A Final Session
Chapter Two
The following day was no cooler than the previous night. Hank was too hot. Tongue lolling he sprawled out on the floor of the squad room next to Jims chair lazily wagging his tail and rolling onto his side giving a small whine as he did so.
"I think this might be classed as animal cruelty" Karen sighed, "It's too hot in here for him and us"
"You're just hot because you're bored" Marty replied.
"Bored?"
"Yeah, bored. If you had something juicy to keep your mind occupied you wouldn't notice the heat so much"
"Well my mind is pretty much occupied by the way you smell at the moment Marty and that hasn't stopped me from feeling hot." Karen snapped.
"Shit, you can smell that? Damn. Tom, I'm gonna kick your ass for suggesting this stuff to me."
"What stuff?" Karen asked feeling a little bad for mentioning the odd smell that shrouded Marty today.
"Aluminum free natural deodorant" Tom replied, "It works better than the other stuff, honest. And it's better for you and the environment."
"I never knew you cared so much Tom" Marty snarked.
"Hey, just watching my carbon footprint like we all should"
Karen laughed as Marty shook his head in disbelief.
"How can this be better for me? I stink. If it gets any worse someone's liable to shoot me to put me outta my misery!"
"Maybe it's just having a reaction on you" Tom replied lightly.
"A reaction?!" Marty yelped.
Karen looked up as Jim walked back into the squad from the lockers carrying Hanks third bowl of water for that morning.
"What did I miss?" He asked, thinking all the commotion might be a new case just in.
"Nothing, just Marty and his choice of deodorant" Tom laughed.
"Oh, that" Jim muttered "I was going to say something yesterday but you guys didn't seem to notice"
"What, you noticed this before today?" Marty demanded.
"Well, yeah. It's kind of hard to miss Marty."
"Why didn't you say something before it got this bad?"
"Well that would have just been rude Marty, and I know you'd never make upsetting personal comments to me so …" Jim shrugged as he felt for the back of his chair and sat down. His face was blank even as Tom started to laugh.
"And you guys are supposed to have my back!" Marty moaned.
Suddenly the door to Fisk's office yanked open.
"Who's up?" Fisk barked.
"That would be 'eau naturel' boy over here" Tom quipped.
"Me" Marty glowered at Tom as Fisk glanced around the room, a confused look on his face.
Marty strode over to the boss to take the paper he held in his hand.
"DOA in an apartment building on Cedar. That's not far from your place is it Jim?" Fisk asked
"No. Just a couple of blocks down." Jim confirmed, looking interested.
As Marty took the paper Fisk looked at him and wrinkled his nose a little.
"What?" demanded Marty
"Nothing" Fisk turned back to his office as Karen and Tom tried in vain to stifle their laughter.
25 Cedar Street was a similar building to the converted warehouse the Dunbar's lived in. Open plan, not quite as classy in the décor Karen thought, as she scoped the interior but not bad. She, Marty, Tom and Jim stood back while the SOC boys took their final photographs of the body that lay flat on its back on the glass dining table in the middle of the room.
In a low voice Karen talked Jim through the scene.
"DOA's a Robert Robson. Caucasian. Late thirties. Dressed in his boxers. He's on his back on the dining table. Hands and feet tied with ropes to each leg of the table. Kinda like a starfish you know? A lot of blood pooled at the foot of each table leg. His wife found him when she got up. She was the one who called it in"
"What are the injuries?" Jim asked as he removed his sunglasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Too much blood everywhere to tell. We'll have to wait for the ME's report" Karen replied. "Are you ok?" She continued.
"Yeah. Just didn't get much sleep last night and I have the headache to end all headaches. Where the wife?" he asked, smartly changing the subject.
Karen leaned to her right to get a glimpse through the open bedroom door.
"In the bedroom with one of the EMTs." She replied.
Jim nodded. Turning to where he knew Marty and Tom were standing he asked, "Where do you want us Marty? The wife or canvassing the neighbors?"
"Um the wife I think. She might be happier with Karen in there" Marty replied as he squatted down to look under the dining table.
