Final Cycle

by Elaine L. Orr

  But did Clancy’s assistance mean he should pay substantially less of a penalty than the two men who killed her? His crimes – even forgetting the probable pot sales – were less egregious, but still very serious.

  She sighed to herself. Fortunately, the state’s attorney made those decisions. She would continue to give Clancy credit for his help, but she would not argue hard in his behalf. That’s why Clancy had an attorney.

  ELIZABETH WAS READY FOR her last report to be written so she could get out of the station, but she had one more responsibility. If she hadn't invited Wally Kermit, she'd have asked her own officers if they wanted to skip Christmas cookies and eggnog in exchange for better food New Year's Eve.

  She walked into Doris Minx's cookie shop at three-fifteen. "Merry Christmas, Doris. I was afraid you'd be closed on Sunday."

  "Only open because I had a couple late orders to finish. The last customer just left." Her baker's hat, which bore a holly leaf, jiggled in apparent excitement. "Merry Christmas to you, too, Chief. I hear we can feel safer now."

  "I think so. It's been a long week, hasn't it?"

  She grew somber. "I didn't much like Louella Belle, but I feel bad how she died. Very undignified." Her frown deepened. "The paper didn't say. Did she, did it hurt much?"

  "From what Skelly has said, I think she had a moment of surprise, and then she wouldn't have known much, if anything."

  Doris nodded slowly. "The mayor ordered a big batch of cookies to be delivered to the senior apartments this morning. It's hard to know what to do, but a bunch of those folks come by here. They like their sweets."

  "That sounds lovely. Listen, Doris, I usually bake some cookies to have at the office Christmas Eve, but I've been busy."

  Doris' eyebrows went up and her eyes brightened. "Oh, Elizabeth, I'd love to give you some."

  "No, no. I want to buy them."

  After a full minute of haggling, Elizabeth agreed to a discount on the cookies and Doris insisted on providing a large loaf of pumpkin bread as a gift.

  "Thanks, Doris. We'll really enjoy all this."

  She winked. "Make sure you eat the pumpkin bread today. It's day old."

  As Elizabeth left the store, snow began to fall softly. On the short drive to the station, she hummed "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."

  When she got to the station, several cars were parked in front, so she stowed the Crown Vic a couple of doors down. She hoped the people were at another business and not there to report crimes.

  Laughter greeted her as she opened the door. All of her officers stood in the bullpen and the counter had a festive red tablecloth. Even better, a plate of sliced ham and cheese, rolls, and a bowl of what looked to be green bean casserole sat atop the tablecloth.

  Nick grinned at her and Marti waved from near Hammer's desk, where she served eggnog to Wally as Mahan waited for his. She called, "Hey, Chief. You got them! Merry Christmas."

  "This is wonderful!"

  "We finished that big lunch at the diner. You know the Christmas Eve thing, and we had a lot left," Nick said.

  Elizabeth placed the baked goods on the counter. "I hope you'll stay and eat with us."

  "Goin' to my parents'," Nick said.

  The door opened again and Alice, Gene, and Squeaky came in, brushing snow from their shoulders.

  "Afternoon, everybody," Squeaky called.

  "Anyone need inked for Christmas?" Gene asked, grinning.

  No one answered, but from the corner of her eye, Elizabeth saw Calderone gesture toward his back side.

  Alice kissed Elizabeth on the cheek. "It's going around town that you all solved the murders. We came by to say thank you."

  "We should call Doris," Elizabeth said.

  "I did," Hammer said, as the door opened again.

  "Nobody called me," Jerry Pew said.

  "You're supposed to have a nose for news," Alice said.

  Elizabeth wanted to be done and go to the hospital to see if Skelly could leave, but she mingled for more than an hour. She noticed Calderone motion to Wally that his fly was down, and wondered if the man was so unmindful every day.

  Hammer picked up used paper plates and cups until Mahan told him if he kept doing it he'd send all of them to Hammer's house wrapped like a Christmas present.

  "I think he'd like that," Officer Taylor said. He spoke with the authority of an unlikely Santa -- tall and with hair as red as the costume he wore.

  Elizabeth smiled at Hammer from across the room. "Remember, Hammer's the one who certifies your time cards to me."

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  AN HOUR LATER, Elizabeth parked her small Ford in the circular drive in front of the main hospital entrance and left the flashers on. She rationalized that she wasn't in front of the door and would be there only a few minutes.

  The hospital lobby was deserted at five PM Christmas Eve. Hospitals limited new voluntary admissions leading up to major holidays, but she hadn't expected the place to be so quiet. She picked up the information phone on the desk and asked for the nurses' station on Skelly's floor.

  "This is Elizabeth Friedman. Is Mr. Hutton ready to leave?"

  The nurse laughed. "I never heard anyone call Skelly Mr. Hutton."

  "Good point. Would you like me to come up, or is he being wheeled down? I may be early."

  "He's ready. I'll bring him down myself." The nurse lowered her voice. "He's been chomping at the bit to leave, but if it were me, I would've wanted to stay at least one more day."

  Elizabeth wasn't sure what to say. "Double vision cleared up?"

