Going Home - Chapter 13

I decided I needed to interview Mr. Cooper before talking to the nearby business owners. Normally, canvassing was the first thing detectives would have us do at a scene, but we’d take just basic statements and the detectives would follow up based on that and other information they found in their investigation.

As of right now, I didn’t really have a direction to follow, other than I knew it wasn’t an accident, and Mr. Cooper was the only one I was almost certain wasn’t involved. I guess if I was really conspiratorial I could imagine a scenario where he set the fire himself and got caught upstairs, maybe not expecting it to spread so fast; but I’d seen the look in his eyes when I got there.

He was shocked and confused and he’d have to be a hell of an actor if it was faked.

The drive to Summersville didn’t take long and it was nice to have access to a car, even though it felt weird to be in a patrol vehicle again. Although I hadn’t driven one when I was on the force, we did train in them at the academy. The main difference wasn’t the cars themselves, although they sometimes had a little more power than civilian vehicles, it was the way other vehicles reacted around you. Slamming on brakes, driving below the speed limit, and basically being obstacles as much as possible.

I didn’t have a badge, so I’d asked Orville’s wife Sarah to call ahead and get me cleared to speak to Mr. Cooper, in case only family were allowed to visit him. She didn’t say if it was a problem, but when I asked for his room number and gave my name and the nurse at the front desk waved me through towards his room.

The last time I’d been here had been my senior year when Dad had a bad scare with his lungs and the doctor had sent him down for a bunch of tests. Not much had changed in the years since I’d been here, including the hospital rooms.

Mr. Cooper was in a four-person room, but at the moment no other patients were present, which meant we could talk in private.

“Mr. Cooper?” I asked, standing by the door. “Do you have a second to talk?”

“I … Henry Brewer?” he asked as he turned to look at me, a kind of confused expression on his face.

“Yes sir,” I said, coming up to the side of his bed. “Do you remember the fire last night and us jumping out the window?”

“Yes. I’m old, son, but I’m not senile yet. It was just awful smoky last night and kind of hard to see you, and you look a mite different than I remember when you were a boy. They told me about you throwin’ me out the window, though,” he said, reaching out a hand.

“Yes sir,” I said, taking his weathered hand in mine.

“I guess I should say thank you for getting me out of that fire, although my leg I kind of wish you had used the door instead.”

“I would have if I could,” I said, laughing. “Trust me; my ribs would have appreciated it too.”

He laughed, winced, and then patted my hand with his, trapping it between them before letting me go and settling back into the bed.

“It was nice of you to come out and check on me.”

“Actually, Orville asked if I could help with the investigation into the fire, since I did police work up in New York City, and had been to a few fires when I was there. I was hoping to ask you some questions.”

“Ohh, I didn’t know you became a policeman. When did you start workin’ for Orville?”

“I’m not working for him. I’m just helping him a little by looking into this fire. Do you remember anything about the fire? When you first smelled it? If you heard anything?”

“Not really. I usually go to bed pretty early, since I’m a lot more tired than I used to be. I woke up coughing. The room was already full of smoke. A minute or so later you came crawling into the room. It all happened so fast.”

“What about the night before when you locked up, before going to bed. Did you lock both the front and the back door?”

“Yes. I put everything up, swept the place, locked up, and then came upstairs to eat my supper; just like I do most nights. I wasn’t very hungry though, so I just had a little snack instead. I was pretty tired and the sun was starting to go down, so I went straight to bed. That’s it until I woke up to the smoke.”

“Are you sure you locked the front and back doors? I know after a long day, I sometimes think I did something but didn’t, especially if it’s something I’ve done a lot of times before. Maybe you remember locking it from another day, and forgot last night?”

“No sir! I remember, because I always put away all the equipment on the shelves back there, throw out the trash, and then lock the back door when I come back in. It’s one, two, three, like clockwork, every night. I didn’t forget.”

“Okay. Is the building insured?”

