Internal Affairs Ch. 15

All that changed when Helen came to his cubicle on the last day of that short month. It had been over two years since the murder. "I found were that dude who was blackmailing Silvia can be found," she said.

"Well give it up," Peter said.

"The not so gentlemanly friend of Silvia's was killed in a holdup gone wrong, He was only twenty two at the time. The convenience store clerk must have looked like easy pickings to him. When demanded the clerk give up the money he didn't expect the clerk to resist," Helen said.

"Let me guess," Peter said. "He wasn't a clerk at all, he owned the store?"

"Exactly and he made up for his inability to fight, or chase down mischief makers in other ways," Trish guessed, since she was standing behind Helen.

"You two take all the fun out of giving you the news. The seventy year old man Said, and I quote. 'I whipped out my piece and shot the punk,' "Helen explained.

"Good for him, but bad for us," Trish suggested. "Dead men tell no tales."

"I didn't have much faith in him as a suspect anyway," Peter revealed. "He would have no way of knowing when, or where he would find Miles. I think our best bet for a next move is to visit the scene of the crime."

On Friday Peter dropped the news on Iva. At the end of the day he would be leaving for a visit to the spot where Miles' body had been found.

"You know, you really need to decide whether you want to work here or not. I mean, you just take off for a week or two at a time," Iva said.

"Okay, I'll give it some thought during this trip," Peter promised. He did not change his plans.

Trish came walking out of her cubicle at the sound of their voices. "What is going on?" she asked.

"Are you going on the road trip as well?" Iva the terrible asked.

"As a matter of fact I am. We aren't sure how long we will be gone. The good news is after this one, we don't have any idea when or where we will go next," Trish said honestly.

Iva walked away in disgust. If Trish's family were not so connected to JustAct, she might have given Trish the veiled ultimatum as well. Instead she made noises as she walked away.

Peter and Trish had worked diligently since their return a couple of months before. That being the case, Peter didn't feel any guilt at all, and if Trish did, she didn't show it.

Since Helen's kids were on the way home from college for the weekend, she wanted the three roommates to take at least at least a couple of nights off from their relationship. She planned to spend to spend the weekend with her kids in her house.

Trish agreed to attend a fancy dinner party at her parents mansion on Saturday night since she had to be away from Helen's. She grudgingly agreed to allow Helen's son to sleep in her bed Friday and Saturday nights.

"Trish can be so strange," Helen admitted with a smile. "I had to agree to clean her room completely after the kids left."

"Well, they can use mine and won't even need to clean it when they leave. Hell they can even leave a couple of their stray girls behind," Peter said.

"Easy Peter," Helen said with a grin. "Term will be over in a couple of months,"

"Well I can find a place for the summer," Peter said. "Trish can always move home for a couple of months."

"I was hoping you would might do something like that. You do know you are the bestest," Helen replied.

"I will probably need a break from all this free love by then," Peter said trying to downplay it. It actually played to his benefit, since he was trying to keep the relationship as casual as possible.

Since Peter and Trish had gone to Helen's during lunch to pack, after work they went directly to the Days Inn to check Peter into the motel for the weekend.

The plan was simple. Trish and Peter would spend Friday night in the motel. Then go to breakfast Saturday morning before Peter dropped Trish at the mansion on the hill. He would have the use of the car until Sunday, when he would pick her up again for the road trip.

Since Trish was a bit of a clean freak, Peter drove to a real restaurant Saturday night. If there were going to be any take out stains in her car, they would be hers not his. He also no longer drank, so the car was not likely to have any serious damage, he rationalized.

When he left her at her house, he realized that he hadn't driven a car in several months. It was nice to just drive where ever he wanted without doing any calculations about how far he could make it. Gas engines were good for that at least. They had even come a long way as far as reliability. Even so the small engines were still basically unreliable.

After dropping Trish Peter went to the hardware store. There were several other errands he used it for as well. Finally he ended with a trip to Helen's. Once there he had dinner with Helen and her children. He willingly submitted himself to an interrogation.

