The Blue Wall Of Silence Page 4

  The Irish Setter puppy slammed into Temple’s legs. Temple tripped and crashed, hard, down onto the soft sand. Temple avoided eye contact with Meghan’s attacker and then shook his head at the puppy. Temple brushed sand from his arms. The puppy’s eyes were bright and happy. She jumped forward fast and licked Temple’s face and neck. Temple wrestled the puppy down into the sand.

  The stranger’s face broke into a smile. He reached down and offered a hand. “Let me help you up.”

  Temple searched the man’s face, noting his bright eyes, trimmed goatee, clean and serviceable shorts, and shirt. “How do you know Meghan? I need to know if she’s safe with you. If you’re hiding something, I’ll find out soon enough.”

  His eyes softened. “I wouldn’t hurt Meghan. Not at all.” He brushed back his long brown hair over a shoulder.

  Temple grasped his hand and then stood up. “What are you doing here?”

  “I got a DUI.” He had a natural look of strength on his face. “The judge gave me community service.”

  “Go ahead. I’m waiting for the exciting end to your story.”

  “I’m doing a little favor for Detective Davis.”

  “I like Detective Davis. Give me your cell phone.” The man pulled his phone from his back pocket. Temple called himself from the phone and then declined the call. Temple saw the man’s name was Tom Clayton. “I have your name and number on my phone. Now, you work for me, Tom. I’ve got a better program. I’ll reimburse all your expenses, gas, food, whatever. Bring me all your receipts. Just don’t go over twelve hundred dollars without calling me first. I’ll also need you to answer your phone when I call.” Temple took charge with quiet assurance. “With me, you can do nothing wrong.” He softened his voice. “So, what did Detective Davis ask?”

  “Just a favor.”

  “And what was the favor?”

  “To start an argument with Meghan in her backyard about a hundred dollar bill hotline.” Tom kicked at the sand after a traumatic look crossed his face. “Then Detective Davis is making me go to the Seal Beach Police Department and file verbal and sexual assault crimes against Meghan. I don’t want to do this. Detective Davis is confusing me. I hate what I’ve become. It’s her fault.”

  “What?”

  “Meghan’s sexually offensive language was supposed to have caused me psychological duress when she demanded to stroke my hard cock. At the police department, I was also to say that Meghan attacked me by grabbing my crotch and testicles to make my dick hard for sex. From there, I was supposed to give Detective Davis the police report numbers.” Tom shrugged. “So that’s what I’m doing here. I mean, it’s just a favor.”

  “A felony favor.” Temple’s eyes boldly met his. “It’s awful what’s happened, but sex crime frame-ups are old-hat for cops. It’s their go-to move, and so are false police reports. You’re not a willing accomplice. But you’re good at it, or you wouldn’t be here. How many times have you filed false police reports for Detective Davis?”

  “A few.”

  “This whole conversation never happened. Have you got that?” Tom’s expression brightened. “I’m going back to talk with Meghan at the jetty. She’s a nice girl.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t know her.”

  “Just go to the police station, right now, and pretend to file the reports, but don’t, and when Jennifer asks, tell her you filed the reports but don’t remember the numbers. Your community service ends now. I’ll see a judge and get your paperwork. You don’t work for Jennifer. You confidentially work for me. I’ll make things right, okay.”

  Temple couldn’t put his finger on it. For sure, Jennifer was a bad person, and they were going to make her pay. She’d pay until the last broken heart’s mended. Still, there was something suspicious here. I did Tom a huge favor. He didn’t even thank me. It would have killed him to thank me. Tom’s had the truth beat out of him at the police station more than once, for a reason. Temple would find out why soon enough. Tom nodded his head and headed off the beach.

  Jennifer needed plenty of rope to hang herself, and when she did, Temple would take her head out of the noose so she could give him the name of the Kodiak town founder, who funded her husband’s contract on Wilkerson. But, until then, there was no way he could tell Meghan about the fisherman, watching her with binoculars, or Jennifer Davis entrapping and most likely killing her.