“I think so, but I’m not sure. The building is still in Frank’s name and he always took care of that.”

“I heard that he was sick. Is he still involved in the business even though he doesn’t cut hair there anymore?”

“Well, his son is helping with it a lot. You know, his boy got his business degree at WVU? Smart boy. Majored in business. Frank’s condition has gotten a lot worse, so I don’t think he’s doing much actual work, anymore. I spoke to him last week, but we mostly talk about the old days now. I still pay Frank his share, though. Medicaid isn’t covering as much of his procedures as they’d like it to, so I know every dollar counts.”

“So his son is handling the insurance and taxes, things like that.”

“Yep. He’s even done my taxes the last few years. He’s a smart boy.”

“I know this is a terrible thing to ask about, but I have to as part of the investigation. If Mr. Williams’ condition is that far advanced, have you discussed with him or his son what will happen to the business after he passes?”

“We’ve talked about it a bit, although more with Jeremy than with Frank.”

“Did you come to a conclusion?”

“Not really. It made Frank upset to talk about it, so I figured why bother him. Ohh, Jeremy has ideas. He thinks we should sell it, since Frank owns the building and the land and maybe I should retire, but I don’t know what I’d do with myself. No, I think I’ll keep working and deal with all that mess when the time comes. Of course, I guess that doesn’t matter now. I heard the building is completely gone. I might have to go stay with my son for a while, since that was both my livelihood and my home. I swear, I don’t know what I’m gonna do now. Cuttin’ hair is all I’ve done for the last thirty years.”

He got choked up on that last sentence and turned to face the window, looking out into the mid-day sun. I sat quietly, waiting for him to regain his composure.

“Again, this is just a formality and I have to ask the question, but do you have any enemies in town? Anyone you know that might be upset with you?” I asked once he’d turned back towards me.

“No. I mean, I’ve given a bad haircut here and there, but nothing to get seriously mad about. Did someone set the fire on purpose?”

I’d been waiting for that question, just like I had when I’d spoken to his son. No one liked to think someone would want to hurt or kill them, and it was always easier to believe something like this was an accident rather than done on purpose.

“I don’t know. These questions are all formalities that we have to ask in situations like this, just in case.”

We spoke for a few more minutes, mostly about life in Buxton, and how things had changed since he was a kid. I was a little astonished that, although he worked there every day and lived above the shop, he actually didn’t know that much about how his own business ran. He’d left that part of it up to Frank Williams for years, and now that Frank was too sick, had transferred that over to Frank’s son.

I wished him well and told him I’d let him know if I found anything, and left shortly after. Since Mr. Williams was in a hospice not far from the hospital, I tried to stop there and talk to him as well, but the nurses turned me away, saying he was too sick for visitors and wasn’t able to talk at the moment anyway, because of the large amounts of narcotic pain medication he was on. I hadn’t actually known anyone this advanced with the disease before, but I’d heard that once someone made it this far into hospice, it was more about elevating pain medications, and making their final days more comfortable than actually fighting the disease. I hadn’t checked, but I’d bet the doctors had more or less given up on treatment by this point, especially if he was so far gone he could barely talk anymore.

Besides, without a badge I would have had to call back to Buxton and have Sarah try to talk them into letting me through the door.

My last shot was to call the son, since he was the one handling the family’s finances.

“What?” he said when he answered, which meant he was either pissed off at something or just an asshole?

“Jeremy Williams?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Henry Brewer, working with the sheriff here in Buxton, investigating the fire at the barbershop your father owns with George Cooper. I’m assuming you’ve heard about the fire?”

“Yes. I’m very busy, Officer. Just tell me what you want so I can get on with my day.”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to mislead you. I’m not a deputy with the sheriff’s office; I’m just assisting in the investigation. Mr. Cooper told me you were handling most of your father’s business now, and I wanted to ask some questions, as he was unable to answer.”

“Until the insurance company finishes its investigation into the fire, any questions will need to go through my attorney. Email me and I’ll get you his information.”

