The murder cases in both dimensions with virtually the same cast of characters, so to speak, came to slightly different resolutions.
Our Henry back in Dimension One (two months later) ...
A reminder of the crime from Chapter 6: Nathan Bishop and Paula Frierson, both 26, had been found dead in their East 6th Street apartment from an apparently have been poisoned. Their elderly friend and neighbor, Mrs. Alouetta Periwinkle, had given a statement that she chose not to call 9-1-1 right away because the couple's symptoms appeared to indicate that they had the flu. However, by the time that the two Henry's had managed to get switched back to their own dimensions, the case had taken a slightly different turn.
"Maeve Thomas occupies the apartment down the hall from our victims and Mrs. Periwinkle," Jo told Henry, Mike, and Reece as they attended a briefing in Reece's office. "She said her conscience could not be quieted after hearing Mrs. Periwinkle's account of what happened." They all listened intently as Jo continued.
"According to her, Periwinkle and the young couple were not friends. Apparently, she objected to them 'living in sin' but still participating in their church. She'd berated them more than once during the short time the couple had lived there. Periwinkle even was heard threatening them, that the wages of sin were death, that they'd suffer for their transgressions." Jo dropped her notes to her lap and looked around at all of them. "You get the drift."
"Sounds like a religious fanatic," Mike remarked. "She killed them to punish them for their evil ways?"
"Anyone corroborate Mrs. Thomas' story?" Reece asked.
Jo consulted her notes again before replying. "Several from their church, including the pastor; and the building manager and several other building residents. Seems that Mrs. Periwinkle was a very opinionated church lady."
Henry sat uncharacteristically silent but obviously absorbing everything with a soft, pleased smile. It was good to be back home, back in the fray, back with his colleagues and running down potential leads. He couldn't help but compare the details of this case with the one presented in the other dimension. Could it be that Mrs. Periwinkle here was more sinister than the one in the dimension he'd recently left?
"Doc, you catching all this?" Mike asked of his unusually quiet colleague.
"Yes, yes," a broadly smiling Henry replied. He took in a deep breath and let it out. "It's just that being back here, discussing this case ... it's like a breath of fresh air for me."
"Not if you'd been in that apartment," Mike muttered, shuddering, to which they each struggled to contain their laughter out of respect to the deceased.
vvvv
Henry and Jo embraced and kissed on the rooftop terrace above the shop. They pulled away from each other, smiling and enjoying their private time together. Finally.
"It's sad that we had to charge that little old lady with a double homicide," Jo began, "but you were just chomping at the bit to get back into the hunt, weren't you?"
She was really happy that he was back and that after a long, overdue conversation, they'd recently come to an understanding of a romantic nature. And the recent revelations about his immortality? That was just part of the package of Henry Morgan, she told herself. Something she looked forward to dealing with for many years to come.
Hmmm. The hunt. He recalled the other Abe having accused him of having the look of a hunter when he'd chosen to go off and help in the other dimension's case. "I was simply ready to resume helping to bring another criminal to justice - no matter how old they might be," he told her with a sly smile.
"To think that all of this came about just because I boarded a certain subway car on a certain date at a certain time." He smiled whimsically at her and asked, "By the way, what year were you born?"
"Never you mind. Let's just say it was many years after you were," she smilingly replied. "Why?"
"Well, you might want to avoid ever boarding a subway car numbered the same year as that of your birth. It might take you on a much longer ride than expected," he explained. "And I speak from experience."
vvvv
The other Henry in Dimension Two (two months later) ...
He read over the crime scene notes (from Chapter 7) which included extensive ones left by his doppelganger, of an elderly woman, Mrs. Alouetta Periwinkle, who'd apparently died in her sleep while doing needlepoint. Her body had been found in a sitting position on her sofa, the scent of both lavender perfume and the deadly combination of honey and oleander lingering about her.
"He was very thorough in his observations," he told his colleagues, closing the file. "It appears that his presence here in my absence was a very helpful one. I wonder how he'd feel if he knew that the true culprit was the initially cooperative witness, Maeve Thomas."
"I'm sure he'd be happy to know that the true would-be murderer was caught," the other Jo remarked. He was as determined as you always are in that regard."
"Weird that those two dummies thought the other had actually poisoned Mrs. Periwinkle," Mike said.
"Hmmm. Yes. The toxicology report showed that they and her sister, Mrs. Thomas, visited her with the specific intent of spiking her teacup with their own deadly concoctions of honey and oleander," Henry stated.
"To think that all a person needs is a credit card and an Internet connection to order almost anything," Jo bemoaned. "Even something as deadly as that poison."
The poisonous substance had been purchased from a website called "Pretty Poisons" set up by a group of grad students looking to supplement their income and pay down student loan debt. Once the story of Mrs. Periwinkle's death had hit the news, the site had been taken down but Google was cooperating with authorities to identify the admins of that domain and a similar site called "Lethal Ladies".