The boy and girl college students spent most of their time sending and receiving text messages or checking on their facebook pages. It was ridiculous and he decided right there to never go out if public with them. It also didn't help that he had nothing to say to them after "Hello".

Peter was in bed by 11pm. It wasn't the first time he had slept alone since 'the arrangement' but it was one of the few.

He was surprised how easy it was to sleep knowing Helen and Trish weren't in the house. The three of them seldom shared a bed. There was usually a random pairing based on nothing at all.

After lunch on Sunday Peter drove to the mansion on the hill. He called her while on the road, "So you ready to return to the great unwashed?" he asked.

"I am so ready," she said. "However there is a problem."

"Oh?" Peter asked.

"My dad insists on meeting you," Trish said.

"I don't do 'meet the parents'," Peter said. It had as much to do with his personality, as it did with protecting his cover. The cover ID was the important consideration.

"Peter, if you don't do this he is going to hire private investigators to research you. It would be best to just meet with him and convince him we are just work colleagues," Trish assured him.

"Five minutes, no more," Peter said as he pulled into the drive.

It was twenty minutes later when he placed a suitcase into the trunk of her car. "What's that?" she asked pointing to the closed box.

"It's my coffee making kit from the apartment," Peter explained. "I thought I would take it on this trip. If you don't have some warm clothes packed, you should maybe pack them."

"You told me that already. That's what is in the suitcase which you just put in the trunk," Trish explained.

They were almost at the motel when she asked, "So what did you think of my father."

"He was what I expected," Peter said.

"I'm sure I will hear his opinion of you whether I like it or not," Trish admitted.

"Of course you will. You are his daughter after all," Peter explained.

The plan had always been to leave for the mountain where Miles died immediately. They were well on the road when Trish got the call from her dad.

"Peter watched her make faces as she listened to his opinion of their relationship. Her father didn't like it of course. Peter wonder how her father would react, if he knew the extent of Trish's depravity.

"It's official he hates you," she said.

"That's strange it usually takes at least two meetings before people hate me," Peter said with a smile.

"No, that's a good thing," she said with a giggle.

"If you say so," Peter agreed.

"They drove until midnight, then checked into a highway motel. They slept in the same bed but kept their distance. It had been a long trying weekend."

Over a late breakfast the next morning Trish asked, "I wonder how Helen's weekend went?"

"The kids seemed curious about our relationship," Peter explained.

"So what did she tell them?" Trish asked.

"She told them that, I was in Detroit temporarily to help review cases for the DOJ. I asked to be a housemate for a while and she agreed." Peter replied.

"What about me," Trish said.

"You, she explained. Needed to get away from your parent for a while. She explained to the kids that she knew us both from work, so she was sure we were harmless. She needed the help with their college expenses. I think she added that god knows their father was no help," Peter explained.

"Yeah, that sounds like Helen for sure," Trish said.

They rode in silence for a long time. The introspection passed too quickly for Peter. It was interrupted by Trish's speaking.

"Iva the terrible gave you an ultimatum didn't she?" Trish asked.

"Yes she did," Peter said. "It wasn't quite that strong, but it pretty much was. She just lacked the courage to deliver it with the strength needed. It is what it is though."

"What are you going to do," Trish asked.

"No idea at all," Peter replied.

"My dad had a long talk with me over the weekend," Trish said.

"Oh yeah, is he going to spring for the personality transplant," Peter said cruelly. He had no idea why he had done that.

"Not funny Pete," she said knowing he didn't like to be called Pete. "You do know you can be a dick?"

"Your language has really gone down hill since you began hanging out with me," Peter said with a chuckle.

The mood in her econobox was not at all contentious, but it was cooler than usual. Something was hanging over them like a sword.

They stopped for dinner then drove a couple of more hours to get to within fifty miles of the highway exit for the gold camp. Peter smiled everytime he thought of the operation as a gold camp, but he had to call it something.

Since Trish drove, Peter used the tablet attached to her wireless carrier to research the area. He found that when they turned from the interstate onto the state road they would come upon a local motel. From the motel it was still an hours drive, on a state road, to the site of 'Gold Camp'. The motel staff would surely know where the local residents could be found.

