Flat White

by Sandra Balzo

  As it was, I didn’t know what I was going to do when I did catch up with them, except I was determined to stop them from going through TSA.

  At the top of the escalator, I caught sight of my targets crossing from the skywalk toward the security line with no luggage other than carry-on wheelie bags. The stanchions for the switchback security lines were empty and the TSA officer checking passports only had three other people in front of him.

  ‘Stop!’ I yelled.

  Rebecca and Michael turned. Rebecca was wearing a winter hat, newly cut bangs to match Helena’s hair peeking out. She shoved Michael to keep going into the stanchioned line.

  He glanced back at me and she shoved again, urging him to cut the line by going under the red velvet ropes. By the time I reached the security point, two people had entered the queue behind them, and Rebecca and Michael were at the TSA desk.

  ‘Don’t let them through,’ I called, pushing past the two passengers and ducking under the rope. ‘Their passports are fake.’

  The agent looked up from the passport he held. ‘Step back, please. Behind the blue line.’

  ‘Maggy,’ Michael said, his face white. He was still holding his – or the fake Barry Margraves’ – passport.

  I ignored him, pointing at the passport and boarding pass the agent held. ‘This woman is not Helena Margraves.’

  ‘She’s crazy,’ Rebecca said, pressing closer to the agent. ‘We’re going to miss our flight.’

  The officer separated the boarding pass from the passport and put the latter face down on his scanner. It beeped. He picked up the boarding pass. ‘And just how do you know this isn’t Helena Margraves?’

  ‘Because this is,’ a voice behind me proclaimed as the real Helena’s fist connected with the fake one’s jaw.

  TWENTY

  ‘I know that I was in Chicago,’ Pavlik said that night, as he took his bag from the trunk of the car. ‘But you could have called Anthony.’

  ‘I know,’ I said, lifting his coat out and closing the trunk. ‘And I did call her. It was just a little late.’

  ‘You mean you called from the detention room in the airport,’ he said as we walked toward the house.

  ‘They do take this kind of thing seriously.’ Punching (Helena). Hair-pulling (Christy). Parking in a loading zone (Sarah). The only thing they had on me was cutting the security line.

  Happily, false passports trumped all of the above, and they’d held Michael and Rebecca, as well. The Heathrow flight took off without them.

  Now Pavlik put his arm around my neck and pulled me close. ‘Slugging somebody at security can get you into big trouble.’

  ‘Helena had every right,’ I said, lifting my face to plant a kiss on his cheek. ‘Rebecca even cut her hair into bangs so she looked like Helena. And to add insult to injury, they were bad bangs. No feathering at all.’

  ‘I’m sure that means something,’ Pavlik said.

  ‘It does,’ I said, stopping short of the porch. ‘It’s just that if you don’t feather or razor cut a fringe, the hair lays too flat, too Buster Brown-like.’

  Pavlik raised his hand. ‘I stipulate the bangs were bad.’

  ‘Wise man.’ I could hear the two dogs inside scrabbling against the door. ‘Sit with me?’ I gestured to the porch steps and offered him his coat.

  He nodded and set down his bag to pull on the coat.

  ‘Well done,’ he said, sitting on the top step next to me.

  ‘What, sitting here?’ I snuggled under his arm for warmth. ‘Under the cold dark sky?’

  ‘Solving this. Brookhills resident Rebecca Penn running visitor Barry Margraves down with a snowplow? It boggles the imagination.’

  ‘Crime of opportunity,’ I said. ‘Rebecca and Michael knew Barry had booked a flight to Milwaukee, because they could see all his transactions, thanks to Christy. They had to assume he’d tipped to their scheme and got nervous.’

  ‘Helena too? Did they know she was coming?’

  ‘I wondered about that,’ I said. ‘But Helena’s flight wasn’t on the list of current credit card transactions when I saw it.’

  ‘And Barry’s was.’

  ‘Correct. Turns out that Helena used her business credit card – one that hadn’t been hacked – not wanting Barry to know what she was doing.’

  ‘Smart.’

  ‘It was. Barry, on the other hand, continued to use the same card that the gifts and London ticket had been purchased on. I think he must have been in a panic, though, and was counting on the San Diego trip to cover for his coming here.’

  ‘Hence the circuitous flight from Denver to San Diego via Milwaukee.’

  ‘Correct.’ I leaned my head on his shoulder. ‘Barry had cheated on Helena and she forgave him.’

  ‘Recently?’ Pavlik seemed surprised.

  ‘No, early in their marriage. He promised her it would never happen again, and he kept that promise.’

  ‘Though the charge card purchases seemed to prove otherwise.’

  ‘Which is why he wanted to get to the bottom of them without Helena ever knowing.’ I sighed. ‘So far as he knew when he died, she never did.’

  ‘I guess that’s some comfort,’ Pavlik said. ‘Or not. The man did nothing wrong.’

  ‘Other than trying to protect his wife a little too much,’ I said. ‘Don’t ever do that with me, OK?’

  ‘OK. If I find charges for gifts to another woman on my charge card, you’re the first person I’ll come to.’

  I laughed. ‘It does sound like a stupid thing to do, doesn’t it? But if only Barry had, he might still be alive.’

  ‘But divorced.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘I had Barry down as a bad guy from the start. Cheating on Helena, emptying their accounts, lying to Christy.’

