Page 56 of Red Snow
“You found him,” Aiden replies, ignoring how cold it is as he steps outside with nothing but a tank top and sweat pants on. “What can I do for you? I paid those parking tickets last month.”
Marcus and I share a laugh. “We’re from the homicide unit, sir,” Marcus replies as he reaches out to shake Aiden’s hand. “We’re not interested in parking tickets. We just have some questions for you in regards to some of your neighbors.”
“Okay.” Aiden shakes both of our hands, but doesn’t invite us inside. You’d think it was sixty degrees out here instead of the seventeen it actually is. “Don’t know much about the neighbors. Don’t have much conversation with them. We like to keep to ourselves and mind our own business around here.”
“I can definitely understand that, sir,” Marcus replies kindly. “But if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask you some questions about the trailer down the road. The one owned by Jeffrey Chapman.”
The man’s face suddenly shifts. He flashes a look that says I knew I’d have to answer questions about this sooner or later, and nods his head as he accepts that the time is now.
“Well,” he begins. “First off, that trailer isn’t owned by Jeffrey. It’s owned by Beverly.”
“Who’s Beverly?” Marcus comes back.
“Beverly Chapman. Jeffrey’s mother.”
I hear the name and immediately pull out my cell phone. I text our clerk, Tom, and tell him to run a check on a woman named Beverly Chapman, and I give him the address off Jeffrey’s trailer. I want to know everything about this woman right this second.
“Right,” Marcus says as he jots down Beverly’s name on his notepad. “As far as you know, sir, how long has Jeffrey lived in the trailer with his mother?”
Aiden clears his throat and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Well, I’ve lived in this here trailer park for the past twenty years, and I’ve never known him to not live there. He and she have been there since before I moved in. Until she passed away, that is.”
“Excuse me?” Marcus replies quickly with raised eyebrows. “She passed away?”
“Yeah, a week or so ago, if I’m not mistaken. Some sort of cancer. Leukemia, I think. She rarely came out of the house, but word travels fast about stuff like that. If you want my opinion, it’s probably best that she’s gone.”
Marcus looks up from his notepad and looks Aiden in the eye. “Why’s that?”
“Well, it really ain’t my place to say,” Aiden answers, trying to backpedal, but we all know that isn’t going to fly.
“Seeing as how we’re both standing here right now, sir, it has officially become your place to say,” I finally speak up.
Aiden clears his throat and shifts his weight again. “Well, this ain’t none of my business, Detectives, but I’m pretty sure there was a very inappropriate relationship happening in that trailer. My wife always told me I was mistaken, so I never made nothing of it, but I know what I know.”
I feel myself shivering, and I’m not sure if it’s from the cold or the fact that Aiden is the second person to imply a sexual relationship between Jeffrey and his mother taking place between the walls of his trailer.
“Sir, even if you’re not sure about this, it’s still important that you tell us,” I plead with him. Marcus looks like he doesn’t want to entertain the idea, but I’m all over it.
“Well, the story goes like this,” Aiden says, crossing his arms as he tells it. “I got some mail dropped off at my house a couple of years back, and I recognized that it wasn’t meant for me. It was addressed to Beverly Chapman, so I hopped in my truck and drove it down to her trailer. When I got there, I saw Jeffrey’s F-150 parked out front, and Beverly had a little green Toyota that she used to drive from time to time, that I assumed Jeffrey got rid of after she passed, because I haven’t seen it out there since then. So when I saw both cars out front, I knew they were home. Without thinking anything more about it, I hopped out of my truck and walked up to the trailer to knock on the door. I swear, I just wanted to give them their mail, but when I raised my hand to knock, I heard sounds coming from inside.
“When I recognized the sounds to be sexual moans, I turned around to make sure I saw the same two vehicles sitting out front as I always have, and I wasn’t mistaken. It was Jeffrey’s truck, and Beverly’s car. There wasn’t another car there. So I thought to myself, maybe someone came over, but that still didn’t explain why I was hearing both a man and a woman in the throes of passion. I only heard two voices, and after listening closer, I was certain it was Jeffrey and Beverly, so I got freaked out and got on out of there. I dropped the mail on the steps and came back home as fast as I could. Told my wife, Sophia, about it, and I think I may have even told Hannah, too, because it really concerned me. Hannah likes to gossip, so she ate it up, but my wife told me to drop it. She said I was obviously mistaken, so I didn’t mention it to her again. But I know what I heard, and I know what I saw.”
By the time Aiden is done with his story, Marcus and I have stunned expressions stuck on our faces. I absolutely can’t believe what I just heard, and I feel like ten minutes passes before anyone speaks again. The first to talk is Marcus, of course.
“Umm,” he begins, struggling to gather his thoughts. “Are you absolutely positive there weren’t any other cars parked in front of the trailer, sir, or that maybe it wasn’t their voices?”
“Look, I may not be the smartest man in the world,” Aiden says, looking Marcus in the eye. “But I know for a fact there wasn’t another car parked out front. White truck, green Toyota, that’s all there was. And there was only their voices inside. It was them. That’s what I heard.”
It takes a minute for it all to sink in, but eventually Marcus and I thank Aiden for speaking with us and telling us what he knew, then the two of us get back in the cruiser and head for Anchorage.
“Dude,” is all Marcus says as he stares straight ahead on Glenn Highway.
“Yeah,” I reply, before falling back into silence again.
Marcus seems to think for a second, then he speaks again as snow starts to fall from the thick clouds above us. “That can’t be right,” he says, turning on the windshield wipers.
“He seemed pretty sure about it to me,” I answer. “He was certain, Marcus.”
“He was certain Jeffrey Chapman was fucking his mother who was sick with Leukemia? That’s insane, Jarrod.”