With that, he abruptly hung up. I looked at the phone in my hand, several thoughts running through my head. Although I was going to ask about the insurance policy, especially after Mr. Cooper mentioned the son wanting to sell the business, I hadn’t brought it up. It was strange for him to bring it up first and point me to his lawyer, and even stranger that he would be waiting for the insurance company to ‘finish’ an investigation. He wouldn’t have heard about the fire until later last night, even if one of the neighbors had called as soon as the fire happened. For him to have opened a claim, found out they were going to do an investigation, which didn’t always happen in claims, retain a lawyer and feel the need to refer questions to that lawyer, he would have had to really be on the ball.

Of course, it wasn’t illegal to be efficient, but his aggressive response certainly did make me curious. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t actually law enforcement, it made things more complicated, which meant my next call was to Orville.

“How’s the investigation going?” he asked when he answered my call.

“Good. I’m just leaving Summersville after talking to Mr. Cooper. I could use some help though.”

“I already sent those samples off to the Staties to go to their lab.”

“Good, but I need to know about the insurance policy they had on the building. Mr. Cooper said Jeremy Williams, Frank Williams’ son, handled all of that. But, when I called him, he told me I needed to talk to his lawyer. I need to find out what kind of policy they had, who the beneficiaries were, and so on.”

“You’re thinking it wasn’t an accident then?”

“I won’t have proof until we hear back from the lab, but no, it wasn’t an accident. If I had to guess, someone poured gas or something like that through the open back door and lit a match.”

“And you’re thinking it was the son?”

“Maybe. I need to get more information before I can tell you for sure. I’m missing the smoking gun, as it were.”

“I see,” he said, sounding more serious than normal. “Yeah, I’ll put in a request with the insurance company. If they need me to get a subpoena, it’s going to take a few days.”

“I figured. I appreciate the help.”

“Anything else you need from me?”

“No. I still have to canvas the buildings nearby and see if anyone saw anything around the time of the fire, specifically by the back door. It was opened before the fire started, or at least during the fire, and looked to be unlocked. Whoever started it, they did it from the back of the shop.”

“I’m on main street now. Do you want me to get some statements?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind. They might be more likely to talk to you, since you’re the sheriff.”

“Ha, you’d think so. Maybe it was different in New York City and people opened up to law enforcement, but that isn’t the way it is around here. Even though I’ve lived here my whole life, they still only see the badge and clam up.”

“It wasn’t different in New York City, but these aren’t people trying to hide their moonshine still in the barn or the meth trailer outback. These are business owners, and I’m betting you have at least some kind of relationship with them. They only know me as the kid who left town and failed to make something of himself.”

“I don’t think you give yourself enough credit, but I’ll talk to them.”

“Besides checking if they saw anyone around the building that night, see if they remember seeing Williams’ son around town, either in the days before it happened or at least the day of the fire.”

“Sure, I’ll check. The judge usually knocks off early, so it’ll probably be some time tomorrow before I have a subpoena signed for the insurance. I’ll give you a call when I have it.”

“Thanks, Orville,” I said.

“You’re the one doing me the favor, remember,” he said and hung up.

It was mid-afternoon when I got back to Buxton. Instead of going home, I continued on to Rosita’s, since I hadn’t been able to go by and visit the night before. Even though we hadn’t actually discussed me coming by and visiting most nights, I’d said ‘see you tomorrow’ when I’d left the night before, and so I felt like I owed some kind of explanation as to why I’d never showed.

It was almost time for her dinner rush, so I wasn’t planning on staying long, but I at least wanted to see her before I went home. Normally, she was in the back when I stopped by, but today she intercepted me as I opened the door, wiping her hands on a towel she kept tied to her apron.

“You’re okay!” she said, skidding to a halt in front of me, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me.

For a moment, I just stood there with my arms kind of hanging at my sides, taken aback by it. Although we were spending a lot of time together and I knew she liked me, we hadn’t really initiated much in the way of physical contact, and it was so sudden I’d was taken off guard.