"Poor old lady never had a chance," Mike said. "First she gets taken for thousands of dollars by them and they plot to kill her so they won't have to pay her back! And at the other end of the hall is her own sister, Mrs. Thomas, who plotted to kill her so she could inherit what was left of Mrs. Periwinkle's retirement before the other two cleaned her out."
"So, instead of going to the authorities or trying to help her, Mrs. Thomas just plotted to take her own sister out before the other vultures did," Jo said, shaking her head.
Mike shook his head, frowning. "What. Is. Wrong. with some people?"
vvvv
The doorbell at the home of Isabel Martinez rang and she left her daughter, Jo, and new grandson to answer the door. She looked through the peephole and huffed, then looked at Jo. "It's him."
"Mama ... "
"TodavĂa no puede entrar en mi casa!" (He still can't come in my house!)
"Mama ... we talked about this already," Jo said wearily as she bottle fed little Joseph.
"No!" Isabel replied, raising her voice and both hands. She walked away from the door, shaking her head.
"Mama!" Jo called after her. "Por favor! He's here to see his son. Mama!"
Isabel came back and stood at the edge of the living room, not hiding her displeasure from her daughter.
Jo put the bottle down on the coffee table and rose from the rocking chair with the child in her arms. She walked over to her mother and passed him to her. "Aguanta a Joey por un minuto, por favor. Hablaré con Henry afuera." (Hold Joey for a minute, please. I'll talk to Henry outside.)
Isabel grudgingly took the baby at first but almost immediately began to smile and coo at him as she walked back into the living room. She picked up the bottle and resumed feeding the last of the formula to him.
Jo sighed and walked over to the door and opened it. She stepped out onto the porch, closed the door, and called to Henry, who had given up waiting and was slowly walking away. He'd reached the sidewalk and turned sharply back around when he heard her call his name. She beckoned to him and he quickly walked back to join her on the porch.
"Mama's still not ... " Jo paused, sighing. "She's still not forgiven you," she quietly added. "It's gonna take time."
He pursed his lips and nodded. "Understandable. And her misgivings about me are not without merit." He looked wistfully at the house and asked, "How is Joey?"
Jo smiled and replied, "Getting big. Smart. Takes everything in with those big, brown eyes of his."
"I'd ... like to see him but just because I'm still not welcome in your mother's house doesn't mean it would be a good idea to bring him out into this bitter cold," he told her.
They stood in silence looking at each other for several moments. Then, averting their eyes away from each other, Jo said, "Look. I've decided to return to my house tomorrow."
Henry snatched his head back to her, blinking. "Does your mother know?"
"No, but it doesn't matter," she replied with a sigh. "This is her home and she has every right to deny you entrance if she wants but it's affecting our lives. Joey's, yours and mine." She shrugged against the cold and shoved her hands deeper into her sweater pockets. "Come see us tomorrow evening at my place," she told him, looking deeply into his eyes.
He nodded and swallowed, then pulled a small envelope out of his coat pocket. "This is for Joey." She took the envelope from him and opened it, finding a check inside. He pulled a key out of his pocket and held it out to her. "And this is for you."
It was a key to the antiques shop. "Henry - "
"Actually, it's for me," he told her, interrupting her. "In case ... " he pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh," she breathed out. "Oh. Okay. Sure." She pocketed the key and the envelope with the child support check in it and shuddered against a slight but frosty gust of wind.
"You'd better go back in," he told her, concerned. "It's getting colder out here by the minute." He awkwardly kissed her on the cheek and turned to leave but she reached out and grabbed his coat's lapel, pulling him back toward her. She kissed him fully on the lips and he stepped closer, placing one hand on her waist. They ended the kiss but remained close to each other as she touched her hand to his cheek.
"We'll get back there, Henry. It'll just take time," she whispered. And now she knew that he had all the time in the world.
"I, I know. And thank you, Jo," he told her and pecked her again on the lips before he left.
She scurried back into the house out of the growing cold and watched him through the front window as he disappeared down the block. He'd made a lot of progress mending fences since his miraculous return from another dimension. She strongly felt that he was a changed man in spite of her doubting mother. She was choosing to go with her gut. And because of his immortality, she knew that their son would always have his father. Forever.
vvvv
Back in Dimension One ...
It had been a long, exhausting day at the OCME for Lucas Wahl. He loped up the stairs to his apartment building and let himself inside. He paused to pick up his mail from his box and groaned when he saw the return address on two of them.
'These student loans are killin' me!,' he groaned to himself. He shoved them into his jacket pocket and decided not to spend the evening wallowing in self-pity over his mounting debts. So, he headed back to the subway and descended the stairs to the lower platform. Where he was headed, he wasn't sure. Maybe his aunt and uncle's house in Queens or meet up with his friend, Pepe, at their favorite bookstore. Pick up the latest edition of "Slasher" magazine. The sound of the approaching train brought him out of his thoughts. As it slowed to a stop, he boarded the car but failed to notice that the number on the side of the car in front of him was 1984. The same year of his birth. Ohhh, myyy.