The Truth of Yesterday (6 page)

     Usually, Knox took the same route every day directly from his house to the office building he worked in. Knox was a salesman for a large, Shore-based seafood distributor. This morning he surprised me by taking an unexpected turn. In my sleep-deprived state, I almost drove past him in my confusion. At the last second, I swung widely onto the street behind him, going a bit too fast. I could only hope my reckless driving didn't attract his attention. I let a sigh of relief when it became obvious that he was driving on at the same speed, seemingly oblivious.

     He turned his left turn signal on and pulled into the parking lot for a small strip mall. I drove past and then turned around at a gas station farther up. When I drove slowly past the strip mall for the second time, I saw him entering one of the storefronts. I pulled into the lot myself and parked at the far end from where he had parked. From my spot, I could watch the door of what I now saw was a travel agency. Were the Knox's planning a trip? She hadn't mentioned anything like that.

     He wasn't in there long before he came back out with a large manila envelope in his hand. He climbed back into his car and pulled out with me not far behind. This time he drove right to his office building. I noticed that unless he had stuck the envelope in his briefcase, which was very possible, he didn't have it with him when he went into the building. I parked and waited a few minutes before going in myself.

     I made a beeline for the secretary that was helping me keep an eye on Knox. All the way across the room, I tried to remember her name. I was pretty sure it rhymed with Carla. Darla? Marla? Her nameplate sitting on her desk saved me the embarrassment,
Sharla
Bivens
it read in large block letters.

     “
Sharla
,” I called softly. She was sitting back to me working on her computer. She swung quickly around and a bright smile lit up her face. She was a young black girl, not much older than I was. She wore her hair in a sort of shag cut with blonde tips and was liberal with her make-up application, although she still had a long way to go if she wanted to catch up with Carmen. Today she was wearing a business-like gray skirt and matching jacket. I noticed she'd added her own flair by hiking the skirt up a few inches and not wearing a blouse under the jacket.

     “Hey there, Mr. Detective Boy,” she said with a grin.
Sharla
tended to think of my investigation as a wonderfully fun game, which worked to my advantage most of the time, but occasionally grew a bit grating.

     “
Shh
, it's our secret remember?” I said with a grin of my own. She giggled.

     “So what's up? Is this a rendezvous? Do you have a new assignment for me? You want to sneak into his office and look around?”

     I laughed. “No, nothing
like
that, at least not yet. I have a question, though. Mr. Knox stopped at a travel agency on his way to work this morning, do you know anything about that?”

     “Oh yeah, he was probably just picking up his plane tickets.”

     
“Plane tickets?
To where? And is it business or pleasure?”

     “He's flying to DC this weekend for a business trip, but knowing Mr. Knox, he'll mix a little pleasure in too.” She giggled again.

     “What do you mean?” I asked quickly.

     
Sharla
looked up and down the hall conspiratorially before leaning in and whispering to me, “Mr. Knox has a bit of reputation around here as a…well, ladies man.”

     Hmm, for the first time I began to think that Mrs. Knox may have some basis for her fear. “Anything you've seen first hand?”

     She shook her head, which set her oversized hoop earrings to swinging. “No, I've not been here long enough to see anything, really, but I've heard stories. Nothing blatant, you understand; just rumors and innuendo.”

      “What about this DC trip? Do you know where he's staying?”

     “Hang on,” she said as she began to ruffle through a pile of folders. She found the one she was looking for and flipped through it, finally producing a sheet of paper triumphantly. “You should hire me,” she said as if finding a paper she's filed herself on her own desk was a major accomplishment.

     “Maybe we will,” I laughed, thinking that it would actually be a pretty good idea to hire her as our secretary/receptionist since it would free me up a lot. The phone rang just then and she handed me the paper as she went to answer it.

     It was a fax from a hotel in
Washington
DC
confirming Knox's reservations for that Friday night through Sunday morning. I pulled out my note pad and quickly wrote down the pertinent information.

     
Sharla
hung up just as I finished. “Thanks,” I said, handing the page back to her. “Now if he leaves unexpectedly during the day or if you suspect something fishy, you remember what to do, right?”

     She grinned broadly; this was her favorite part. “Sure do. I page you and leave a voice message saying he's left.” She made a face. “I still wish you'd let me be a little more creative. Can't I say something like `The chicken has flown the coop'?”

     “You watch too much TV,” I laughed again. “Let's just keep it simple for now.” I pulled a twenty out of my wallet and slid it across the counter.
Sharla
slid it right back at me.

     “Keep it this time,” she said. “This is too much fun to get paid for; I feel like one of Charlie's Angels.”

     I grinned.
“Except you're cuter than any of them.”

* * *

     I was leaving my last class of that day later that afternoon, when I remembered that I needed a particular computer program for one of the classes I was taking that I didn't have on my PC at home. I made a side-trip to the campus bookstore to look for the program since they were available to us at a much cheaper price there than in a regular store. I found the disk I needed and headed for the checkout area.

