Never Go Home

by L. T. Ryan

  “Sorry about that,” I said.

  She shrugged. “Those guys are my biggest headache. I pray every night they give me one reason to lock them up for good.”

  “What about Matt’s brother, Glenn?” I said.

  April looked toward the bar, acted like she didn’t hear me.

  “April?”

  “I know where you’re going with this, Jack.”

  “Are you in charge of the investigation of Jessie’s death?”

  She nodded. The look she gave me told me to stop. I didn’t.

  “What do you think?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “I’m gone in a day or two. You can tell me.”

  “No, Jack, I can’t. I’m not prepared for this. We don’t have the staff for this. My dad would have handled an investigation like this alone. He’s not in the department anymore, so it’s all up to me.”

  “Did you reach out to him for help?”

  “No, I can’t do that to him. It could do him in. I’m supposed to have a detective from the city on his way, but so far, nothing.”

  Something about the way she spoke led me to believe that she didn’t think the case was as cut and dry as a suicide. She removed a straw from its wrapper and cast it aside. Starting at one end, she ripped the wrapper down the middle. She glanced at me. I remembered that look. She was scared.

  “There’s more, isn’t there?” I said. “You think she was murdered.”

  She said nothing.

  “OK, I get it. Look, if you need someone to talk to about this, I’m all ears. I have some experience investigating.”

  “Something like this?”

  “Close enough.”

  She nodded, slapped the table with her palms and got up. “I should get out of here.” She took a step away, stopped, turned and held out her card. “Call me tonight and we’ll discuss the case.”

  I reached for her card. It was printed on heavy paper, thick and coarse. She didn’t let go.

  “That’s my cell. I can be reached anytime, for any reason. If those guys come around bothering ya’ll, let me know.”

  I nodded. She let go. Her footsteps reverberated through the floor until she reached the door. She exited without looking back.

  I couldn’t escape the feeling that when I called her to discuss the investigation, things were going to change. And not in a good way.

  I slid into the booth. Sean returned, set a beer in front of me and then slid in on the opposite side of the table.

  “Where’d she go?” he said.

  “Left.”

  “You all right?”

  “Yeah. Memory lane and all that.”

  He left me to my thoughts. I let the music and the beer drown them out. Fifteen minutes later we got up. Each of us dropped a twenty on the table. We cut across the bar and stepped out into the humid early afternoon air.

  “I don’t understand how you live like this,” I said.

  Sean laughed. “Come on, you did it for almost twenty…”

  I waited for him to continue. He didn’t.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Look at that.”

  I glanced up from the sidewalk. Someone had vandalized his car. Across the windshield, they’d written, “Die Nobles.”

  We approached his Mercedes cautiously. I stopped a couple feet from the window, leaned over and put my hands on my knees.

  “That ain’t paint, Sean.”

  “What?” He stood next to me. “What is it then?”

  “Blood.”

  Chapter 17

  “God, that’s disgusting.”

  The water from the hose mixed with the caked blood on the windshield. The fluids combined into a runny, red river that ran down the glass, took a detour to the side, and fell to the ground where it puddled. After the windshield was clean, he aimed the stream toward the bloody puddle and forced it toward the drain.

  “At least it’s not ours,” I said.

  “It could have been,” he said. “Is this how you act all the time?”

  Apparently cleaning blood off his car set off Sean’s rage, and his big brother instinct.

  “No,” I said. “Just most of the time.”

  He shook his head and continued pushing the pool of faint red water away from his car.

  I walked toward the road. It was just after twelve o’clock now. The lunch rush had begun. Everyone flocked to one of the four places to eat within town limits. That’s how many there used to be, at least. Maybe there were more now. If I really wanted to know, I’d ask Sean. Turns out, I didn’t.

  I spotted the same beat up Tercel from the retirement home parked across the street in the Burger King parking lot. It faced me. There was no front tag. I shrugged it off as a coincidence. After all, if I’d have been paying better attention, I probably would have recognized half the cars in the facility’s lot.

  I turned around and walked toward the bay where Sean now dried his car with the cheap towels he had purchased out of a coin-operated machine. He worked the blue cloths back and forth across the window, then the hood, and finally the bumper.

  He’d worked up quite a sweat. As a result, he took off his shirt. Fortunately, he wore a white tank for an undershirt.

  I approached him, stopping in front of the Mercedes. “About done?”

  He nodded, said nothing.

  “What do you want to do now?”

  He looked up. “Want to take Kelly out fishing?”

  “Sure, why not.”

  The drive back to his house took fifteen minutes. We didn’t say a word during that time.

  We found Kelly on the couch playing a video game. She jumped at the idea of spending part of the day on the water. Sean went to find his wife. Kelly spent the next five minutes telling me about all the manatees that inhabited the water nearby. I figured she thought I grew up somewhere else. I knew all the facts she presented. I let her talk anyway. She filled me in on everything she knew about the creatures. Turned out to be a lot. I picked up a few new things.

  After a bit of convincing, Deb decided to go along, though she made it a point to tell me that she wasn’t much of an angler these days. We piled into her suburban. Their boat was docked a few miles away and it was a quick trip over. After we parked, I grabbed a cooler out of the back. It was loaded with sodas and beer and sandwiches. Everything we needed for a day on the water.

