The decoy

Chapt 20

Chapter Twenty

It was the shrill ringing of a cell phone that shocked both Grace and Sebastian and startled them back to reality.

They lay together on her bed, Sebastian unloading the burden and Grace lost in the story, wanting only to hear that this man who she had come to care so much for had done the right thing and somehow had reassured his fellow captive.

Grace jumped from the bed and grabbed her phone from the dresser.

"Ms. Young?" The voice asked, "it's Steven Keon. We spoke a while ago about Morgan Vail. I've just heard that she's been picked up again by the police and there may be some charges.

It seems Morgan was in a car with a man who has been charged with DUI. You might want to meet with her now. We are trying to locate her mother.

I wonder if you would come down here to the police center?"

Grace looked at the clock. It was seventeen minutes after one in the morning. They had been talking for three hours. They had started first in the dining room and then slowly shifting rooms until they ended up in her bedroom.

"I've got to go," she told Sebastian, "Morgan Vail has been picked up with a drunk driver. I have to call Sam's dad to get over here and watch him. Maybe you should go before he arrives."

Sebastian got up to leave.

"I'll meet you down there. I'd like to hear what Morgan has to say.

Morgan Vail sat in a bright orange colored chair playing a video game on her cell phone. She was tall and very thin and had died her blond hair a deep purple. She wore too much make up and tried too hard to look sullen. She was still a pretty teenager. Sebastian thought that she did look an awful lot like her mother.

"Is your mother here? She should be here while we talk," Grace said.

"They can't find my mother," Morgan said. "Since my dad died she doesn't always come home at night. We don't see eye to eye."

"I'm sure she is busy. She runs a big company."

"She doesn't run anything. My dad ran that place. He was busy. My mother is busy doing nothing."

Sebastian hadn't introduced himself but he spoke up anyway. He knew that Morgan just assumed he was also a police detective.

"Your father worked a lot of hours," Sebastian said, "I understand he spent a lot of time away from the home didn't he."

            Morgan glared at him.

"My dad worked hard but he was there for us. Even for that bitch that he married."

Keon spoke in defense of Jessie now.

"We've talked a lot about Morgan's family. Everyone loved her father. He was a good man but his work left Jessie Vail at home to raise Morgan and as is often the case, mother did all the difficult parenting. When the father is away at work sometimes he becomes almost mythical.

Morgan and I have talked about this. She understands that her mother had to discipline her daughter. It was Ms. Vail that made her get to bed on time and do her homework. The mother always gets the brunt. And of course with Mr. Vail's unfortunate passing Morgan misses her father and seems to blame her mother."

Morgan looked up. The teenage snarl disappeared.

"My dad kept our family together, even when he was being pushed to sell the business by those people, he kept at it. My mother nagged him to sell but he said no. But he stood by her. He always stood by us."

She began to sob.

Sebastian had heard lots of rumors and now he could find out the truth. He knew if he asked the question then Keon would be angry but Morgan would not hold anything back.

"Was your dad fooling around?"

Keon shot a look at Sebastian.

"Who are you?" Morgan asked and then she paused and she didn't wait for an answer. "My mother accused him of it many times but he wouldn't do something like that."

Sebastian thought about exactly what Tim Black claimed he had heard.

"Did you ever say anything like that to your dad?" Sebastian was not going to back down. He needed to sort this out.

"I never said that about my dad." Morgan insisted. "I wouldn't say something like that about him even if I was mad at him.

"Someone heard you shout it at your father. They heard you say it in your dad's office at the house."

Keon looked at Grace and then opened his mouth to speak but Morgan spoke up first.

"I never said that about my dad. If they heard that then I wasn't speaking about my dad. Maybe I was in his office but it wasn't my dad who was doing that."

            She didn't need to say anymore. Sebastian understood. If it wasn't her father she accused of cheating then it had to be her mother. Where was she tonight? Was she out tonight with Cam Starr he wondered?

Keon spoke to Morgan about her situation. Very soon she would be an adult under the law. She was too close to eighteen years of age to open a file on her but they would give her mother a warning anyway.

Grace and Sebastian stepped into the hall and left Keon to speak with Morgan.

They were out in the hall less than five minutes when a door swung open and Jessie Vail walked into the police center at 2:10 in the morning. She explained that she had just driven home after spending a late night at the landfill and heard the message on her answering machine at home. Her cell phone was dead.

"I had dinner with Mr. Starr and Mr. Pezzo. Then we had to drive out to the landfill and sign some papers and then Cam and I stayed back to sign off on a few other things and discuss the possibility of finalizing the sale."

Morgan over heard the discussion and stared at her mother. The disbelief was visible on her face.

Sebastian didn't look forward to another visit with Starr. It would probably deteriorate quickly into a fight but he thought he needed to find out what was up between these Starr and Jessie and he remembered the comment that Arseneault had made about Starr buying roofies for Jessie.

"Where did you have dinner?" Sebastian asked her.

"I just got here. I would like to have some time alone with my daughter. If she is not charged with anything I'll take her now."

            "I'm still looking into her father's death. It would be helpful if we could talk," Sebastian said.

"You've been looking into Paul's death for a few weeks," Jessie said, "I know you have spoken to many people and I understand that there was even a fight at my place of business but you haven't really gotten anywhere and now you are interrogating a seventeen year old girl.  I wonder if maybe the FBI needs to send someone else to replace you now."

Jessie was no longer the gracious host that had invited him to the club. Sebastian wondered if it was the fight with Starr or was it the fact that he was now asking about her family.

Jessie spoke quietly to Keon and he escorted the mother and daughter to their car.

Grace said she needed to stay for a while and so Sebastian drove back to his motel to shower, read a little and sleep for the rest of the morning.

This whole thing had become increasingly frustrating. He needed to do something to shake up the two suspects.

He wondered where Jessie Vail had been tonight. She said she had seen both Pezzo and Starr but she didn't say why and he wondered it there really was a relationship between her and Starr.