A Gun In The House

Chapter 5: Shane's decision

When Shane ended his call with Emily, he thought about what Emily had told him. The idea that she was being framed for murder touched him. But while he had his doubts about her claims, he really didn't see any reason why anyone would want to frame her for murder. He knew when her file was brought to him, there was only the report about the gun found in her house.

Nothing else was in the file; nothing that gave him enough to work on. This surprised him because his boss had told him that the case required urgent attention. But why? he asked himself. What happened to the gun and why was there no report on it? He felt there was a sense in what Emily was saying.

He saw enough reasons to believe Emily could possibly be framed. He cursed himself for being kept in the dark about it. Then he remembered how Emily had kept him in the dark about her relationship with Paul, her husband. He never knew she was seeing Paul and he never knew they had planned to get married.

Then three days before her marrriage to Paul, Emily gave him the surprise news. He still remembered that day. Emily had just come back home for dinner and didn't feel like joining him at the dinner table. But she sat down with him.

"Sure you don't want to eat seeing you might be hungry?"

"Shane, eat. Eat all the food you want, okay?" Emily in her usual manner was getting nervous. She wanted to tell him that it was over and that she was getting married. But as she sat down with him, she couldn't utter a word. She just stared at him.

"Emily you're staring at me, is there something you'd like to tell me?" he asked,taking hold of her hand.

" This is the problem with you, Shane."

"What?"

"You can alway tell when I'm worried and have a problem." she replied.

"Emily Page? You know I love you don't you?" he asked. Tears started rolling down her eyes and she felt guilty about what she wanted to do.

"I know you do Shane. I know.""So tell me what your problem is, without tears. Even if it has to do with you taking the decision to leave me." Shane looked at her and smiled wiping her tears with his thumb.

"Shane? I'm getting married." She bent her head and started to cry. Shane got up and walked up to the window of the dinning room and looked outside. He felt disappointed by Emily's decision but turned and faced her and simply told her to go.

"Never mind, Emily."he told her.

"It's three days from today."

"Do I know him?"

"Paul Winters"

Shane sighed at remembering that past that left him devastated. Thinking back at what happened then, he took the decision to look more deeply into the case involving Emily. If there was foul play, he wanted to know where it was coming from and why Emily was the target.

He grabbed his phone and called Alisha.

"Hey, is it a bad time to call?" he asked when she answered his call.

"Hey, I'm off duty now, I could do with a little chat." she replied.

"Eh listen, I er..., talked to Emily." Alisha was taken aback. Why was Shane talking to a suspect?

"Shane you know she's a suspect, don't you?"

"Yeah, well Alisha, I don't how to put this but...er." he paused

"Go on Shane, I can listen. I mean even if its bad.." she said.

"Okay look why don't I pick you up and we can go some place and talk?" Alisha was sure Shane didn't mean it. She wondered what he was up to.

"And why not on the phone, right now?" she asked quite disturbed by his attitude

"It might not be a good idea, Alisha. I mean if you know what I mean." Alisha sighed her reluctance at Shane's request, but she nonetheless agreed.

"Okay, I'll put something on. Just get a few cans okay?"

"I'll be with you in five minutes." he said cutting the call. Alisha got up and from her sofa and went to get dressed. The moment she finished, the doorbell rang. She knew Shane had arrived.

She opened the front door and let him in.

"Just give me a few seconds, will you?" she asked as he stood in the doorway. Shane nodded and waited for her. Alisha got her handbag and wanted to take her gun but was undecided about taking it. She left it and went to meet Shane. When their eyes met they smiled at each other.

"I'm ready Shane." she said as she walked up to him. They left the house and once inside Shane's car Alisha asked him what he wanted to tell her.

"I'll tell you as we go." he said starting the car. He steered the car out of Alisha's driveway and onto the street.

"Emily called me." he said as he drove.

"You told me that."

"Ye well, she made me realize this case might be more complicated than it is."

"And you believe her, Shane?"

"Actually I have my doubts but considering what she said, I see that a few things don't add up." Alisha kept quiet. She felt Shane was about to put her in an awkward position.

"Shane she's a suspect. I don't see why you're taking her calls when an investigation is going on." she said.

"I know but look, what do you know about the case?" Alisha was stuck as she had no idea what they were doing.

"I mean as far as I know we are interrogating both husband and wife-"

"I know that." he interrupted her, " But what do we know about the case apart from what we have on file. I mean no record of fingerprints, ballistics, nothing."

"We're still at the interrogation stage. Those other things that you mentioned may come after."

"Yes but when?" he asked

"How am I suppose to know that? I mean we work with what we have until new evidence comes up."

"Alisha you don't seem to get it do you?" he asked a little worried that he couldn't get Alisha to understand his point of view.

"I mean you can't believe we're not doing our job just because a suspect wants you to believe her." Shane pulled over to the side and stopped the car close to a bar. He opened a beer for Alisha and took one himself.

"Alisha, what I'm trying to say is, we can't simply rely on what eveidence we have. It's taking us nowhere." Alisha frowned.

"Are you taking this personal? I mean you've only met her a few times. I'm surprised you are taking sides with her."

"I'm not defending her." he said. Alisha remembered Paul's words when she and Shane had decided to exchange each other so she could interrogate Emily's husband. She looked at Shane.

" Shane?" Shane looked at her and blinked. Alisha didn't take her stare off of him but was looking seriously at him.

"Anything I should know that you haven't told me yet?"

"About what?" he asked sipping his beer.

"About Emily?" she asked. Shane was baffled. He knew sooner or later he had to tell Alisha how it was with Emily. But looking at her, he couldn't tell her he knew Emily very well. He wasn't ready yet; he wasn't ready to tell Alisha that he and Emily dated.