  Deb and Kelly sat in back while Sean started the thirty-foot vessel. I took a seat next to him. He pulled away, navigating slowly toward the river.

  The two p.m. sun beat down on us from every angle. There was no escaping it. Deb tossed me a tube of SPF 70 and told me to lather it on.

  I did.

  It didn’t matter. The sun still got me.

  Sean found a nice cove for us to fish for a bit. He caught more than I did. I managed to tie Kelly with two bass.

  We moved on from the spot and stopped a hundred yards from a manatee hole.

  Sean jumped overboard. Kelly followed.

  Deb said, “Going?”

  I said, “Sure.”

  We jumped over together and swam out to meet the other two.

  The water was a good fifteen feet deep and clear enough you could see the bottom. I saw manatees the size of Buicks gliding beneath us. Their scars were visible through the crystal water. Years of boats flying by too quickly, nicking and scarring the gentle beasts had taken its toll. Dad had been heavily involved in enacting regulations to cut down on the unnecessary deaths from careless boaters.

  I hadn’t thought about that in years. I found it hard to believe I hadn’t cared either.

  We moved closer to shore. A few manatees followed us over. They swam by slowly, allowing us plenty of opportunities to reach out and touch them. Whenever a hand touched their skin, they slowed down. I imagined they enjoyed it.

  Kelly smiled and laughed and splashed and played. Deb looked happy for the first time since I saw her that morning. Sean seemed relaxed.

  I’d forgotten how int
oxicating a day on the water back home could be. The stress rolled off faster than humidity-induced sweat.

  After an hour we made our way back to the boat and headed toward the dock. The sun hung lower in the sky now, out over the gulf.

  “It’ll be a great sunset,” Deb said. “Too bad it’s not till eight-thirty or nine.”

  I found my cell and checked the time. It was six p.m. Time had flown.

  We reached the dock and three of us got off. Sean tidied up and joined us five minutes later. We all piled into the Suburban. The ride home was quick.

  Time slowed when we pulled into the driveway, though.

  Chapter 18

  There were three patrol cars. One in the driveway, and two on the street. April stood in front of the house. She ran toward us, stopped, and waved Sean forward. The tires chirped as he whipped onto the driveway. April directed him to pull to the side.

  The front door of the house was open. The window to the left had been smashed.

  “What’s going on?” Deb said. She’d opened her door and was half out of the Suburban before Sean had put it in park.

  Sean hopped out and raced to her side. Both of them swarmed April. They both pelted her with questions. The woman couldn’t complete a sentence before they asked five more.

  “Stay in here for a few, OK, kiddo?” I said to Kelly.

  She forced a smile and nodded. She couldn’t hide the concern in her eyes, though.

  I hopped out and walked toward April. She’d already directed Sean and Deb to the front door where one of her deputies handled the couple.

  “I thought you wanted me to give you a call first?” I said.

  She pursed her lips and shook her head. “One of the neighbors was out walking and heard glass breaking. She ran home, got her husband. They both came back over in time to see a guy running away from the house.”

  “They get a good look at him?”

  “Only from the back.”

  “And?”

  “Hat, jacket, jeans. Perfect gear for a steamy Florida summer day, huh?”

  I said nothing.

  “They yelled at him, but he didn’t stop. That’s what they tell me. It wasn’t until they got back home that they called us.”

  “What’s missing?”

  April took a deep breath and exhaled. “Nothing that I can tell. We’ll need your brother and his wife to confirm, of course. The guy tore through the mail, left it scattered about. In the bedrooms, he dug out the luggage. Smashed out the side mirror of your brother’s Mercedes.” She pointed at Sean’s car.

  I hadn’t noticed the damage. I wondered if Sean had. He seemed more concerned about the house.

  She arched an eyebrow. “All kinds of things start happening when Jack Noble comes home, huh?”

  “Anywhere I go, it seems.”

  In the light I made out a few freckles on her cheeks and her nose. Her eyes were the same crystal blue they had been when she was a child. Her teeth were perfect now. Her body had filled out in the right places. She was soft where she needed to be, and tight and toned everywhere else.

  “I need to get them to a hotel for the night,” she said. “You want to hang around here and I’ll meet you in an hour or so?” She paused a beat. “We can go through the house together, and then review Jessie’s file.”

  “Works for me.”

  I hung back while she instructed Sean and his family to gather a few belongings and meet her in front of the house. Ten minutes later, my brother and his family emerged. They looked scared, frustrated, angry. I could relate to the emotion of anger.

  Sean walked by me, nodded. He didn’t question what I was doing, or why I wasn’t going with them. Perhaps he figured I would arrive in a different car, show up later, something like that. Eventually, he’d figure it out once his emotions settled down.

  They backed out of the driveway and took the road toward Suncoast. The car disappeared from sight.

  I headed inside. One of the deputies was a guy I played football with. I couldn’t remember his name. He didn’t have the same issue.

  “Hey, Jack,” he said. “I heard you were in town.”

  “Hey, man,” I said. It always worked. “Came down for Jessie’s funeral.”

