Page 54 of Remember When We
We followed Gibbs up to the guy and waited until he finished talking with a young Hispanic guy. Gibbs approached the organizer the minute the young man walked off.
“Hi, Mr. Underwood.” Gibbs smiled as he spoke. “Great speech. I wonder if we could steal some of your time?”
Mr. Underwood looked from Gibbs to me and then to Dante. I didn’t miss the way his gaze scanned over the tattoos of our crosses. Dante had the edge of a dragon’s wing snaking up his neck too. It made him look tougher.
“Hi of course. Call me Mark. Everyone else does.” Mark nodded and put out his hand to shake Gibbs’ own.
“Thank you Mark, I’m Gibbs. This is Gio and Dante ... We wanted to talk with you in private, or here’s good if you think this is private enough.” Gibbs looked around.
There wasn’t anyone around and it probably was okay to talk here. Still maybe it wasn’t though. I didn’t like places like this for private discussions.
Over by the corner there was a closet looking area that led into the next hall.
Behind us was a thin wall that separated this room from the next.
Depending on what this guy could tell us it would perhaps be best to go into an office if one was available.
“I have an office. What is this about?” Mark looked cautious.
“It’s about a guy who used to come to this group eight years ago. He was murdered.” Gibbs explained.
“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s going to be difficult though for me to answer questions. I only started volunteering here two years ago. I was around I suppose back then, but I didn’t really know many people.”
Like fuck was I going to sit through an hour of this guy talking and just leave here with that.
“Look, if you were around maybe you can still help.” I cut in before Gibbs could talk. “We’re looking for a cop that used to hang out here. We need to speak to him so if you know him or anyone who does. That would be really helpful.”
Mark held my gaze like something I said snapped his attention into gear.
I wasn’t sure what it was I said, but the way he looked at me meant I definitely hit a nerve.
“Come to my office,” he said and moved to go in the opposite direction to where we’d come from.
Dante glanced at me, probably noticing Mark’s shift in mood.
We followed him to the next corridor which had a set of offices.
His was the last one and looked like it was the biggest.
He’d opened the door for us to go in and closed it after. We sat in front of a large mahogany table with stacks of documents, a wide screen PC, and some books on psychology.
The interior was set up the way a doctor’s or therapist’s office was laid out. Medical and psychology books were on the shelf. A large sofa was placed over by the long French windows with a chair in front and this table.
“I run private counselling sessions,” Mark stated when he saw me looking around.
“Yeah?” I said.
“Yes. Started up a year ago after I got qualified.” Mark looked at each of us. “Before that …” his voice trailed off as if he were contemplating something.
“Before that you were a cop?” Gibbs offered and Mark snapped his gaze to him. I did too, because I didn’t know why Gibbs would think that.
I straightened up on hearing that the question.
Gibbs looked at me and smiled.
He was smiling like he’d just won the jackpot.
Mark leaned forward. “Yes, I was a cop. How the hell would you know that? You been checking me out?”
