Body Over Troubled Waters

by Denise Swanson

While Wally wheeled the twins into the dispatcher officer and put down their diaper bags, Skye wrote her cell number on a slip of paper, gave it to Betty, and said, “Just text me if you need me.”

  “Will do.” Betty smiled. “Although I have a dozen grandkids, so I doubt that there’s anything that these adorable little angels can do that I can’t handle.” She patted Skye on the shoulder. “But I can understand why a mother would want to make sure her babies were safe.”

  Skye thanked her, then accompanied Wally down the hallway to the interrogation, a.k.a. break, room. As they walked inside and Wally flipped on the lights, she thought about what Betty had said. There was something about it that tickled her subconscious. What was it?

  Frustrated that she couldn’t put her finger on it, Skye took a seat. Seconds later, the wall phone buzzed and Wally pressed the intercom button.

  “Tavish Wraige is here.” Betty’s voice echoed from the speaker. “Shall I send him back?”

  “No. I’ll be right up to get him,” Wally answered, then looked at Skye and asked, “Are you ready for this?”

  She nodded and he hurried away.

  While she waited, she walked to the cupboard over the sink and took down the old-fashioned tape recorder. Six months ago, the city attorney had decreed that the police had to make an audio record of all official interviews. And since the interrogation room wasn’t set up with any kind of modern equipment and there was no money in the budget to correct that issue, the police had to make do with what they had lying around.

  When Wally returned with Tavish, he seated the man next to Skye, then took the chair opposite him. This was their normal position for when Wally wanted Skye to take the sympathetic role in the interview.

  “How are you doing this morning?” Skye asked, turning to face Tavish.

  “Good,” he answered. “But I’m anxious to hear what’s been found out about my father’s death.”

  Turning on the tape recorder, Wally announced the date and time and instructed, “Please state your full name and current address.” After Tavish complied, Wally Mirandized him, then when the younger man started to protest, he said, “It’s just routine, but if you’re uncomfortable and want to call an attorney we can wait.”

  “No.” Tavish crossed his arms. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

  “Great.” Skye smiled at him. “We do have a little bit of good news.” She watched him carefully. “With the exception of the neckties, all of the stolen items have been recovered.”

  “Oh?” Tavish’s expression was cautious. “Did you arrest the burglar?”

  “Sadly, no.” Skye patted his arm. “But your father’s car was found.”

  Tavish’s shoulders stiffened. It was a slight movement, but Skye noticed, and when she shot a glance at Wally, he nodded that he’d seen it too.

  “It was stuck in some ice on the river near the dam,” Wally explained.

  “Wow!” Tavish seemed to recover from the surprise and shook his head. “How lucky is it that it didn’t sink?”

  “I believe that’s what the thief hoped it would do,” Skye said. “It was discarded just like the rest of your father’s stolen possessions.”

  As she said that and watched Tavish’s reaction, she remembered Homer saying that Dr. Wraige and his son had been on the outs for years. He told her that they hadn’t spoken since Dr. Wraige divorced Tavish’s mother.

  “The burglar must have decided the stuff was too hot to fence.” Tavish gazed straight ahead, not looking at Skye.

  Since Wally hadn’t jumped in, Skye assumed it was okay for her to take the lead and said, “Or the items weren’t taken because of their monetary value, but because they had a sentimental value to Dr. Wraige.”

  “What kind of a robber would do that?” Tavish uncrossed his arms and gripped the table edge.

  “One who wanted his father to feel as hurt as he felt by his dad.” Skye kept her voice soft and understanding.

  “Are you accusing me?” Tavish yelped. “What kind of proof do you have?”

  “We found your fingerprints,” Wally answered.

  “But I wiped…” Tavish trailed off. “I mean, of course you did. I lived in the house.”

  “You did,” Wally agreed. “But we know you and your father had a strained relationship, so it’s extremely doubtful that you handled his personal items.” When Tavish remained silent, Wally added, “And as you started to say, you wiped off almost everything you stole.”

