“Also, the fact that no one seems to know where Straus is, and yet his body hasn’t shown up floating in some lake and his name hasn’t been crossed off the “death list,” makes me think that he is alive and also makes me very, very suspicious.”
Ralph finished the last bit of coffee in his mug and signaled to the waitress that he needed another cup. Without a word to Derek, he returned his focus to what was left of his breakfast and resumed to his task of quieting his hunger.
“Well?” Derek asked. “Any thoughts?”
“If I disagreed with anything you said, I promise you that I would have made my differing opinion known.”
“But there are other options, don’t you think?”
“Other options?” Ralph questioned.
“Think about it, why does it have to be that Roger Fay was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? He knows the area well, and I read a note in the file that suggested that some stranger had a run in with Alexander and the doctors outside of the lodge one day. Maybe Roger wanted to see what the heck was going on in the lodge after getting a good look at Alexander. Isn’t that an option?”
“I suppose it is,” Ralph answered.
“And my client, Thomas O’Connell. Who can say that he’s not the one who is helping out Alexander? Or his mother, his father, or any of the people on that list? Let’s not forget about Brian Lucietta. Did you speak with him at all?”
“I was able to track him down. Seems the good doctor took an administrative position in a psychiatric hospital in Manhattan. I called him at this office after all hell broke loose. He didn’t seem worried in the least,” Ralph said.
“Guess I should add him to my list of suspected accomplices.”
“I don’t think so. Not yet, anyways,” Ralph responded. “From what I dug out about Lucietta, he is more concerned about his legacy than he is for his life. I betcha he and Straus made quite a team.”
“Is he taking any precautions?”
“Don’t know. He just cut me off and asked me to let him know if I felt that his life was in danger. Pompous son of a bitch just cut me off and wished me a fine day.”
Derek’s head was swimming. In most of his cases since going freelance, he only had one person to track down. One person to find, alert authorities about and to worry about. While Alexander Black was certainly Derek’s most obvious concern, the cast of potential characters who may be helping him was only being decreased after a body was discovered.
“And why is Michelle Mix’s name absent from the list?” Derek barked, frustrated by the realization that the list of confusing items about the case was still not complete. “Maybe she has something to do with this whole thing.”
“I thought the same thing. In fact, I have yet to hear you say anything that I can’t honestly say that I haven’t thought of,” Ralph said with his breakfast plate cleaned and his mug refilled with black coffee. “But I do have to say that Fay is not a suspect.”
“Why is that?”
“First of all, while I didn’t know the man, those who did tell me that he was more of a loner and a loser than an accomplice to a few murders. Second, him being all dead doesn’t help put Alexander out in Chicago. His car is still parked in his driveway. Plus, he kept a journal. And, while I am not a fan of going through a dead man’s personal thoughts, I did read his. And from what I read, he wasn’t the person who met Alexander outside of the lodge. Furthermore, you’d think that if he was scheming something that he’d at least make some mention of it in his diary. Not a peep or an innuendo about anything suspicious.”
“Okay,” Derek said after a short pause. “Your points make sense. I’ll scratch Fay off my list of suspects,” a somewhat relieved Derek said. “How do you feel about the nurse Michelle?”
“I do find it interesting that she didn’t make Alexander’s list. And when I called her and her husband, Stanley, she didn’t sound all that concerned about Alexander being on the loose. When I told her that he’d killed two doctors already, the only thing she asked me is whether or not Straus was one of the victims. I found that a bit odd.”
“Have you contacted them since?”
“Nope. Did try, though. Calls went right to voicemail.”
“As far as my client goes, I suppose that I’m just being too suspicious. It doesn’t make any sense for him to hire me if he is working with the man I am trying to stop.”
“Also a good and fair observation,” Ralph said as he folded his short, thick arms across his chest. “And what about your client’s parents?”
“Not sure. I’ve never spoke with them. If they are in the Bahamas, then they probably shouldn’t be on my list.”
“Well, I did speak with them,” Ralph said. “And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that he would have arranged for all them doctors to be killed if Alexander wasn’t doing it already. Boy, was that man pissed off.”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“Yup, I sure would be. But not the type of angry that your client’s dad was, though. I’d be mad as hell, but he seemed to me the type of mad that drives people to do things they may not normally do.”
“And the mother?”
“Cried most of the time on our call. Kept saying that she should’ve known that her baby didn’t die. She sure was upset and genuinely shocked. He stayed shocked for only a minute or two before he started with that special type of anger I told you about.”
“I’ll take your word for it and keep him on my list.”
The waitress walked over and handed the check to Ralph. She gave a quick smile to Derek before returning to her spot behind the counter.
“I’ll take care of that,” Derek said.
“Take care of what?” Ralph said. “The check? Now Derek, you do insult me. I consider you to be my guest, and if my mother up in heaven is looking down on me and sees me letting a guest pay for a meal, she’d find a way to haunt me for months.”
Once Ralph paid the breakfast bill, and the two men were back driving in Derek’s rental car, Derek asked Ralph to give Stanley and Michelle Mix another call.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ralph said. “We get ourselves back to that lodge, you call your client’s father, and then I’ll give the Mixes another call. Sound fair?”