“Umm, yeah,” I said as she released me and stepped back.

“I heard about you and the fire. They said you jumped out of a window.”

“It was the only way to get Mr. Cooper out safely. He’s okay though. I just got back from Summersville and he’s recovering, although he broke his leg in the fall. I’d tried to cushion the fall with my body, but apparently, I didn’t do a good enough job.”

“I heard. Everyone is saying how much of a hero you are. They also said they saw you driving around in a police car, but I didn’t really believe it until now. You seemed so against joining the police force again.”

“I still am. Since I was at the fire and saw it before it spread through the whole building, and because I’d worked a few fires back in New York City, Orville asked me to help investigate it. He was nice enough to loan me the SUV so I could get to Summersville and back, but this is a one-time thing. Once I write up a report on what happened, I’m done with it.”

“If you say so,” she said, not sounding entirely convinced. “I’m glad you came by, though.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. We had a pretty big order so Julie came in to help out. Dinner should be quiet though and we’re all prepped, so I thought it might be a good time to get away.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I know you had your doctor’s appointment today, and I see you don’t have your cane or crutch, so I think maybe your leg is feeling better. There are some hiking trails not far away and we still have four hours of daylight left. I thought that maybe you might want to go walking with me.”

I’d mentioned I had my doctor’s appointment, but I hadn’t realized she was keeping such close track of how my progress was going. I guess I’d been so distracted with the investigation that I hadn’t thought about it at all, but my leg was feeling worlds better than it had been. The doctor would probably have said I should give it a few more weeks before I did something strenuous like hiking, but thinking about it, if I took it slow it should be okay.

I was also fairly sure I knew what trails she was talking about. As with anyone who grew up in Buxton, where there wasn’t a lot for a kid to do on weekends, we spent a fair amount of time out on the trails. In my case, it was a good place to drink without being seen by adults. There were several branch trails we could sneak down that led to openings perfect for us to party without it being immediately broken up.

I was dressed pretty much like I had been since I’d come back to town, blue jeans, a t-shirt, and comfortable boots. They were a little dirty, with some of the ash and soot left over from the fire, but that wouldn’t matter much for hiking. Rosita, on the other hand, was in worn tennis shoes and track pants, not exactly hiking apparel.

She must have noticed me giving her the once over because she said, “My house is on the way. I thought we could stop by there and I could change, and then we’d go.”

“I guess it’s okay. I may be a little slow, though. The doctor said I should be okay using my leg like normal, but I don’t think he had hiking in mind. If it’s the trail I’m thinking of, it’s not very steep for the first third, so we can take it easy and maybe turn around before we have to start climbing.”

“I won’t let you hurt yourself, I promise,” she said, putting a hand gently on my arm.

“Well, okay, but I’m blaming you if something goes wrong,” I said, partly to try and be funny, but also because I was feeling uncomfortable.

It wasn’t uncomfortable in a bad way, and I know a lot of other guys who’d been in my position had all kinds of conquests and were completely comfortable picking up women. Having only had one serious girlfriend who I married right out of college, I was something of an oddity in college sports, at least in the present day.

It had saved me from some of the pitfalls I’d seen others fall into, but it had left me unprepared to be a bachelor again. Not that I wasn’t enjoying the attention I was getting from Rosita, who I really liked. Maybe it was because I liked her that I was finding myself being awkward.

She smiled at my dumb joke and went back to let Julie know where she’d be and to call if there were problems. That was also a good sign that we wouldn’t go far down the trail, since she’d have to both stay in cell service and be able to get back somewhat quickly if Julie did call her.

We decided to leave the sheriff’s SUV at her shop. Orville had given me the use of it, but he’d said it was to help me get around while investigating the case. Even though I knew he probably wouldn’t have a problem with me driving it a mile out of town, I didn’t want to abuse the loan.

