Saving Face (Mount Faith Series: Book 1)

by Brenda Barrett

  "Okay." Taj said chuckling.

  "I am tired of dorm living," Natasha said, "and this case is driving me crazy. I'll be over in ten minutes."

  He hung up. "She's spending the weekend." Taj said to Anne.

  Anne nodded. "Well, you two are invited to lunch tomorrow. I was planning to ask you, but this is so much better."

  After Anne left, Taj grabbed up his briefcase, discarded his shoes and put on something more comfortable. Natasha was spending the weekend. His mood lifted exponentially.

  ***

  "I wish tomorrow wasn't Monday," Natasha said. She had baked a chocolate cake and they had eaten the whole thing and were on the veranda savoring the last pieces.

  "I like Mondays, actually," Taj said, "but I really enjoyed this weekend with you."

  "It was fun," Natasha said nostalgically, "but I am going to have to face this case again."

  Taj chewed his cake slowly and ate the last crumbs off his plate. "You know in any frustrating psychiatry case I have I always go back to the beginning."

  "The beginning?" Natasha asked.

  "Every problem has a beginning. Every person has a beginning." Taj placed his plate on the table between them.

  Natasha looked out in the night. "The beginning for this case is too complicated. There are so many persons who wanted this man dead."

  Taj shook his head. "But somebody really really wanted him dead and was not afraid to do it. Who was that?"

  Natasha went to bed thinking about what Taj said.What was really the beginning of this case?

  Chapter Nineteen

  "The beginning?" Harry asked her incredulously on Monday. They were in their usual spot in the humanities section of the library. "The beginning was when somebody went to Carlisle's office. Stuck him with a needle and left him to die."

  "But why?" Natasha asked.

  Harry scratched his head. "Bancroft because he wanted his job."

  Natasha shook her head doubtfully.

  "Miranda Carlisle. He was planning to leave her for a man."

  Natasha looked at him thoughtfully and then shook her head again.

  "Kelvin kellove Hart because Carlisle was messing with him by telling him he would leave his wife and he had no intention of doing so."

  Natasha frowned. "I think Kelvin stuck D.M. Carter with the needle. He lived near him and he had a grudge."

  "And not kill Carlisle?" It was Harry's turn to frown.

  "Yup," Natasha said. "He looked guilty when we identified ourselves as police because he did something wrong. But I genuinely don't think he killed Carlisle."

  "Why would he try to kill D.M. Carter over a stupid little grudge that happened weeks before?" Harry asked again. He was asking loudly, he was getting frustrated with this knot of a case.

  "Lets go ask him," Natasha said. "He knows the effects of potassium chloride, he quickly pointed out to us that it could stop somebody's heart but it wouldn't kill anyone by itself without a pre-existing condition. Remember he said that?"

  "So?" Harry asked.

  "So he probably didn't intend to kill D.M. Carter, but just frighten him."

  "But why use the same substance potassium chloride used in the killing of Edward Carlisle?" Harry asked.

  "Maybe just coincidence." Natasha said, "But fact is, he was the one who stuck Carter with the needle."

  "Why would you jump to that conclusion?" Harry was tapping his finger.

  "He lives at 3 Mount Faith Drive," Natasha said, "easy running distance to Carter's house. He probably watched Carter's movements and decided to strike."

  "Lets go confirm this and book him for attempted murder," Harry said getting up. "Maybe then he'd confess to killing Edward Carlisle."

  Natasha cleared her throat and looked at Harry, a look of doubt in her eyes. "Harry I know this theory is unusual but I was thinking that back to the beginning means going all the way back."

  Harry looked at her curiously and then sat down again. "Tell me what you are thinking."

  Taj followed Bancroft to his office. Bancroft still looked a bit shaky but his voice was clearer.

  "I am taking it easy this week," he said to Taj.

  Taj grinned. "You should, though you have a hectic schedule there."

  "Maybe you want to take over some of them?" Bancroft asked tentatively, sitting in his chair.

