His First Lady (23 page)

Greg moved toward her to stop her. “No, you haven’t. I just want to be careful, that’s all.”

Evan nodded then dropped her head.

Greg closed his eyes wondering what to do. “Does Leon know that you’re here?”

“No,” Evan answered before sipping the tea.

Greg grabbed the phone handset off of the table and handed it to her. “Please call your husband and tell him where you are and that you’re safe.”

“He doesn’t care.”

Greg lowered his head wondering what to say to a woman whose husband was a murderer. Saying anything nice would render him a liar. “First lady, of course he does.”

“Greg, I put on a perfect facade at church but I know that my husband is not in love with me.”

The look on Evan’s face caused Greg to wince. There is no way in the world he could imagine that a man wouldn’t find her irresistible. Other than Cara, he had never known a more beautiful woman.

“First lady, married people argue so you two might have had a fight but don’t fall for the trick of the enemy. This is temporary so don’t run away from him, talk it out. I’ll pray with you then I’m going to call your husband.”

“Please don’t do that. Just give me a few minutes and I promise I’ll leave.”

Greg reluctantly put the phone down. She looked tired and worried; the last thing he wanted to do was add to the pressure she felt because he could only imagine what Leon was like at home.

“Would you like to watch something on television?” Greg asked reaching for the TV remote.

“No thank you. I just like the peace and quiet.” Evan smiled as she sipped her tea and looked outside at the lit city. “You have a nice view. I think I could stare out this window all day if I lived here.”

“It was one reason why I loved this condo. It wasn’t easy living alone after Cara passed. But for some reason, this place allowed me just to be a part of all the people without actually being a part of all the people; you know what I mean?”

“I do,” Evan agreed staring out at the rainy city. “I love watching the rain fall. It’s so peaceful.”

“Yeah, when I was on the force, we always thought of rainy nights as slow because bad guys didn’t really like rain; it was too messy. But all that thinking changed for me when it rained the night that I was shot. It was the longest dreariest night of my life.”

Evan stopped drinking and gazed at Greg. “What happened?”

Greg took a deep breath. He didn’t always share details about that night although he thought about it almost every day of his life and replayed it over and over in his head all the time.

“There was this call that came in about a store robbery on Crane and Pendleton street. I grew up close to those streets so I knew the store owner, Mrs. Hollis. I panicked because if Mrs. Hollis was there in the store like she always was then she wasn’t in any condition to fight off a robber; she was about eighty years old. My partner Ben and I went to the scene and when we pulled up, we saw this guy running out of the store,” Greg said moving as if reliving the scene.

Evan sat mesmerized watching and listening to him.

“Ben called for backup, I ran after the guy into this alley and I dove on him. We wrestled for what seemed like an eternity close to this big stink dumpster.” Greg paused then chuckled as he remembered. “I had a good grip on him, ready to cuff him too, and just when I thought I had him, he shot me. I collapsed in pain, lost my grip and he ran.”

Evan’s mouth dropped. “Was he caught?”

Greg smiled. “Yeah; he was caught leaving the alleyway where he shot me.”

“How awful.”

“They told me that I was lucky considering the trajectory of the bullet. I told them that God was with me and luck had nothing to do with it. I recovered and I came home to Cara. Not returning home after my shift was always her biggest fear.”

“Wow,” Evan said.

The two sat in silence then Greg looked at the clock. “It’s getting late and if it’s okay, I want to call Leon and let him know that you’re okay and on your way home if you’re comfortable with me doing that. But if there’s something you want to tell me then you can.”

Evan’s demeanor changed. She placed her cup on the coffee table and stood up. “No, I’m not comfortable with you calling and there’s nothing I want to tell you. I just thought…I don’t know what I thought.”

Greg stood feeling helpless. He wanted to understand but it wasn’t his place to understand another man’s wife especially if she was at his house late like she was. There was too much going on right now with Leon and he didn’t want to muddy the waters any further. “I’m sorry, First lady,” Greg said.

“Don’t be,” She said digging in her purse for her keys. “I should be leaving anyway.”

Conflicted, he placed his hands in his pockets as he watched her prepare to leave. He listened as the rain came down harder, feeling awful for sending her back out in it. “It’d probably be safer if you waited a few minutes ‘til the rain slows a little.”

Evan threw the blanket off of her shoulder then walked to the front door. “No, I better go,” Evan said.

Greg bit his lip as he followed behind her to the door. “Are you sure you can’t wait just a little bit?”

Evan ignored him as she proceeded to the door and took her jacket from the hook.

“First lady,” Greg called out to her before walking behind her and reaching for the knob the same time as she did, unintentionally finding his hand on top of hers. Time seemed to stand still as the two stood unable to move away from each other. Greg’s heart beat faster as he felt a rushing need to place his arms around her and hold her close.

Evan slowly turned around and Greg didn’t move away as the two stared into each other’s eyes. Evan slowly reached up, placed her hand behind his neck and brought his mouth to hers. As if he had kissed her before, he closed his eyes and savored her lips as if the two of them just fit. Suddenly, Greg opened his eyes and realized what he was doing. He pushed away from her and walked off.

Evan placed her hand over her mouth and gasped. “Greg, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Greg placed his palms on the bar counter unable to speak, embarrassed and ashamed. “It wasn’t your fault. I apologize.”

Evan walked toward him. “It was my fault. I feel awful. I’m so sorry,” Evan said with her hand to her chest.

Greg looked over at her. “First lady, you need to go home to your husband.” He then turned away and never looked back at her. After a moment of silence, he heard the door close and he fell to his knees.
What had he done?