  9

  Meghan strained to see purple sea anemones hiding in black mussels and green algae along the San Gabriel River jetty. She was bundled up against the raw winds sweeping in from the ocean. It was a short walk home through the bitter cold, but she’d talk with Temple first.

  She moved to higher rocks, startled by cold waves washing across her shoes. Staying out of prison is easy. Each bale of cash weighs a hundred pounds. If someone asks me what I’m throwing away, oh, it’s nothing, just ten million dollars. Want some? There’s five more in my closet.

  At the sound of a footstep, she whirled around to find Jim Temple, in a brown jacket and grey sweatpants, standing on higher ground. Temple exchanged a smile, and she thought of him, now, as the natural wonder. He’s moving into my life like Hurricane Yolanda.

  She climbed up the rocks. “Two kids were being pulled out to sea by the river’s super-fast current at low tide. I dove into the river and pulled them out, one by one. I saved them from drowning.” Lightning flashed brightly overhead. She counted the seconds. Sound travels one mile in five seconds. Two seconds later, thunder crackled loud, and she placed a hand on her chest and relaxed. The striking distance was half a mile. “This is called Crabs Jetty. Here surfers are the real lifeguards.”

  Temple handed her orange juice from the pocket of his jacket. His wrestling match with the puppy hadn’t damaged the snacks too much. She drank from the plastic bottle, slightly dented from his fall in the sand. They talked, and time flew by like magic.

  She shared with Temple some of her most cherished childhood memories of playing in Lompoc's flower fields in Northern California with her mother. Half an hour later, by eleven o’clock, she barely had time to think about Detective Davis busting her, and Jim didn’t seem to mind listening. She began to believe Temple would find a way to help her as she talked about the dusty burro trails in Northern California's badlands.

  They watched a big wave push the fisherman off the breakwater, and after he climbed back onto the rocks, Temple heard her every word about Seal Beach being different as night and day from San Bernardino. It was always thirty degrees cooler at the beach. The continual onshore breezes were crisp and clean of the harsh inland smog that burned her eyes and caused her to cough.

  Imagining her former life of inland empire flower shops, cornfields, and apple farms was almost impossible, and she suddenly felt like a lost soul. There was a slight tinge of wonder to Jim’s voice that hinted he longed for her Southern California lifestyle. And as she listened to Jim Temple, she found his voice warm about his childhood stomping grounds in Washington D.C., helping her to realize how world-class and politically powerful Temple was.

  “You surf by that fisherman on the jetty where the big waves are breaking,” Jim asked.

  “Yes.”

  “He’s going to need a Coast Guard rescue boat.”

  “The Coast Guard needs rescuing.” She answered hastily. “I was surfing thirty-foot waves when a lifeguard boat cruised right into where the waves were breaking, shouting at me with a bullhorn that they were saving my life.”

  “What happened?”

  “A forty-foot rogue wave almost capsized their boat. They speared the bow through the wave’s crest and then ran like dogs with their tails between their legs. You know, surfers are way stronger swimmers than lifeguards and coasties. We’re out in the water every day, not for a paycheck, but because we want to be.”

  “What about the fisherman getting washed off the jetty?”

  “He’s out here every day like clockwork. Big tiger and mako sharks live in the deep water at the end of the jetty, but thos
e sharks are too big to pull up on the rocks by the fishermen.” She explained. “I see the fisherman pull three-foot sharks out of the river mouth all the time. When the waves knock him off the jetty, the water’s warm from the power plants way up the San Gabriel River. He just climbs back on the rocks. That’s how I met Andrew.”

  “You’re not afraid of sharks.”

  “Sharks eat bonita, not people. Needlefish are a different story. Needlefish like warm water and swim in schools like piranha but look like baseball bats with long noses, and their mouths are filled with hundreds of needle teeth. Needlefish ripped a kid’s belly open last year. The kid wore a bathing suit with a glittery belt buckle that looked like an anchovy. A needlefish is always hungry for an anchovy.”

  “How did you meet Andrew?” Jim pet the puppy who had followed him.

  “Our surfboards have leashes like Snickers is supposed to have.”

  “This little guy?” He rubbed the puppy behind the ears.