  ‘He was, when you think about it. Except it wasn’t really Barry.’

  I shook my head. ‘Which is what led us off on countless wild goose chases.’

  ‘Like searching for the burner phone,’ Pavlik said. ‘Which didn’t exist. Public Works is going to send you a bill for weekend double-overtime.’

  ‘Kelly seems to have forgiven me,’ I said.

  ‘Kelly wasn’t one of the Works people out digging for hours,’ Pavlik said.

  ‘Street looks nice, though,’ I said brightly, and then sobered. ‘I hope Harold is off the hook.’

  ‘He is to a point. He still left his plow unattended, with the key in it.’

  ‘Helena must have been watching for Michael to drop off Barry,’ I said. ‘They knew what he looked like, after all, essentially everything about him. As you say, the snowplow was parked with the key in it, just across from their house.’

  ‘According to Anthony, Rebecca admitted she’d crossed the street from her house to get a better view because the plow was blocking her. The door of the truck was sitting ajar and after Margraves got out of the car and Michael drove past, she climbed up into the cab of the truck.’

  ‘That sounds, if not pre-meditated …’

  ‘Your crime of opportunity. Rebecca was desperate, as it turns out.’

  I turned. ‘Desperate how?’

  ‘She was broke. We had no reason to look into her financials until today, but she went through all her savings and then some in the last year.’

  ‘Living in New York,’ I said, remembering. ‘She said it was expensive. That’s why she came back.’

  ‘She rented a place that was way over her means.’

  ‘She was going to make it big,’ I said, tucking my hands into my coat pockets. ‘Michael and Wisconsin were the only things holding her back from being a real artist. Or so she thought.’

  ‘Even real artists don’t necessarily make a lot of money,’ Pavlik said. ‘Probably just the opposite and they certainly don’t make enough to support the lifestyle she was living there. She ran up a lot of debt.’

  ‘And had to come back here. But she and Michael already had dissolved their business. He was hurting, too, driving ride-share just to sur
vive.’

  ‘Yet they found a way,’ Pavlik said.

  ‘I think Rebecca found a way.’

  ‘You never liked her, did you?’ Pavlik teased me.

  ‘Nope, though I tried to when I saw how good she was being to Christy. But that was a lie, too.’ I shook my head. ‘I knew that Rebecca was bitter after her sister was killed and things went bad for her and Michael. I just didn’t know she was a psycho maniac.’

  ‘She didn’t like her sister much from what I recall.’

  ‘I’m not sure Rebecca likes anybody but herself,’ I said. ‘Or wants them to be happy.’

  ‘I’ll say. She told you I was cheating. With her sister.’

  I sat up straight. ‘That’s true, isn’t it? Back then I assumed she was just mistaken, but maybe she was trying to manipulate me the way she manipulated Michael and Christy.’

  ‘You don’t manipulate easily.’

  ‘When it comes to my man, I guess I don’t.’ I linked my arm with his, sliding my hand into his coat pocket. ‘I just hope Christy doesn’t go running back to Ronny.’

  ‘“Go running back” is a stretch, given the guy is in jail.’

  ‘True, but that’s what made him safe,’ I said. ‘She went out of her comfort zone when Rebecca convinced her to try the dating site. It all turned out to be a lie, even Rebecca’s friendship. They broke Christy’s heart and nearly got her thrown in jail.’

  ‘How is she taking it?’ Pavlik asked.

  ‘Surprisingly well,’ I said. ‘Did I tell you that she jumped Rebecca when she tried to get back up after Helena punched her? I thought she was going to pull Rebecca’s ugly bangs right out of her head.’ I smiled. ‘I was kind of proud.’

  ‘Your little girl has grown up,’ Pavlik agreed.

  ‘Actually, she has. I have a lot of respect for the way she doesn’t let anything get her down. But I admit I’m glad Amy will be back Tuesday.’

  ‘I understand Helena Margraves is flying back to Denver tomorrow.’

  ‘Talk about resiliency. Helena lost her husband twice. Once when she thought he was cheating and then again to the snowplow. And she’s so damned nice, she’s even become friends with Christy.’

  ‘Who didn’t steal her husband, after all,’ Pavlik pointed out. ‘But you said before that it was Rebecca who manipulated Michael. Do you honestly think he was duped?’

  I cocked my head. ‘I think Michael is in love with Rebecca and has been ever since I’ve known them. He was crushed when she left. We barely saw him.’

  ‘So she comes back and he’s willing to do anything for her. Michael does admit he helped her steal Margraves’ identity, but says it was Rebecca manipulating the accounts through Christy.’

  ‘And Rebecca who killed Barry,’ I said. ‘And also Rebecca who stole the bracelet and diamond from Christy’s house the night she stayed with her.’

  ‘But Michael planted the bracelet on Helena and re-mailed the diamond from what you said.’

  ‘Yes, and Michael stole Helena’s passport.’ I sighed. ‘Wonder what the unset diamond was for. It seems an odd thing.’

  ‘Maybe he was going to propose to Rebecca.’

  ‘A romantic,’ I said, standing up and brushing myself off.

  ‘You want a diamond?’ Pavlik asked. ‘I can’t get you one that big, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Actually.’ I put out my hand to help him up. ‘I’d much prefer a large peperoni pizza and a couple puppies drooling on my toes. You?’

  ‘You’ve got yourself a deal.’