“I’m getting some serious heat over this. You’re not even supposed to be up there. Or anywhere near her,” Paul was sounding angrier by the second, probably just as angry at the situation as he was at Elijah for dropping him in this mess in the first place. But mostly he was angry because Elijah was doing his usual contained calm thing that he did when everyone knew that inside he was a pot of slowly-simmering rage ready to explode at any moment. Only he didn’t explode. Not ever. So the fact he’d gotten in to a fight with Michael Stanton made Elijah’s behaviour even more peculiar.
“I said I was sorry,” Elijah snapped.
“Elijah—,”
“I told you I didn’t hit him, Paul. What more do you want from me?” Elijah pulled the cell away from his ear for a moment to get away from Paul’s lecture and disappointed tone. When he put it back to his ear, Paul was silent.
“You still there?” he asked.
“Yes, just waiting for you to pull your head out of your ass,” Paul replied. “You done?”
“Are you?”
“I’m with you on this, Elijah.”
“It doesn’t feel like it. In fact, it feels like I’m on my own on it. And what’s worse isshe’son her own in this. And there’s nothing I can do about any of it.” Elijah began to pace up and down in front of the building, irritation and tension working through his muscles. “This is him, Paul. This is all Michael.”
“Woah, wait, what?” The sound of Paul getting up and moving about could be heard, which meant he was at least taking Elijah seriously.
“It’s Michael, he’s been messing with her. He’s the one who’s convinced her that she’s harmed her kids. It’s him. It’s been him all the way along.” Elijah stopped at the edge of the building, his gaze cast towards the small windows in the opposite building. One of those were Delores’s windows, he thought to himself. In one of those rooms is Delores, trapped, confused, frightened out of her mind and burying herself in guilt.
Paul cleared his throat before speaking. “What makes you think that? The guys a creep, there’s no doubt, but that’s a big leap.”
“I know,” Elijah sighed. “And I don’t know how I know, I just know. It makes sense. I think he was having an affair with Christine Seager. I thought it was weird as soon as I saw her. She’s the double of Delores, only younger and more naïve. I don’t know whether he started the affair before he found out about me and Delores, or it was after and he was planning on using Christine as a stand in wife and mother for those kids.”
Some of the small lights lit up. One, two, three, four, five. They lit up like streetlamps on a dark night, illuminating the building from the outside in.
“You got any proof about any of this?” Paul asked quietly, seriously. The soft tip tap of his feet on the hard stone floor of the path outside the police station. “That’s some serious shit-slinging you’re doing there, buddy. You need proof of that. Serious proof.”
“Sort of,” Elijah sighed again. “Not really. But I think her mother was going to tell me something the other day. She said her daughter had got herself in some sort of trouble. She said she was a good girl, that it wasn’t like her. Paul, she blamed Christine’s boyfriend.”
“And you think the boyfriend was Michael Stanton?”
“I’m more than certain of it,” Elijah replied.
“Call it the Schiver instincts, huh?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Elijah went quiet, finally turning away from the building where Delores was and looking toward the building he stood in front of. “I know I need evidence, I know that, and I’m working on it.”
Paul was silent as he thought over what Elijah had just told him. He had never doubted Elijah’s instincts, and though he believed his judgement was clouded right now by his emotions, he was still inclined to believe Elijah.
“So, I got some pictures of her kids, and a video. I’ll send them over, okay?” Paul finally said. He heard the breath of relief from Elijah. “Have you been to see that woman yet? Sally?”
Elijah swallowed, feeling grateful that Paul trusted him so much. “I’m actually just on my way to see her.”
“Okay, well let me know if she tells you anything useful. And keep out of Michael Stanton’s way. And keep away from Delores until we have some tangible evidence we can use. Should I go see Mrs. Seager? Will she talk to me, do you think?” he added as an afterthought.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. She owns a deli around the corner from Michael’s office. Go see her there. Christine works there sometimes, but she works at Medco’ as well.”
“They had a couple of break-ins recently, right?” Paul asked.
“They did. Talk to Miles over the Medco’ case, she’ll fill you in on what we know so far,” Elijah said already piecing together the jagged pieces of a story.
“What are you thinking?” Paul asked, knowing Elijah always had good instincts about cases and people. Paul was a good cop, but Elijah had always exceeded him. His instincts were never wrong.
“I’m not sure yet. Something still doesn’t make sense. But none of this is a coincidence.” Elijah went quiet as he thought for a moment, making sure he’d passed everything else along. “Everything is linked somehow; I just don’t know how. Yet.”
The last thing he wanted was Paul to get in shit because he’d not been filled in about something to do with this case. The whole thing was getting out of control.