Tom and Karen exchanged looks. This was a rare moment that they didn't enjoy very often, Marty and Jim working together instead of rubbing each other up the wrong way.
"Let's not even ask" Tom muttered to Karen as she passed him on her way to the bedroom, "We should just enjoy it while it lasts."
Karen nodded, continuing with Jim to the other room.
Elise Robson was sat on the edge of the king size bed she had woken in an hour earlier. She was pale and drawn and in her right hand she held onto a waste paper basket as if her life depended on it. A young EMT squatted down besides her fixing a blood pressure cuff onto her left arm. Suddenly without warning she creased forwards over the basket and wretched violently.
"Mrs. Robson?" Karen ventured when the woman had finished being sick. "Mrs. Robson I'm Detective Bettancourt and this is my partner Detective Dunbar. I know this is very difficult but do you feel that you could answer some questions for us?"
Elise Robson wretched again.
"It's the chloroform" the EMT supplied.
"Chloroform?" Repeated Karen.
"The rags still on the bed. I haven't touched it. Looks like she was given a few hefty doses to keep her out of it while whoever it was did that to the husband."
"You should be a detective," Jim said grimly.
"No way. My job is bad enough. I wouldn't want yours for all the money in the world." The EMT replied, shaking his head seriously. "I don't even want to think about the stuff you must see every…."
The young mans voice trailed off as he realized what he was saying but Jim merely waved the comment away with his hand.
"How is she?" he asked
"She seems ok," the EMT continued, "but I think we need to take her in just to be safe."
"We'll be quick" Karen said. "Elise can you remember anything about last night? Anything at all that might help us?"
She shook her head slowly, tears streaming down her face.
"What did you and your husband do last night, before you went to bed?" Jim asked.
"Um, we went to dinner at a new Italian Restaurant a couple of blocks down. I can't remember the name. You can see the bridge from the windows. We sat right by the window …." She trailed off.
"Would the restaurant staff be able to confirm that Elise?" Karen asked.
"Yes. We made a booking; or rather Robert made the booking. 8 O'clock. We left at around 10. I have the receipt in my purse somewhere. We took a slow walk home via the park and must have gotten to bed at around 11 sometime."
"OK," Karen started but was interrupted as Elise continued in a dreamy voice.
"It was just so hot wasn't it? And I remember feeling like I was waking up but maybe dreaming a bit. It felt late but I could hear Robert making coffee and breakfast. I wanted to call him back to bed but I couldn't - like when you're dreaming and you can't run because your legs are too heavy, you know?"
Jim nodded.
"I remember thinking that he was being so nice but then I must have rolled over because I felt him, Robert, next to me, but I swear I could still hear someone out in the kitchen. I must have fallen back to sleep because the next thing I remember was waking up with my head pounding and my stomach churning with the smell of the breakfast."
"Breakfast?" Karen queried
"Yes. I didn't dream it because it's there!" Elise nodded toward the nightstand on the other side of the bed.
"Karen?" Jim, head bowed, nudged Karen's arm lightly.
"Breakfast. On a tray next to the bed. Coffee, bagels, eggs and a red rose" Karen supplied.
With that description Elise Robson was promptly sick again.
"What have we got?" Fisk demanded as his detectives walked back into the squad.
"We're waiting for the ME report on Robert Robson meanwhile were gonna start checking the usual. Debts, enemies, anyone he might have pissed off" Marty answered.
"Karen, Jim?" Fisk enquired
"We're checking out the neighbors statements and then we'll go over to the hospital once the wife's in a better state to talk to us. They took her to Lenox" Karen said, thinking she saw Jim tense when she mentioned the hospital. When she glanced over again his face was impassive. She shrugged inwardly. Maybe she'd imagined it.
"The basics are we got a guy who brutally murders people whilst leaving a considerate breakfast in bed for their other half." Marty quipped.
"We'll run the details see if anything similar pops up from the last couple years" finished Tom.
"Good. Let me know how you go." With that Fisk went back into his office.
Quiet descended as the four detectives started the tasks in hand.
