by Bill Bernico
“Jesus Christ,” Matt said, wiping his fingertips on his pants and resting both of his hands on the top of Benny’s desk. It was hard for Matt to catch his breath and he could feel himself beginning to panic. When Benny had come in earlier he had said good morning as usual and went right to his desk without taking his jacket off. That in itself was unusual. And Benny usually engaged Matt in small talk, asking him how his family was doing and so forth. This morning he didn’t do any of that, either.
“Oh, Benny, Benny,” Matt said. “What did you do?” Matt wandered aimlessly around the office, random thoughts bombarding his head as he paced back and forth. He’d never had anyone die in his office before. A man had died just outside the office door back in the forties when Matt’s great-grandfather and namesake ran the business. Great-Grandpa Matt had nearly tripped over a man in the hall who’d been stabbed in the back with a pair of scissors, or so his grandfather, Clay had told Matt years earlier.
“Think, Matt,” he told himself. “Get a grip and call someone right now.” Matt reached over his desk and dialed Lieutenant Kevin Cole’s office at the twelfth precinct. Matt bit his lip as he waited for Kevin to pick up the phone. “Come on, Kevin, answer,” he said nervously.
“Well, Matthew Cooper,” Kevin said when he finally picked up. “To what do I owe the pleasure on this beautiful morning?”
Matt was silent for a moment.
“Matt?”
“Kevin,” Matt finally managed. “Can you come to my office right away, please?”
“What is it, Matt? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Benny,” Matt said.
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “I heard he tied on a real Dusey last night. I’ll bet he’s paying for it now, isn’t he?”
“Kevin,” Matt managed after clearing his throat. “Benny’s dead. Can you come right over?”
“Dead?” Kevin said, shocked by this revelation. “What happened?”
Silence.
“Matt,” Kevin said. “Stay where you are and don’t touch anything. I’ll be right over and I’m bringing Gerry Winkler with me. Sit tight, Buddy.”
Geraldine “Gerry” Winkler was the county medical examiner who had her office and morgue in the back of the same building that housed the twelfth precinct. Matt hung up the phone and paced the office for a while longer until he heard the knock on his door. He hurried over to it, pulled it open and found himself looking back a woman in a blue coat and hat, clutching a purse close to her body.
“Mr. Cooper?” she said. “My name is…”
“Not now,” Matt said and closed the door on her.
A few seconds later there came another knock. Matt eased the door open a few inches and looked out at the same woman. “I told you not now,” Matt repeated.
“Mr. Cooper,” she said. “If you’re busy, perhaps I could come back another time?”
Matt pulled a card from his shirt pocket and handed it to the woman. “Call me tomorrow. Today’s not a good day. Goodbye.” He closed the door again, wondering if he’d ever hear from the woman again after having been so rude to her. At this point he didn’t even care whether or not she ever called. Matt turned the lock on the inside of the door and stepped backwards away from it. He could hear the woman mumbling something to herself as her voice faded down the hallway.
Less than a minute later Matt heard two distinct pairs of footsteps coming his way. That had to be Kevin and Gerry, but he still didn’t unlock the door until the knock came several seconds later. “Kevin?” Matt said through the closed door.
“Matt, open up.” It was Kevin Cole’s authoritative voice, Matt was sure of it.
Matt flipped the lock and opened the door. Kevin stood there with the coroner, trying to see past Matt’s shoulder toward Benny’s desk. Matt stepped aside and let them both pass. Kevin gave Gerry the space she needed to do her work while he questioned Matt.
“Did you touch anything, Matt?” Kevin said.
“Only his neck,” Matt explained. “Then I called you. Some woman showed up and wanted to see me but I sent her away.”
“Yes, I think I ran into her coming off the elevator as we were coming on,” Kevin said. “She didn’t seem too happy about something.”
“I can’t worry about that now,” Matt said. “What happened to Benny? That’s all I want to know for now.”
Kevin turned to Gerry. “What’s the verdict, Doc?”
