When he was far enough away, Straus whispered with an intensity unfitting for a whisper, “Inside. Now!”
But his patient just stood, not moving. He was looking at the stranger getting smaller with distance.
“Alex, inside now, or by God, I’ll press this button.”
“I doubt that, doctor Straus. Doing so would create a scene that may attract the attention of that strange young man as well as the attention of anyone who may be glancing out of their windows. I am not planning on doing anything foolish. I just realized that the man I just saw was the first person I’ve heard speak besides your team.”
“Well,” Straus said, collecting himself and shifting his gaze to see if any neighbors were looking out of their windows, “I appreciate your behavior, Alex. I truly do. And I also appreciate how you must be feeling. However, I know that you are fully aware of what people would think and do to you if they ever found out about you. With that in mind, Alex, why don’t we return to the safety of your rooms? I promise that the next time you earn the privilege of coming outside, we will do a much better job at making sure you will have your privacy. Sound fair enough?”
“Fair enough, Doctor,” he said as he shot a final glance towards the stranger who was now almost out of sight. “I must admit that that man’s reaction to me was not as drastic as I would have thought. Not like you suggested reactions would be.”
“You have no idea how he may be reacting. Imagine if he ran into you alone? Trust me, Alexander, that reaction is far from what you should expect. Now let’s get back inside where it’s safe.”
It was time for his plan to begin.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“This doesn’t make sense,” Derek said. “The timeframe. The note left for me at the car rental desk. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Now Derek,” Ralph said as he walked over to the counter to retrieve a fresh Arthur Avenue cigar and a book of matches, “this whole case is stuffed to the rim with things that don’t make much sense.” Ralph paused, introduced flame to his cigar’s end and was soon billowing out grayish smoke into the humid air of the Adirondack lodge’s entry way. “But, before we get further into discussing the finer points of this case, you said something that caught my interest.”
Derek had stood up and was tracing the scar of his left cheek gently with his fingers. He knew he was tired and that his mind wasn’t as sharp as he needed it to be. As he paced the entry area of the lodge, he struggled to piece together the time frame of the last several hours.
“Are you planning on pretending that I am not here in this same room as you or are you just building up something brilliant in that freelancing mind of yours?” Ralph said.
“I’m sorry. What did you ask me?”
“Actually I have yet to ask you anything, but I am fixin’ to as soon as you appear ready to be asked a question.”
“I just can’t figure this out. I must be missing something. But, go ahead and ask me your question.”
“You said during your little ramble a moment ago about some note that was left for you at the rental car desk. I sure would like to know what that note said and who gave it to you.”
The smoke from Ralph’s cigar was quickly replacing the fresh mountain air. Derek moved over to the main door, opened it, and took a deep breath of non-cigar smoke filled air.
“The note just said ‘Welcome to Albany, Mr. Cole,’ and I have no idea who wrote it. The only person who knows that I flew into Albany was my client.”
“Any chance your client left that note?” Ralph asked, thankful for the open door but not as thankful as he was for the finely crafted cigar he held between his stubby and overly hairy fingers.
“Possible, but doesn’t make any sense. If he left the note for me then he did so assuming that I would suspect that it was him.”
“Someone else must have known about your travel plans?”
“US Airways and Hertz. That’s about it.”
Ralph checked the time on his watch. “What time did your flight leave Chicago?” he asked.
“Just before ten last night.”
“And when did your plane land?”
“Around midnight. Got to the Hertz desk twenty minutes after that. I asked the clerk who the note came from but he had no idea. Think it could have been Alexander? But, how the hell would he know I was headed to Albany and was renting a car from Hertz? Had to have been my client or someone my client told that I was coming here. Must have been.”
Ralph drew softly on his cigar and watched Derek struggle to figure things out. For his entire working career, Ralph had been in law enforcement. He had developed the ability to read people that others who worked with him both envied and were cautious of.
Though he knew that allowing Derek access to information about the case would violate nearly every rule in the book, he also knew that his department lacked the resources and experience to solve the murders. The state police were involved and certainly didn’t need Ralph’s or his department’s assistance, but Ralph liked to see things through himself. He never liked when another department, be it a federal, state, or city department barged in and took over an investigation.
As Derek continued his thought-laden pacing, Ralph felt that Derek could be trusted and that there was something about him, something that made breaking the protocols, rules, and standard operating procedures worth the risk.
“Well, let me ease your mind about one of the options you have. It wasn’t Alexander, and I’ll show you why.”
Ralph waved a single hand towards Derek, inviting that Derek follow. They walked deeper into the lodge, through the great room that in the daylight would offer spectacular views of Piseco Lake and the surrounding mountains. They finally came into a small, windowless room. The room was decorated with countless pictures of who Derek assumed to be William Straus.
Ralph took a seat behind the blonde wood desk that was entirely too large for the small room, opened a desk drawer, and pulled out a four-inch thick manila folder.
“I have made a few mistakes in my career,” Ralph said as he held the folder out in front of him, “and I sure do hope that what I am about to do here is not gonna be another one. Whether or not it is a mistake is entirely up to you, Mr. Cole.”