  “Not that I’m admitting that I took any of those things”—Tavish straightened—“but if I did, it was because he deserved to lose the possessions that he loved. He forced my mother to sign a prenup, which left her nearly penniless when he divorced her. She had to sell everything that was precious to her to support us.”

  “That’s awful.” Skye had never been fond of the superintendent, but the more she learned about him, the more she disliked him. “How did he avoid paying child support?”

  “Even his sleazy lawyers couldn’t get him out of that.” Tavish rolled his eyes. “But the agreement was set up so that Mom had to prove every cent was spent on me and not our mutual living expenses or the money was deducted from the next check.”

  Wally tapped his pen on the table. “Be that as it may, that doesn’t excuse—”

  Tavish interrupted. “It’s my understanding that prosecuting me would be problematic because shared living spaces make it difficult to prove intent to steal. The items could have been borrowed and misplaced.”

  “Perhaps,” Wally conceded. “However, murder is another matter.”

  “What! No!” Tavish suddenly seemed a lot less sure of himself. “I didn’t kill my father. I wasn’t even home when it happened.”

  “But you don’t have an alibi,” Wally countered. “No one can vouch for where you were.”

  “Actually.” Tavish’s cheeks reddened. “I do.”

  “You said no one saw you in your office,” Skye reminded him.

  “I…uh…didn’t want to get her in trouble,” Tavish mumbled. “She’s married.”

  “We’ll be discreet,” Wally assured him. “Who was with you that morning?”

  “Sueann Archmould.” Tavish glanced at Skye. “She was with me from eight thirty to nine forty-five. She stopped by to welcome me to the staff and then she said she’d never done it with a soldier and started undressing and—”

  Not wanting to hear the sordid details, Skye cut him off and asked, “How did she leave her kids for first and second periods?”

  “Sueann has a student teacher,” Tavish explained, then added, “And when she left to go back to her classroom, I walked up to the main office to get some info from the secretary.”

  “We’ll have to confirm that.” Wally looked at Skye and said, “Would you be okay calling this woman to check on his alibi?”

  “I guess.” Skye wasn’t thrilled at having to admit to a colleague that she was aware of her infidelity, but it was within the scope of her job as the police’s psych consultant.

  “Use my office.”

  Skye nodded and headed upstairs. It was an uncomfortable phone call, but once Sueann was assured confidentiality, she admitted to being with Tavish during the time of the murder.

  Before returning to the interrogation room, Skye looked in on the twins. Betty had Eva on her lap and CJ was snoozing in his stroller.

  Turning to leave, Skye saw Nanette and Colleen enter the station. Unsure of how Wally wanted to proceed with the women, she hurried away before they spotted her.

  Wally met her in the hallway and she informed him that Sueann had corroborated Tavish’s alibi. She also told him that their next two suspects were waiting for them in the lobby.

  “Why don’t you let Wraige know he’s in the clear for his father’s murder and I’ll go get the women?” Wally suggested, then added, “But advise him we may still
charge him with the thefts. I want to keep him unsettled until we have the killer, but truthfully, I can’t see making that charge stick.”

  “Got it.” Skye walked inside the interrogation room, approached Tavish, and said, “Sueann backed up your story so you can leave.”

  He quickly rose to his feet, but before he got to the door, she added Wally’s warning.

  “You know,” Tavish said, his hand on the doorknob, “I may or may not have taken the jewelry box, ties, and car, but I definitely didn’t take the coin collection.”

  Having imparted that last confusing piece of information, he hurried away.

  Chapter 26

  Stupid Cupid

  Skye and Wally stood outside the interrogation room window watching Nanette and Colleen through a gap in the blinds. After escorting the women in there and showing them to their seats, Wally had motioned Skye to follow him into the hallway.

  Shutting the door behind him, Wally leaned a shoulder against the wall and said, “I had planned to interview these two separately, but now that we know Tavish has an alibi, I reconsidered your earlier suggestion to have the suspects together to see if one would implicate the other, and I think it’s a good idea with these two. Is that still your professional opinion?”

