Chapter 4

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

It was a beautiful early spring day at the end of March. Hanratty and I had just walked into the Dunkin Donuts on Lassiter Street, when I spotted her. I had only met Carol Buske a couple of times at charity events I had been to with Carrie but I recognized her.

I got my coffee and sat down at the table next to Mrs. Buske's. I hoped that she would remember me, because if she didn't I was wasting my time. I waited for Hanratty to sit down before I made my move.

I removed my suit jacket and turned to hang it on the back of my chair and as I did I looked directly at Mrs. Buske.

"Carol Buske, right?" I said.

"Yes."

"I guess you don't remember me but..."

"Of course I remember you. I think everyone in town knows you and your wife, Carrie," she said.

"Well, everyone knows Carrie. I'm just the guy that she lets follow her around."

"How is Carrie?"

"She's great."

"Is she planning another fund raiser soon? I always enjoy the functions she organizes."

I saw my opportunity.

"I think she is getting ready to start working on something for the Heart Association in May. I am hoping to get her to take a vacation before she gets started."

"Where are you planning to go on vacation?"

"I was thinking we might go to Las Vegas next month but I am not sure if she would like it. Have you ever been there?"

"No. Las Vegas just doesn't interest me. My husband was there back in October for some business show and he seemed to like it but I don't care if I ever go there."

"I guess I am afraid that Carrie would feel the same way," I said.

Mrs. Buske stood up and said that she had to leave.

"Well, it was nice talking to you," I said.

Mrs. Buske smiled and said, "Tell your lovely wife that I said hello."

"I'll do that."

When I turned around I found Hanratty smiling at me.

"Social climbing, are we?" he asked.

"What?"

"Mrs. Buske is from one of the richest families in town. I guess being friendly with her could never hurt you."

"Shut up, you ass hole," I said.

Hanratty laughed. "Did I strike a nerve?"

"No, but you are giving me a hemorrhoid."

"How can you tell?"

The Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo

After doing our usual patrol around the schools, Hanratty dropped me back at the station. There were only a few people around and no one paid any attention to me as I turned on my computer at my desk and started surfing the Internet for information about the Automotive Aftermarket Product Expo.

I found a lot of information describing the expo but none of it helped my investigation. As a last ditch effort I called a phone number I found on the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo's web site.

"AAPEX, Mark Reed speaking."

"Mark, my name is Brian Hobbs. The company I work for, CSC, was one of the exhibitors at your conference last October."

"Oh, yes, I am familiar with your company."

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me out. I didn't get to go to the show last year so I was wondering if there was anyway I could get a list of the attendees and other exhibitors."

"We always put together a package that includes all of that information at the end of each show for the attendees to take home with them. We also post it on the Internet. I can send you a link to our show web site where you will find all of that information. What's your e-mail address?"

"That would be great," I said..."

I gave Mark my personal e-mail address and he promised to sent the link to me in a few minutes.

Ten minutes later I was looking through the 2005 Automotive Aftermarket Product Expo post-conference review. The review contained the names and addresses of all of the exhibitors and all the attendees. It also included a list of presentations given at the conference. There was a link on that web page that took me to another web page that had more than 100 thumbnail pictures taken during the show.

For the next hour I opened each thumbnail hoping to find something helpful, although I had no idea what that might be. It was under the heading 'Conference Banquet' with a sub heading 'Attendees and Guests enjoy a Good Meal and Great Entertainment' that I found the picture that caught my interest. The picture showed a large round table with eight people sitting around it. Sitting on the right side of the table but looking directly at the camera sat Commissioner Buske. There were three women sitting at the table but none of them were sitting next to the Commissioner.

At first glance I missed it. I had hoped to see the Commissioner's lover sitting with him in the picture but he didn't appear to be with any of the women at the table. I had already moved on to the next picture before something made me go back for another look.

I looked at the picture for a long time before I was sure of what I saw. It was the man sitting to the Commissioner's right at the table that had caught my eye. He wasn't looking in the direction of the camera when the picture was taken but I could see enough of him that I thought I recognized him. If I was right it was Stephen Farlow. Mr. Farlow owns Farlow Reality in Brodricksburg.

Why would a real estate broker be attending the Automotive Aftermarket Product Expo? I could think of no reason, and that made me suspicious.

The Stakeout

It was early April and Carrie had just started a cycle of being out late three nights a week. She had meetings for two of the charities she was working for and the third was for the Brodricksburg School Board Planning Committee. I decided to use that time to see how Commissioner Buske spent his evenings. I was frustrated that I hadn't been able to come up with anything to link Buske directly to CSC.

I decided that on the nights that Carrie had to work late I would stake out the Commissioner's house. I wanted to follow him if he went out at night without his wife. I was hoping that he might try to get together with his lover on one of those nights.

On Carrie's busy nights I stayed at the station until after six o'clock, then I would stop and pick up a sandwich and a drink. I would then drive over to Commissioner Buske's neighborhood and park about a half block from his house. I would sit in the car, eat my sandwich and read a book while I also watched the house.