Later that afternoon Marty pushed his chair back and rubbed his fingers over his eyes. It was way too hot to concentrate and he hadn't slept well the night before. His ex wife Julie was having her apartment decorated and was worried the paint fumes might be bad for their sons asthma so Marty Junior was staying with dad. This was great but it meant that Marty was on the sofa bed while junior was in his bed. He didn't really mind. He loved having his kid over. It didn't make up for all that he missed out on in his daily life but it was better than nothing. He had been taking him to school and collecting him, which was sweet, but now the case was in he knew he'd have to bow out – again. One of the reasons Julie had given up on him and their marriage.
He'd called her to say he'd be too late to collect junior and she'd been less than happy. They had arranged to go into the boy's school to talk to his teachers about his progress, or recent lack of progress, and now Marty would miss it. This did not make him any happier.
Antsily he fiddled with the pens on his desk, shuffled a few papers. They were getting nowhere. Karen and Jim weren't back from talking to the wife at Lenox Hospital yet and the ME had called to say the report wouldn't be in until the morning. Something about a power out and not being able to 'slice and dice in the dark' they had joked. Marty never did like the ME's sense of humor.
Pushing his chair back he rose and walked purposefully over to the bosses office. Knocking lightly he pushed the door open and leaned in.
"What's up Marty?" Fisk asked.
"We're getting nowhere at the moment Boss and I could do with being at a parent teacher thing at my kids school. I wouldn't normally slack off at the start of something but is it ok this once?"
"Of course it is Marty. You never take any time. Just get Tom to fill me in before he heads out and call Jim and Karen to get them to check in with me once they're through at Lenox."
Marty nodded his thanks and walked back to his desk. Filling Tom in he grabbed his jacket and made his way over to the locker room. There were a couple of uniforms already in there. They had pulled the small folding table that usually hid behind the back of the door out and had dragged a couple of chairs out from the wall up to it. Obviously hot one of the patrolmen lounged back on the chair, legs sprawled, fanning himself against the heat. The other one was making a fresh pot of coffee, the canister, scoop and the box of sugar packets spread messily on the counter top.
Marty nodded to the two guys. The officer at the table looked up at Marty, straightened himself up and by way of explanation said "Locker room downstairs is being painted, Sir"
"No problem" Marty replied wondering why everyone suddenly wanted to paint once the temperature hit the hundreds.
As he opened his locker and pulled out his bag Marty saw the coffee guy toss the scoop back into the box of sugar packets and then stow the box, not in its usual cupboard, but on the low shelf that was adjacent to the coffee maker. He then grabbed the coffee canister putting it back in the cupboard he had taken it from but on the top shelf not the usual lower one.
"Hey. What are you doin'?" Marty demanded, feeling an anger rising in him that was so swift and unfamiliar that it shocked him.
"What do you mean, Sir?" stammered coffee boy.
"I mean what are you doing. You didn't get that stuff from offa' that shelf and the canister doesn't go where you just put it so I'm asking you, what are you doing?"
Marty could hear the bite in his voice but couldn't stop himself.
The uniformed officer looked sideways at his partner at the table as if he was hearing a trick question and couldn't grab an answer out of thin air. His buddy at the table stood up to come to the rescue.
"Sorry Sir we didn't know you were such neat freaks up here." He smiled genuinely.
"Neat freaks huh?" Marty repeated belligerently, "Neat freaks? Well you guys might exist in a vacuum downstairs but up here we like to think about each other just a little. Now I imagine if you boys were blind you'd be more than happy for me to keep everything in its place or maybe you just think it would add to the specialness of your day to have everything hidden from you, huh!"
Marty jabbed his finger at coffee guy as he watched the understanding of what he was talking about dawn on the uniformed officers faces.
"Sorry Sir, we didn't think. We'll make sure everything is back right."
"Make sure you do. Canister on the lower shelf. Scoop in front of it. Sugar box to the left. And get the damn table and chairs back where you found them." He barked.
With that Marty slammed his locker door and strode out, too overwhelmed by his own outburst to notice Tom standing just outside the locker room door, mouth hanging open.