It was well after dark when Trish pulled onto the exit ramp which led to the state road. The motel was not one of those quaint places with local charm. It was instead a two story concrete block warehouse for people. Most likely it began life forty or so years before as an econlodge, or some such thing.

The parking lot restaurant was still operating at an average small town diner level. After they checked into their barely adequate room, they went to the restaurant to have an only adequate dinner.

Though the motel owner seemed to be an immigrants, the restaurant owner seemed to be a local businessman. At the time he was working the register so Peter tried to engage him in conversation.

"So did you know any of the production people for the Gold Digger show?" he asked as he checked out.

"Yeah, the cameraman stayed at the motel. Also when the producer came to look over the site she stayed as well. They also seemed to come in every couple of days to sleep in a bed and to shower," The owner said. "The waitresses talked to them more than I did. Come back in the morning and talk to Jill, she got the camera man to film her. He promised to show her film to the producer when he got back to New York. I don't know what she promised himin payment." The manager said with a smile.

"Any other strangers hanging around when the miner got himself killed?" Peter asked.

"We get a lot of strangers here. Jill will know better than me." The owner said looking past Peter since there was a customer wanting to check out.

Peter and Trish went to their room for the night. Since Peter had seen the small microwave in the room he unloaded his box of coffee making materials.

He set about making coffee two cups at a time. Trish waited until the first of the foul brew was made before she spoke. "So what are you thinking?" she asked.

"We need to hike into the Gold Camp and take a look. Most of the police effort was spent on the crime scene. We should talk to the sheriff's office to see the evidence and determine what they did, but we should also hike into the camp to see what, if anything is there."

"You know the murder was over two years time ago. "Since it happened so long again I bet the passing of time has wiped away every trace of Gold Camp," Trish said.

The fact that Trish called the place by his nickname didn't get by Peter. "Maybe but even that might tell us something. So which do you want to do first," he asked her.

"Is this another of your subtle test questions," Trish asked.

"Of course," Peter replied.

"Cops first, then the scene, then the Gold Camp," Trish commented.

"Very good, was it a guess?" he asked.

"Not quite, I thought we should know as much as possible before we visit the scene and the cops have most of the available information here." Trish said.

"Excellent thinking," Peter said. "I want you to drive by the road to Gold Camp before we go to the sheriff's station. Just so we know what to ask."

"Fair enough, So do you want to have sex with me tonight?" They were getting to be friends again, but she was still so cold.

"Sure, how do you feel about it," Peter said.

"Of course, or I wouldn't ask," she acknowledged.

It made sense. It was almost like a teenage boy asking a girl, If I kissed you would you be upset, Peter thought.

The next morning the two of them left early for the Gold Camp road. They did stop at the restaurant in the parking lot but found Jill wasn't working and no one else knew about the production crew. They didn't stay for breakfast.

They also didn't see another restaurant during the drive to the Gold Camp turn off. It made Peter think his decision had been a poor one, when he decided to wait for a place closer to gold camp. They found nothing of interest near the Gold Camp turn off either, so they began to followed the GPS's instructions to the Sheriff's substation.

They did find a crossroads dinner near the Sheriff's office, which sold sandwiches of all kinds. The diner also sold breakfast biscuits all day along with their several sandwiches. He and Trish ordered coffee and a biscuits, then they talked to the waitress and grill cook.

"Did any of those TV production people eat here a couple of years ago. The ones making that Gold Digger show?" Trish asked.

"That camera man and the one who got himself killed ate here a few times, not toward the end though," the grill cook said.

Then a few minutes later they found themselves at the Sheriff's substation.

"So, you are the guy from DC. What can we do for you?" the chief deputy asked.

"I want copies of everything you have on the Gold Digger murder," Peter said. Oh yeah all the 911 and dispatch taped to and from the deputies around the time of Murder all the way up till the body was found," Peter said.

"Why do you want that?" the chief deputy asked.

"That is an incomplete record of that night, but they are the only things available. You never know what might turn up." Peter said.

