Love in the Shadows

Chapter 41

(Lucy's POV)

"Wait. What body?"

Sam's question hung in the air and Ryley spoke up. I liked that she seemed to get quieter as the situation became more tense. It was a smart tactic that I, myself often used to calm down a situation but not everyone could pull it off. She could. Her voice was steady and neutral as she explained, "I came in and found the Chief in the room next door. He was standing over who he says is the Minister here. Mel. We came over here to wait for you to get here."

Jesus Christ. Not another one.

"Waste of fucking time." Ryley turned her back on Chief Taylor as he started complaining. He growled but shut up as she faced me. She ran a hand over her braid, unwrapping the elastic and then twisting it back around the end again.

I realised she was waiting for my directions and probably extremely nervous. She had arrested the Chief of Police over-top a dead body.

All of a sudden it made complete sense why she needed me to come here. I turned to Sam. "Can you stay here with your dad?" Ryley's face remained blank but I sensed her jolt at the fact that we were also dealing with Sam's father.

Once he gave me a nod, I walked to the doorway and gave a pointed look at Ryley, "Show me what you found."

I followed her down the hallway to one of the neighbouring rooms. It was large, more kitchen than break room. With multiple tables lining the walls. Each round surface had a vase of flowers on it and the walls were a light yellow.

The room screamed sunshine and happiness, or it would have a few hours ago. Now, directly in front of the state of the art coffee maker lay Mel's crumpled body.

I took note of the fact that he was still wearing the same clothes as earlier, the only change seemed to be his shoes, they were no longer dress shoes, instead he had on sneakers. Had he gone home and been called back? Or never gotten to leave?

My eyes kept drifting back to the shoes. They were a shocking white when contrasted to the large pool of blood under his head.

As I got closer, I inhaled sharply and paused, "Is that?"

Ryley was already nodding, "gasoline? Sure is." she came closer, her voice lowering. "It's the first you've smelled it though, right?"

I considered her question, nodding slowly. "Only in this room and it's stronger as I get closer to the body."

She gestured over him, "his body's been doused." Her voice went whisper soft. "You didn't smell it at all on the Chief, did you?"

I gave a quick shake of my head, and raised an eyebrow, not quite sure why it was significant. She pointed back the way we had come from. "I might not like that man back there and I'm not exactly sure what is going on here but I do know that I came into the room with him hovering over the body. He was so belligerent at first that he immediately put me on the offensive."

Her words were starting to make more and more sense. Having also been on the receiving end of his blistering personality, I could quite easily see how that could happen. Her words were even softer as she crouched down, her eyes running along our victim. "But, being back in here, this body has been soaked in gasoline. The Chief wasn't even wearing gloves. Plus, there is no way that he doesn't stink to high heaven if he's the one that got this man ready to burn."

I cleared the sudden thickness in my throat at the image and asked, "Could he have disposed of them? Either gloves or clothes? Maybe both?"

I might not have worked with her before but I was already happy with our new hire. She stood there arguing against what could have been taken at face value. "Honesty, no. I don't see how he could have had the time to dispose of anything in the window of time that it took me to follow him into the church. Plus, if I think back to how he was when I walked in, I don't think he was trying to do more harm, I think he was trying to help him."

She took a step back, moving farther away from the smell. "He kept saying that Mel called him. That he needed help. What if someone knew the Chief was going to be here?"

"Yah, but they wouldn't know you would be. Seem's far fetched."

She shook her head. "When I came in, I don't think it was just me and the Chief here. I can't prove it but it felt like someone else was here, I heard what sounded like a door, you know?"

I did. It also explained why she kept whispering.

"Have you cleared the space?" I asked knowing there was no way this big building could have been done alone.

She shook her head, "As well as I could. There isn't anyone in any of the rooms in this hall. Not anymore anyway."

I was a firm believer of trusting gut instincts. "So..." I gave her a nod, hoping she could see that I wasn't going to doubt her here, she was on my team and new or not there was a reason for that.

"Maybe the Chief wasn't meant to make it out. Maybe they have a fight. Maybe he gets burned down too? They set him up as the fall guy."

I moved back as well, standing next to her, considering her theory. It fit. Something stunk in this town.If the Chief was at the head of it, I simply didn't see him getting caught this easily.

My eyes trailed back to the lifeless body of the man I had questioned, only hours ago. "Good." She looked over at me, surprise evident. I gave her a little smile and explained. "I don't see a reason we can't trust your gut and play into their hands. Let's keep our thoughts to ourselves. It appears that someone is setting up the Chief, but I think the best way for us to move forward is to pretend that it's working, no?"

Her head turned back, looking through the wall towards where we had left Sam and his dad. "Do we tell him? I don't see any of this being quiet, especially him."

My laugh was humourless as I pulled out my phone, needing to get a team in here to see what they could find. Wanting to get Charlie's take on all of this.

My thumb lingered over my boss's name as I answered her. "That's the best part. What do we say, that your gut is telling us he didn't kill him? We have to follow the evidence. You found him with our victim. He's a suspect. So, If someone went to the trouble of setting him up... Alive or dead, I would imagine they'll be relieved, maybe even careless if or when it works. So no. We don't tell him, his noise will serve us well, if we play this right."

I just had to figure out if I was going to tell the man I was falling in love with that I thought his dad was a killer or that I wanted to use him as bait. Either way, it didn't sound good.