Her house was different than I expected. For starters, it was pretty small, at least compared to the property her brother had given her. She’d mentioned her brother had built it after buying the land, and I was pretty impressed. I’d expected something very simple, but it looked as good as any professionally built house I’d seen, at least from the outside. It was narrower, closer to the width of a brownstone in New York City than the wider and squatter houses found in West Virginia, which made it stand out from the other houses in the area. It did have a nice porch out front, which had two rocking chairs on it, and a basketball hoop next to the driveway, which kind of ended abruptly, since he apparently never had the chance to build a garage.

“I know it’s not much,” she said, seeing me giving the place a once over. “Tommy said he was planning on expanding it after he bought up the land around it, but he never got around to it.”

“No, it’s nice. I’m impressed, actually. Tommy did a really good job.”

“Yeah, he was always good at this sort of thing.”

“I know you said he’d bought a couple of acres, but that’s a lot more land than I’d thought. That’s more like five acres.”

“Six. I know; it’s a lot more than I thought when he told me about it too. He said it was almost enough to farm, although you can see from the ground that it isn’t really made for farming.”

If I hadn’t already known, it would have been obvious she was a city girl from that statement. She probably looked at all the rocks and stumps scattered across the ground and decided it was too mountainous for farming. A lot of people thought that about West Virginia, where they just saw hillsides and places good for mining, and thought it’s all stone and rock. Although we didn’t do any farming, my parents’ house sat on land that had originally been farmland before it had been broken up and sold in plots. Lots of small stones were pretty common, but once all of the debris was removed, there was good, arable soil underneath. Mom had kept a fairly large garden on our property since I could remember, and crops grew just fine in it.

It would take some doing to clear the fields and make the land workable, but if someone put their mind to it, they could farm this land just fine. It wasn’t large enough to actually live off the proceeds from farming, but she could grow most of the food she needed if she planted the right crops and stored it well.

“I think you’d be surprised,” I said. “Tommy picked a really good spot.”

“Yeah. I don’t know anything about farming though, so I was thinking about building something on the land out here.”

“Any ideas what you’d want to build?”

“Maybe a food bank and a place to help people in need. You know the food bank in town is about to close, right?”

“I hadn’t heard that.”

To be fair, although we’d never been well off, Dad’s work in the mines and what piece work Mom could pick up had meant we hadn’t got to the point of needing help from the food bank or charities, so I didn’t really track what was happening with them.

“They’ve been running out of pocket for a while. I’ve been studying, trying to find a way to help them, but I think Elaine, the woman who runs it, is just tired of fighting to keep it open.”

“They can’t get assistance from the government, since they’re a charity?”

“They can, but it’s hard to get. There’s so much bureaucracy to go through. She gets some donations now, but most of that is from Dixon, and they’ve been cutting back on charitable giving as the market for coal has gotten worse.”

“There aren’t any other big companies that give to places like a food bank? I’d think some of the big boys would have national programs you could sign up for. They donate millions to large charities and politicians. A small donation here would be a drop in the bucket for them and mean a lot here.”

“They do, and I’ve been looking into that as well, but like I said, she’s just given up. I don’t think she wants to do it anymore. It’s why I’ve been thinking about building a place out here to collect and help distribute food. I own the land, so I wouldn’t have rent or whatever like she does.”

“That would take a lot of money,” I pointed out.

“I know, and there are people out there willing to give money for something like this. I just have to do the work to find them and convince them, and I don’t mind a little hard work.”

It was hard to not be impressed. She led me into the house and had me wait in the living room as she went upstairs to change. Although not particularly girly, the house was clearly decorated to her taste, with floral-printed couches, art on the walls, and multiple crucifixes. I paced the room, looking at the stuff on the way, stopping at a bookcase on the back wall.

I’d never been much of an academic and the closest I ever got to reading was reading trashy thrillers featuring ex-soldiers turned cops and their badass special agent girlfriends. Her shelf wasn’t one of those set up just for looks with crisp and unopened copies of classics. The shelves held books in a wide range of subjects like business, accounting, religion, economics, and even what looked like philosophy, and they all showed signs of being read, some of them multiple times.

