Couples

Chapter 86

Lanie's ringtone shocks Kate from slumber. Eyes barely open, she gropes around on the bedside table to find her phone. "Girlfriend, I need your help," Lanie announces.

Kate yawns and pushes herself up on her elbows, almost poking Rick in the face. "Something for the wedding?"

"Not exactly," Lanie replies, "except for taking some weight off Lorne's shoulders before then. Wait a sec. He should tell you what's going on."

Lorne's voice replaces his fiancée's. "Here's the thing, Kate. I'm looking into a death upstate, and I have some serious questions. But the police up there don't want to cooperate and ask them. The local coroner there attributed it to natural causes, so as far as they're concerned, it's not their problem."

Kate uses her fist to rub her eyes. "You don't believe it was natural causes?"

"I'm sure it wasn't," Lorne declares. "But I need to find out if it was an accident or something more sinister. I was hoping that you could get me some cooperation, as a professional courtesy, cop to cop."

"Lorne, I can't make inquiries on behalf of the N.Y.P.D.," Kate explains. "It's out of our jurisdiction."

"I know," Lorne accepts. "You would just be asking for a favor. I need to find out if a Marcus Jensen might have been accidentally exposed to pesticides, and if so, how. If I know that, I can close the book on my case. But if not, we might be talking about a deliberate poisoning with a nerve agent."

Rick springs up next to Kate. "You mean like the Russians' novichok?"

"Or sarin, VX, or any of the others," Lorne confirms. "They all inhibit the same enzyme in humans and have structures similar to some pesticides. That enzyme was blocked in Jensen's body. I need to figure out how it got that way."

Rick bounces against the mattress. "Ooh, Jensen knew too much about active measures aimed at the state's rural communities, and Putin sent a spy to kill him."

"Or he had too much contact with flea collars," Lorne suggests. "Either way, I need more information about his life. I can talk to the family too. But he could have easily been involved in activities they knew nothing about. And cops would be more dispassionate in their assessment."

Rick cups one of Kate's breasts. "Some are more passionate than others."

"Later," she mouths. "Text me the details, and I'll see what I can do, Lorne," she promises.

"Wow! A killer spy!" Rick exclaims after Kate hangs up. "That could be a much more exciting character than a Dimmer-type."

Kate's fingertip traces the bare skin above the neckline of his T-shirt. "How about killer flea collars?"

"Maybe the Russians are training pooches as agents," Rick considers. "Perhaps the Dog Whisperer is a sleeper agent."

"Except that Cesar Millan is based in California," Kate points out.

"True," Rick acknowledges, checking the time on Kate's phone. "Unfortunately, I doubt we'll have a chance for further shuteye – or creating future dreams. Lily will be waking up any time. Since Montgomery doesn't want you anywhere near the precinct, I will cook up a morning feast we can enjoy at a leisurely pace. You can make your calls. And then when Meryl shows up, we can enjoy a few unfettered hours on our own."

Kate throws a regretful glance at the bed. "Sounds like a plan."

"When did you learn how to row?" Kate asks as Rick propels their rental boat across Central Park Lake.

"Boarding school, my third one. I was already writing. I had a stack of those composition books I used to use. Wordsmithing was not the most highly regarded activity by my fellow students. I ended up hiding my notebooks under my mattress to keep from getting razzed about them. But the institution was heaven for jocks – football, baseball, basketball, tennis. It even had a golf team. I wasn't into any of that, just fencing.

"Unfortunately, the school didn't have a fencing team. It did, however, have a lake. And it let the students take out boats. The water was the one place I could go to write in peace. So I looked up the rudimentary concepts involved with handling oars. After a while, I got pretty good at it. That rowing pumped up my muscles didn't hurt either. Most of the jocks laid off me.

"Over the years, when I needed to think, I'd take a boat out. There's something about the sun and the water that's comforting." He bends over the oarlocks for a kiss. "And it can be romantic, too."

"To tell you the truth," Kate confesses, "I've never thought of rowboats as romantic. Comforting, sure. My dad and I used to take one out to go fishing on the lake near his cabin. Those times are some of my best memories. But there was no romance."

"If you were with your father, I would hope not." Rick quips. "However," he adds, pointing to a wicker picnic basket, "we have all the elements now. Well, almost all. The park doesn't permit alcohol, so no wine. But we have fruit and cheese and chocolate, complete with a cold pack to avoid ending up looking like Lily after doing battle with one of those giant chocolate chip cookies. And one more thing." He pulls a long-stemmed rose from the basket. "For my lovely wife."

"This is all wonderful, Rick. When did you have time to get it together?"

"While you were on the phone getting some support for Lorne. It sounded like you had to work at it."

"I worked on it, but I don't know how well I did," Kate confides. "The police upstate don't have warm fuzzy feelings about the Jensen case. Apparently, they ran up against some jurisdictional dispute. They didn't appreciate having a New York detective stick her nose in, either. I had to convince them that I wasn't interested in treading on anyone's toes, just helping out a friend. A Sergeant Smith said he'd get back to me. He has my personal cell number."

"Did Sergeant Smith have any idea why the case might have been attracting extra-jurisdictional attention?" Rick asks.

"As far as I could tell, he didn't have a clue. That's one of the reasons he and his guys were pissed off."

"That's interesting," Rick observes. "Kate, based on that, what happened to Marcus Jensen doesn't sound like an accident to me. What do you think?"

"I'm not sure what to think, Babe. We bump up against other agencies in the city, but not for something that should have been a simple passing away. If the FBI or Homeland Security decide to get involved, it's usually a serious case. According to Sergeant Smith, he's never seen the kind of intrusion he's seen into Marcus Jensen's case before. Some kind of power has to be behind all the attention. That might be governmental, but it could also be pressure from civilians, usually rich civilians, for one reason or another."

"Are the Jensens wealthy?" Rick questions.

"I don't think so. When I spoke to Lorne again, he told me that he had the impression that the Jensens had to scrape to hire his organization. If there's big money involved," Kate considers, "it isn't coming from that family. I don't know what Lorne stumbled into, but Sergeant Smith will try to find out who the driving interests are. I should know more when I hear from him."

"Somehow, I don't think the other players are going to be very forthcoming," Rick offers.

Kate's teeth find her lower lip. "I don't think so, either."