Only Time Will Tell

Part 10

Cassy tapped lightly on the doorframe of Harry's office. The older man looked up from his paperwork. "Have you seen Tom?"

Harry glanced at his watch. "He had to run an errand."

"An errand?" Cassy repeated, an air of suspicion in her voice.

Harry nodded, saying nothing further. "What kind of ‘errand’", Cassy pressed.

Harry was silent for a brief moment, then shrugged his shoulders, "Said he had to go pick his friend up at the hospital. He was going to take her home."

Cassy shook her head in disgust, turned around angrily and returned to her desk. Harry watched her retreating form and debated on whether to interfere. Where Tom tended to be more laid back and easy going about private issues, Cassy could be a terror if she thought her Captain were intruding upon her personal life. Deciding that it was worth the risk, Harry called out to his detective, "St. John."

Cassy looked over her shoulder at the Captain, her eyes still showing her rage. Hesitantly she rose from her chair and reentered Harry’s office.

"Shut the door."

Cassy pushed the door closed behind her.

"Have a seat," he said sternly. Cassy took a chair across from the desk and sat quietly. "I spoke with Tom earlier about what happened between the two of you today."

Cassy narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but said nothing. Harry continued, "He told me about Janet Cardinal."

"It’s personal, Harry," Cassy said with quiet intensity.

"That’s what he tried to say. And I’ll tell you what I told him. When a personal matter interferes with the operation of my command, then the personal matter in no longer personal."

Cassy pressed her lips together, but said nothing. Harry looked over the rim of his glasses at her, "I know this is a sore subject between the two of you."

"You don’t know the half of it, Harry," Cassy mumbled.

"Then tell me what I don’t know already," Harry pushed.

"What did Tom tell you? Oh, wait, don't bother. Let me guess." Her voice was filled with bitterness. "He told you about how I have accused him of having an affair with that. . .woman. He told you that I overreacted to the relationship between the two of them. He. . ."

"Cassy, stop!" Harry interjected, his voice halting the tumbling of words from Cassy's mouth. He leaned forward in his chair, resting his forearms on the desktop. "He told me no such thing. In fact, I think he understands your feelings better than you think he does."

Cassy's eyes narrowed again. "He told me that our suspect was a friend of his. That they met just before your divorce. That you and he had grown apart. . .that you weren't talking. That he needed a friend." Cassy opened her mouth to comment, "A friend, Cassy. That's it." Harry's voice once again silenced her protest. "He said that he was hurting because he had lost you. That he knew the marriage was falling apart and he didn't know how to make it right."

Cassy's head dropped down slightly, her mind once again returning to the days prior to the divorce. "Having her involved in the marriage certainly didn't help things," she muttered, still angry.

"No, I'm sure it didn't. And if it makes you feel any better, I think he knows that now." Harry stood and made his way around the desk, taking a seat on its corner, in much the same fashion as he had done when counseling Tom.

Cassy took a deep breath, her voice suddenly stronger, "Don't fall for it, Harry. Tom was in love with her."

Harry shook his head, slightly dumbfounded, "What makes you say that?"

"There were things. . .things that happened. . .things that I found." Cassy stood suddenly and moved to the wall, standing in the same place Tom had stood earlier. This ironic coincidence was not lost on Harry.

"What things?" Harry pressed.

Cassy closed her eyes, remembering the past. "When he first met her, we were working different shifts. We rarely saw each other. He'd come home and I'd leave. By the time I came home, he was getting up to head back in."

Harry nodded, sympathizing with the predicament. Cassy continued, "Almost daily she would call the house looking for him. And everyday I told her that she would have to find him at the precinct. When Tom would come home at night, I would ask him what she wanted and he would deny ever having talked with her."

"Did she call when he was home?"

Cassy thought back and then after a moment shook her head. "Now that you mention it, no. . .at least not while I was there with him."

Harry tilted his head, frowning at the words. "Tom said something about a song. What was that all about?"

Cassy's temper flared again, "He knows. He just doesn't want to admit to it."

"Cassy, I want to hear what you have to say about it. It's apparent that this is something you two can't talk about. . .at least not without a referee."

Cassy turned away and looked out the window, into the almost empty squad room. "Tom was always writing songs for me, at least in the beginning. During the last weeks of the marriage, though, he stopped. No more songs. . .no more poems. Then one day I had heard him working on a love song when he thought I wasn't listening. When I would clean house, I would find scraps of paper with the lyrics on them stuffed in his guitar case. We were having major problems and I really thought this was his effort to repair the damage." She stopped talking, becoming suddenly quiet.

"What happened?" Harry wasn't going to let his detective keep this in any longer.

When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper. "He didn't write the song for me. He wrote it for her."

Harry knew this was coming, based upon his conversation with Tom earlier. "How do you know that?" Harry asked, his voice equally soft.

Cassy turned around to face her Captain, unshed tears glistening in her eyes. "I found a note from her thanking him for the song."

"A note? Where?"

