Coulson's Secret
Page 3
Later, she would ask herself why she was so surprised. After all, didn’t she expect to see all those ghosts from her past? The moment she walked into the station, heads turned in her direction. Most were familiar faces.
Originally, just a long counter had separated the front visitor’s waiting room from the rest of the police station. It ran along the back wall of the entrance, adjacent to a door providing access to the back offices, interrogation rooms, and lock-up. In recent years, the city had added security glass to the open area over the counter along with an intercom system.
When Kim walked through the front doorway of the Coulson Police Department, there were eight people huddled together in the entrance area as if waiting for someone to arrive. The group included six adults and two teenage girls. Kim recognized five of the adults.
There was Adam Keller. While he had matured in the past sixteen years and was now a man and not a boy, she would have recognized him anywhere. He was still a redhead, yet his hair didn’t seem to be as red as she remembered. Adam looked even more like his father than he had as a teenager. Yet, unlike his father, Adam’s hair didn’t seem to be thinning, and he wore it in a buzz cut. While Kim always considered him good looking, Adam wasn’t beautifully handsome like her half-brother. Adam’s face was friendly and approachable.
She didn’t know the woman standing next to him, holding onto his arm. Kim suspected she was Adam’s wife or perhaps a girlfriend. Kim had lost touch with her friends from Coulson years before and never knew what happened to her old boyfriend.
She immediately recognized Alexandra Keller, Adam’s mother. It is Alexandra Coulson now, Kim reminded herself. A year or so after Adam’s father was killed in a car accident, Alexandra had married one of the grandsons of the town’s founder. Her new husband was also the brother of the murdered senator.
Kim remembered how kind Alexandra had been to her after she lost the baby. She remembered being so afraid and feeling alone, much as she was feeling at this very moment.
When Alexandra Coulson’s gaze set on Kim, she immediately recognized her. The once-shy teenager was now a beautiful young woman. Alex would always remember Kimmy as the frightened young girl who had loved Adam. She had expected Kim to return to Coulson with the death of Carol Myers, and she wasn’t surprise to see her.
“Kimmy,” Alex greeted, walking straight to Kim and giving her a hug, not waiting for the younger woman to make the first move. Kim welcomed the hug, feeling like that scared teenager in the hospital room those many years before.
When the embrace ended, Alex kept her hands on Kim’s arms for a moment as she looked into her face.
“I am so sorry about your mother,” Alex told her.
“Thank you, Mrs. Coulson. Have they found out anything yet?” Kim almost slipped and called her Mrs. Keller but caught herself in time.
“That’s why we’re here. We didn’t learn anything over the weekend, and they haven’t really told us much so far. We’re waiting for the police chief to arrive. And please, call me Alex.” Alex gave Kim a little reassuring squeeze before stepping back.
Adam immediately took his mother’s place, giving Kim a welcoming hug. Kim didn’t have time to process the fact that the man she had once loved with every fiber of her being was holding her in his arms. The hug was brief.
“Kimmy, I’m so sorry about your mom.”
“Thanks, Adam, but I go by Kim now.” Kim gave Adam a soft smile.
“Sorry, you will always be Kimmy to me.” Adam chuckled and then turned to the woman by his side and pulled her toward Kim.
“Kimmy, this is my fiancée, Angela Carter.” The two women eyed each other curiously. Kim guessed Angela was younger than she was, perhaps in her mid-twenties. Angela was taller than Kim, almost as tall as Adam. She was slender with dark hair and vivid blue eyes. Kim suspected Angela wore blue-tinted contact lenses.
“I’m so sorry about your mother,” Angela said as she reached out to shake Kim’s hand in greeting.
“Thank you, Angela. It’s nice to meet you.” Kim wondered briefly if Adam was happy. Instead of continuing the conversation with Kim, Angela looked to the front entrance of the police station and brightened upon seeing a man walk through the doorway.
“Oh, it’s Daddy,” Angela said and then walked to the man, leaving Kim and Adam looking after her.
“Her father is Joe Carter? Is he still the police chief? I thought he would be retired by now,” Kim said to Adam as she watched Angela give Joe Carter a hug.
“Yes and no. He is her father, but Joe retired a few years back. The current chief is Sam Peterson. I think he moved here after you left.”
Adam and Kim’s reunion was cut short when the other members of the group took turns welcoming Kim back to Coulson, some giving her a hug and all extending condolences for Carol’s tragic death.
Kim immediately recognized Alex’s younger sister, Kate Chamberlain. When Kim was still dating Adam, his aunt was just making a name for herself in the art community. Over the years since leaving Coulson, Kim had read a number of magazine and newspaper articles about the talented Kate Chamberlain. She had become something of a celebrity.
While Kim immediately recognized the late senator’s brothers, Garret and Russell Coulson, it took her a moment to figure out which one was which. She didn’t recall the brothers looking so much alike back when she was in high school. Both men aged well, and she guessed they were in their sixties. Neither had a midsection paunch, and both looked as if they were still physically active. Each had a head of thick white hair. Russell wore his trimmed short while Garret’s was a few inches longer than his younger brother’s was. Both were striking looking older men and taller than Adam.
