Long Time Gone Part 17

"What are all those reporters doing here?" Sister Mary Katherine asked, observing the crush of people gathered near the entryway into the chapel.

"Because they're vultures," I said. "And the idea that a police officer may have done something wrong sends them into a feeding frenzy."

"Your friend is a suspect?" Sister Mary Katherine asked.

"As far as the press is concerned, he is," I answered.

As we walked toward the chapel, I heard footsteps hurrying behind me. I turned to see Mel Soames rushing to catch up. "Are we late?" she asked.

"Not yet," I said. "But close. Come on."

Introductions happened as we walked while the gaggle of reporters turned their attention and lenses on us. I did my best to shield the two women from the cameras as we made our way through the crush to the door, but my efforts weren't entirely successful.

Inside the funeral home's vestibule, we were approached by a man in a dark suit. "You're here for the Peters service?" he asked in a hushed voice.

I nodded, and he handed each of us a program. "Down the hall and to the right," he said. "And you'd best hurry. They're about to start."

By the time we reached the room and slipped into the back row of folding chairs, the service, such as it was, had indeed started. The room was small. Since Rosemary had been cremated, there was no coffin, only a photo of her that looked as if it might have been taken from a high school yearbook. She was a sweet-faced girl back then, before she had succ.u.mbed to the ravages of substance abuse.

The media may have been milling around outside, but the service itself was spa.r.s.ely attended. Even counting Mel, Sister Mary Katherine, the minister, and me, there couldn't have been more than a dozen or so people in the room. Besides Ron and Amy and the kids, Ron's parents and Amy's were there as well. So was an older couple I later learned were Rosemary's grandparents.

It was telling that, despite the fact that Ron had worked for Seattle PD most of his adult life, only one current police officer from that jurisdiction was in attendance. To me that meant that word had filtered down from on high that Ron Peters was to be hung out to dry and that everybody in the department, if they knew what was good for them, should distance themselves from him. The only exception to that ostensibly unofficial order was Commander Anthony Freeman, head of Internal Affairs and Ron Peters's boss.

Even as head of IA-an unenviable job if ever there was one-Tony had maintained his reputation as a straight shooter. He was the one who had plucked Ron from his long exile in Media Relations and had given him an avenue back into what Ron regarded as active police work. It didn't surprise me that Tony alone would defy the bra.s.s and come to the memorial service.

Molly Wright, Amy's sister, was also there. I thought it odd that she was sitting by herself toward the back of the room rather than with her parents, who were up front, just behind Ron and Amy. And then, a minute or so after we arrived, Dillon Middleton showed up. Instead of joining Heather, he slipped into an empty chair next to Molly. She reached over, greeted him with a hug, and then whispered something in his ear. When we stood up for the opening prayer, I noticed she was holding his hand.

It wasn't out of character that Dillon wouldn't attempt to sit near Heather. In fact, considering what he and Heather were most likely doing behind her parents' backs, I would have expected him to make himself scarce whenever Ron or Amy was around, but Molly's apparent closeness to Dillon surprised me and I wondered what exactly was going on, but by then the memorial service was well under way.

I'm sure Ron had arranged the affair in order to give Tracy and Heather some kind of closure in the aftermath of their mother's death. I don't know how much the service did for them, but it didn't do much for me. I've attended funerals and memorials that moved me. This one didn't. The man who officiated seemed to have almost no knowledge about Rosemary Peters and her many demons and struggles. He seemed to know even less about the broken and grieving people who were left behind or the forces that had splintered Ron and Rosemary's marriage and family. By the time the minister segued into a lame benediction, the only person in the room who was actually weeping was Rosemary's grandmother.

When it was time to go, Dillon was the first to leave and Mel shot after him. Shoving his wheelchair into high gear, Ron Peters dodged away from his family and made straight for me. "What's she doing here?" he demanded.

At first I thought he was talking about Sister Mary Katherine. Then I realized he meant Mel. "She's only doing her job," I said. "She needs to talk to Dillon."

"That little creep?" Ron asked. "You mean he was here, too?" He rounded on Molly. "I suppose you told him it was all right for him to come, didn't you!" he said accusingly. Shaking his head in disgust, Ron turned his back on Molly and rolled away.

Watching him go, Molly's face flushed deep red. Whether the color came from anger or embarra.s.sment I couldn't tell. Maybe it was both. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room.

"Just because I have to stay with you at the moment doesn't give you the right to talk to me that way," Molly called after him. "I'm not your wife, you know, and I'm not one of your daughters, either. You can't tell me what to do."

Ron stopped, turned, and came back. "And you don't have the right to undermine my authority over my own children," he retorted. "Dillon's too old for Heather. I told her that, and I told him, too. And I meant it. Just because he's your friend's son..."

"There's nothing wrong with Dillon Middleton," Molly interrupted. "If you'd give him a chance, you might find out what a nice boy he is. As for Heather, one of these days you're going to have to let her grow up and make her own decisions."

"Maybe when she's grown up," Ron returned, "she'll be capable of making better decisions than she's making right now."