  Taj sat across from him. "No. You made your point. I got it. This job is certainly attractive but I am not ready for it. I might never be. There are some things I am not cut out for. When I was in high school, I was on the track team but I left it for medicine. Now once again I am choosing medicine. I am going to stick with my first love."

  Bancroft nodded and looked at him with a pleased smile. "Good choice."

  "Though I could have gotten the job if I wanted it." Taj said sharply, "so don't think you've won."

  "How?" Bancroft coughed.

  "You have skeletons in your closet," Taj said easily, "and I have the ear of the chairman."

  Bancroft stiffened. "What has D.M. Carter told you about me?"

  "Not him," Taj leaned toward Bancroft, "Anne Carter."

  Bancroft closed his eyes and then laughed without humor. "You know, in the earlier days when I just got here I had nightmares about her telling people about our past. I avoided her like the plague. She has never said a word to anyone except maybe that sour faced husband of hers. Judging by the way he dislikes me I guess she told him." He shook his head and looked at Taj. "She must like you to tell you about our past."

  Taj looked at Bancroft smugly. "I think she loves me."

  Bancroft's mouth opened. "Aren't you too young for her? And I thought she loved her turtle faced husband with a passion."

  "Ha," Taj said. "She loves me because she's my mother."

  Bancroft inhaled sharply. "Then you are..."

  "Yes," Taj nodded, "your son."

  "But she had an abortion," Bancroft said swiftly.

  "No," Taj shook his head, "I was adopted by the Jackson's."

  Bancroft went into a fit of coughs and Taj watched as he tried to digest the latest information.

  "So you see," Taj said. "This annoying mosquito is your own flesh and blood. If you had had me investigated like you threatened, you'd have found that out."

  Bancroft was speechless and then he grunted. "I did have you investigated. Never found a thing out of the ordinary."

  Taj grinned. "Hence the last ditch effort to get me to see if I enjoyed the presidential post."

  "Something like that," Bancroft said still looking at him stunned. "My wife remarked on the night of the ball that we resembled each other. I have seen it too, just never thought that this would be the outcome."

  Taj remarked easily, "I could see it from your pictures before I came to Jamaica. I always wondered."

  Bancroft leaned back in his chair. "What can I say?"

  "Thank you for holding down the fort for the week past. See you around," Taj said getting up.

  Bancroft looked at him incredulously. "That can't be it. I was never ashamed of you. I would have stayed in Jamaica and taken care of Annette…faced up to my responsibilities, but my parents were a force to be reckoned with. They arranged everything before my teenage head could get around the fact that one reckless act of sex with my holier than thou girlfriend resulted in a pregnancy!"

  Taj sat.

  Bancroft sighed. "I am happy she didn't do what my parents arranged. More than happy. You didn't turn out too badly. That investigative report was exemplary by the way. I will have to introduce you to my other children and my wife properly as my son."

  "Wait a minute!" Taj said, "I thought you would want our relationship to be kept quiet."

  "Why?" Bancroft asked, "I was never one for saving face. If the board of trustees wants to cross me off the list for something I did when I was seventeen and an idiot, then fine. Good luck to them finding a paragon of virtue to run this place. Jesus was the only sinless man to walk this earth."

  It was Taj's turn t
o look shocked. "But you were a monster when I just came to this place. Even your son, Micah, thinks you are a beast!"

  Bancroft laughed. "And you weren't intimidated. I respected that."

  Taj left the office a little bit puzzled because in a weird sort of way he now suspected that he liked Bancroft. He wasn't so bad. It would be good to get to know some of his family members. All of a sudden he had an expanded family tree.

  A gentle wind blew across his face as he stood on the bottom step of the impressive building. He had a class, then furniture to order for the new Psychiatry Center. It was a really, really good Monday.

  ***

  Harry was driving with a scowl as they drove down the hill toward Santa Cruz. They had arrested Kelvin Hart for the attempted murder of D.M. Carter. They had woken him up from his nap and pretty much scared him into confessing that he had indeed attempted to scare Carter.

