecorating, Ray, not remodeling,” Gail said, stepping to the table. “Just lamps, drapes, that sort of thing, right, Julie?”

  “Right… right.” Julie busied herself, moving her jacket from her lap to the back of her chair. “A few new things. Nothing major.”

  He couldn’t see Julie’s face, but he detected a nervous undercurrent in her voice. Ray looked at Gail. Her lips were locked in a barely there Mona Lisa smile. She didn’t try shooing him out of the house again, but neither did she suggest that he stick around.

  “I’d better get going,” he said at last. “Say hi to Dan for me, Julie. Gail, I’ll see you later.”

  Ray backed out of the driveway, holding the wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

  When he arrived at the station, Ray almost didn’t recognize Waverly at a glance. His slimmed-down body still threw him for a loop. To him, Waverly’s clean-shaven face looked like unfinished landscaping.

  “Hey, buddy,” Waverly said as he saw him. “Good news. Our guys turned up Lundquist and Elena Dunn’s belongings at a pawn shop in St. Paul.”

  “Great.” Ray kept walking. He raised his thermos. “Coffee?”

  “No, thanks.” Waverly gave Ray a sidelong look as h
e weaved his way through the obstacle course of moving bodies. “Is that all you’ve got to say about what I just said?”

  “Did the stolen goods include Lundquist’s cell phone?”

  “No, that’s still missing, but on the plus side, they got a positive I.D. from the shop owner on the guy who brought the stuff in. It was none other than ‘Chug Chug’.”

  “Who?”

  “Come on. You know. Leland aka ‘Chug Chug’ Lester—big as a locomotive with the same I.Q.?”

  “Okay, yeah. The bastard’s about the size of a Clydesdale, like Severson said. Did they find him?”

  “Yup. He’s been rounded up and put in his own private ‘stall’ at County.” Waverly pulled up the chair on the other side of Ray’s desk and sat down, elbows on his knees—a feat more easily accomplished than in the past. “How’d the anniversary dinner go last night?”

  “Great.” Ray grimaced. “Damn. I left my gift at home. Gail’s already convinced I hate it. That’s not going to help.”

  “What’d you get?”

  “One of those sand art pictures for my desk.”

  “Ah,” Waverly said. “The equivalent of a bottle of Valium. Years ago I had one of those gizmos with the five balls suspended side by side on strings.”

  “A Newton’s Cradle.”

  “Yeah, that’s it. A great little tension reliever. But one day Ted Langley and I—he left the department before you got here—we had to subdue a suspect they brought into the department, and a couple of the balls got torn off in the struggle.” Waverly chuckled. “You can pretty much guess the kinda comments I got about missing two balls on my doo-dad. Finally got rid of the thing. Never replaced it.”

  “A gift from Phyllis?”

  “Uh-huh.” Waverly stood abruptly. “Let’s get going. I’m anxious to find out what Frank

  Schwartz was doing at Dunn’s dealership yesterday.”

  “That makes two of us,” Ray said.

  In the car five minutes later, Waverly turned sideways in the passenger seat. “What’s up, buddy?”

  “Nothing. Why?”

  “Well, it’s not that your mono-syllabic end of our discussion isn’t positively scintillating, but it makes it tough holding up my end of the conversation.”

  “I’m just thinking,” Ray said.

  “Something going on at home?”

  “What makes you ask that?”

  “Hey, if you were thinking about the case, I wouldn’t be able to shut you up.”

  The cliché about people who live in glass houses ran through Ray’s head, but he curbed his urge to bring it up. He blew his horn as a Hyundai cut him off. “Jackass,” he muttered. “I’m not sure what’s going on,” he told Waverly, “but something’s definitely up with Gail lately.”

  Waverly faced forward again. “Give it some time. Maybe it’ll blow over.”

  “The hands-off approach? I don’t think so. I have to get to the bottom of this.”

  “Maybe her estrogen’s outta whack.”

  “What do you know about estrogen?” Ray scoffed.

  “Enough to know life’s easier when it’s in balance.”

  “That’s not it,” Ray said.

  Waverly took his own turn at one-word replies until they parked in the Dunn Motors lot.

  Getting out of the car, he said, “Okay, let’s get down to work.”

  The second they walked in, Waverly approached Rhonda Stark at the service desk. “Do we need to show you our I.D.’s today, Ms. Stark, or do you still remember us?”

  “There’s not much chance I’d forget,” she said, giving him a cheeky wink. “The two of you are getting to be more regular than our regulars.” She smiled at her own joke, then took a stab at showing a little professionalism. “If you’d like to wait in Dave’s office, I’ll let him know you’re here. He’s busy right now, but he should be free before long.”

  “Where is he?” Ray asked.

  Stark looked toward the repair shop. “He’s having a word with our head mechanic.”

  “Steve, you mean?” Ray said. “Steve Winchell, your boyfriend.”

  “Well… yes.” She tossed a lock of red hair over her shoulder. “Like I said, if you’d like to wait for Dave in his office—”

  “Thanks, but we’ll just go to the garage. We can talk to him there when he’s finished.” Ray told her.

  “Suit yourselves.”