Amy's mother, Carol, attempted to intervene. "Come on, Molly," she said. "Everyone's upset right now. Let it be."

"I won't let it be!" Molly stormed. "He seems to think I'm some kind of charity case and it's okay for him to treat me like dirt. I look after his kids when he and Amy are off at work, I cook the meals, and this is the thanks I get."

"Enough, both of you," Amy interjected, leveling searing looks at both her husband and her sister. Then, to everyone else, she announced, "Come on up to the house. We'll have refreshments there."

With Sister Mary Katherine in tow, I hadn't planned to accept that invitation, but Amy changed my mind. "Please stop by," she said as I was holding the door for my pa.s.senger. "It would be a huge help to me."

I looked questioningly at Sister Mary Katherine. "It's fine," she said. "I don't mind. I can wait in the car."

When we stopped in front of the Peterses' place, the media horde was once again on our heels. "You'd better come on in," I said, changing my mind about leaving Sister Mary Katherine in the car. "I don't want you to be at their mercy. They're going to want to know who you are and why you're here. Until we talk to Detective Jackson, it's probably best if you don't talk to any reporters at all."

I parked on the street and then ushered Sister Mary Katherine up to Ron and Amy's front door. When I rang the bell, Tracy opened the door and let us in. She reached up and hugged me. "Are you okay?"

Biting her lip, she nodded. "Dad's downstairs," she said. "He's the one who needs help."

I looked back at Sister Mary Katherine. "Go ahead," she said. "I'll wait right here."

She settled into a chair near the door while I went looking for Ron. He was in the daylit bas.e.m.e.nt apartment staring up at the crowd of reporters milling outside. "I wanted it to be private," he said.

"It was private," I said.

"The parking lot wasn't private, not with those yahoos chasing people to and from their cars. And it's not private here, either. And then I had to go and make an a.s.s of myself and jump all over you about that Soames woman. I'm sorry," he added. "I thought you had brought her."

"Mel's perfectly capable of taking herself anywhere she wants to go," I said.

"She wants to talk to Heather."

"She needs to talk to Heather," I corrected. "It's her job."

"Not without a parent and an attorney present," he said. "I've called Ralph. We've made an appointment for tomorrow morning.

"And then I had to make an a.s.s of myself about Molly. I'm tired of having her underfoot. At the time we bought the house from Amy and Molly's folks, Molly and her husband were flying high and they said it was fine-they wanted no part of it. But now that Molly's broke, she seems to think she can stay here forever. That we owe her a place to live for however long she cares to hang around. I married Amy," he added miserably. "I sure as h.e.l.l didn't marry her sister. The woman despises me, and the feeling's pretty much mutual."

"Look, Ron," I said reasonably, "there's a whole lot on your plate right now. No one could blame you for being depressed, but-"

He rounded on me. "Depressed? Who the h.e.l.l said I was depressed?" he demanded. "Here I am about to lose my daughter, and you say I'm depressed? Next you'll be telling me I need to drag my b.u.t.t off to see the nearest doc and get myself a prescription for antidepressants."

"Ron," Amy called from upstairs. "Are you coming up or not? Tony's here, but he's going to have to leave in a few minutes."

"Time for my command performance," Ron said grimly, pushing the elevator b.u.t.ton; then, to me, he added, "Going up?"

I crowded into the tiny elevator with him and rode up to the living-room level. Amy was watching the elevator from across the room, but as soon as the door opened, she turned away and resumed a quiet conversation with her parents. The look on her face as she looked away told me she wasn't any happier than her husband was.

Someone waylaid Ron the moment he rolled out of the elevator. I caught sight of Anthony Freeman, who was standing near a food-laden table on the far side of the room, thoughtfully sipping a cup of coffee. I made my way over to him. His face brightened as I approached. He put down his coffee cup and held out a hand.

"Beaumont," he exclaimed. "It's good to see you again, even if it isn't under the best of circ.u.mstances. How's your new job working out?"

"Fine," I said. "Given the choice between working for Harry I. Ball or working for Paul Kramer, I'll take Harry every time."

"Understandable," Tony Freeman said. "What are you working on these days? Not this, I a.s.sume."

As soon as he asked the question, it dawned on me that Anthony Freeman was one of the few people still inside Seattle PD who might be able to help me in my search for Mimi Marchbank's killer.

"I'm tracking down a cold case from 1950. The investigating officer was William Winkler. Ever heard of him?"

"Wink Winkler?" Tony replied. "I've heard of him all right, just today. It was on the radio as I came from the funeral home."

"What was on the radio?"

"He's dead," Tony Freeman said. "A tugboat captain spotted his body this morning. He was snagged on a pier over by Harbor Island."

"Wink Winkler is dead!" I repeated in disbelief.

Tony shrugged. "What I heard made it sound like a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I believe he had already been reported missing, and they must have contacted next of kin, since they've already announced it on the air."

"d.a.m.n!" I said.

"What's wrong?"

"I went to see him yesterday in reference to that old case. He wasn't exactly thrilled to hear that I now had an eyewitness. How much do you know about him?"