Greg’s night had been troubling. He had meditated, prayed, and memorized scripture to the point that it ran through his veins. He struggled between the thoughts of Sam, catching Leon, and the kiss he and the First lady shared. Both were serious with consequences in their own right and he couldn’t seem to find peace. He so often preached about God giving rest and peace yet those things seemed so far from him at the moment.

Catching Leon was always on his mind and maybe he had gotten caught up to the point that he’d let his guard down with the First lady. As much as he hated himself for the kiss, he hated even more that he couldn’t stop thinking about her; another man’s wife. What if Leon knew that he was on to him and had used the First lady to set him up? What if the two of them were working together to see what his weaknesses were? He hadn’t been close to a woman since Cara and it was just too convenient that the First lady came over last night and got so close to him.

Maybe these were just thoughts in his head. He couldn’t fathom that the First lady was capable of such deception but as he was learning, he could never be sure that he knew anyone. One thing he was sure of though and that was that after he brought Sam’s killers to justice, he would leave JMC and he wouldn’t look back.

Greg had finally gotten to sleep when the phone rang knocking him out of his third hour of sleep. It was Ben. Greg was still groggy when he answered but hearing Ben’s voice caused him to spring up.

“Hey brother got some info for ya.”

Greg rubbed his eyes. “What you got?”

“Your boy Aaron has a few priors; a minor marijuana possession charge and wait for it, felony time for burglary and attempted murder.”

Greg sat up. “Attempted murder?”

“I got something even sweeter for ya. He’s currently on parole.”

With that news, Greg’s eyes widened and he threw the covers off of him.

“You’re kidding,” Greg said.

“No sir.”

This might have been the break that they needed. Catching Leon and Aaron had to be done right. But from experience, Greg knew that it was almost always easier to use a small fish to catch the big one.

Between the two centers being dedicated to Sam, there was a great deal of furniture that had to be moved; some even had to be unbolted. Greg hadn’t even realized at the onset the amount of work that the project would entail but it made him even more dedicated in his effort to ensure that Leon saw that no matter what he did, he couldn’t erase Sam.

Greg looked around the large learning center; it seemed overwhelming. He was grateful though that when the word had gotten out that both the health and learning centers would be renovated and workmen were needed, throngs of the church’s young and old men had come out dedicating themselves to the reconstruction. But when Aaron didn’t volunteer, Greg approached him and he eagerly came aboard. Once Greg had organized teams, he made sure to place Aaron on his.

Greg carried the chairs over to a corner to be moved to a storage area. He called Aaron over who approached with a maddening grin. Wearing a blue Reebok suit and perfectly glistening white Reebok kicks, it was obvious to Greg that he wasn’t used to hard work. Greg’s pain for Sam made him repulsed by Aaron and at first could barely look him in the eye or hold a conversation with him until he was reminded that God was in control and would have the final say.

Aaron hurried toward him. “We still have quite a few chairs that need to be unhinged? Can you do that?” Greg asked.

“No problem,” Aaron said walking behind Greg toward the other side of the center.

Greg looked back at Aaron as they walked. “I appreciate you being here. I’m sorry that this is the first time that I’ve really had a chance to talk with you. How are you enjoying the church?”

“I like it. Everybody’s nice.”

“Did you know Sam well?”

“Um, no,” Aaron staggered, “Not well. I knew of him.”

“You missed out. He was a man after God’s own heart.”

Aaron seemed to listen to Greg closely. “That’s why I wanted to be a part of this.”

Greg looked back at Aaron and nodded his head. They approached a chair and Greg knelt down and pointed to where it was bolted to the floor. “You’re going to have to hold this piece down and put the drill on it like this and press the button.”

“You got it?” Greg asked.

“Yeah,” Aaron answered.

Greg stood over him and silently prayed as he wanted strength to resist the urge to put his hands around Aaron’s neck. He knew God was working but it was so hard to put his feelings aside knowing what he knew.

“Pastor Leon hired you as the church photographer. That’s interesting.”

Aaron looked back at Greg.

Greg folded his arms. “How long have you known Pastor Leon?”

Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “Not long. I met him at a community function.”

Greg noticed that Aaron reacted nervously; unable to get the drill securely on the screw. “You must have really impressed him to hire you so quickly when I think we have lots of volunteer photographers here at the church.”

“I suppose so,” Aaron said looking up at Greg.

“You need some help?” Greg asked.

“No, I got it.” Aaron tried again looking agitated.

Greg kneeled down again taking the drill from Aaron. “Did you join the church while Sam was still alive?”

Aaron rubbed his hand over his head. “Naw, afterwards.”

“He was a good man; you can’t say that about many people. Have you ever met his wife Emily?”

Aaron who simply moved over giving Greg space said nothing as he rubbed his palms on his nylon pants.

“Have you?” Greg asked, speaking over the loud drill noise.

“Huh? No, I haven’t,” Aaron said nervously. “A lot of questions.”

“I’m just trying to get to know you.”

“Naw, I never met…what’d you say, Emma?”

“Emily,” Greg corrected him. “She was home that night that Sam was murdered. Losing Sam devastated her. There are so many unanswered questions. I’ve been in touch with a bunch of my old buddies on the force and they have a lot of leads on who might have done it.”

Aaron coughed. “You were a cop?”

“Retired but I still bleed blue.” Greg winked, handed the drill to Aaron and stood up. “I think you got it.” Greg stood for a moment watching him hoping that Aaron felt his gaze before walking off.

Evan stood for a moment watching Greg pick up a stack of five folding chairs then carry them to the corner of the room in the church’s basement. This was the first time that she’d ventured out of her church office today fearing running into Greg. She had thought about it and after praying about it decided that they had to talk.