  He nodded. “That’s a tough one, huh? Were you two still close?”

  “Hadn’t talked in over ten years. With some people, that doesn’t matter.”

  “I suppose not.” He turned away, stopped and looked back at me. “Just be careful what you touch. Boss might want to dust later.”

  I ignored his advice and picked up the phone and hit redial. If whoever did this was stupid, they might’ve used the phone. An answering service for Sean’s firm picked up. I placed the phone on the cradle and went to the kitchen.

  Nothing appeared to be disturbed in the room. Pots and pans hung from a rack over the stove. All the small appliances were in the same place as they’d left them. I opened the fridge, nothing appeared out of place in there either. I pulled open the freezer and stood in front of it for a minute.

  Something about the kitchen wouldn’t let me go. I spent a minute staring at the sink. Nothing jumped out at me. Whatever caused the feeling, I couldn’t place it.

  I jogged up the stairs and checked out my room. The bed was unmade. The sheets had been tossed in the corner. The closet door was open. Inside, anything that had been on a shelf or hanger was now strewn about on the floor.

  But nothing seemed to be missing.

  I left the room and went into Sean and Deb’s. It was even more of a mess. Dresser drawers sat on the floor, upturned. Clothes were everywhere. I opened her jewelry box. It was filled with necklaces, earrings and rings. Diamonds, gold, gems. None of it touched. Sean had a couple thousand in cash in his nightstand.

  Why go to so much trouble and not take anything?

  The only answer I could come up with was that they weren’t looking to take anything. Only one thing.

  What had Sean gotten himself into?

  When I looked at it honestly, Sean and I knew little about each other. We spoke once a year at best. He could have been into any number of activities, legal or not, and I wouldn’t have a clue. I knew a few people who might be able to tell me. But I didn’t want anyone to know I was in Florida, much less the United States.

  I left their room and took a glance at Kelly’s. Nothing had been disturbed there. At least whoever broke in had some sense of moral code.

  In all I’d killed about twenty five minutes checking out the house. I went out front, sat down on the porch. The sun ducked behind the house, shading the lawn and driveway. It had cooled off a bit, but there was no breeze and the humidity was still a killer.

  Another fifteen minutes passed before April pulled up in her patrol car. She got out. I stood and walked toward her. We met halfway.

  “They doing OK?” I said.

  “As good as you could expect, I suppose,” she said.

  I nodded, said nothing.

  “You check it out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Thoughts?”

  “Someone was looking for something, but only that one thing.”

  She nodded. “Question is, did they find it?”

  “Hard to tell.”

  “Is it?”

  We stared at each other for a minute.

  “Listen, Jack, I’m not trying to point fingers here or anything, but I’ve heard rumors.”

  “Rumors?”

  “About you.”

  “What about me?”

  “The things you do.”

  “Which are?”

  She sighed and turned away. “Come on, follow me.”

  We walked inside. She dismissed the two men in there. I still didn’t catch the name of the guy I played football with.

  He said, “See ya around, Jack.”

  “You, too,” I said without making eye contact. I continued toward the living room. Sean had a wide, deep worn leather couch. I fell back into it.

  April closed the doo
r and joined me. She took a seat in a more contemporary chair across from me.

  We stared at each other. Neither of us spoke. It became uncomfortable. Was she waiting for me to spill my guts about my life?

  I was about to get up and go into the kitchen when she broke the silence.

  “Did you ever work for the CIA, Jack?”

  I shrugged and said nothing.

  “Don’t brush me off.”

  “There’s a lot of things I’ve done that I can’t talk about, April. Just how it works. I never worked for the CIA, although I may or may not have been loaned out to them a time or two.” I paused a beat. “Or three.”

  She seemed to accept the answer for what it was. An admission of guilt without admitting I was guilty.

  “And what about a secret government agency?”

  “I am not at liberty to discuss the existence or non-existence of any secret government agencies.” I threw in a smile to derail her a bit.

  “Have you worked as an assassin?”

  “Why put labels on things like that?”

  “What kind of answer is that?”

  I rose. “Look, April, you’re wasting time. Whoever did this, didn’t do it because of me. No one knows I’m here right now. I flew in from England on a private jet. Landed at an Air Force base. No customs, passports, computer scans, or anything like that.”

  She sighed and fell back in her seat. “OK, then, so who did this?”

  “What do you know about my brother?”

  “Sean? He’s well known, well liked. His law firm is taking off. Does a lot in the community.”

  She didn’t read into my question the way I thought she would. I wondered if she really had her heart into the job, or if she’d taken it to get her dad to quit.

  “Let me restate that,” I said. “Have you ever heard anything about Sean—”

  “No, Jack. Don’t go there. He’s clean, trust me.”

  “How would you know?”

  She got up and walked past me, toward the kitchen.

  I rose and followed. “You didn’t answer me.”

  “I know because I questioned him already.”

  April had absolved herself. Perhaps she was cut out for her line of work.

  We each took a seat at the kitchen island. The gut feeling that I’d missed something in there returned. I glanced around the room, looking for something. I didn’t find it. My fingers bounced nervously against the granite counter top.