  “Yeah. He got out of his yard.” She sipped on the orange juice. Jim gave her a buttermilk bar donut. “The gate swings open, and I always catch Snickers running on the beach and playing with the seagulls. I’ll return him to his backyard. You know, I met Andrew when I saved his surfboard from getting smashed on the rocks when his surfboard leash broke.”

  “You didn’t know he had hearing problems?”

  She shook her head. “He’s devoted his life to speaking without words. And he’s good at reading lips. He taught me to sign the alphabet first, and now I am learning numbers and fractions and hand shapes and inflections. Andrew likes it when I look at him directly in the face and smile while I’m talking to him because it’s impossible to lie to him when you look at him straight in the face while you’re talking with him.”

  Jim grinned. “Andrew’s a walking, talking polygraph machine.”

  “Yes. I always tell the truth.” Maybe you’re a walking, talking polygraph machine. He’ll find out about the money if I don’t change the subject. “Soon, we were surfing, weightlifting, jogging, doing yoga, and trying to hold our breath for five minutes, you know, cross-training for big waves like Todos Santos in Mexico and Mavericks in Northern California.”

  “Please, tell me more,” Temple’s face broke into a huge smile.

  She moved on to her strawberry fields in Highland and Ontario, where children came with their parents to pick their own strawberries, the same way she picked her own corn from behind their combines as a child. “Andrew bought me the Bugatti and the Cigarette Racing boat.” Meghan felt a familiar pull at her heart over Andrew, and her chest warmed with pleasure. I’m so thankful I met Andrew. “Then, he asked me if it would be okay for him to live with me at my house, right here on the beach, which he gave to me too. I said, yes. But I had to quit my job with my family. Oak Glen and Big Bear are impossible commutes from Seal Beach.”

  “And your family?”

  “That was like three months ago. I haven’t seen my father at all, and I saw my mom for the first time yesterday.”

  “How was your Thanksgiving?”

  “Not good. My father has a rule about staying where you eat on Thanksgiving, and Philip didn’t know.”

  “Who’s Philip?”

  “Our next-door neighbor, on the other side of Snicker’s house. Philip is Andrew’s guardian.”

  “Andrew has a legal guardian.” Jim’s brow creased.

  “Not legal.” She shook her head while Temple wanted to know more, and his voice was warm and gentle. “Andrew was young when they met. Philip decided to turn Andrew into a trust fund baby.”

  “A trust fund baby.” Jim laughed, shaking his head.

  “That’s someone who lives off the interest from their money at an early age.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of the term. So, how long has Andrew known Philip? What’s his last name.”

  “It’s Winston, and to turn Andrew into a trust fund baby, Philip trained Andrew in property development. Andrew was in the ninth grade when Philip was a superintendent on a hundred-acre condominium project. Andrew worked after school, building condos, and because of his hard work, Philip promoted Andrew to the superintendent. Andrew’s salary was twenty-five hundred dollars a week.”

  “That’s a lot of money for a freshman in high school working part-time.”

  She was suddenly anxious to escape Temple. Her composure was under attack. “What?”

  “That’s not logical, I mean, from purely a business standpoint. Philip’s relationship with Andrew must have been something more than business.”

  “A guardian.”

  “Illegal guardian.”

  “No, Philip loves Andrew like a father and would never do anything to hurt him. Andrew was a hard worker, and years later, they took their cash and moved to Amelia Island in Florida during the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage crises, and together they bought homes for rentals. Then, a few years ago, when the economy improved, they sold over fifty homes. Now, Andrew is a trust fund baby, just like Philip planned.”

  Jim’s voice hardened. “Where’s Philip. Right now?”

  Everything about Jim suggested something bad was about to happen. “He’s changing the locks on my doors for me. We’re having an alarm system installed in a couple of weeks because of my finding that bank robbery money and spending it.”

  Temple’s voice grew more assertive. “Why do you even care? You found the money on the street and spent it a long time ago. It’s a done deal. Where’s all this negativity coming from? What’s keeping you from moving on with your life?”

