Billie's Bounce

by Claudia Hall Christian

Lizzie gestured to her bag. There were at least thirty yellowed paperback mysteries sitting in her bag.

  “He’s got to like one of them,” Lizzie said.

  Ava smiled at Lizzie. She kissed Seth’s cheek and left the room. Once again, she walked down the dark and silent hospital hallway. She found her car and drove toward work. She stopped at a 24-hour donut shop to get sustenance for her team. She still arrived at the parking garage before the guard was there. She used her badge to get in and parked in her assigned spot. Fran and Bob’s cars were already there. The team was waiting for her. She jogged across campus with her bag, her lunch, and the box of donuts. She took the elevators to her lab.

  Ten

  Yesterday’s bevy of activity had died down to a low roar. There were a few technicians working across the hall from Ava’s lab. When she reached the lab, she saw Fran working with five technicians in the procedure lab. Ava waved the box of donuts at Fran, and she nodded. Ava touched Nelson’s arm and gestured to his lab.

  Bob was sitting at the round table in her office, working through a stack of folders.

  “Where’s Leslie?” Ava asked.

  “Downstairs,” Bob said. “They think they found something.”

  “Really?” Ava asked.

  “Well, the honest truth is that Leslie found something, and they proved that she was right,” Bob said. “She said to just text her.”

  Ava went to set down her bag. She stuck her lunch in the small refrigerator and took out her phone to text Leslie. When she looked up, Fran and Nelson were grabbing donuts and sitting down.

  “You’re eating donuts?” Fran asked Nelson.

  Her voice held a touch of laughter and concern. As a bodybuilder, Nelson was very careful about what he ate.

  “The doc wants me to gain a bit more body fat,” Nelson said referring to his HIV doctor. “I’ve been running around so much that I’m not eating.”

  “Donuts it is,” Bob said, reaching for a donut.

  “One,” Fran said.

  “One for me,” Bob said. “My arteries love you, Fran.”

  Grinning, Ava took a spot at the table. Leslie came in carrying four cups of machine coffee.

  “Sorry, Ava, I thought you’d have. . .” Leslie said.

  Ava held up the travel mug Maresol had packed for her.

  “Good thinking,” Fran said.

  They settled in.

  “What do we have?” Ava asked imitating a television detective.

  No one responded. They looked at each other.

  “Someone?” Ava asked.

  They looked up at Ava and chewed.

  “Leslie,” Ava said. “What did you find?”

  Leslie nodded, swallowed, and took a sip of coffee.

  “There are a lot of prints,” Leslie said. “When I say ‘a lot,’ I mean nearly a million. It’s going to be a real pain to go through them all.”

  “Mostly law enforcement?” Fran asked.

  Leslie nodded.

  “Looks that way. And!” Leslie said, pointing her index finger to the ceiling. “There’s something not right about the explosive. I told the techs to check it. They did a swab and agreed.”

  “Nice,” Ava said while the rest of the team cheered for Leslie.

  “I still need to get a scraping,” Leslie said, blushing at the attention, “but I think we might learn something about what was used to blow up the limo.”

  “Just bring it up,” Fran said. “I have the techs working so we can check it today.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought about it, but we had that Tax Assassin case,” Leslie said.

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “Did you swab for DNA?” Fran asked.

  “Didn’t they do that in the original case?” Leslie asked. “I thought you were working with their forensic material.”

  “I agree with Ava,” Bob said with a nod. “It’s good to check. We don’t know what technology they were using, if any. We also want to be sure when we’re talking to the families.”

  Leslie looked at Ava, and she gave a nod.

  “Will do,” Leslie said.

  “Any idea why they saved the vehicle?” Nelson asked.

  “Good question,” Leslie said. “No idea. It’s possible that there’s something there, but we’re laying bets downstairs that the whole thing is a bust.”

  Ava took a breath, but Leslie continued.

  “I’ll check it anyway,” Leslie said with a grin to Ava.

  Ava nodded.

  “Nelson?” Ava asked.

