To the Last Drop

by Sandra Balzo

  ‘Not yet, I don’t think. Though he said he’d be here by nine and it’s just past—’ Eric nudged me and I twisted around to see Ted’s Miata just turning off Brookhill Road. ‘There he is now.’

  The Miata slowed to a stop opposite my Escape and the window lowered. ‘What’s going on?’

  Eric opened his mouth to reply but Pavlik held up a hand. Remarkably, my son obeyed.

  ‘If you’ll just park, Doctor Thorsen,’ Pavlik said, ‘I’ll fill you in.’

  Ted nodded and pulled the car into the parking lot. As Pavlik went to meet him, Eric said, ‘Uh oh.’

  ‘What?’ I followed the direction of his gaze.

  ‘That’s Ginny’s car.’ He gestured toward the black Lexus that was sliding to a stop where Ted’s Miata had been just a minute ago.

  Cool car, indeed, as Eric had said the day before. And it was still rolling as the passenger door swung open.

  ‘Oh my God, oh my God,’ Lynne Swope was saying as she emerged from the car, her trench coat flapping. ‘Is it William? Maggy, is it William?’

  ‘I—’

  ‘He never came home last night.’ She was headed for the taped-off area. ‘Is he—’

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Pavlik approaching from the parking lot with Ted just behind him. They wouldn’t make it in time to stop her.

  As Lynne ducked under the tape I started for her, but a female deputy appeared in the gap between the bushes and held up a hand. ‘You are, ma’am?’

  Lynne stopped like she’d hit the wall of the building, me just behind her. The question seemed to throw the financial planner. ‘You mean my name? I’m Lynne Swope. I’m—’ She gestured toward where I could see the blue tarp covering the body. ‘I think – I mean, my husband is missing.’

  ‘And your husband’s name is?’ It wasn’t asked unkindly.

  ‘William Swope.’ Lynne seemed to be gulping for air. ‘Is it him? Is it?’

  ‘Mrs Swope, I’m sorry to inform you that your husband is dead.’

  ‘But how?’ Lynne asked. ‘Did he—’

  ‘Mom?’ a girl’s voice called.

  I glanced back and saw that Ginny had left the car where it stood on the street.

  She pushed past me to reach her mother. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Don’t look, sweetie. Don’t look.’ As she pulled her daughter toward her, Lynne caught sight of Ted coming up the sidewalk with Pavlik.

  ‘You bastard!’ she screamed. ‘You killed him!’

  EIGHT

  I wasn’t sure who to tend to first. My ex-husband, who had just been accused of killing somebody or our son who … well, this might not be the first time one of his parents had been accused of something, but it’s never fun.

  Then there were Brookhills newcomers Lynne and Ginny Swope, whose husband and father’s broken body was under the tarp.

  Pavlik settled it. ‘Maggy, we’re going to ask Mrs Swope to formally identify her husband’s body. Then will you and Eric take her and her daughter somewhere private and sit with them while we sort things out?’

  ‘Of course. I assume you don’t want us in the dental office?’

  ‘Correct.’

  Uncommon Grounds would be full of Saturday morning customers, so when Lynne returned looking more shaken than ever, I suggested we go to her office.

  ‘But shouldn’t I stay here? I can’t just leave William lying … there.’ She flapped her hand toward where the technicians were working.

  ‘We’ll take care of Doctor Swope now,’ Pavlik said gently. ‘You go with Ms Thorsen and the detectives will come to you in an hour or so. Your office address is?’

  A deer caught in the headlights didn’t quite capture it. Lynne looked like she’d been hit and then backed up over a couple of times.

  ‘It’s the old Waverly building,’ I told Pavlik. ‘You know, in the block just the other side of the tracks from Uncommon Grounds. It says Swope Financial Planning on the door.’

  Taking Lynne’s arm, I steered her toward my car. Ginny’s Lexus was still sitting in the middle of the street, the doors open. As we got closer I realized its engine was running.

  ‘Ginny?’ I said, turning to the girl and Eric who were trailing us. ‘Do you want Eric to pull your car into the lot and we can ride together to your mom’s office?’

  ‘No.’ She seemed to gather herself and touched my son’s sleeve. ‘Will you come with me if I drive the Lexus?’

