Mystery At Mystery Lake Ch. 02

"Such as we have." Molly said. "But yes, we probably will promote him, before someone comes in and steals him from us."

"It won't be me, as much as I'd welcome him being on our team." I replied. "I wouldn't do that to you. And I really don't have a place for any new Detective hires..."

Part 14 - Epilogue

Two weeks later...

4:00pm, Friday, May 27th. My daughter Carole was in my office with me, doing Carole things on my iPad while I got some paperwork finished. The door was open, so I saw Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle and Lt. Mary Milton come into the anteroom and up to the door. Teresa knocked and I waved them in. They both said hello to Carole, who returned the greetings as Teresa sat down in the far-side hot chair and Mary planted herself in the near-side chair.

"Whaddya got, ladies?" I asked. Mary's eyes had skirted in Carole's direction, and I said "You can speak in front of our Auxiliary Detective. She knows better than to say anything about anything she hears in here. Isn't that right, Fussbudget?"

"Yes sir." Carole said, her eyes remaining glued to the iPad. I was not fooled; she was listening to every word.

"Yes sir." Mary said, handing a folder across the desk to me. "Martha the M.E. just sent back the completed DNA report on Sage Garrett. There can be no doubt: Wade Garrett was Sage's biological father."

I looked up, my eyes widening as gears crashed in my head. "Beyond the obvious, do you guys realize what that fully means?" I asked.

"No sir." Mary. Teresa shook her head.

"Yes sir." said Carole. Everyone turned to my eight-year-old daughter. She looked up at me and said "It means Sage's mommy rigged the pa... pa-ter-nity test, and lied to Sage's daddy."

"And why would she do that?" I asked, though I had realized the answer the moment Mary spoke of the test results.

"Bee-cause," Carole said, "she wanted Sage's daddy to dis-in... dis-in-herit Sage, so that Sage's mommy could get Sage's daddy's company in the divorce."

"If I may ask," said Mary Milton, skepticism in her voice, "how do you know so much about this case, Carole?"

"Be-cause I read the Po-leece report on Daddy's Po-leece iPad." Carole said. "Daddy, what happened to the 'vanilla wafers' company? And where is Sage's mommy now?"

I chuckled at Carole's name for the company, and Teresa actually smiled a little bit. I said "Those are excellent questions, Detective Troy. What did happen with it?"

Teresa said "I looked into that through, shall we say, non-Police methods. If you think our Courts are fast when it comes to trials, this one set new speed records. Silvia Garrett did immediately petition the Court to inherit control of Wade's business, which was granted after only three days."

Teresa: "She then turned around and sold the business and the houses in Nextdoor County and Pottsville, every bit of Wade's possessions, to Matthew Willis's BigCommunicationsCorp... and for a price at least 50% below fair market value. Verrrry sweet deal for Willis."

I observed the look on Carole's face when the name 'Matthew Willis' was spoken. It was a look of fleeting anger, followed by her blue eyes becoming jet, dead to all but Justice. She had not forgotten the 'Price No Object' case.

"Crap." I muttered, not using the stronger word I really wanted to use, on account of my daughter being in the room. "And Silvia?"

Teresa said "She bought a property in one of those expensive communities in Florida. But she's out of the country right now, and nobody knows exactly where."

"She's afraid of Daddy." Carole said simply.

"And she should be." I said, almost under my breath. "We now see how the Big Boy Elites get what they want. Matt Willis greased the legal rails of the Courts to get the inheritance claimed and the company sold to him. Matt Willis was the one who had people watching Wade Garrett, and he was the one who found out that Sage had been there and filmed--- er, what she filmed."

Me: "Willis forced Garrett to allow, and to pay for, hiring Cox and Fenton to get Sage's phone back. But Silvia Garrett was colluding with Matt Willis from the get-go. And worse, horribly worse, she is the one who had Gil Cox and Gary Fenton murder Sage!"

"How could any mother do that to her child?" Mary gasped.

"I don't know." I said. "I'm just glad Carole's mother loves her more than life itself." I saw that Carole was absorbing my words. Laura might not believe her daughter's Powers of the Vibe, but she loved her daughter.

"Okay, ladies, thanks for this information. You can go." I said.

"Sir," Teresa said, "is there anything, anything at all we can do about this?"

"No." I said. "It's done. Some days we get the bear, some days the bear gets us. Okay, shoo." The women got my hint and swiftly exited, saying good night to Carole on their way out.

Carole had rummaged around in her backpack, and had procured a piece of paper and a pencil, then wrote some things down. "What is that, Fussbudget?" I asked. She handed me the piece of paper, and I saw the list of names:

Julie Davalos Matheson
Dwayne Matheson
Sage Garrett
Wade Garrett

"What is this?" I asked as I handed the paper back to Carole.

"That's the list of the people Matthew Willis has had killed." Carole said. "And I'm going to tell him those names when I bust his a--- er, his fourth point of con-tact."

I said "I hope you won't be too mad if and when I beat you to it, and bust him down myself."

"I won't be, Daddy." Carole said, that 'dead-to-all-but-Justice' look still on her cute little face. "I'll be very hap-py if you do. But if you don't, I'm going to. He's evil. I'm going to take him down." And I realized that Matthew Willis ultimately had no chance...

The Future Iron Crowbar had spoken.

Finis... for now.