I’d known she was smart, but I’d thought it more like street smarts and business acumen from how she talked about her restaurant, and hadn’t realized the extent of it.

“Ready?” she asked as she came back down the stairs.

“Yep,” I said, following her out. “I really like your house.”

“It’s okay, but it brings back too many memories of Tommy. If I ever get the money together to build a food bank, once Elaine decides to close hers of course, I’m going to have to find somewhere new to live.”

“You’re going to tear this place down?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes. I know how that sounds, since Tommy built it, but he never intended for it to stay this way. He was either going to build something bigger when he got out of the army or add on to it, so it doesn’t make sense to keep it just to honor his memory. Even he wouldn’t have kept it.”

“Have you looked at other places to move into?”

“Yes. I haven’t decided if I’ll save up and buy a house somewhere else in town, or just move into an apartment and build some kind of living space above the food bank. Part of me wants to do that, so I can be there when needed, but Elaine lives on-site and I see what it does to her. I’m still trying to decide.”

“Well, I still think it’s a pretty good thing to want to do,” I said as we pulled out of her driveway and headed off to the trail.

The hike went better than I expected. I was pretty slow and had to take several breaks, which showed how much healing I still had to do. Although my leg didn’t hurt, it was throbbing, and I felt exerted after only going a short distance each time. Thankfully, Rosita didn’t seem bothered by it, though she did give me a hard time, but that was just playful bantering. The downside was we didn’t get to have much of a conversation, since I was winded or focused on not pushing myself too hard to really participate. Mostly, she did all the talking, telling stories of her childhood and her brother.

I felt like a wet noodle when we got back to the restaurant, and knew I’d be in pain the next day, but it had been worth it. I knew she felt the same way because, instead of hopping out after turning off the car, she twisted in her seat, making no move to leave.

“This was fun. I hope your leg doesn’t hurt too much tomorrow, though. I think I may have pushed you too hard.”

“I’ll be okay,” I lied. “The doctor said I need to keep up with the exercises that the physical therapist showed me for another month or two, and that I’d still have weakness until then. I think it might also be because I’ve been so busy today. After months of just sitting around doing nothing, I’m not used to all this activity. But I’m glad I went with you. It was a nice day and I really missed this.”

“Good, then maybe we could do it again sometime,” she said, staring into my eyes.

I don’t know what came over me, since I hadn’t ever been this forward with Terri, but I said, “me too,” before leaning across the center console and kissing her. Thankfully, she kissed me back, first tenderly, and then more aggressively, matching my intensity.

We were in front of her store and there were people inside eating who could have plainly seen us if they bothered to look, so we didn’t make out or anything. After a few seconds I pulled back, making eye contact with her.

She smiled, rubbed her thumb across the back of my hand, and asked, “Will I see you tomorrow?”

“I think so. If Orville comes through with the subpoena, I might have to go to Summersville again. Mr. Cooper is getting out of the hospital and I haven’t heard if his son is going to be able to stay and help once he’s out. If he isn’t, I thought someone should be there.”

“What is he going to do about the barbershop? Is he going to retire, maybe move out with his son?”

“I don’t know. I got the impression he wanted to come back here and cut hair again, but it really depends on what happens with the insurance. That’s why I’m waiting on the subpoena. Only Mr. Williams’ son seems to know about what the policy really is, and he isn’t talking.”

“I see,” she said.

Before I could say anything else, Rosita noticed Julie waving through the window, trying to get her attention.

“I should probably see what’s happening,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She leaned forward and gave me a quick peck on the lips before sliding out of her car. I was a little slow to follow suit, surprised by the parting kiss, which meant she was already at the door to the restaurant and going inside by the time I got out.

I still had work to do on the internet when I got home, doing some research on some of the things I’d noticed at the fire, but for now, all I could do was stand there and watch her walk across the restaurant through the windows.