  “It is.” Skye studied the pair of women. “We’re ninety-nine percent certain either Colleen or Nanette is the killer. Surely, if the innocent party feels that they might be arrested, they’ll give up whatever information about the other they’ve been holding back.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “I’d like you to take the empty chair between them. Concentrate your attention on Nanette as much as possible because I have a feeling Colleen won’t fall for your sympathetic counselor schtick.”

  “It’s not a schtick.” Skye smacked Wally’s biceps. “I am empathic.”

  “Sorry. I do know that.” Wally patted her shoulder, then said, “I Mirandized them before bringing them back here. Nanette got a little huffy, but I told her it was just standard operating procedure for anyone talking to the authorities at a police station.”

  “Did she buy that?”

  “Of course.” Wally winked. “Women find me very charming and sincere.”

  Skye made a face. “Don’t I know it.”

  Wally chuckled and opened the interrogation room door, motioning for her to go in before him. She nodded her thanks, then walked over and took the seat that he’d indicated.

  There was one chair left and it was on the other side of the table, conveniently arranged to be across from Skye’s. He turned on the tape recorder, announced the date and time, and as he had with Tavish, he instructed, “Please state your full names and current addresses.” After they obeyed, Wally said, “We have a few questions regarding Dr. Wraige’s murder. In order to make you both more comfortable, we are allowing you to remain together during this conversation.”

  “Questions?” Nanette blinked. “I thought you were going to bring us up-to-date on the investigation.”

  “We are.” Skye turned and smiled reassuringly at the woman. “We just want to clear up a few things first since neither of you have alibis.”

  “Are we suspects?” Colleen fluttered her eyelashes at Wally. “Do you think we should have a lawyer?”

  “You’re free to call an attorney,” Wally said smoothly. “But we would have to adjourn and wait for him or her to show up.” He stared at Nanette. “Didn’t you say you had clients scheduled this afternoon?”

  Nanette nodded and checked her watch. “I only have an hour free and since we have nothing to hide, and we want to do everything we can to help the police find Shamus’s killer, we’ll just go ahead without legal representation, right?” She gave Colleen a firm look until her friend nodded. Once she had Colleen’s agreement, Nanette turned her gaze to Skye and asked, “What do you want to know?”

  “I understand that your husband wasn’t feeling well before he died.” Skye started with something that Nanette wouldn’t be expecting.

  “That’s correct.” Nanette’s tone was cautious. “Shamus had been sick on and off for the past month or so. Why does that matter?”

  Colleen brightened. “Did he trip and fall into the statue? Was it an accident after all?”

  Skye sent Wally a quick glance. As far as she knew, the details about the way Dr. Wraige had been killed had never been released. Of course, there could have been a leak. Lena, the crime lab’s administrative assistant, had a big mouth.

  Wally shrugged. He, too, was well aware of the probability that Lena had blabbed about the unusual circumstances surrounding the superintendent’s death.

  Skye turned back to Nanette and said, “We found muffin wrappers at the scene and remnants of that muffin in Dr. Wraige’s stomach contents. Was he the only one that ate those particular breakfast items?”

  “Yes. The rest of us didn’t need them.” Nanette twisted the handle of her purse. “They were a special recipe to improve his cholesterol. It was high during his last checkup so I was preparing healthier options for his meals.”

  “I wasn’t aware that tobacco was considered nutritious,” Skye’s tone was mild, but Nanette stiffened. Skye kept her voice neutral as she said, “We found the tobacco hidden in your tampons.”

  Nanette’s cheeks reddened and she stuttered, “I…uh…don’t know what you’re talking about. If you found something like that, then Tavish probably put it there.”

  “No.” Skye shook her head. “Only your fingerprints were on the box and the wrappers.”