     I ended up in the line of a guy who I'd seen around the campus a few times. He was pretty cute, in a quiet, shy sort of way. He had light brown hair that he kept cut short and full, red lips. Behind his small wire-rimmed glasses, his eyes were an indeterminate color. I studied them while he waited on the person in front of me; trying to decide what color they were exactly. I had just decided that they were hazel when I realized he was staring back and he had said something I had missed.

     “Huh?” I said as I tried not to blush.

     “I said can I help you?” He seemed to be fighting back a smile.

     I handed him the disk and gave into the blush.

     “I noticed your necklace,” he said after he told me my total.

     I glanced down at the necklace Micah had given me. I'd forgotten I was even wearing it.

     “Haven, the Gay/Straight Alliance here on campus, meets on Thursday nights if you want to come sometime,” he continued.

     I felt my blush deepen and wondered why. I wasn't ashamed of being gay; I'd been out as far as I was concerned for years now, but then, I guess I'd never really been really open about it. I'd just never bothered to hide it either.

     “Um, thanks,” I managed to say.

     He smiled. “My name's Noah. I'm the vice-president. The meetings are held in the student lounge in Wicomico Hall. They usually start at eight and then we watch Will & Grace together. We usually have between twenty to thirty people show up. We'd love to have you come.”

     “Thanks, maybe I will,” I said, my inexplicable awkwardness was fading now and I found myself a little intrigued. There was nobody waiting behind me so I decided to ask him more about it. “What do you guys do?”

     “Well, we're partly a support group, but we also do a lot of educational and awareness stuff on campus. We sponsor Pride events a couple times a year, during Gay and Lesbian History Month and for the National Coming
Out
Day in October.”

     “That was last week, right? I really didn't pay much attention because I had some other stuff going on.”

     “Yeah, that's over for this year.” Someone came up behind me and Noah said hi before turning back to me. “Hey, I'd like to talk to you more about this if you are interested.” He grabbed a piece of scrap paper, scribbled something on it, and handed it to me. “This is my dorm room and phone number. Call me sometime.”

     I took the slip with a promise to give him a call and started walking away.

     “Oh, hey,” he called. I turned around to find him holding out the disk I'd just bought. “You forgot this.”

     I grinned sheepishly and took it from him. “Thanks.”

     “Oh, and what's your name?”

     
“Killian.”

     He smiled and turning back to his next customer. “You're with Micah,” I told myself firmly as I walked away. I chanted it like a mantra all the way to my car.

     I was cutting it close getting to Jake's high school before it let out for the day, but I made it just in time. I parked in the visitors' parking lot at an angle with a good view of the student lot. I was still trying to justify following someone who was supposed to be my friend when I spotted his jeep pulling out of the lot. I started my car and quickly pulled out a few cars behind him. I managed to keep at least one car between us at all times since, unlike Knox, Jake did know my car. It was even more important than usual to make sure I was discreet.

     I followed Jake to the far side of town to the mall. Maybe Jake was just doing a little shopping. We parked and I followed him inside, making up an excuse as I went just in case he spotted me. That was another lesson from Novak; always have a cover story prepared. Unless you are a pathological liar, most people have trouble coming up with a convincingly innocuous story on the spur of the moment. I decided that if Jake did see me, I was shopping for a new jacket now that it was starting to get cooler.

     I followed him around for about an hour, somehow managing to avoid being seen. The only things I learned is that Jake had an affinity for tight clothing, shopped for lotion in Bath & Body and knew practically every kid in the mall. I was just about ready to give up when I noticed a shift in his behavior. He began to look around in a very suspicious manner, throwing quick glances over his shoulder and generally acting extremely guilty. I was staying hidden by ducking into stores and jumping behind racks of clothes, but my spy tactics were drawing attention and making it rather hard to keep a good eye on my quarry. At first, I thought that maybe he had sensed me following him, but I quickly realized that he was up to something.

     I slipped behind one of the large potted palm in the middle of the mall and watched him through the fronds as he took one final glance around, then turned suddenly down the hall that led to the bathrooms. I cursed under my breath. There was no way I could follow him in there without him seeing me. I watched from my tropical hiding place while several other guys came and went, all different ages and types, until Jake finally reappeared. All told, he'd been out of sight for about 15 minutes according to my watch. My curiosity raging, I followed Jake as he made directly for the exit. I wanted to take a look around the bathroom, but knew it was probably useless. It seemed more important to follow Jake for now.

     Back out on the road, it didn't take me long to realize that he was heading for home. I glanced at my watch and realized that I had to get over to Knox's building soon so I could follow him home as well. What an exciting job I had. I followed Jake until he turned into his driveway. I drove by, hoping and praying he wouldn't glance up at his rearview mirror and see me go by, or if he did, that he wouldn't recognize my car.

     I almost missed Knox's exit, he was leaving a little early today, but I got there just in time to fall in behind him. Traffic was light and we made good time back to his house. I parked and watched him walk up to the house. It looked like I would be making a trip to DC this weekend. I'd have to call the missus tomorrow to see what she knew of the business trip and then talk to Novak about making the arrangements. He would have to agree to any trips. I wished I could talk to him about Jake, but I had promised Judy. With a sigh, I started the car and drove home.