Gerry shook her head. “Can’t tell yet,” she said. “I’ll know more when I get him on my table.”
Matt got panicky at the thought of the medical examiner opening Benny up and removing his internal organs. He’d seen autopsies before, but this was someone he knew; someone he worked closely with every day. Benny was the guy who had taught Matt’s son, Nicky to defend himself. He’d been a guest at Matt’s house for dinner on more than one occasion. Matt turned away from Kevin and rushed to the bathroom, not bothering to close the door behind him. A second later his stomach erupted into the toilet bowl and Kevin could hear retching sounds and sorrowful moaning for several seconds afterwards.
Matt emerged from the bathroom a minute later and stepped over to the sink in the alcove next to his desk. He splashed water on his face and rinsed out his mouth before grabbing several paper towels and wiping his face dry again. Kevin was using Matt’s phone by now, calling to the precinct for the coroner’s wagon to meet him at this address. He hung up Matt’s phone and turned to his friend.
“You all right now, Matt?” Kevin said.
Matt was about to answer when the second wave hit him and he made a mad dash for the bathroom again. When he came out the second time, he looked at Kevin. “There can’t be anything left in there,” he said, holding his stomach with his left hand while splashing more water onto his face with his right. “It feels like someone punched me in the gut with brass knuckles.
“Sit down, Matt,” Kevin said. “You look like death warmed over.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Kevin realized he’d made a poor choice of words. “That is, I mean… Oh hell, I’m sorry, Matt. Please, sit down and let’s talk about this. We need to find out what happened to Benny.”
Matt settled onto the chocolate brown leather sofa that sat beneath the east window between his desk and Benny’s. Benny’s desk, he thought. It was nobody’s desk now. He laid his head back onto the soft brown leather and sighed deeply.
Kevin sat on the arm of the sofa and laid a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “Nice and easy now,” Kevin said in a soothing voice. “Tell me what happened from the time you came in this morning until the time you called my office.”
Matt cleared his throat and began by saying, “I was already here when Benny came in this morning. He was nearly fifteen minutes late and he’s never late.” Matt took several deep breaths and continued. “I was reading my paper and Benny just laid his head down on his desk and closed his eyes. I figured he must have been out late and was paying for it this morning so I left him alone until I finished my paper. When I nudged him a few minutes later, he didn’t wake up. That’s when I felt for a pulse and when I didn’t find one, I called you. That’s all there is to it, Kevin, honest.”
Several minutes into Kevin’s questions, the office door opened again and two men in white came in pulling a gurney behind them. “Over here,” Dr. Winkler said, directing them over to Benny’s desk. The two men picked Benny up out of his chair and laid him out on the gurney, strapping him down for the ride in the elevator. “Take him to the morgue,” Winkler said. “I’ll be right there.”
The two morgue attendants pulled a sheet over Benny’s face and wheeled him out the of the office and down the hall. They waited as the elevator clanked and rose from the lobby. When the door opened, Matt’s wife, Chris stepped out and looked at the two attendants before looking down at the gurney with the covered body on it.
She looked at the guy in front and said, “Where’d you come from?”
The attendant hiked a thumb over his shoulder and down the hall. “Down there,” he sa
id. “Last door on the right.”
Chris’s face took on a panicked look as she stared back down at the covered body. She looked up at the attendant in front again. “Are you talking about the Cooper Investigations office?”
The man in white nodded and pulled the gurney onto the elevator. It didn’t quite fit so the two men lifted the front end until the back wheels cleared the elevator door. One of the men pushed the down button and waited for the doors to close.
Chris tried to reach into the elevator. “Wait,” she screamed, but the elevator door had already closed. She turned and ran down the hall and into Matt’s office. She gasped when she didn’t see Matt at his desk. She turned and looked at Kevin’s back. “Kevin,” she said.
