Yesterday's Tears
Part Thirty-Six
Frank slammed the door to his office and loosened his tie and threw it across the back of his chair. He removed his holster next and hung it on the back of the same chair before checking his messages.
He had a throbbing headache. He reached into his desk drawer and found his often reached for bottle of Tylenol. He shook out a few, not bothering to count them, and took them without the benefit of water.
He sank wearily into his chair and began to massage his temples. He needed to try and make sense out of the last week and a half.
He had just returned from David Grant's funeral and it had been tougher than he had ever imagined. It had taken over a week to gather all of David's relatives in Springfield for the service and now that it was over, they would return to their lives, wherever that might be. He couldn't get the image of David's parent's faces out of his mind. They had both sat stoic throughout the service and Frank could offer no words of comfort to them. He couldn't even offer any to himself.
He had sensed something was troubling David the last few days of his life. He had intended to speak with him about it the day after they parted at the hospital but David didn't live long enough to see that day and whatever had been bothering David, went to the grave with him.
He leaned his head back and began rolling his head in circles to relieve the knots that had formed in his neck. The knots had been in his neck ever since he was informed that the train had killed David.
The preliminary accident report had shown that David had made no attempt whatsoever to stop at the railroad crossing. Why? Frank asked himself. David knew that part of town and knew that crossing was there. Was he chasing someone and just didn't see it? Was he being chased himself? Why didn't he try to stop?
Those questions had been rattling around in his head for the last ten days. Nothing about this whole situation made sense. From the missing customer book to Michelle Santo's car accident, something didn't add up and Frank had a feeling that somehow, David had possessed knowledge that he hadn't shared with him.
David was one of the best cops that Frank had on his force. His grit and determination to rid Springfield of any criminal element, was unequaled even if he did seem distant of late. Not only was Frank going to miss David as a fellow officer, he was going to miss him as a friend.
He was thankful for the fact that David had died instantly and hadn't suffered. "Severe head trauma" was listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. By some miracle, David's body remained intact and the family was able to have an open casket funeral, which didn't seem like much of a consolation but it had meant so much to David's mother to be able to view him, as he had been when he was alive.
At least half of Springfield turned out for the funeral paying homage to one of Springfield's finest. Images of David and his actions on the force played through Frank's mind during the service and it was during that time of remembrance, that he began to feel as if there was more to the accident than met the eye.
His mind kept transferring him back to the parking lot of the hospital when they had shaken hands for the night. He thought he had felt something then, but he couldn't put his finger on it and he had chalked it up to the stress of the lost customer book and how far backwards their case had been put back because of it. But now, he wasn't so sure.
He stood up and began to pace around his desk as he usually did when he was feeling this on edge. No amount of reasoning through David's accident was going to change anything and the only way he could honor his friend was to finish what they had started. He was going to find that book and nail personally nail each and every person that was listed in that book from Blake Marler to the most frequent buyer, Pilar Santos.
His gut churned as he thought of Pilar. He couldn't prove it yet, but he would bet his pension that she had something to do with Michelle's accident. Deep inside, he felt like Michelle suspected her sister in law too.
Michelle had grown quite agitated when his line of questioning had turned to Pilar. The look on her face was of surprise at first but then it began to change as if she were pondering the possibility that she was in the hospital with multiple facial fractures and a wired jaw because of her husband's dear sister.
He was just about to get somewhere with his questions when her nurse had put a stop to it altogether and ushered them out of her room before he would pursue it further.
He tried to recollect Michelle's exact reaction to the possibility of Pilar being the culprit and he hit pay dirt as her terrified expression was recalled in his memory.
He decided it was time to question Michelle again and now that she was scheduled to go home today, it would be a perfect excuse for him to drop in on her and Danny and see what other information he could try to retrieve.
He would go over there this afternoon after they had enough time to get settled in. He still needed to visit Dietz and now was as good a time as any.
He looked at the file on his desk with Dietz's address on it and wrote it down on a post it note. Grabbing his holster and jacket, he headed down the hall with the newly acquired search warrant in his hand and he hoped to God that Dietz would be the key to all of the missing pieces of the puzzle that may have indirectly led to the death of David Grant.