  “I talked to Dr. Quincy,” Nelson said. “She’s happy to do the interviews. I guess she did some field-agent work before she went to med school. I arranged all of the interviews. In fact. . .”

  Nelson looked up and smiled.

  “She’s already talked to one of the U.S. Capitol Police families this morning,” Nelson said.

  “Who?” Ava asked, looking down at her list.

  “Technician Jaime Jerrico’s wife,” Nelson said.

  “And?” Ava asked.

  “According to Dr. Quincy, Ms. Jerrico was relieved that someone was looking into it,” Nelson said. “Her daughter and son were there. Dr. Quincy said that they all had a lot to say.”

  “About?” Ava asked.

  “The manner in which the original investigation was handled,” Nelson said. “I think. Don’t quote me. Dr. Quincy is taping the interviews. That one is in Transcription right now.”

  “Good,” Ava said. “They’ll come to me when they’re done?”

  “With the audio,” Nelson said with a nod. “Does anyone else want them?”

  The other team members shook their head.

  “I’m having a copy sent to me,” Nelson said. “Just as a backup.”

  “Good,” Ava said. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” Nelson said. “I still think we need to go there.”

  “Duly noted,” Ava said with a nod. “How many days?”

  “Two, at least,” Nelson said.

  “Do you want to go by yourself?” Ava asked.

  “I’ll go,” Bob said. “Supervise.”

  “I don’t think that I can go,” Ava said. “I need to be here for Seth. Is just Bob okay?”

  “Just Bob is great,” Nelson said, with a big smile. “He can drive.”

  “Can we check out a car?” Bob asked.

  “I’ll call and set it up,” Ava said.

  “Your credit card?” Nelson asked.

  “Sure,” Ava said. “Do you want me to make the reservations?”

  “Please,” Nelson said, grinning.

  Ava always booked nice hotels and paid for amenities.

  “Are you leaving this afternoon?” Ava asked.

  “I can,” Nelson said.

  “Works for me,” Bob said.

  Nelson nodded.

  “How’s the evidence coming along?” Ava asked.

  “We are through most of it,” Bob said with a shrug. “The kids are eager, so it makes things go faster.”

  “What about the smelly stuff?” Fran asked.

  “We still have some,” Bob said smiling at Fran. “But, really, we’re near the end of it.”

  “Why do you think they kept so much garbage?” Fran asked.

  “Good question,” Bob said. “If I were to wager an opinion, they thought that some hippie freak would commit the same crime and would get caught for it. So they saved everything in case it could be added onto the case.”

  “Was there another case like this?” Ava asked.

  “Not that I know of,” Bob said.

  “I haven’t found one,” Nelson said.

  Ava scowled and made herself a note to check with the FBI.

  “I don’t have anything to report,” Fran said. “We’ve just started working our way through the heaps of physical evidence. It looks like a lot of nothing, but we’ll see.”

  “Thanks, Bob and Fran,” Ava said. “Those are thankless jobs. The car, too, Leslie.”

  “What abou
t me?” Nelson asked. “I’ve been typing my fingers to the bone!”

  Ava grinned at him, and Nelson laughed.

  “What did you find in all of those interviews and reports?” Bob asked.

  Ava sighed.

  “I can’t be certain,” Ava said, “but it seems to me that the investigation was colored by the investigators disdain for hippies and the Agent Orange scandal. To me, hippies are people you see in movies or novels. Some angry kids who lived a while ago. You know?”

  “They certainly were assholes,” Bob said.

  Fran nodded.

  “Sure,” Ava said. “But, to the law enforcement who worked this case, they were the scum of the earth ready and willing to destroy the United States and everything it valued.”

  Ava shrugged.

  “As for the vets,” Ava said. “There was plenty of evidence to say that this was someone angry with the senator over his betrayal of veterans. No question. He raised money from veteran groups. He advertised himself as a supporter of vets. Then he turned around and betrayed them. No question about it, I just think. . .”

  Ava shook her head.

  “I wondered last night if possibly someone led them down this journey of the hippies and Agent Orange as a reason for murder,” Ava said.