  “Uh…” Nanette gazed frantically around the room as if she expected to find a good excuse for herself on the wall. “I just wanted him to feel a little sick so he’d stop going after other women.”

  “That was never going to happen,” Colleen needled. “He couldn’t keep it in his pants if his fly was sewn shut with steel thread.”

  “He was doing so good until I let you move in!” Nanette cried. “I should have known better. You’re such a slut.”

  “I am not.” Colleen tittered, seemingly unscathed by the insult. “I’m just sexually extroverted.”

  “That’s for sure,” Nanette huffed. “After what happened between you and my college boyfriend, I was stupid to take you in. Heck, your own parents were willing to see you homeless before they’d let you stay with them.”

  Skye and Wally exchanged glances, but before either could speak, Colleen leaned around Skye so she could see her friend and whined, “It’s not as if I led him on. You know what he did when I told him I wasn’t interested.”

  “That’s why I started slipping him the tobacco,” Nanette sobbed. “You told me it would decrease his sex drive and would only make him feel sick but not do any permanent harm.”

  Skye patted the distraught woman’s arm as she wept, then after a few seconds of silence, Wally said, “Tell me what happened the morning Dr. Wraige died. Did he find out about the tobacco and attack you? Is that why you killed him?”

  “No!” Nanette yelped. “He and I had coffee in our sitting room. I made sure he ate a muffin, then I left for work.”

  “We found a muffin wrapper in the kitchen as well as in the sitting room.” Wally tapped the table. “Were you aware he ate two of them?”

  “Absolutely not!” Nanette shouted. “I always told him to only eat one, but he was such a self-indulgent pig, I should have known better.” She shook her head. “I wanted him sick, not dead. I needed him to get me pregnant.”

  “Because you signed a prenup, just like his first wife,” Skye murmured, figuring it out as Nanette and Colleen revealed pieces of the puzzle.

  “Yes,” Nanette admitted. “If he died and we didn’t have any kids together, I’d get nothing. All the money in the trust goes to his children. If anyone killed him, it was Tavish.”

  “Your stepson has an alibi.” Wally crossed his arms and said, “Try again.”

  Wh
en Nanette remained silent, Skye said, “Colleen had coffee with both of you up there, too, right? We found her prints on a third cup.”

  “No.” Nanette frowned. “She’d already left before that. There should have only been two cups.”

  “How do you explain that, Colleen?” Wally asked abruptly, staring at the woman in question.

  “Your lab made a mistake.” Colleen thrust out her bottom lip, pouting like a two-year-old.

  “No. It didn’t.” Wally continued to focus on her. “They checked twice.”

  “Oh.” Colleen stared at ceiling as if looking for an explanation, then shrugged and, seemingly unaware of how much trouble she was in, giggled. “Oopsie.”

  Nanette put her hand on her chest and stared at her friend. “But you’d already left for Chicago. How did a cup with your prints get up there?”

  Colleen sighed. “I was nearly to Joliet when I realized that I forgot one of the documents I needed for the meeting with my lawyer. Since I had time, I turned around and came back. The front door was locked and I couldn’t find my key, but I remembered that the French doors in the kitchen were usually open.” She rolled her eyes. “Of course, because things never work out for me, this time they weren’t. It was getting late, so I dumped out my purse, found my key, used it to get in the front door, and went to my room.”

  “Ah.” Wally nodded. “You were the one Dr. Wraige heard trying to gain entrance to the house.”

  “Probably.” Colleen twitched her shoulders.

  “If you went to your room to get the paperwork you needed, what were you doing having coffee in the master suite with my husband?” Nanette clearly wasn’t buying her friend’s explanation.

  Skye and Wally exchanged meaningful looks and Wally said, “I’d like to hear your answer to that question too.”

  “It’s none of your business,” Colleen snapped, evidently no longer finding Wally as attractive as she had previously.

  “But it is my business.” Nanette’s voice broke. “We’ve been friends for nearly two decades. You promised me after that incident in college that you’d never steal another man from me again. How could you?”