  His reason: he thought D.M. Carter was responsible for Edward Carlisle breaking them up. Therefore, he wanted to punish him. He said he was grieving and was not thinking straight. They had dropped him off at the police station in Malvern and he had already lawyered up. In fact, his lawyer had followed them.

  He would soon be walking free until a court date was set.

  Natasha was chewing gum and slowly blowing bubbles.

  "Are you sure about this?" Harry asked Natasha.

  Natasha shook her head. "No, I am not. I am just going off a half-baked theory. We are going to have to do a little improvising here."

  "Is your boyfriend that good of a psychiatrist that he made two suggestions to you, and you are suddenly Sherlock Holmes?"

  Natasha giggled hysterically. What Harry said was not funny but she felt giddy with fear and needed to let off some steam. Sherlock Holmes used deductive reasoning in solving his cases and she did not quite trust her reasoning right now.

  "Well, Taj said that most crimes are always driven by passion and when he has a tough case he always goes back to the beginning."

  "And that's why you are having us do this?"

  Natasha nodded. "That's why. I can't believe we didn't see this all along."

  Harry turned into the parking lot of the Santa Cruz police station and headed to Superintendent Greyson's office.

  The Supe was on the phone when they knocked on the door. He looked up when they peeped in and gestured for them to come in.

  "My favorite detectives," he said hanging up the phone. "I didn't expect you down here in the first month of investigating. What brings you by?"

  Natasha cleared her throat, "An update, Sir."

  Greyson nodded, his eyes were blood shot as if he hadn't been sleeping well. "Go ahead. What have you discovered?"

  "Your uncle was bisexual," Harry said bluntly, "and actively cheating on his wife with both genders."

  Greyson cleared his throat and drummed his fingers on the table.

  "You don't seem surprised, Sir," Natasha observed. "I thought you said that he was an upright Christian when you gave us the case."

  Greyson continued to tap his fingers on the table and then he sighed. "I heard about it. There were rumors."

  Natasha looked at him assessingly. "Did you confront him with it?"

  Greyson nodded. "I did. He denied it at first but then he confessed."

  "When was this?" Natasha asked.

  "When was what?" Greyson was looking at both of them sheepishly.

  "When did your uncle confess his bisexuality to you?"

  "When we were nineteen, we had both got accepted to university and I saw him fooling around with one of our male friends." Greyson cleared his throat. "But then he straightened up, started dating girls. All was well again."

  Natasha glanced at Harry and then turned back to Greyson. "We... er... we suspect that his wife did it."

  Greyson looked at them alarmed. "Miranda would not kill Edward. You are wrong about that."

  Natasha shook her head. "She did it. She had the motive, he was going to leave her for his young lover, Kelvin Hart."

  "No!" Greyson shook his head vigorously. "You got it wrong! That Kelvin Hart guy is the killer! Book him and bring him down here. I can't believe it took you guys so long to pin the murder on him, and you are my best detectives."

  Harry stiffened in his chair. "Sir with all due respect we are the ones who have been on the ground. Kelvin Hart is not the killer. Miranda is. We thought that since she is your relative by marriage that you should know about this first."

  Greyson slapped the desk, "Miranda didn't kill anybody!"

  Two veins were bulging at the side of his head.

  "She has put up with Edward's nasty lifestyle for years and never did a thing. Who you should be looking at is that nasty man he called his 'love'. That's who you should be looking for. He's the criminal. He is the one who would make an otherwise upstanding Christian man want to leave his good job and all he had worked for and achieved. He's the killer!"

  Natasha shook her head and said loudly, "Superintendent Greyson, how did you know that Edward Carlisle called Kelvin Hart his love?"

  "Because the fool told me he was going to leave one of the kindest, sweetest women on this planet to shack up with a man. A man! And he wanted my support!" Greyson hit the desk. "He was a fool!"

  "When did he tell you this?" Natasha asked harshly.

  "A week before he died." Greyson looked between her and Harry.