  “It sounds kind of paranoid,” Fran said.

  “To me as well,” Ava said. “I just. . . I don’t know. They spent hundreds of man hours on this case. As far as I can tell, they never looked at another motive. They just beat this one to death.”

  “The detective’s personal notes?” Leslie asked.

  “Same thing,” Ava said. “I certainly could be wrong, but I don’t think there’s anything there. They just got off track early and never righted the ship.”

  “So we’re nowhere,” Nelson said.

  “We’re starting over with a clean slate,” Bob said.

  “Sure,” Ava said. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re keeping this motive on the board, but I think we have to look for others.”

  “Any ideas what?” Fran asked.

  Eleven

  “Seth woke up last night,” Ava said. “He was in a lot of pain but at his maximum dosage.”

  “His tolerance to drugs must be huge,” Fran said.

  “He was a drug addict for a long time,” Ava said with a shrug. “Anyway, he asked me to go through the case. So I told him everything.”

  The team seemed to brighten at the idea that they were not lost in the wilderness of evidence and no leads.

  “What stood out to him?” Bob asked.

  “He thought that we should check to see if the senator actually had a wife and child,” Ava said. “He said that the DOD was desperate for warm bodies when the senator was drafted. He couldn’t have just faked it.”

  “It says in the senator’s bio that he’s been married only once,” Nelson said. “In fact, I’ve seen video clips of him laughing about how he tricked the draft board. Wait.”

  Nelson poked around on his laptop for a moment. He turned the computer around and pressed “Play.” They were treated to Senator Michaud talking about tricking the draft board. He confirmed that he did not have a wife and child when he got drafted. The senator laughed. The video ended and no one said anything for a long moment.

  “It’s hard to imagine why he was so unpopular,” Leslie said, sarcastically.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Anyway, Seth thought that we should check it out,” Ava said. “Also, he thought we should talk to the senator’s widow — the one he had when he died. Turns out, she’s a big charity supporter. Lizzie had her phone number. I should be able to get in touch with the widow today.”

  The team nodded at what she’d said.

  “Well,” Ava said. “What do you think?”

  “I think we should pursue other avenues and motives,” Bob said.

  “This is definitely in the box of ‘other,’” Nelson said.

  Leslie nodded.

  “I think it’s good to check everything,” Leslie said. “Clearly, they worked this case and got nowhere. Maybe this will be something.”

  Ava nodded. Fran gave Ava a concerned look.

  “How is Seth?” Fran asked.

  “Good,” Ava said. “His surgery went well. They will keep him for a few more days.”

  “Great news,” Bob said.

  Ava nodded.

  “Anything else?” Ava asked.

  “Can I take the donuts to the techs?” Fran asked.

  “I bought enough for them,” Ava said.

  Smiling, Fran nodded.

  “I know that this case is overwhelming,” Ava said. “And not very much fun. But I think we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Feels like it,” Bob said.

  Fran and Leslie looked at each other before nodding. Nelson missed the whole thing by focusing on his computer.

  “Dr. Quincy has finished the second interview,” Nelson said. “She says that the widow threw her out of the house.”

  “That sounds like an interesting interview,” Ava said.

  “I’m sending it to Transcription now,” Nelson said.

  “Thanks everyone!” Ava said. “You are doing a great job.”

  The team looked at each other before getting up to leave. Ava went back to her desk to review her email. She made the reservations for Nelson and Bob as well as arranged for them to check out a vehicle from the Denver Police fleet.

  She read through the transcripts of Dr. Quincy’s interviews before listening to the audio recordings. In the transcript, she gleaned a sense of the investigation from the families’ point of view. In the audio recordings, the widows’ anger, frustration, and grief gave meaning to their words.

  She was in the middle of listening to Dr. Quincy’s third interview when there was a knock on the frame of her open office door. Ava looked up to see a perfectly coiffed woman wrapped in a full-length sable coat.

  “Yes?” Ava asked.

  “I am Mrs. Michaud,” the woman said. “Lizzie O’Malley Schmidt said that you wished to speak with me?”