It was on my fifth night watching the house that things went sour. It was about 7:30 PM and was just starting to get dark when a Brodricksburg PD black and white pulled up behind my car and turned on his light bar.

I jumped out of me car and walked back to the black and white and displayed my badge to the officer in the car.

"Turn off those God damn lights," I said.

"Yes, sir," Officer Billy Muroski said. Muroski was in his second year as an officer on the BPD.

"Why the hell did you light me up?" I scolded. "Didn't you notice that the car you were lighting up was an unmarked police car?"

"I am sorry, sir, I was just doing what I was told."

"And who the fuck told you to do that?"

"Captain Ross," he said. "He radioed me a few minutes ago and told me to come over here and find out what you were up to?"

"Did he tell you to turn you lights on?"

"No. I was just following procedure. We always put the lights on when we pull up on a car like that."

"Not when it's a police car on a fuckin stakeout."

"I am sorry. I didn't know."

"Okay, now listen to me carefully. Captain Ross is going to ask you what I was doing when you arrive. You are to tell him I was eating a sandwich and reading a book and nothing more. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir, but he is the Captain. If I don't tell him the truth I'll be in trouble."

"I promise you that you will be in a hell of a lot more trouble if you don't do what I am telling you! Do you want to answer to Captain Ross or the Chief?"

"Okay, I'll tell the Captain what you want."

"Don't worry, you won't be lying. I was just eating my dinner and reading a book," I said.

Officer Muroski pulled out and drove away and I followed soon after. I wasn't going to be able to chance going back to stake out the Commissioner again. Captain Ross must have seen my location on the tracking computer and decided to find out what I was up to. If he figured out that I was watching Commissioner Buske, my whole investigation might be blown, and that is something that would make Captain Ross very happy.

The next morning Captain Ross called me into his office.

"Why were you sitting outside Commissioner Buske's house four nights in the last two weeks?"

I thought, "Oh shit, he's on to me."

"Commissioner Buske's house? I don't even know where he lives."

In fact, I wasn't in front of the Commissioner's house. I was a half block away. He was guessing but it was an excellent guess. The fact that he would even challenge me on this meant that he must have reason to worry that I might be watching the Commissioner.

"You were parked near his house again last night, what were you doing there?"

"I was eating a sandwich and reading a magazine. Carrie was attending one of her charity meetings and I was waiting till she was done."

There was some truth to that. I was trying to make Ross think that I might have been waiting to pick Carrie up after her meeting but without exactly saying that.

Ross realized that he was getting nowhere so he dropped it. "My mistake, I guess. I'm just being protective of the privacy of our city officials.

I said, "And you're doing a fine job," and left his office before he could say anything else.

Problems At Home

It was the first week of May and I still hadn't been able to find a way of connecting Commissioner Buske to CSC in any way that would be prosecutable. I was beginning to wonder if I should just tell the Chief that we should drop the investigation.

It was about seven o'clock Wednesday evening and I had just arrived home. I had stopped for a burger on the way because Carrie was at a meeting of the school board planning committee and wouldn't be home till near ten o'clock. I had just opened a beer and turned on the television when the phone rang. Caller ID displayed "UNKNOWN," on the screen. I figured it was a solicitor calling but I answered the call anyway. I sometimes like to play head games with the telemarketers.

"Yes?"

"Is this Lt. Hobbs?" It was a woman's voice that I did not recognize although there was something familiar about it.

"Yes, who's calling?"

"Who I am is not important. I just thought that you ought to know that your wife is not where you think she is tonight."

"What are you talking about? Who the hell is this?"

"I am so sorry to give you bad news," the voice said. "That's all I can tell you right now." Then the phone went dead.

I wondered what the hell the call meant. Was Carrie in some kind of trouble? I immediately dialed Carrie's cell number but got no answer. After five rings I realized that she would not answer her phone during a meeting so I disconnected. I called the school board office and after six rings a man answered the phone.

"This is Brian Hobbs. Is my wife, Carrie, there?"

"I'm the only one here tonight," the voice said.

"Isn't the school board planning committee meeting there tonight?"

"No, sir. I am the only one in the building."

I put the phone down and dropped into my chair. Where the hell could she be? The planning committee had been meeting at the board offices every Wednesday night for the last three months. Where was she?

I was worried that something might have happened to her, but what? The caller seemed to be telling me that Carrie wasn't where she was supposed to be but what did that mean? Had someone abducted her and if so why? That's when the other possibility struck me. Was the caller trying to tell me that Carrie was having an affair?

There was nothing I could do but wait.

At 10:35 PM I heard the garage door opening. I felt myself getting tense as I waited for Carrie to come into the house. I was going to have to find out if she had lied to me about where she was going tonight.

As soon as she walked in the door, Carrie said, "What did you want?"

I didn't understand the questions immediately. "What?"

"What did you want? You called me during the meeting but you didn't leave a message. What did you want?"

"Where were you? I asked.

"You know I was at the planning committee meeting."