"Sure, I will have the 911 and dispatch calls sent to you. I have the case file copy for you now." He said that handing Peter a flash drive.

Since Peter had called the day before, even though it had been a Sunday, the word had managed to filter down. Actually there were several words. He wanted to see the Deputy who handled the crime scene investigation, as well as any evidence list, and all the paperwork.

Deputy Silas presented herself to Trish and Peter. "Would you like a cup of coffee?" Peter asked. He made it obvious that he wanted her alone for the interview. He just didn't want it to happen in an interrogation room. The female deputy agreed to meet them in five minutes at the same diner where they had breakfast.

"You back again?" the grill cook asked.

"Coffee was so good, I couldn't stay away," Peter said.

Both tables were so the three of them carried their coffee to the one farthermost from the door for their talk.

"So Deputy Silas what time did your start shift that day," Peter asked.

"I was working 7a to 3p," she said.

"Remind me what was the victim's time of death?" Peter asked.

"The time of death was about noon but the body wasn't found till just before 3pm. I got the call and was pissed I had to work over. According to the man standing by on the scene, he was supposed the cameraman and was supposed to meet the victim in the afternoon for the trip in, but the victim arrived way early. When the cameraman arrived he found the vic had been dead for some time," the deputy explained.

"So he had to leave home around 6am to get to that spot near noon. Why would he leave home so early, when he wasn't supposed to arrive till later in the afternoon," Peter asked aloud but to know one. "Maybe it was nothing but a wild hair up his ass to get moving."

"I have no idea. There was no indication why the Victim was in the woods at the time. His sled was half loaded when he was shot." Deputy Silas replied even though Peter didn't aim the comment at her.

"Tell me something," Trish asked. "Miles mention moonshiners and pot growers were in the mountains, were they really dangerous,"

"More so in the summer than in January. The pot farmers would be in grow houses so not likely to be in the woods at all. During the summer yeah they are a problem."

"How about the shiners?" Peter asked.

"They are active when the foliage covers them from the drones," Silas said.

"Is there anyone else in the woods who might be dangerous?" Peter asked.

"If your man walked up on a grow operation or one being set up, it could be dangerous. Our deputies have been fired on in the woods more than once," Silas said. "One was even hit."

"Tell me this, did the TV show advise you that Miles was going to be in the area?" Peter asked.

"If they knew, nobody ever told me," she said.

Peter got a chill. She had just parsed her words. She could have been covering her own ass, and knew nothing, or she could have been covering her ass because she suspected something. Peter didn't answer he just looked at her hard.

"I guess that's all," Trish said.

After Deputy Silas left Trish asked, "What now?"

"We do what we do best. We start to research. You find out who all was on duty with the Sheriff's department that day," Peter demanded.

"You have a theory, don't you," She asked.

"No, I have some questions. You find out who was working for the Sheriff that day. I'm going to walk the ground where the Gold Camp was located. Oh yeah find out who those deputies are who were shot at during their tramp in the woods," Peter said.

After breakfast the next morning Peter left Trish working on her research tasks while he stopped for coffee at the diner nearest the Gold Camp. Peter make a call while he drank coffee.

He was in the field when he got the call. "So you got my answers." he asked.

"Look for a pump in the creek, and some hose leading up from the creek. If there is a cabin and some metal tables around, it might look like someone preparing the ground for a grow plots when the trees fill out in the spring.

"If I have all that it could look like someone is getting it ready to plant when the weather breaks?" He asked.

"Yes it could," the voice on the phone replied.

As Peter said thank you, he was staring at the pump used to carry creek water to the small metal tray used to wash rocks. He was also looking at the generator and Propane tanks used to keep the miners shack livable in the winter months. Peter had that bad feeling again. He didn't like what he was thinking, so he was sure the others weren't going to like it either.

"Can you get me that Satellite feed from Jan two years ago," Peter asked the DOJ voice.

"I will have it for you tomorrow," the voice said. You know you are going to owe me big time."

"Okay, but you know secrecy is important." Peter replied.

"I know Peter, don't worry. You just remember to hide behind that lawyer that you drag along," the voice said.