Chapter Four

Glen gets an unexpected visit

 

Glen, lying on his futon inches from the comfort of sleep, was snapped awake by a knocking so loud it threatened to burst right through the door.  He jumped up, rubbed his eyes, and scanned the room for where he had left his shirt.

 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

 

He wrestled his t-shirt over his lanky body and fumbled with the lock before eventually opening the door.  Standing in the hall were two men, one in uniform, one in a collared shirt and tie.  They were obviously from the police.

 

“Are you Glen Buxley?” questioned the uniformed cop.

“Yeah, what do you need?” Glen adjusted his shirt, making it a bit less uncomfortable.

“My name is Officer Cromwell, and this is Detective Ripley.”

 

The officer glanced down quickly at his open notepad.

 

“Are you acquainted with a Jessica Stearns, Mr. Buxley?”

“I wouldn’t say acquainted, but I know her, why?”

 

Detective Ripley jumped into the conversation, almost too eagerly.

 

“Because, Mr. Buxley, according to witness reports, you were the last person seen with Ms. Stearns before the incident this afternoon.”

“Incident?  What incident?” Glen lifted both his hands, scratching the hair behind his ears.

“Ms. Stearns was involved in a hit and run collision at approximately 2:00 this afternoon while traveling west on Cloverdale Street.  Her vehicle seemed to have been forced from the road and rolled over at least twice down the embankment.  Ms. Stearns was, at some point, thrown from the vehicle and did not survive her injuries.  Unfortunately, that is all the information that I am able to disclose at this point” Ripley stared, eyes glued on Glen in order to gauge his reaction.

“Whoa.  Hold up a minute.” Not bothering to disguise his disbelief, he asked “Jess is dead?  I was just with her at the café this morning.”

“We are currently investigating this as a homicide, sir.  As the last known person seen with Ms. Stearns, I’m sure you can appreciate how important it is that you are accurate with your answers here.  What time did the two of you part ways, Mr. Buxley?”

“Around 11, I think, 11:30 maybe.  I hung around the café for about an hour after she left for an appointment and I was here by around 1:00.”

“Did Ms. Stearns tell you where the appointment was, what it was regarding?”

Glen thought for a moment before answering, “No, all I know for sure is she works for some consulting firm.  Grant & Howell, I think.”  He turned and glanced back into his kitchen, “Hold on, she gave me her card before she left.”

 

Glen turned and walked over to the bulletin board, forgetting that he had tossed the card angrily in the trash earlier.  He started to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  He could dig the card out of the garbage, but then the police would assume that they had had an argument, something to make him angry with her.  He would quickly go from prime witness to prime suspect.

 

“S**t, I thought I hung her card here, but I can’t remember what I did with it.  The firm was Grant & Howell though, I’m sure of that now.”

“Grant & Howell, you’re positive?” Ripley’s tone began to get sarcastic, almost mocking.

“Yes, absolutely.  She said she was on her way to an important meeting that she couldn’t miss, but she never mentioned where it was or who it was with, and I never thought to ask.”

The uniformed officer, quietly making notes through the entire conversation, glanced up to ask “How well did you know Ms. Stearns, Mr. Buxley?”

“We went to school together.  God, before this morning, I hadn’t run into her in 10 years, maybe more.”

Ripley wrung his hands together, taking over the interrogation again, “And where exactly did you ‘run into her’ this morning?”  His voice dripped sarcasm.

“I saw her at the bank on the corner of Third and Lexington.  She was making a deposit.”

“And you were there for….?”

“I had wanted to open an account, but since I hadn’t seen Jess, I mean, Ms. Stearns in so long, I figured that the account could wait.  We headed next door to the café and talked about old times for about 45 minutes, then she said she had to go, handed me her card, said to keep in touch and left for her meeting.”

The detective nodded slowly, his eyes never losing contact with Glen’s. “And that’s all the contact you had with her recently?”

“Yeah, I swear it.  We hadn’t seen each other in a really long time.”

“And what you’ve told us so far, that’s all that happened while you were with Ms. Stearns this morning?  Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary took place today?”

“No, no one suspicious, nothing creepy or weird or anything like that.  I mean, if someone was following her or out to get her or something, I surely didn’t notice.”

“Could that be perhaps because you lost consciousness at First National this morning?  We have spoken to a witness, a security guard, who was able to identify you from the photo on your driver’s license and confirmed that while in the bank you ‘Passed out.  Just swayed a little and dropped’.  Are you involved with any illegal drugs, Mr. Buxley?”

 

Glen thought about his film room.  He couldn’t risk a search of his apartment.  How could he explain that?  He had so many strips glued to the wall that he couldn’t even remember if any of them could be dangerous to him.

 

“No, definitely not,” Glen insisted brazenly, “Listen, Detective, Ripley is it; I have a medical condition where the rate of blood flow to my brain fluctuates more than normal.  Every so often, the flow intensifies too quickly, flooding my brain with oxygen, and I lose consciousness temporarily.  That’s what happened at the bank this morning.  It doesn’t happen very much.  I take blood thinners to reduce the frequency.”  

“It’s enough of a problem to warrant a check from the state each month though, is that correct?”

“Yeah, I’m on disability.  If that’s a problem for you, I can show you my prescriptions and I’d be happy to take a drug test if you need me to.  There is nothing illegal going on with me.  I’m just a normal guy with a disability, that’s all.”

Ripley paused, satisfied that Glen wasn’t hiding anything.  “All right Mr. Buxley, you can relax, I just need to make sure there is nothing else at play here, that’s all.”

“Do you need me to come with you, take a drug test, a DNA test or anything like that?”

“No Mr. Buxley, that won’t be necessary.  We thank you for your time.”

 

The detective handed him a business card and asked him to call if he could recall anything else that could help their investigation.  Glen assured him that he would, and the two policemen left far more quietly than they had arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Kinau]

Ohhhh! so far very good! I like how you make the words sound like somthing that a police officer would actually say! I think its good so far!

[J.K. (Not Rowling)]

Oooh, now the cops are in the picture. My reaction was the same as Glen's, "Jess is dead?!!" I'm glad you tied up any loose ends with her in the last chapter with the slides and discarding her business card, but whoah, now I really don't know where you're going with this.
Good conversation between Glen and the cops, with natural responses and reactions. "He couldn't remember if any of them would be dangerous to him" How many does he have? How long has this been happening? I don't "do" suspense very well, and I can't wait to see what will happen next.

[Alexander W. Quinn]

Huh, unexpected! Now, we have a character dead (is she really dead, they never mentioned her body, only that she didn't survive her injuries?), and the police are now drawn into Glen's life. All of the elements are coming together for a possible explosive event! Fantastic job!

[AlleyCat34]

nice job with this one too! An accident took Jess? A homicide? Intersting indeed! The plot thickens, but I cant help wondering what happened to those other two from chapter two.....hmmm.... must read on!

[Misa]

hmm.
l like the fact that you had such a simple back up story set up for the medical issue - adds a thorough sense of believability to the story. the writing & plot development in this section is certainly fairly well done, quick and too the point. nicely written.