  She seemed to assume her mother was riding with me, which was fine. I unlocked the door for Lynne as the kids continued on to the Lexus. Circling to the driver’s side, I took the opportunity to look up at the side of the building.

  The mirrored glass reflected the vista to the east, including the skyline of downtown Milwaukee in the distance. But it wasn’t a reflection I was looking for, it was the absence of one.

  The gaping black hole in the glass of the tenth floor.

  The rain had let up, so we parked both vehicles behind Uncommon Grounds. Being Saturday, the gravel lot was only about a quarter full without the usual contingent of commuters leaving their cars there to board trains to jobs in downtown Milwaukee.

  ‘Why don’t you and Ginny get us some coffee?’ I suggested to Eric as the two joined us next to the Escape.

  Although Ginny seemed the more together of the two Swope women, she was still as white as the proverbial sheet. I thought having a mission might do her more good than staying with us.

  Eric nodded and they headed into Uncommon Grounds while Lynne and I crossed the tracks to her building and climbed the dark stairs in silence.

  Since the only furniture in the outer room of Lynne’s office was the reception desk, I suggested we sit in the conference room.

  She stepped inside the doorway but just stood under the tick-tocking clock, her shoulders slumped.

  Stripping off my soggy jacket, I hung it on the back of a chair and held out my hand for hers.

  When she didn’t respond, I said, ‘Can I take your coat?’

  Startling like she’d forgotten I was there, Lynne shrugged out of the trench coat. I draped it over a second chair and gestured for her to take a seat in one of the two remaining.

  She ignored me. ‘I don’t understand – how could he do this?’

  I sat. ‘Ted?’

  She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. ‘Ted?’

  ‘My ex-husband? William’s partner?’ The person you just accused of murder in front of his son?

  But Lynne’s eyes were bewildered. ‘I was talking about William.’ She finally slipped into the chair, seeming … what? Angry? Sad? Scared?

  All of the above?

  As for me, I was confused. ‘So you think he jumped then.’

  The headache must have been getting worse because Lynne leaned forward, her elbows on the table, fingers massaging her temples. ‘What else?’

  Murder was always my first thought, quite honestly, and some of what I’d observed at the scene had bolstered that view.

  What was William Swope doing in the office this morning? Or had he never left, at least by the door?

  And then there was the mysterious appearance of William’s ex-partner. I had no idea what Clay Tartare needed to discuss with William Swope that was so important he’d gotten on a plane to do it. Apparently Ted did and he’d likely tell Pavlik. I was hoping one of them would share it with me.

  But presumably whatever trouble might have been dogging William was serious enough for the oral surgeon to take his own life. The supposed ‘easy way out.’ To me, falling ten stories didn’t sound that easy. ‘Just minutes ago you said that Ted had killed William. What did you mean by that?’

  ‘That it was Ted’s fault.’ Lynne’s raised hands grabbed clumps of hair like a deranged Pippi Longstocking. ‘Oh, I know that’s not fair. But if what you said last night is true and he told William to clear out his things that could have pushed William to the edge.’ As she realized what she’d said her hands slipped down to cover her eyes. �
�Oh, God. William, of all people, suicidal? I never thought he’d do something like this.’

  ‘He didn’t have a history of depression or anything?’ I asked after a moment.

  Her hands came down and her eyes met mine. ‘You met him. My husband always acted like he was on top of the world.’

  ‘Was it an act?’

  ‘Oh, everybody has downs, I suppose. But one of the things that attracted me to William was how he finds … found,’ she sniffled, ‘the bright spot at even the darkest times.’

  I handed her a tissue from the box on the table, wondering about the ‘darkest times’ and the Swopes’ move from Kentucky. ‘Lynne, why is Clay Tartare here? Were there problems at the practice in Louisville?’

  Lynne looked up, startled. ‘Clay is in Brookhills?’

  I bobbed my head. ‘He came to see William this morning at the office.’

  ‘So they spoke?’

  I was watching her. ‘No. William was already dead.’

  Lynne shook her head. ‘But I don’t understand. How can you know that? Maybe he pushed William out the window.’