  “Yes. I’m Ava O’Malley,” Ava said, suddenly conscious of her crazy hair and wrinkled clothing. “Please. Come in and sit down.”

  Ava’s nose prickled at the scent of the sable coat. When she was little, she and her little sister, Bella, had played among their mother’s fuzzy, soft fur coats. After being scolded and reprimanded, Ava’s mother had to rush Ava to the hospital for a severe allergy attack caused by the fur. She had a rash for days. Trying to decide if she should say something, she squinted at the woman.

  “What is it?” Mrs. Michaud asked.

  “I’m allergic to fur,” Ava said.

  “Ah,” Mrs. Michaud said with a nod. “No matter what you do to it, it always seems to smell.”

  She graciously took off her long coat and hung it on an empty hook near the door. Mrs. Michaud was wearing a gorgeous black silk suit with a white silk shirt. She was younger than Ava had thought she’d be — mid-60s? She gave Ava a curt nod and walked toward her.

  “Thank you,” Ava said, standing up from her desk. “Please.”

  Ava gestured to the round table in the middle of the office. Mrs. Michaud looked Ava up and down before taking a seat at the table.

  “I would offer you something to drink or eat but we’re a lab,” Ava said. “We aren’t allowed to have that kind of thing in the lab. I can get you some. . .”

  “Bad machine coffee?” Mrs. Michaud asked.

  “Exactly,” Ava said.

  “I am fine,” Mrs. Michaud said with a nod. “So. You’re Seth O’Malley’s third wife.”

  “I am,” Ava said.

  Mrs. Michaud’s eyes scanned Ava’s face as if she were assessing her.

  “You are awfully young,” Mrs. Michaud said.

  “I am what I am,” Ava said with a shrug. “He doesn’t seem to mind.”

  Mrs. Michaud didn’t say anything for a moment before turning to Ava again.

  “Aaron Alvin was your
father?” Mrs. Michaud asked.

  “He was. He was a scoundrel and a horrible human being. He is also still dead by assassin, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ava said. “My mother is still my mother. My sister Bella was murdered by the same assassin that killed my jerk of a father. And Éowyn is still a lawyer.”

  Mrs. Michaud blinked at the rush of Ava’s speech.

  “Would you like to review my pedigree or talk about your husband’s murder?” Ava asked.

  Mrs. Michaud sniffed.

  Ava had learned a long time ago that a lot of people had opinions about her husband and, by extension, Ava. She’d found this more aggressive approach to save time and cut through the judgment.

  “Fair enough,” Mrs. Michaud said, with a nod. “I suppose you expect me to apologize. But I received the third degree when I married my husband. It is the way it is for those of us who choose to marry famous men.”

  “Knowing how ridiculous it is, I would think you would spare other women,” Ava said immediately.

  “Good point,” Mrs. Michaud said with a nod. “That’s a good point.”

  When the woman sighed, it was as if a large stick had been removed from her spine. She slumped before turning to Ava.

  “You are smarter than I would have expected,” Mrs. Michaud said.

  “Why is that?” Ava asked with a laugh. “We are an accomplished lab. When people want things resolved, they come to us. We beat out more than 20 other labs for this rural cold case grant.”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Michaud said. “I did hear that.”

  Ava waited while Mrs. Michaud reassessed the situation.

  “You’re upset about the investigation,” Ava said, finally.

  “What investigation?” Mrs. Michaud asked in a loud, angry voice.

  She spoke so loudly that Nelson looked up from his desk right outside Ava’s office. He shot Ava a concerned look, but Ava shook her head. She had Mrs. Michaud where she wanted her — open, honest, and without ridiculous class pretense. When Mrs. Michaud looked at Ava, her eyes were ablaze and her mouth set in a grim line.

  “I spoke to Lizzie at five this morning,” Ava said.

  “I flew to Denver the moment I heard that you were opening this investigation,” Mrs. Michaud said. “I have been waiting for an excuse to come in and. . .”

  Mrs. Michaud looked at Ava for a long minute.