And Then She Was Gone(93)
“No, I don’t.” Clark rolled his shoulders. “Did you find out anything else?”
“I followed Michael Shaw to Darrington. First he stopped by a law office.”
“Did you get the name?”
Jack flipped through his notebook. “Tate, Wolfe, and Rice.”
Clark wrote the name on his pad. “Continue.”
Jack explained everything that had happened with Michael Shaw. From the Facebook status to following him to the bistro, to baiting him to the blonde’s office. He took his time going over each step.
“Is that everything you did?” Clark eyed him suspiciously. “You’re not leaving anything out?”
“That’s everything.”
A muscle in Clark’s jaw twitched. “Hold on a second.” He took out his phone.
“Who are you calling? Detective Vargas?” Jack felt a mix of vindication and pride wash over him. “You’re going to have him look at Michael Shaw, right?”
“I’m calling your father.”
Jack’s mouth fell open. “What? Why?”
“Why?” Clark looked at Jack as if he had four heads for even asking the question. “Ted? Hi, it’s Derrick. I’m sorry to bother you, but I need you to come down to the station. It’s about Jack.” Pause. “Yes, he’s with me now.” Pause. “No, nothing like that.” Another pause. “Fifteen minutes sounds good. Thanks, Ted.”
Clark clicked off the phone and took a drag of his cigarette.
Jack stood there, shocked. “Why would you do that? Why not look into the information I gave you?”
“What did you think I’d do? I told you this is an ongoing investigation. If you want to stick your neck out, you have to be ready to face the consequences. Are you ready to do that?”
“Do you know you’re going to screw up me getting into the Army? If I don’t go to the Army then I’ve got no shot at being a cop!”
Clark shook his head. “I’m not jeopardizing that. Look, like you said, you didn’t break any laws—from what you told me. But this isn’t a game, Jack.” He closed his notebook. “Do you know what you’ve figured out? Nothing. Detective Vargas has everything you gave me.”
“What? How?” Jack shook his head. “Vargas wasn’t looking into this. He’s focused on Jay.”
Clark looked at the sky. “You rushed to a judgment about the police and Detective Vargas. You thought because Jay confessed to finding the wallet that we’d just stick a bow on it, have a few drinks, and pat each other on the back. Well, you’re wrong, Jack. It doesn’t work that way. We don’t work that way.”
“But you’re not even looking—”
“We’ve had an APB out for Tommy Martin since the day Stacy went missing. We know what we’re doing, Jack. We just don’t make everything public knowledge, especially to someone we think is his friend.”
“But what about the other suspects?”
“Detective Vargas interviewed everyone at H.T. Wells. We canvassed the park with more than a few dozen officers and interviewed anyone who might have seen or heard anything. We brought in Michael Shaw for questioning too. Right at the start.”
“But you didn’t know about the affair.”
“We did. Shaw told us about it, first thing. He was ashamed, but he came clean.”
“He told you about having an affair?”
“Shaw made it sound like it was over but he told us everything.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Jack, having an affair makes him a scumbag, but it doesn’t make him a murderer.”
“But it’s a motive.”
“It could be. But a good deal of the population has affairs, and they’re not killing each other.”
“Maybe Michael took out a huge insurance policy on Stacy?” Jack suggested. “That would give him motive.”
“I’m not sure if he had any insurance. If he did, it wasn’t much.” Clark flipped his notebook closed. “Michael Shaw was in Schenectady for work. Do you know how we know that?”
Jack didn’t say anything. He wanted to find a hole to crawl in and die.
“We investigated every lead. We pulled Stacy’s and Michael’s cell phone records. We even pulled the surveillance footage from that hotel. Michael’s car didn’t leave the parking lot. Detective Vargas even drove up to Schenectady and interviewed the damn concierge who was on duty that night.”
“I didn’t know.”
“There’s a lot you didn’t know. Do you want to? Do you want to know what’s really going on?”