10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Aaron

"W ho are you again?" the man in front of me asks, straightening his suit.

I quickly look Jalen Quarry up and down before shaking his hand and moving my own suit jacket out of the way to show him my badge. No police uniform today. I wore a suit, and I didn't bring Coleson. I didn't tell Mitchell where I was going. Nobody at work knows I'm in Chicago. I told them I was doing rounds but also had some personal business to attend to. Unless another mafia thug dies, they'll leave me alone.

"Sheriff Aaron Dwyer. I was wondering if I could talk to you about Beck Lenin."

He nods and circles his desk, simultaneously gesturing for me to have a seat. "Of course, what can I do for you?"

"How long did Beck Lenin work for the firm?" I ask, taking a seat in the reddish-brown chair across from him.

He seems eight miles away with the wide pine desk between us, but the desk is insightful. That must be Ellen in the silver picture frame. I'm assuming it would be her in the white wedding dress. I lean forward and smile at it. She's pretty. Not as pretty as Lucy, but she's blonde whereas Lucy has auburn hair. Ellen has a lighter skin tone with watery blue eyes, and Lucy has light brown eyes and a skin tone that makes her always look like she just spent a couple days in Florida. Ellen doesn't have as many curves as Lucy. Some women lose weight for the wedding, and I wonder if Ellen was one of them since her shoulder bones stick out from the strapless gown.

"Five years or somewhere around there." Jalen pauses. "I know he left without telling anyone where he went, but are you concerned about him?"

It's on the tip of my tongue to tell Jalen Quarry that I wouldn't care if Beck drove off a cliff, but I smile and play nice. "We're covering all our bases. His ex-wife has recently moved to my area and contacted the police. She says Chicago wasn't that interested in finding Beck. Since she wants to serve divorce papers and file in my county, we have an interest over there to make sure he really abandoned the marriage."

If Jalen thinks twice about my bullshit, he doesn't show it. In fact, he's hard to read at all. I'm usually good with nervous fidgeting or facial expressions, but either Jalen doesn't know the first thing about Beck or he's a professionally trained actor.

"Well, he didn't show up for work one day. We didn't think much of it," Jalen says, tapping his fingers on his fancy ink blotter.

"That seems odd. Why didn't you think much about it?" I ask, leaning forward and staring at his face like I expect some big revelation from it. Jalen's a handsome enough man, but he's not what I was expecting. He's bald, and his head is shiny, giving him the appearance that he buffs his head with a floor buffer. There's a dark and neatly trimmed beard that he idly scratches when he talks. He's the complete opposite of what I can remember about Beck Lenin. Lucy's dickhead ex was clean-shaven and had the messy but stylish hair so popular with men of our generation when I saw him.

Jalen shrugs. "He was always talking about how he was going to leave Lucy. Personally, I felt a little bad for her."

"Bad how?" I ask, opening my phone's note app and jotting down some notes.

Even hearing this man say Lucy's name makes me second guess being here. I haven't seen her since I left the club the other night after what I've been calling in my mind the incident . My fingers have itched to call her every day, and I sit in the club parking lot at the end of her shift, parked where she can't see me from the door. I make sure she's safe when she gets in her car after she waves to Peter at the front door. But I don't know what to say to her. Something tells me I can't lead with, "Yeah, remember when we both fucked that guy the other night? That was fun."

I widen my eyes, trying to keep them open after not having nearly enough coffee this morning. Jalen raps his knuckles on his desk a few times before answering. "He was always leaving Lucy at parties by herself. The company picnic. The Christmas party."

I clench my phone so hard my knuckles turn white, and I take a deep breath. I'd never ignore her at a party, and I don't see how any man could. My hand would be at her lower back until the night ended, and I'd drive her home and make love to her properly before getting up and making her pancakes. She deserved so much more in a first husband than Beck Lenin, and I intend to make sure her second husband is much better.

Because I can't get the idea of being her second husband out of my head.

"It wasn't just that he ignored her. The other women didn't talk much to her because of, well, because we all kind of knew about him cheating on her."

My eyes flick to Ellen's picture on the desk. "With whom?"

"Hookers. Strippers. Whoever would spread their legs, pardon my rudeness. Beck was away at conferences with us and always had a woman in the room. He went to strip clubs after the conference event was over and would do what he pleased."