  I wasn’t delving into things like body temp and lividity with her at a time like this, with the exception of, ‘I saw Tartare walking toward the front entrance a few minutes before William’s body was found. And it … he, had been dead for a while.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Besides,’ I continued, ‘Diane was with him in the office. In fact, he was the one who called nine-one-one when she discovered the broken window and William … gone.’

  Lynne looked like she was going to be sick.

  ‘Do you know why Clay wanted so badly to talk to William? And why William wasn’t returning his calls?’

  She mopped at her eyes. ‘No.’

  I cocked my head. ‘So Tartare never tried to get hold of you?’ It certainly wouldn’t have been difficult. Even if the former partner didn’t have Lynne’s cell number he could have done a quick internet search for Swope Financial Planning.

  She didn’t meet my eyes. ‘He may have called a few times but I told him that he needed to talk to William. The last thing I wanted to do was get in the middle of something between those two.’

  Sounded like this wasn’t the first argument between the partners. ‘Ted was certainly riled up and it seemed to have to do with something Tartare and this Rita Pahlke told him. Do you know anything about her?’

  ‘Only from William.’ Lynne seemed as puzzled as I was. ‘I had no idea she’d followed us here.’

  ‘From Louisville, too?’

  ‘Yes.’ Finished with the eyes, Lynne blew her nose and set aside the tissue. ‘Oh, she’s just a harmless nutcase from what he said. You know, one of those government conspiracy people. Thinks dentists are implanting tracking devices in people’s teeth. That fluoride is a mind-control drug.’

  ‘Planting tracking devices for whom?’

  ‘Washington? Mars? Who knows?’ Lynne rolled her eyes. ‘She wanted money to “keep quiet,” can you imagine? William just laughed.’

  I could almost see the thought that William would never laugh again cross her face.

  But Lynne swallowed and kept going. ‘I honestly can’t see why Ted would be so upset. Every dentist has heard this kind of nonsense and the woman was a nuisance, nothing more. William could have no way of knowing she’d come here.’

  My ex-husband, admittedly, had endured a tough year that ended with a wife in prison and a new baby who’d been born there. By bringing in a partner Ted had certainly meant to lighten the load, not open the door to new crazy-ass problems.

  ‘Maybe it wasn’t Rita, but whatever brought Clay Tartare here that set Ted off then.’

  Lynne just lifted her shoulders and let them fall, her eyes on the empty table in front of her.

  ‘William did say it was just a misunderstanding that he and Ted would work out,’ I said, feeling bad for pressing the woman. William’s death was her loss, not mine. As was the cause of it.

  But she glanced up at my words. ‘When was this?’

  ‘Last night on the porch as he was leaving.’

  ‘To throw himself out a window.’ She sniffled, but didn’t ask anything further.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Lynne,’ I said after a minute. ‘Do you want me to call Mary for you?’

  Why hadn’t I thought of it the moment Pavlik asked me to sit with the Swopes? Of course, Lynne and Ginny should be with family at a time like this.

  Or not.

  ‘No,’ Lynne said sharply and then softened. ‘I’ll phone her myself after I talk to the police.’

  I glanced at the clock. It was just past ten, so we’d left Pavlik less than a half hour ago. ‘It may be a while before they get here to interview you. They’ll want to talk with Rita Pahlke, of course, and—’

  ‘But why would the investigators talk to her?’

  More than one reason, from what Lynne had just told me. For one, the fact the woman had followed them all the way from Kentucky and tried to extort money from the deceased, regardless of the whacky allegations. But most important, for now: ‘Pahlke found the bod— Umm, William.’

  Lynne sat up straighter. ‘That’s odd, don’t you think?’

  ‘Coincidental at the very least,’ I concurred. ‘But then again, she was hanging around the building with her picket sign.’

  ‘Are you suggesting she might have seen something?’

  I hadn’t been, but it was a good thought. ‘I suppose she might have, but—’

  A duet of young voices interrupted as the outer office door swung open.

  ‘Got lattes,’ Eric said, bringing in a cardboard drink carrier and setting it with a flourish on the conference room table.

  ‘Like “got milk.”’ Ginny’s mascara had slid beneath her eyes – evidence that she’d been crying – but she seemed to be trying to pull it together for her mother’s sake. ‘Get it, Mom?’