  "And did you then ask your drinking buddy Dr. Fiddy for information on how best to kill somebody without it looking obvious? How surprised you must have been when the Commissioner himself asked you to pay special attention to this case."

  Harry shook his head. "And you are such a good actor. Had us convinced that your uncle was near and dear to you. Bravo for that performance Sir."

  "Did you kill Edward Carlisle?" Natasha asked bitingly.

  Greyson stiffened. The office was deathly still. "Detective, you are out of order." Greyson said quietly, "Edward Carlisle was a close family member."

  "He was also a bisexual. A man who you grew up with and held in high esteem. It must have really stuck in your craw that he wasn't the straight, upstanding citizen that you wanted him to be. Added to that, he took your college girlfriend from you, married her and couldn't be faithful to her. Your uncle lived a double life, and to make matters worse he was on the verge of shaming the whole family by leaving his wife for a man. That must have really hurt you when you heard."

  "Stop this drivel," Greyson snarled. "I am taking you both off this case. Now! Today!"

  "You wasted one month of our time," Harry said to Greyson. "One month when all you were doing was saving face. How did you even come up with that method of killing your uncle?"

  "He asked Dr. Fiddy," Natasha said. "Fiddy must have told him what to do. We are going to have to find out the exact time this conversation took place."

  She looked at Greyson. "I expected more from you."

  "Don't speak to me like that!" Greyson said, "I am still your superior. You are being insubordinate!"

  "I am writing a report and sending it to the Commissioner's office." Natasha said, "As you said this is a high profile case, the Commissioner must know about our findings."

  "You can't prove I did a thing," Greyson snarled.

  Harry stood up. "The bad thing about all of this is that you might get away with this. You killed your own flesh and blood. A life is a life. No matter what he did, or what he was, that doesn't justify you taking matters in your own hands."

  Greyson heaved a sigh. "Get out of my office! Now! You can't prove any of this cock -and-bull theory that you have. Detective work is finding evidence that will hold up in court. You can't even prove that Edward didn't just die from a simple heart attack. All you have are conjectures and accusations.

  I was wrong about you two. You are lousy detectives. I am splitting you up. I am going to arrange for both of you to be transferred out of here. I am sending you to a place where there isn't much to do.

  How did you like up M
alvern huh?" He asked feverishly. "I am sending you up there," he pointed to Natasha. "And you with your cocky attitude," he pointed to Harry, "should be squashed in Manchester,."

  "I am going to appeal this decision," Harry said without much heat because he did not want to have to work with Greyson ever again.

  Natasha shrugged and got up. "Why would you do this if you weren't guilty and trying to cover your tracks? You sir, will have to answer to God for your actions and God is not sleeping."

  Chapter Twenty

  Natasha drove slowly up the hills to Mount Faith University. She passed the police station and looked over at it, a hint of anticipation on her face. She would be working nearer to Taj if the superintendent got his way.

  She felt a twinge of sadness that she wouldn't be working with Harry again but the truth is, neither of them would be comfortable working with Greyson at the station knowing what they knew. They had barely left the office yesterday when their transfer documents had come in. Greyson couldn't stand the sight of them and it was mutual. She would start working in Malvern as early as next Monday.

  She turned into the imposing gates of the university and headed to the south side of the campus where the Psychiatry Center was. Taj had said he'd be there today.

  It was a nice campus. She admired the design of the buildings and the gardens. She wished never to come back here for any criminal investigation ever again but she was looking forward to visiting Taj on a regular basis. She hoped that what started between them in the last couple of weeks would evolve into something more.

  She parked beside a truck with a construction logo on it and Taj's vehicle.

  She got out of her car and leaned on it. The building was coming together nicely. They had even started to put in flowers.

  "Hey!" Taj said from the door, "come check out my new office."

  Natasha walked up the walkway, skipping over the debris that was strewn across the path. She followed Taj's retreating back and joined him in the office.

  "So does this mean that you are out of the running for the presidency?"

  "Yes," Taj said, "I chose medicine again, and I am comfortable with my choice."