Free Thread of Hope (The Joe Tyler Series, #1) by Jeff Shelby

“I’m not sure.  Chuck looked me in the eye and denied it.  Didn’t get outraged, didn’t throw a tantrum, no dramatics.  Just looked me in the eye and said he didn’t do anything to Meredith.  It seemed genuine.”  She looked away for a moment, her eyes searching the diner.  She brought them back to me.  “But there was something in Meredith.  Hurt, pain, I don’t know.  I don’t think she was lying.”
     
    It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it forced me to start thinking about everything from a different perspective.  I could keep saying that Chuck wasn’t capable of doing the things he was being accused of, but if I was going to figure out what happened, I was going to have to admit to at least one thing. These people had been around Chuck a lot more than I had in the previous few years.  And I needed to start listening to what they were saying.
     
    “I know why Chuck would lie,” I said, the words feeling funny as they came off my tongue.  “No one would want to admit doing that.  But why would Meredith lie?”
     
    “I don’t have an answer for that,” she said, looking genuinely confused.  “Like I said before, it’s not like her.”
     
    Which put us right back where we started.  Right smack in the middle of nowhere.
     
    She saw my frustration.  “Sorry.  It’s all I’ve got.”  She looked at her watch.  “I need to get going.”
     
    I looked at the check, threw some cash on the table and we walked outside.  Fog shrouded the bridge, the muted lights casting an eery glow over the water.
     
    “Have you talked to him?” Kelly asked.  “How’s he doing?”
     
    “Someone beat the shit out of him,” I said.  “He’s in the hospital, unconscious.  He’s a mess.”
     
    She stopped.  “You’re serious?”
     
    “Unfortunately, yeah.  So I haven’t gotten to talk to him yet.”
     
    She shook her head, clearly shaken.  “Jesus.”
     
    “She have a boyfriend?” I asked as we started walking again.  “Meredith?”
     
    Kelly nodded.  “Yeah.  A kid I don’t care for all that much.  Remember I said how Chuck looked me in the eye?  This kid never looks me in the eye.”  She grimaced.  “I hate when kids are like that.”
     
    “Know his name?”
     
    She pulled her keys from her bag and opened her car door.  “Sure.  Derek Weathers.”
     

NINETEEN
     
     
     
     
     
    It wasn’t a coincidence that Meredith’s boyfriend shared the same name with the kid that had been tailing me in Seaport Village.  I was sure of that.  Not when I’d already spotted Meg, her teammate, with Matt, who’d been Derek’s sidekick in following me. 
     
    The next morning, I stopped by the hospital.  Chuck’s eyes were still closed, he wasn’t moving and the doctor told me there’d been no change.  I pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat, holding his hand, feeling awkward and unsure of what else I was supposed to do.
     
    Doubts were creeping into my head, like feathers brushing my skin.  Why had he been spending so much time with Meredith Jordan?  It was one thing to work with her on her game, but both Stricker and Kelly Rundles indicated they had at least considered the thought that something else was going on between them.  I didn’t want to believe that Chuck put himself in that kind of situation.  I felt guilty for considering it, but it was getting harder to ignore the possibility.  
     
    I squeezed his hand, willing him to wake up and tell me the truth, tell me what he’d gotten himself into.
     
    But he didn’t, and after awhile, I left.
     
    ***
     
    I left a message for Jane Wiley, letting her know that I was still plugging away and asking her to call me if she knew anything more about either Chuck’s assault or the charges the Jordans had made.  I didn’t tell her that the plugging hadn’t gotten me anywhere yet.
     
    I decided to head back to Jon Jordan’s home.  I wanted to know how Gina Coleman knew Chuck and why she’d