While Kim always appreciated Alex’s compassion at the hospital after Kim miscarried, the two women had never developed an intimate friendship. At the time, Alex had been coping with the death of her husband and dealing with the return of Garret into her life. She had dismissed the seriousness of her son’s relationship, making no real effort to know Kim. While Alexandra believed Kimmy adored her son, she hadn’t felt Adam was ready for such a committed relationship.
Although Kim never bonded with Alexandra, Kim was privy to the family’s secrets. Adam had confided in Kim, telling her about his mother’s affair with Garret when Adam was a small boy.
The two remaining members of the group were teenage girls. Neither girl gave Kim a welcoming hug, yet they both offered their condolences upon introduction.
“This is our daughter, Sarah,” Alexandra introduced, reaching out to the taller of the two teenagers, briefly touching the girl’s arm. She then touched the other girl’s shoulder and said, “And our niece, Hannah—Kate and Russell’s daughter.”
“We’re really sorry about your mom,” the two girls chorused. They sounded sincere.
Kim looked at Sarah, a bit confused, and then glanced at Adam.
“You have a sister?” Kim asked. She remembered one of the last conversations she’d shared with Adam. It had occurred after they broke up and shortly before he was to leave for college. Adam had told her about Garret and Alexandra’s pending marriage, and when the topic of possible siblings came up, Adam had told her Garret had just gotten a vasectomy. According to Adam, his mother did not want more children.
Sarah looked nothing like Adam, which wasn’t a surprise, since Adam looked like his father, Ryan Keller. Sarah looked like her mother, with hazel eyes and chocolate-colored hair that fell straight past her shoulders. She looked enough like her cousin, Hannah, for the two to be sisters. Yet, that wasn’t a surprise either, considering the girls were double cousins.
“Yep. And she isn’t half as annoying as I thought she would be.” Adam laughed, earning him a punch in his arm from his sibling.
“How old are you?” The question just popped out of Kim’s mouth, and the moment she asked, she wanted to take back the words.
“I’m almost fifteen,” Sarah answered.
“If almost is June.” Hanna
h laughed. “I’ll be fifteen in March!”
Kim stared at the girls, unable to speak. She felt as if someone had just kicked her in the stomach. Had her baby lived, she would be about the same age as Adam’s sister and cousin. Their child would have just celebrated her fifteenth birthday. While Kim never knew the gender of her baby, over the years, she thought of it as a girl.
Kim wondered if Adam ever looked at his sister and thought about the child he had lost. She glanced at Adam and found him looking at her. He was no longer laughing. Instinctively, she knew he was thinking of their baby.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Angela and Joe Carter joined the small group. Everyone seemed to be talking at once. After shaking hands with the Coulson brothers, Joe turned his attention to Kim and took her right hand in his, giving it a little squeeze.
“Welcome home, Kimmy. I’m so sorry about your mother.” Joe Carter continued to hold her hand, making Kim feel a bit awkward. She was surprised the old police chief still remembered her. She had met him when she was in high school, during a fundraiser for the police department.
“Thank you, Chief, I mean Mr. Carter,” Kim said.
“Well, since you’re no longer in high school, you can drop the mister stuff. I still answer to Chief or Joe, whichever you prefer.” Carter gave her a little wink and squeezed her hand before releasing it. Kim smiled up at the ex-police chief and remembered how highly his staff spoke of him. While she hadn’t had much contact with Carter during the fundraiser, he had always been nice to her.
“Sam still hasn’t shown up?” Carter asked after turning his attention from Kim to Garret.
“No, I spoke to him this morning. We arranged to meet at eight, but he called me on my cell phone, right when we pulled up to the station and told me he was running late. He did say there was nothing new on the case. We still want to talk to him.”
“Nothing? Well, that’s a shame.” Carter then turned to the teenagers and asked in a teasing tone, “You girls playing hooky?”
“No,” Alex answered while giving the girls a scolding glance as they responded to Carter’s question with a giggle and nod. “Their first class doesn’t start for another thirty minutes. They wanted to come with us to hear Sam’s update, but we didn’t expect him to be this late. One of us will have to run them over to the high school.”
“But, Mom,” Sarah fairly whined. “It’s Thanksgiving week, and we won’t be doing anything important, anyway. Can’t we just miss school today?”
Hannah started to chime in, agreeing with her cousin, only to be outvoted by her parents.
“I tell you what; I could drop the girls off at the high school. The main reason I stopped by was to give Angela a lift to pick up her car. The high school is on the way.”
The girls’ parents seemed to appreciate the offer, but the teenagers looked disappointed.
“I would have thought Shelly would be with you,” Carter asked Garret, referring to Harrison’s widow.
“No, since Harrison’s death, Shelly has virtually locked herself in the bedroom and refuses to see anyone,” Garret explained. Joe didn’t seem shocked over Garret’s response and turned his attention to Kim.
“Are you going to stay to see Sam, too?”
“Yeah. I really haven’t talked to anyone official about my mother’s murder.”
“Who contacted you?” Joe asked.
“Helen Adams. We went to school with each other,” Kim explained.