  Temple pierced her armor. This guy’s smarter than I thought. He’s going to find out about the money behind my closet, and I’m going to prison. “Because of the prank phone calls and robocalls on our landline, asking us if we are the hundred dollar bill hotline, Philip had to put tracers on the phone line with the phone company.”

  “Let’s go talk to Philip.” They stopped at Snicker’s house. Someone tied the gate shut with a rope, but Snickers still escaped. Jim dropped Snickers into the backyard. Snickers ran behind the evenly spaced boards and then slipped through a loose board. Jim fixed the board and returned Snickers to his backyard. “You should have Andrew fix the fence, as a favor to your neighbors and to keep Snickers safe.”

  “I’ll tell Andrew.” Snickers barked goodbye to Jim. Snickers was safe, but she got antsy, worrying about Philip. “Something’s going to happen to Philip?”

  “You’re fine.”

  “I’m fine. But, what about Philip?”

  “We’ll see.”

  She pulled her sweatshirt tight around her head. Her eyes watered in the freezing wind, and with no other choice, she led the natural wonder to Philip. Why’s he so cold? The natural wonder’s an iceberg, not a hurricane. She opened the sliding glass door, and they went into the kitchen in silence.

  “Is Philip upstairs,” Jim asked.

  “Let’s check the front room.” She forced herself to relax and looked around the foyer. With a sweep of her arm, she motioned through an arched entryway and into the front room.

  Philip sat on an oversized, white couch, looking up at Jim with an intense, unblinking stare. “What do you want?”

  Temple chuckled and shook his head with an ironic smile. “Does Andrew even know who you are?” Jim stepped into the room. “Meghan, would you mind excusing us for a moment?”

  “Sure.”

  Philip argued. “Meghan, you come in here and sit down now.”

  She entered with an air of calm and sat on the blue padded window seat. She straightened her posture while studying Philip’s contempt and anger for Temple. But, she was lighthearted, slightly curious, as her hair fell around her shoulders, with her hands twisting on her lap.

  Philip was stiff and tense. “You’re not pulling the same thing on Meghan that you pulled on me.” Philip’s rugged face looked sad. “You left me to die.”

  “I was tasked to Iraq.”

  Philip’s eyes narrowed on Temple. “Now, you’re ba
ck. And, look at you, standing in Meghan’s living room. You’re healthy. You look good. You’re fit and in shape.” Philip waved a hand at him, his words growing bitter. “And I’m permanently brain-damaged. You… left me to die.”

  Philip was losing his voice. She’d never seen Philip with such rage.

  “I didn’t know. I was in the Middle East,” Jim’s face clouded under pressure. “What happened?”

  “After I showed you where the congressman hid the ballots. You promised to protect me, and then you left for Iraq.” Philip shook his head, and everything about him conveyed an intense hatred for Temple. “A judge dismissed twenty-three people from the case. Then the congressman hired an assassin, Andrew’s father, a police officer, to kill me. Andrew’s father poisoned me with brucine. I caught him in my house, putting brucine in my food. I told the Eugene Police Department, and they did nothing. Now, fifteen years later, you’re healthy. I still suffer, hard, from the brucine poisoning. I suffer in pain in every part of my body, every day of my life. I will not let you help Meghan the same way you helped me.”

  “Does Andrew know who killed his family?”

  “The man who killed Andrew’s family is the same man who killed the congressman in his bank and then robbed his bank.” Philip winced at the memories. “The Eugene Police has a videotape of Andrew’s father breaking into my property at night and firing a shotgun at me while I slept in bed. I’ll give you a copy of the tape too. The man who saved my life has liquidated his assets and changed his identity. He’ll find us before you ever find him.”

  Jim replied. “I don’t get it, Philip.”

  “What?”

  “A man saved your life back in Oregon, fifteen or so years ago, and now you cover for him, and you help him escape justice, for life? What about the lives of Andrew’s brothers and sister and his mother. Didn’t they deserve to live?”

  “Ask yourself why they died? They died because of you.” Philip’s words were all rhetorical. “You failed them, you failed me, all of us, after indicting the congressman. Tell Meghan the crime I committed to be your informant.”