"In his jacket pocket. I was getting ready to take things to the cleaners." Cassy wiped furiously at the tear which escaped down her cheek.

"What did it say?"

Cassy shook her head, "It's not important now," she straightened up and started for the door.

"St. John!" Harry's gruff voice halted her again. "Out with it."

Cassy's eyes dropped to the floor, but she said nothing. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder, "Cassy, you need to talk about this. You've been bottling this up for so long that it's hurting you. . .and your relationship with Tom. This anger already destroyed your marriage."

Cassy looked into the older man's eyes, "The marriage is over. We can't go back. Digging all this up now means nothing."

"It obviously isn't over. This is an issue that remains unsettled between the two of you. If you don't find some peace over it, it could destroy your friendship," Harry countered.

"The only thing that could destroy the friendship is Tom getting involved with that woman once again," Cassy grumbled.

"The note, Cassy. What was in it?" Harry pushed her back to the sensitive subject.

Cassy turned away again, wanting to hide from the probing questions, but unable to refuse Harry's request, "She thanked him for a wonderful evening." Cassy paused for a moment, gathering her strength, "She said that his gift to her was everything she could have ever hoped for. . .dreamt of."

"Gift?" Harry repeated. He was starting to put two and two together.

"Yeah. . .that's what she called it. . .a 'gift'. Cute, huh." Cassy's bitterness had returned as she turned to face Harry. "My husband writes a love song for his woman friend and gives a her a 'gift,' while I get the pleasure of taking his clothes to the cleaners."

Harry shook his head, the realization of Cassy's words striking him at once. "Oh no, Cassy. Tom didn't. . .I mean. . .Tom did give her a gift. . .but not the kind of gift you're thinking."

Cassy's eyes were filled with doubt at her Captain's words. "There's only one way to interpret the words in that note."

Harry nodded in agreement, "I agree. But that's not what Tom did. I'm sure of it."

Cassy turned away again, "You can't be sure."

"I am, Cassy. We talked earlier about it. He had no reason to lie. He admitted that he bought Janet a gift. . .some kind of cat sculpture. But he held firm that nothing happened between them. . .ever. He never wrote that song for her. In fact, he said he couldn't understand why you thought he had."

"Well, he didn't do a very good job of hiding the note," she said angrily. "What did he expect me to think when I found it."

Harry shook his head in confusion, remaining quiet for a long time. Cassy said nothing, just continued to look out the window. Finally, Harry spoke, "I think you two were set up."

Cassy whirled around, "What do you mean?"

"I've heard both sides of this story, and I believe that you and Tom have each told me the truth, as you understand it. That being the case, I can only come up with one reason for the differences in the stories. . .Janet Cardinal." Cassy looked at him, the disbelief evident. "Think about it Cassy. Tom insists that he never wrote the song for Janet. What was the one piece of evidence that convinced you he had?"

"The note," Cassy mumbled.

"You said that Janet was constantly calling the house looking for Tom, but when you asked Tom about whether he had talked to her at work, he denied it, right?"

Cassy nodded and Harry continued, "I think he was telling the truth. I don't think Janet was calling him at work. She was conning you. She was trying to create doubt in your mind about the stability of your marriage to Tom. And it worked."

"That's impossible," Cassy tried to deny, not wanting to admit she was so easily deceived.

"No, it's not. A few well-timed calls, a suspicious note and Tom's denials all worked together to create the doubt that was needed to break up an already troubled relationship."

Cassy said nothing. She felt like sinking to the floor. She realized Harry could be right. . .Hell, he was right She had been set up and she never saw it coming. All of her childhood years of listening to her mother's comments about men, about how they could not be trusted, about how they would cheat given a moment's opportunity, had worked against her, had made her vulnerable to manipulation.

Why could she see it so clearly now? Cassy's own doubts of Tom's fidelity had been an easy weapon for Janet. The woman just had to latch on to the questions that were already growing in Cassy's mind and nurture them. She had been used.

Her mind drifted to the earlier conversation with Janet. Nothing had changed over the past three years. Janet was still manipulating Cassy's emotions. The woman had used every weapon in her arsenal to create hostility in Cassy. . .to make her lose control. . .to make her react instead of think.

Harry watched Cassy's face run a gambit of emotions. Her eyes were fierce with anger, then betrayal, then sadness and then realization. He started to ask her what was wrong, but before he could say a word, Cassy muttered, "Oh my God. . ." and without another word, she threw open the office door and made a beeline to her desk.

Harry followed her. "I didn't excuse you, St. John."

Cassy pulled her purse from the desk drawer, "Harry, I've gotta go. You're right. I have been set up by Janet. So has Tom. I've been an idiot. I should've known what she was doing. I wasn't thinking with my head, I was feeling with my heart."

"Where are you going?" Harry asked her, eyes overlooking the glasses.

"I've got to talk to her about what she's done." Without waiting for her Captain's approval, Cassy hastily exited the room. Harry shook his head, wondering what revelation had struck his detective.

End Part 10

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