  Entering the repair bay, they saw Dunn in the far corner of the repair bay where he’d drawn the mechanic aside, but the volume of the conversation made the distance irrelevant; they could hear every word over the whirr of another mechanic’s tools.

  “When we’re that low on courtesy cars,” Dunn shouted, “you’ve got to get the repairs done faster.”

  Winchell stood with his arms crossed, doing an obvious slow burn. “I heard you the first time.”

  “A week to do some simple bodywork? That doesn’t make sense. We can’t afford to give out loaners for a week at a time. We don’t have enough of them to do that. If we can’t provide a courtesy car for our customers when they need one, they’ll take their business elsewhere.”

  “There were other cars in the shop that needed work, not just Schwartz’s,” Winchell fired back.

  “Then you need to work faster. The parts for Schwartz’s car were here in two days; I signed the delivery papers myself. You could’ve had that job finished a lot sooner than you did.”

  “So what?” Winchell said. “Schwartz went out of town for the week. He wasn’t coming all the way back to return your loaner.”

  “All the same— ”

  The mechanic caught sight of Ray and Waverly listening across the way. “Looks like you’ve got somebody waiting who actually wants to talk to you,” he told Dunn.

  They saw the substantial rise and fall of Dunn’s chest as he gave up and sent Winchell back to his current repair job. As Dunn approached them, Ray leaned in Waverly’s direction. “Interesting,” he said. “I can’t decide if we got here a minute too soon or too late.”

  “Timing is everything,” Waverly said.

  Dunn approached with his hand extended.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Dunn said, shaking Ray’s hand. “I’ll take the two of you back to Ford’s office to have a look at the key cabinet.” Speaking over his shoulder, he led them from the garage without waiting for a response. “I checked it myself. No scratches. No damaged lock. Ford’s not in his office right now, but I’ll take you back so you can see for yourselves.”

  “You don’t need to bother,” Ray said. “If there’s no damage, someone probably made use of your key to open it up.”

  “Why do you assume they used my key?”

  “Because it was accessible. Anyone could’ve helped himself to it,” Ray told him. “Keeping it in your drawer isn’t a smart move. If I were you, I’d start keeping it on my key chain like your sales manager. How about if we talk in your office?”

  Dunn took a sharp left at the next door and closed it behind them as they entered. “I’ve never had a car stolen off my lot before. It’s never been a problem.”

  “But it is now,” Waverly said.

  Dunn seated himself at his desk and motioned to the chairs on the other side. “Any word on the Regal?”

  “Not yet,” Ray told him.

  Waverly cut to the chase. “When we left here yesterday, we saw Frank Schwartz leaving your lot. What was he doing here?”

  “Didn’t eavesdropping on my conversation with my mechanic give you a clue?”

  “We weren’t eavesdropping,” Waverly said. “As far as I’m concerned, discussions go from private to public at around a hundred decibels. You and Winchell exceeded the limit.”

  Rather than contest the point, Dunn said, “What is it you’re after?”

  “We’d like some information about Frank Schwartz,” Ray said.

  “Another husband getting marched out in front of a firing squad,” Dunn scoffed. “Why am I not surprised?” He leaned forward, eager t
o have his say. “Frank Schwartz is a good customer. He buys his cars from me and has them serviced here, too. That’s pretty much the extent of it. I knew his ex-wife better than I know him.” He scrunched his eyes closed. “Great. I suppose you’re going to make something out of that now.” He shook his head and said, “I only say that because Georgia was a close friend of Ellie’s. I didn’t know Georgia well enough to have any reason to want to see her dead. Ellie thought the world of her. They were pretty tight. Georgia’s death is going to be really rough on her.”

  “Okay,” Waverly said, “now that you’ve got that out of your system, let’s get back to Frank Schwartz.”

  “Like I said, there’s not much I can tell you.”

  “So you have no idea about the dynamics between Georgia and Frank?” Ray said.

  Dunn thought about it for a few seconds. “About the only thing I can tell you is that I saw them together a couple of times since they split up, but I didn’t notice any animosity between them, if that’s what you’re asking. Even if it existed, Frank wasn’t in the Cities when the shootings happened.”

  “That’s what he’s claiming,” Waverly told him. “Since he had one of your loaners at the time, your mileage records should confirm or disprove his story. You do keep mileage records, right?”

  “Naturally. Rhonda has them at the service desk. You can check with her.”

  “The repair to Schwartz’s car…” Ray said. “What was wrong with it?”

  “It got banged up in a low-speed, no-injury, high-cost fender bender. Cars aren’t as crunch-resistant as they used to be.”

  “Do you know the name of his insurance company?” Ray asked.

  “Not offhand, but Rhonda would have that information, too. You can—” The phone jangled on his desk. “Excuse me. Hello? Yes.” Dunn’s demeanor changed for the better. “Great! Yes, that’s great. Thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Good news, I take it,” Waverly said as Dunn hung up.

  “Ellie’s out of her coma.” He was out of his chair and halfway to the door before he said, “Sorry to cut this short, but I’m going to the hospital.”

  33

  As Dunn hurried out, Waverly turned to Ray. “Finally! Let’s go.”