  ‘I do.’ Lynne Swope smiled up at her daughter. ‘How’re you doing, kiddo?’

  ‘I’m OK.’ Ginny freed a drink from its cardboard trap and frowned at the scribbling on the side of the medium to-go cup. ‘Does this say “profit reform lat?”’

  ‘That’s probably my non-fat, no-foam latte,’ I explained, reaching for it. ‘Sarah has her own form of shorthand.’

  ‘I think this “3lat 2sug” is yours then, Mom.’ Ginny set the cup in front of her mother. ‘Triple shot latte with two sugars, right?’

  ‘Thank you, dear.’ But Lynne didn’t touch it.

  ‘Drink.’ Daughter was brooking no resistance from mother. ‘It was the first of the four she made so it should have cooled down by now.’

  Lynne cautiously went to take a sip, but when there was a rap at the outer door she nearly spit it out.

  The door creaked open and a familiar voice called, ‘Hello?’

  ‘It’s OK,’ I said to the group in the conference room. ‘It’s just Pavlik.’

  ‘That’s the sheriff,’ Eric explained to Ginny.

  ‘The sheriff?’ the girl repeated. ‘Why is that OK?’

  ‘He’s … umm, a friend,’ I said.

  As I went to greet Pavlik, I heard my son add in a whisper, ‘With privileges.’

  Now didn’t seem to be the time to explain there was a difference between a meaningful relationship and a close friendship with sex. Though, come to think of it, I wasn’t sure I could.

  But my meaningful relationship wasn’t alone in the outer office. I recognized one of the two men with him. A stocky, shaved-head New Yorker with an icy stare, Al Taylor had joined the sheriff’s department last year. The other man – taller and thinner, with graying hair and a mustache – was unfamiliar to me.

  ‘You remember Detective Taylor from Homicide,’ Pavlik said, then hiked a finger at the tall man. ‘And this is Detective Hallonquist, Violent Crimes.’

  ‘Homicide?’ I heard Lynne repeat from the conference room, nearly in tandem with Ginny’s audible intake of breath.

  I nodded at the two men as the
y passed by me to enter the other room. Hallonquist gave me a polite nod back while Taylor gave more of a smirk.

  Pavlik remained in the outer office and I did the same, wanting to talk to him.

  ‘No need to be alarmed, Mrs Swope.’ The voice sounded Midwest, carrying none of the swagger I knew Taylor to project. Must be Hallonquist. ‘Standard procedure in a death like this.’

  I glanced in to see the man shake Lynne’s hand as Taylor unfolded one of the spare chairs from against the wall. ‘May we sit down?’

  I looked at Pavlik and whispered, ‘Homicide and Violent Crimes. So you don’t believe he jumped either?’

  Pavlik’s eyes narrowed. ‘Like Hallonquist said, it’s standard procedure. Violent unattended death is investigated as a crime until it’s proven otherwise.’

  ‘Well, I saw something that might help to prove that,’ I said, pulling him further out of earshot. ‘Or it would have if the rain hadn’t started again. It was the first drop, though, that made me realize.’

  Accustomed to my occasional incoherence, Pavlik just said, ‘Realize what?’

  ‘William Swope’s shirt was dry. I told you I touched him to see if he was dead. As I did, the first drop of rain fell directly onto the back of his red shirt and I realized that the surrounding material was dry.’

  ‘It’s a good observation,’ Pavlik said. ‘But don’t read too much into it. It rained from a little after ten to about three this morning.’

  Leave it to Pavlik to know when the rain ceased, if not desisted. The sheriff pulled out his notebook and jotted down something anyway.

  ‘But if William’s back was dry,’ I said, thinking out loud, ‘does that mean he went out the window after the rain stopped at three a.m.? If so, what was he doing all that time in an empty office?’

  ‘You’re assuming he was there. Do you know when Doctor Swope arrived? There are no security cameras in the lobby or elevators.’

  His tone added, Believe it or not. I could believe it. Ted was cheap and this was safe little Brookhills.

  ‘I don’t, really,’ I admitted. ‘Though my impression was that he was going there directly from Uncommon Grounds last night.’

  ‘What time?’

  ‘A little after seven. Did you interview Rita Pahlke?’