  "Mostly, and he's not too dizzy. But," she paused, "I don't mean to be nosy, but do you know if anyone will be with him the next couple days?"

  Elizabeth hesitated. "I told him he could share a couch with my cat."

  The nurse laughed again. "That's perfect. We'll be down in five minutes."

  SINCE MOVING TO LOGLAND, Elizabeth had largely kept to herself. A small-town police chief could easily know everyone her officers arrested, so she wanted some distance between her and most residents.

  Skelly would be her first dinner guest, and definitely her first overnight visitor. She figured there was at least a chance he would fall asleep during dinner.

  Elizabeth mulled this over as she waited in the hospital lobby. She'd pulled out the living room sofa bed so he could rest as soon as they got to her apartment, and she had a roast in the crock pot. She felt lucky to have had anything in the freezer. There had been no time to grocery shop.

  The lobby elevator dinged and its door opened. Elizabeth thought she kept shock from her expression when the nurse wheeled Skelly out. The phrase deathly pale came to mind.

  Skelly smiled weakly. "You don't have to look so surprised, Elizabeth."

  She shrugged. "I've seen you look better." She glanced at the nurse. "He's good enough to go home?"

  "He and the doctor agreed to it, but you're supposed to call if he acts woozy." The nurse took an envelope from the side pocket of her scrubs. "Couple prescriptions, but he has a few pills with him because the pharmacies close early for Christmas Eve. Guidance for you, instructions for him. If you can get him to follow them."

  Elizabeth fell into step beside Skelly and the nurse. "I have a whip I can crack."

  BUT SHE DIDN'T NEED one. Skelly napped for half-an-hour on the sofa bed, and looked much better when he awoke about six.

  She brought him a ginger ale and half of a tuna sandwich. "Your color's better. The roast was frozen when I put it in the crock pot, so this'll tide you over 'til dinner in an hour. If you're hungry."

  "You don't have to wait on me, Elizabeth." He took the drink.

  She placed the sandwich beside him on the couch and sat in a rocker next to him. "You look better because you're taking it easy. Besides, I'll get you to shovel Edna's sidewalk next time it snows."

  He looked around the living room. "I didn't take in much when we got here. You have a cozy place."

  She nodded at the two-foot tall Christmas
tree on a table in front of the window. "I'm lucky I kept my old tree from college. No time to do anything else."

  "You don't have to go back to work?"

  "We're done for the day unless someone needs something. Calls will go to county dispatch." She hadn't described the successful search at Blake Wessley's apartment, though she would if he asked for a status update. "I'm covering tomorrow, and we've turned the low-lifes over to the county."

  They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Skelly broke it. "Hard to believe the past week started with a shove in a laundromat." He sipped his ginger ale. "Some people would say she brought it on herself, but from what you told me about that scrapbook, she was a woman in great pain."

  "Yes, but why create so much for others?"

  "So no one would get close to her, and she would never hurt as much as she did when her younger sister died."

  Elizabeth stared at Skelly for several seconds. "That's pretty darn profound."

  "In a couple of weeks, or whenever seems like a good time, I'm going to ask Jerry Pew if I can write an editorial about people in pain and how to more constructively address it."

  "You see a lot of them."

  "Too often when their pain has killed them by drinking, fighting, whatever. They either don't know how to ask for help, or they're so difficult to deal with that no one wants to take time to find out why they act the way they do."

  "In my experience, asking criminals why they did what they did doesn't often get a useful answer."

  "Wrong question," Skelly said.

  "What's the right one?"

  "Believe it or not, Oprah Winfrey just came up with it."

  "How many pain pills did you take?"

  "I'm serious. I saw her interviewed on Ellen."

  "You're at work when Ellen comes on."

  "Yes, but some of my work is so awful I keep the TV on for diversion. Anyway, Oprah says when someone acts out, instead of asking 'Why did you do that,' we should ask, 'What happened to you?' In other words, you're asking them why they hurt. It gets at the root of the issue."

  Elizabeth looked beyond Skelly to the cornflower blue curtains that framed the living room window. "By the time folks get to me…" she shrugged, "isn't that more for a social worker or therapist?"

  "Ideally, and when a kid is young. But somebody has to ask it. There are times when the police could."

  Elizabeth didn't want to argue with him. "I suppose, sometimes."

  Skelly pointed his sandwich at her. "That college kid, Monty. From the Halloween party last fall."

  She nodded. "Someone like him, I guess. He's been in alcohol treatment, and he's home for a break. Came to the station a couple days ago."

  They didn't speak for half a minute. Skelly leaned into the back of the couch and shut his eyes. Elizabeth wondered if he was about to doze off with the remains of his sandwich in his lap.

  He opened his eyes. "So, what happened to you?"

  "Excuse me?"

  He grew serious. "You always keep me at a distance."

  "How hard was that bump on your head?"

  "See, you're doing it now." When she didn't say anything, Skelly said, "You don’t have to answer me. But I figure something in your past wants you to keep me out of your future."

  Elizabeth stared at him. "Blunt, aren't we?"

  He grinned. "Probably was a pretty hard swat to the skull."