"Not that much. I know he was brought down in the bribery and corruption scandals that went on in the midfifties. But I could take a look at what's in his file to see if there's anything that might apply." Tony reached in his pocket and pulled out a notebook. "What's the name of the case you're working?"

"Marchbank," I said. "Madeline Marchbank. She was stabbed to death in May of 1950."

Tony Freeman gave me a searching look. "Marchbank. The name sounds familiar. Wait a minute. Isn't Marchbank the name of the woman who was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs last night?"

"That's right. Elvira Marchbank, not Madeline. And Elvira was one of two perpetrators identified by the eyewitness in that other case."

"And Wink Winkler was the investigating officer."

I nodded. "You're sure he committed suicide?"

"Nothing's for sure. If he didn't and with this Elvira woman dead as well, that eyewitness of yours could be a whole lot more than what she claims to be," Tony Freeman observed.

It was a fair conjecture. If Paul Kramer and his detectives weren't making the same connection themselves, they soon would be.

"Is there money involved?" Tony asked.

I thought about the Marchbank Foundation. "Probably," I said.

"Well, then," Tony said. "Do what I do. Follow the money."

He finished writing his note and stuffed the notepad back in his pocket. "I'll take a look at the file," he said. "If anything jumps out at me, I'll let you know."

Tony excused himself to go talk to Ron while I went looking for Sister Mary Katherine. She was sitting in the same place where I had left her, but someone-Tracy, presumably-had brought her a cup of coffee and a plate of tiny sandwiches and cookies.

"Time to go home?" she asked.

"Home," I agreed. "But mine, not yours."

"We're going to your place?" Sister Mary Katherine asked. "Why?"

"Wink Winkler is dead."

"What happened?"

"First reports suggest a possible suicide."

"Is he dead because of me?" Sister Mary Katherine asked.

It seemed to me that was probably true, but I chose not to say so.

"Is that why I can't go home?" she added.

"Kramer may have blown us off this morning, and we didn't see Detective Jackson at lunch, but you can bet they're going to want to talk to you this evening. If I take you home, you'll just have to turn around and come straight back."

"Why are you so sure they're going to want to talk to me?" she asked.

"Because I'm going to call them up and tell them to," I said.

And I did. Some telephone numbers never fall out of your head. Captain Larry Powell's number was still there in my dialing finger even though his desk was now in another building and belonged to someone else. Kramer answered his phone on the second ring.

"Oh, it's you," he said dismissively once I identified myself. "That little lady of yours is something else. Everywhere she goes, people are dropping like flies."

I bristled at that. Sister Mary Katherine was n.o.body's "little lady" and she most especially wasn't mine.

"This is a courtesy call," I said civilly. "Sister Mary Katherine was about to head home for Whidbey Island when we heard about Wink Winkler's death. I thought you might want to speak with her about the Madeline Marchbank situation after all."

"I doubt that will be necessary," Kramer replied brusquely. "That whole situation is under control."

I could hardly believe my ears. "You're not interested in interviewing her?"

"Not at this time. I told you earlier that we're not going to do any kind of investigation based on the faulty premise of forgotten memories. Maybe the AG's office can afford to squander resources like that, but I can't. We've reopened Madeline Marchbank's homicide, and we'll be following up on it through conventional methods and with conventional detective work."

"I don't think you're paying attention, Paul. Sister Mary Katherine says Elvira Marchbank was one of the perpetrators in that case-"

"One of the alleged perpetrators," Kramer corrected.

"And Winkler was the lead investigating officer," I continued. "Both of them died within hours of learning about Sister Mary Katherine's potentially damaging allegations. Doesn't that tell you something?"

"It tells me people are messing around where they shouldn't be messing," Kramer replied. "Wink Winkler blew his brains out. Lots of ex-cops do that. Would he have done it if Sister Mary Katherine hadn't been stirring up those old pots? Who knows? We'll be investigating that, of course, and trying to find out what else was going on in his life that might have pushed him over the edge. As for Elvira Marchbank? I suspect her death will end up being ruled accidental. There was a stack of magazines near the top of the stairs where she took that fall. One of them-one that was found near her body at the bottom of the stairs-showed evidence of a partial shoe print. I'm guessing she stepped on it and went flying-sort of like stepping on a banana peel."

Earlier in the day Kramer had referred to Elvira's death as being unexpected. He hadn't said a word about it being a possible homicide. Now that previous statement made sense. The good captain was playing the closure game. Ruling a homicide an accidental death and conveniently labeling something suicide when it maybe wasn't suicide at all helps skew the statistics. It keeps those pesky unsolved cases from showing up on your squad's track record.

Captain Paul Kramer was definitely a bottom-line kind of guy. If he couldn't solve a particular case-or if he didn't want to be bothered-he simply made it disappear. As for Mimi Marchbank? Her death hadn't happened on his watch, so he could afford to reopen that one and leave it open indefinitely. Regardless of whether or not the case was solved, it wouldn't count against Kramer's closure stats.

I put the phone down and found Sister Mary Katherine staring at me. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You look upset."

"I'll take you back to Whidbey," I said. "It turns out I was wrong. We won't be paying another visit to Homicide after all."