Chapter 56
When Jack and I reached my place after lunch it was about 3 in the afternoon, and John Wheeler should have been at work. But as Jack was pulling up in front of my house I saw him moving some boxes in the garage. He waved at me, and I waved back with the friendliest smile I could produce, but then I turned to Jack and gave him a meaningful look.
“I’ll stop say hello to John”, I said
Jack studied my face trying to guess what I had in mind, and I could see worry in his eyes. He kept them on me for a long moment, without speaking, because the windows of the car were open and John wasn’t far from us.
I slipped out of the car before Jack turned off the engine, and said, “I’ll be just a moment”, handing him the keys of house.
But Jack walked towards my house and sat on the steps, his gaze following me.
“Hey John!”, I exclaimed walking towards him
“Hello”, he said, raising his eyes and wiping the sweat off his forehead with a towel
“Are you guys packing up already? We should have another get together before you leave. But you aren’t leaving till the end of the month, right?”
“Yeah, but it takes a while to pack up a whole house”
“I hear you”
“I am home too today, just got out of the hospital…”
“Why, what happened?”
“I had a car accident, and induced car accident I would say…”, I said, observing John’s reaction carefully
“An induced car accident?”, he asked, bugging his eyes, with an expression I couldn’t fully decipher. He looked puzzled, but there was a hint of some other worry on his face. Or was I making this up?
“Someone literally tried to push us off the road”, I continued
“And did you identify the car and the drivers?”, he asked, his frown tracing deep lines between his eyebrows
“Not that well…”, I said vaguely, a rush of fear suddenly flooding the lower parts of my stomach
“But you must have seen something?”, he insisted, and I wondered again if his insistence was that of a policeman used to asking this type of questions or if there was something else behind it. Why would he be walking with Sandeep and trying to hide it if the two of them weren’t connected in dark ways?
“Not much…we were driving fast one moment and I was knocked unconscious the next...”
“Were you alone in the car?”, John asked
A normal question would have been “So how are you feeling now?”, but it hadn’t come yet and now the anger began to compete with the fear. I hoped John never tried to be an agent under cover, because if he was playing a hide and seek game his skills were terrible
“Thanks for asking me if I am doing well, by the way”, I said, with a pitch in my tone higher than I intended
“I’m sorry. It’s just that I cannot believe that someone pushed you out the road on purpose, why would anybody do that?”, he said, opening his arms in incredulity, making his solicitous neighbour act more credible. But was he acting?
“No clue”, I said lying
“Are you taking a few days off?”, John asked, his expression almost plain now, with only the hint of a frown
“Yes, Jack has a cottage close to the sea and we are going to spend a few days there”, I lied again, and I was surprised at the ease with which my answers came
“I never asked you by the way…you’re still going to be a policeman, aren’t you?”, I asked, trying to sound as casual and innocent as I could
Deeper frown lining John’s forehead
“Maybe you can help me figure out who tried to kill me once I get better”, I added
“Did you report this to the police?”
“Of course…they actually came to talk to me at the hospital, but you and I know each other well and I would rather have someone I trust investigate on this”
“Do you remember who you spoke to?”, John asked in return, eluding my question for the second time, and pressing me for more information instead
“Not really…”
“A woman or a man? Did they leave you their business card? I am asking because I know the people who work in the police, of course, and I can try to ask them if they are finding anything”
“So are you still going to be in the police? Are you just relocating to another office or changing job altogether?”, I asked, eluding John question and cornering him
“I’ll be with the police for another couple of weeks and then I’ll quit”
“Why are you quitting?”, I asked
“Because I am tired of seeing crime I suppose”, he said. I sensed a genuine not of surrender and disappointment in his voice, and saw sadness in his lowered eyes.
I nodded, wondering if I had misjudged him earlier, hoping I had
“I can understand that. And what are you going to do, John?”
“A simple administrative office job”, he said, shrugging
I nodded again, thinking at the contrast between John’s version of the facts and what his wife had been telling me when she announced their move, finally understanding his embarrassment, his silence and his lowered eyes throughout the evening. But why had she lied? Was it pride? Or had she been lied to? Certainly she would get to know his real income and eventually finding out about his job.
“But why are you moving so far?”, I asked, feeling sorry to push him now, but too desperate to see clear through what was happening.
“If you change life you might as well do it in grand style, no?”, he shrugged, giving me a sad smile
“I suppose so”, I smiled, giving John a pat on the shoulder and waving again as I walked to my house, where Jack was waiting for me, still sitting on the steps, listening to the conversation from a distance.