Kevin stepped aside and now Chris could see her husband sitting on the sofa. She let out a deep breath of relief when her eyes met his. “Matt,” she yelled and hurried to his side. “Are you all right? I ran into two guy at the elevator who said they’d just come from this office. Oh, Matt, I didn’t know what to think.”
Matt wrapped his arms around Chris’s neck and pulled her close. His body convulsed as he tried to hold back his emotions. He released her and said, “It’s Benny. He’s dead.”
“Benny?” Chris said. “But how? What happened to him?”
“We don’t know yet,” Kevin said. “Dr. Winkler will let us know as soon as she gets the results back from toxicology.” Kevin gestured toward the woman writing notes at Benny’s desk. “Chris Cooper, I don’t believe you’ve met our new coroner, Gerry Winkler yet, have you?”
Chris nodded at the M.E. but spoke to Kevin. “No, I don’t believe I have.” Chris turned to Winkler and added, “Nice to meet you, Doctor. I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances.” She turned her attentions back to Matt. “When did all this happen?” she said, holding onto Matt’s hand.
Matt shook his head. “About twenty minutes ago, I think,” he said. “He didn’t look well when he came in and I thought he was just taking a nap but he never woke up again.”
Chris squeezed his hand. “How are you holding up?”
“I’ve been better,” Matt told her and then suddenly realized that Chris almost never came to the office to see him. “What are you doing here this morning?”
“I was shopping on the boulevard,” Chris explained. “I was all set to check out with my purchases and when I went into my purse to get my charge card, it was gone. I thought I’d just stop up here and get yours.”
“Your card was lying on the kitchen counter last night,” Matt said. “Remember? You ordered those sandals online and had to enter the card number into their website? I’ll bet it’s still lying there.” Matt plucked his wallet out of his hip pocket and found his credit card, handing it to Chris. “Make sure I get that back when I get home.”
“Thanks, Matt,” Chris said. “I’m really sorry about Benny. Are you going to be all right?”
“I don’t know,” Matt said. “I think I’ll close up the office today and just go on home. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate today anyway.” He turned to Dr. Winkler. “Would you call me at home when you know what happened to Benny?”
“Certainly, Matt,” she said. “I’m going back to my office right now. You’ll be the first to know.”
“Thanks, Gerry,” Matt said before the medical examiner left his office.
“I’d better get going myself,” Kevin said. “Do you want me to drive you home, Matt?”
Matt waved him off. “Thanks, I think I’ll be all right, really.”
“I’ll meet you at home,” Chris said. “The clerk is holding my purchases until I get back with your card. I’ll come right home after that.” She patted Matt’s shoulder once more and left the office.
Kevin sat with Matt, not sure what to say. The two remained silent for a moment before Kevin offered, “I’ve heard of something called SADS. It’s almost like SIDS, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, only this is for adults. Mostly it turns out to be problems with the heart but sometimes the cause of death can go undiagnosed. Matt, I hate to ask at a time like this, but have you ever known Benny to be involved with drugs, namely cocaine?”
Matt shook his head. “Benny was as straight as they come,” he said. “I’ve never even seen him take an aspirin.”
“Well, you hang in there, Buddy,” Kevin said. “I’ll let you know if anything turns up.”
“Thanks, Kevin,” Matt said just before Kevin left him there alone with his thoughts. Matt glanced over at the empty desk and sighed. He thought it was extremely ironic that Benny had passed away when he did. In the past few months, Matt had been going over the books and discovered that his business, the business that his great-grandfather had started in the mid-40s, was failing. Matt had been planning on what he was going to say to Benny and how he was going to let him down gently when he laid him off. There was barely enough business to keep one person going anymore and Matt couldn’t sit by and watch his ledger fall into the red. All that didn’t matter anymore with Benny gone now. In another month or two Matt would end up working for minimum wage with no retirement plan and no insurance. His family deserved better.