Interesting. I take it Jalen Quarry has no idea that his wife was also fucking Lucy's husband.

"Was your wife friendly with Lucy at these parties?"

Jalen looks behind me and tilts his head like he's thinking. "I don't remember. I know Lucy was often seen in the corner or sitting by herself with an appetizer plate. She smiled when someone walked by. She's a sweet woman, and we could tell she wanted to talk to someone." He sighs and looks down like he's ashamed. "It was just awkward for us. He made a fool of that poor girl. I guess you could say we didn't know what to say, and I know some of the assistants here were so mad for her they didn't trust themselves not to tell her what a cheater he was."

I clear my throat and move to the edge of my seat. "Mr. Quarry, was there any reason to think that Lucy may have also been abused by Beck?"

Jalen's eyes snap up to meet mine. "Abused?"

"A punch. A kick. He ever talk about pushing her around?"

He shakes his head. "Not that I know of."

"Did you ever see bruises on her or see him with a scraped hand. Anything like that?"

"Not that I can recall. Why? Has she said he was abusive?"

I put my phone back in my pocket. Jalen obviously doesn't have as much useful information as I thought he would. "Not officially to police. However, I know Lucy from high school. I saw her at our reunion a few years ago. Let's just say it took my late wife holding onto my arm to keep me from beating Beck Lenin's ass right there. There were marks that night. I'm a police officer, and I know what a punch or a kick to the back looks like versus falling down a few stairs."

"I didn't know about it. None of us did. Something like that would have got around to the other partners and office staff."

"Did she come to the office a lot? Surprise her husband for lunch?"

Jalen scowls. "Not once. That's kind of weird, huh?"

"Does your wife come by the office to bring you lunch or chat?"

Jalen pushes back from his desk, and his chair makes a squeaking sound. He crosses his leg over the opposite knee and steeples his fingers under his beard. "She does about once a month. What does Ellen have to do with this?"

"I'm just trying to get an office culture comparison. That's all." I look at the picture of Ellen again, and if Jalen suspects something, he doesn't show it. If I had to bet money on whether Jalen knew his wife was cheating, I'd say he didn't. "You mentioned he talked of leaving Lucy often. Did he mention a cabin rental or property he owned?"

"He just always said his parents trained him to live in the middle of nowhere if necessary. I guess they were preppers. You know the type." I nod. "He said he'd go off the grid, and nobody would ever find him. He talked a lot about raising his own food and purifying his own water. We just kind of thought he was full of hot air. He was stressed here at work, so we all kind of just thought he finally threw up his hands and moved to Idaho or something."

I cross my arms over my chest. "Stressed about what? Was there a work issue?"

"Not really. We just wouldn't give him the billable hours he wanted."

"What kind of hours did he want? Less?"

"No," Jalen says, drawing the word out and widening his eyes. "He wanted to be swamped with work. Said he needed the billable hours. I know he wanted some new things. He talked about how his car wasn't good enough. That was just Beck being Beck, though. He was always a bit pretentious. Anyway, when he asked our big boss for the upgrade in hours, Beck almost seemed…desperate."

I'd be desperate too if I owed the mafia money. But why not go to his cousin and see if he could negotiate an extension with Cannon to pay the money back? Murphy and Cannon obviously did business.

I stare out the office window and think. None of this makes sense at all. Why would Beck Lenin, a man who's pretentious and keeps up appearances, actually pull the trigger and go out to the middle of nowhere where nobody would be impressed with a Rolex.

Jalen lets me sit in silence a few moments before clearing his throat. "Was there anything else, Sheriff Dwyer?"

I turn back to him and smile before I rise from my seat and hold out my hand. He shakes it and smiles back at me, rising from his own chair. "Thanks for talking to me. You're all probably right. Beck Lenin probably just ran off to the mountains or something. Thanks for the insight. I'm sure you have a busy day," I say, gesturing toward the desk stacked with papers and sticky notes.

"Yeah, I'm here until late tonight," he says, walking next to me as I head toward the door. "My wife will be upset again."

It's good to know that he'll be here all night. I don't tell him that his wife is going to be more upset to find a police officer at the door. I'm going there next, and I need to make sure he isn't going to interrupt us.