“I don’t think Helen is here,” Joe told her.
“No, when I talked to her the other day, she mentioned she was going out of town for the holidays.”
“Sam should be here soon. I imagine what we’ll eventually discover is that your poor mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Harrison was active in politics for years, and he undoubtedly made enemies along the way,” Joe told her. His prediction was met by nods of agreement from the small group.
“I suppose you’re right. Yet, I keep getting this nagging feeling that there is something else. That perhaps there is a connection between my mother and the senator.”
“I can’t imagine what that would be,” Adam said.
“Well, perhaps I need to do my own detective work,” Kim said, speaking more to herself than to the group. She realized there had been something nagging her about her mother’s death, especially considering her mother’s urgent plea for Kim to return to Coulson for Thanksgiving. What did you want to tell me, Mother?
“You be careful, young lady. It’s never safe to be snooping around when there is a killer on the loose. You let the professionals handle it,” Joe warned.
“Oh, I don’t plan to get in anyone’s way. But I might as well dig through my mother’s things and see if I can find any connection between her and the senator.” Kim felt a little embarrassed referring to the dead senator in such a cool manner, considering he was the brother to Russell and Garret.
“So, you are staying at your mother’s?” Adam asked.
“Yes, I arrived last night.”
“Well, don’t drive yourself crazy,” Adam suggested. “I doubt you’ll find the answer to your mother’s death in her house. If that was the case, the authorities would have already gone through it by now.”
“Adam has a point,” Joe agreed. “You take care of yourself, young lady. And if you need help, just call.”
“Joe is right,” Alex said. “If you need anything, please let us know. Have you made arrangements for your mother’s service yet?”
“Actually, I plan to head over to the funeral home after I leave here.”
“Well,” Carter interrupted, “I better get going if I’m to get these two to school before they send out the truancy officer!”
By the time Chief Peterson arrived, Joe, Angela and the teenagers had already left. Kim understood why the senator’s brothers and wives wanted to discuss the investigation with the police chief, but she was a little curious as to why Adam was there. While the senator was his step-uncle, she found it hard to believe Adam had bonded with the Coulson family since his mother’s marriage. Of course, she hadn’t expected to discover Adam had a half-sister, so she reluctantly dismissed her initial curiosity.
The meeting with the police chief did not provide Kim with much more information on the case. Apparently, a deliveryman had discovered the bodies in the senator’s inner office. The bodies were side by side, each shot with a single bullet from the same gun. Since the gun was not on the premises, authorities had ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide.
Kim wondered what type of business the senator conducted in his office, which was located in a commercial complex across town from Coulson Enterprises. Garret explained that his brother hadn’t been involved with the family business for years, having spent his career in politics. Harrison used his office to dabble in his personal charities and investments. Garret almost added, yet held his tongue because it would be disrespectful to his late brother, that Harrison used the office as an excuse to get away from his wife, Shelly, which probably made Shelly as happy as Harrison.
After Adam and the rest of his group left the police station, Kim remained behind to speak privately with the police chief.
“Go ahead and wait in my office,” the chief told her. “I’ll be right there.”
Kim nodded to the chief and then went into the office and looked around. Sitting at a chair facing his desk, she began to fidget nervously. Absently, she picked up a framed picture on his desk and glanced at it, yet really wasn’t looking; her mind was elsewhere.
“It’s my grandfather,” the chief said as he entered his office and nodded to the photograph Kim held. She glanced at the object in her hand. The man in the picture was dressed in a police uniform. She set the frame back on the desk and felt a bit embarrassed being caught touching the police chief’s personal belongings.
“He was the police chief here. Before Carter.”
“I didn’t think you were from Coulson.” Kim remembered what Adam had told her.
“What can you tell me about my mother’s death?” Kim asked.
“I really think your mother walked into something that day and was simply unlucky.”
“But do you have any idea why my mother was there that day?” Kim asked.
“No, but I was hoping you might. While I don’t believe she had any real connection with the murderer, aside from walking in on him, I don’t want to overlook anything. So, your mother never mentioned Senator Coulson?” The police chief looked as if he was expecting a specific answer to his question.
“Never, and I can’t imagine why she would go to see him.”
“Well, perhaps she was asking for a donation for a charity or seeking his advice on some matter. The possibilities are endless.”
“When I go home, I’ll look through Mom’s stuff and see if I can find any connection.”
“That’s right; you’re staying at her house.” They sat there a moment, each lost in private thoughts. Finally, the chief spoke again. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I’m going to the funeral home to make arrangements for Mom. Do you know if the coroner has released her body yet?”
“Let me check on that for you,” the chief offered. Instead of making a phone call, he got up from his desk chair and left his office, leaving Kim alone. He returned ten minutes later with the news her mother’s body was already at the funeral home.
“You’ll also need to make arrangements for her car,” the chief told her.
“Her car? Oh, that’s right. She would have driven the car to the senator’s office. I hadn’t even thought about it.”
“I’m afraid they had it towed,” the chief explained. They chatted for a few minutes longer before Kim thanked him for his time and he promised to keep her informed. She left the police station, heading for the funeral home.