As Kevin had suspected, Benny had indeed died from SADS. His heart had just unexpectedly given out. It was nothing Benny had done to himself and it was nothing that anyone could have diagnosed. It was just one of those maladies that struck at random, like lightning. Dr. Winkler wasn’t sure what to put on Benny’s death certificate and eventually categorized it as heart problems. She stitched him back up and as far as anyone could tell from looking down at him in his casket, he could have been peacefully sleeping. Only this was the big sleep from which he’d never wake up.
Benny’s funeral was a sad event for everyone who knew him. He had a lot of friends both privately and within the police department. The turnout that sunny day was more than anyone could have expected. When the casket had been lowered into the grave and the last rose had been thrown on top of it, there wasn’t a dry eye among the crowd. Contrary to how funerals are portrayed in the movies, it didn’t rain that day. The sun was out and the puffy clouds hung over the cemetery like cotton balls. Under other circumstances, it would have been a great day to be outside with your friends.
The crowd slowly dispersed, leaving Matt and Chris standing there alone, looking down into the six-foot deep hole. Matt said one final goodbye and walked away. He and Chris returned to their car and drove straight home in relative silence. They hadn’t brought their eleven-year-old twins, Nicky and Veronica. Their childhood was short enough as it was without tainting their memories with a funeral.
When they got home, Matt got out of his suit and slipped into his jeans and sweat shirt. He moped around the house for the rest of the day, lost in thought. He’d have to work out his business problems and try to find an alternative solution before he let Chris in on his grand scheme. He knew what he had to do and dreaded that day, but now he had no choice. He got up out of his recliner and found Chris in the bedroom, hanging up her black dress. “I’m going to go out for a while, Chris,” Matt said. “I’ll be back later.”
Chris hugged her husband and said, “You just need time by yourself, I get it. I’ll see you when you get back.”
Matt drove around Hollywood, putting off the inevitable. He’d driven around for nearly ninety minutes before he pulled to a stop behind the twelfth precinct. He turned off his engine and just sat there in his car, stalling for more time. Matt took one more deep breath and then slid out of his car. He let himself in the back door and walked the length of the hallway to Kevin’s office. He paused in the hall and then knocked. Kevin’s voice invited him in and Matt slowly opened the door and stepped inside.
“Matt,” Kevin said. “I thought you’d be hanging around the house today. What are you doing here?”
Matt spent the next forty-five minutes talking to Kevin and by the time he left the lieutenant’s office he was feeling a little better about his future. But he was still torn between his loyalty to the
family business and the practicality of doing what he’d just done. He drove home the long way, taking half an hour to make the fifteen minute trip. Matt pulled into his driveway and got out. Nicky and Veronica were already playing in the yard and ran up to him as he walked toward the house.
“Nicky, Veronica, would you two stay out here and keep playing until we call you in for lunch?” Matt said. “I need to talk to your mother and it would be easier if you both stayed outside until I’ve finished.”
“Sure, Dad,” Nicky said.
“Okay,” Veronica added.
Matt let himself into the kitchen and found Chris making lunch for the four of them. She turned to look at Matt as he came in. “Feeling better, Matt?” she said.
He nodded. “What are you making for lunch?” Matt said, stalling again.
“Soup and sandwiches with chips,” she said. “It’ll be a few minutes yet.”
“That’s all right,” Matt said. “That’ll give me time to talk to you about something that’s been bothering me lately.”
Chris turned the heat down on the soup and turned to face Matt. “This sounds serious. What is it?”
Matt took a deep breath and said, “I’ve just come from Kevin’s office. We had quite a talk about a lot of things. And, well, I’m joining the department at the first of next month. I hate to see it happen, but I’m going to have to close the office. We’re just not making it there. I don’t know what it is, but business has dropped off quite a bit this past year. If I try to keep it open any longer, we’ll be bankrupt in three months. This will be for the better in the long run.”
Chris stood behind Matt now and grabbed both shoulders, massaging Matt’s tense muscles. “I suspected as much,” she said. “I was just hoping it would work itself out eventually, but I do understand your choice. You’re sure there’s no hope for the business?”