by Alex Harris
Chapter 11
“Marlowe, the phone is nonstop. Everyone wants information on Mark. What is it, just because you’re president of the Bar this year, they think you have an inside track.” Joan’s normally calm demeanor was replaced with fluster.
“Joan, why not make us a cup of tea and I’ll get what information I can from the Prescott Police Department and then see what I can do to return calls.” Her consummate control returned as she picked up the phone to begin the unpleasant chore of finding out what happened to Mark.
“Hi, Chief. Marlowe Sharpe here. Mark Weinberger shared office space here in this building and as you know I’m this year’s Bar president, what can you tell me?” Marlowe knew a high profile case would hit the chief’s desk before dust could settle under it.
“Not a lot, looks like he turned the car on in the garage at his condo down in Phoenix, stuck a hose in the window, and died. Everything from the coroner seems to say suicide. I was told he had just separated from his wife. Couple of friends said he was depressed and they were worried about him. He was here for court day before yesterday and no one had seen him since. He failed to show up at his office this morning and the secretary went over there and found him.” The chief flipped over the report in front of him and reviewed it to see if he had missed anything of importance. “Oh, his family has been notified and the service will be in Phoenix. But, you know, even though he was a defense attorney, he was sure well liked here. Are you thinking about something here?”
“I’m going to check with the rest of the directors. We usually do something like a memorial service, pretty low key.”
“Let me know. There are plenty of us who will probably attend.”
Marlowe turned to Joan who had brewed a pot of Matcha Green Tea in the antique porcelain pot she’d brought back from London. She poured for both of them using matching almost see through cups and sat down on the overstuffed couch. “Well?”
“I need to find out if we’re going to do a memorial service. After your tea, will you call the rest of the board and see if you can get a consensus one way or the other. Let me know and we’ll proceed. So much death. Trouble comes in threes. This is number three so maybe we’re safe for awhile.”
Joan put in calls to the other board members and waited for answers, while Marlowe worked on a new special education client’s problems. Most of Marlowe’s practice was criminal defense, but over the years she had taken on special education issues and developed a state wide reputation for taking on schools and holding their feet to the fire for kids. Most of the ones who couldn’t pay with money found other ways of paying for Marlowe’s services: pigs, chickens, a horse now and then, hay, fencing, tractor work, plumbing and the new kitchen out at the ranch. Joan would walk in to Marlowe’s office and tell her “you need to help these people, they have a child that has special needs and the school isn’t following the IEP. Marlowe would meet with the parents and take the case, money or no money.