  She drew a breath. "In Chicago I got involved with another officer. Lots of rules about no fraternization."

  Skelly shrugged. "Kind of old-fashioned."

  "People date other people in a big department, but…not usually their boss."

  "Ah. I know you didn't get fired, though."

  "Not even asked to resign. We both got our hands slapped, I got reassigned."

  "And you broke up?" Skelly asked.

  "Kind of got worn out by the attention. But I could tell, let's see, how to put this? I could tell that it wasn't going to affect his career at all."

  "But yours would be?"

  "Some people saw it as sleeping with the boss to get ahead. Ironically, especially the other women officers."

  "So you decided to leave?"

  "I'd had a couple grisly crime scenes with kids. I kind of liked the idea of getting out of Chicago."

  "And you like it in Logland." Skelly said it as a statement, not a question.

  "Pretty much. But I decided I'd be smarter." She smiled. "Obviously half the guys on my force could be my father, or at least my uncle. I'm not going to date anyone I work with. Ever."

  "But, Elizabeth, we don’t work together."

  "Yesss, but…" She shrugged.

  "I mean, I could get you in good with a couple of corpses, but that's the only advantage I can think of."

  "I could put poison in your meat, you know."

  "Yeah, but whoever did the autopsy would figure it was you."

  She sighed and leaned her head against the rocker. "This is complicated."

  "Life is complex, but you might be the one who's making it complicated."

  Elizabeth studied him. "This conversation is giving you good color in your cheeks." She smiled.

  "I'm talking about a date sometime, Elizabeth, not putting a marriage announcement in Jerry Pew's paper."

  Without warning, the cat jumped on the sofa bed, walked directly to Skelly, and sat on his chest.

  He scratched her head and grinned. "Your cat likes me." He took a piece of tuna from the sandwich and held it out to the cat.

  "She likes anyone who feeds her."

  He shook his head slightly. "Think about it. I could be dying here. My last chance for a good time."

  She raised her eyebrows.

  He rolled his eyes, then winced. "Not like 'for a good time call Elizabeth.' After I'm back on my feet, we go to a movie. We can go to a theater fifty miles away if you want."

  "Can you cook anything besides Reubens and hamburgers?"

  He grinned. "Scrambled eggs, no salads."

  "I'll think about it."

  Skelly looked at the cat. "I told you her name should be Lucky. You think I'll get lucky?"

  Elizabeth stood. "In your dreams."

  "I'm on drugs. I've had some pretty weird ones the last day or so."

  Elizabeth bent over and kissed Skelly's cheek. "Be nice to Lucky while I finish Christmas dinner."

  NICK’S DINER CHILE *

  1 Tablespoon oil

  1 pound ground beef or turkey

  1 onion, chopped

  1 green pepper, chopped

  2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

  1 teaspoon salt

  1/2 teaspoon pepper

  1 Tablespoon chili powder

  1 teaspoon coriander

  1 teaspoon oregano

  1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

  1 can each black beans and red beans, drained

  2-3 cups tomato juice

  Water or chicken stock, as needed

  * Nick’s dish is really the chile recipe of talented cook Jodi Perko.

  Heat the oil in a large pot and add meat, breaking it into small pieces with the back of a fork, and stirring it occasionally until the meat is thoroughly browned. Remove the meat and set aside, leaving the remaining oil in the pan.

  With the heat on medium-high, add the onion and pepper, stirring occasionally until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir in the garlic, salt, pepper and spices, (including cayenne, if using) continuing to cook until vegetables are soft and spices are fragrant. Return the meat to the pan, combining it with the vegetables and spices.

  Add the tomatoes with the juices, the drained beans, and tomato juice. Stir all together, and add water or stock, 1 cup at a time, if the chili is too thick. Bring to a simmer and taste to adjust for seasoning. Feel free to add more salt, chili powder, etc.

  Turn heat down to low. Now is the time to add additional ingredients (such as corn, cooked brown rice, etc.). Cover pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  Serve hot, offering a variety
of mix-ins: shredded cheese, chopped green onions, oyster crackers, chopped avocado, bottled hot sauce, etc.

  MORE BOOKS BY ELAINE

  Elaine's website has links for Amazon and several other online sites (such as BN and Kobo). Most sites also have links to the paperbacks, large print version, and audio books. Thanks for your interest!

  Jolie Gentil Cozy Mystery Series

  Appraisal for Murder

  Rekindling Motives

  When the Carny Comes to Town

  Any Port in a Storm

  Trouble on the Doorstep

  Behind the Walls

  Vague Images

  Ground to a Halt

  Holidays in Ocean Alley

  The Unexpected Resolution

  Underground in Ocean Alley

  Jolie and Scoobie High School Misadventures (prequel)

  Box set of books one through three

  Box set of books four through six

  River’s Edge Mystery Series (Annie Acorn Publishing LLC)

  From Newsprint to Footprints

  Demise of a Devious Neighbor

  Demise of a Devious Suspect

  Logland Mystery Series

  Tip a Hat to Murder

  Final Cycle

  Final Operation

  Other Fiction

  Biding Time (YA Novella)

  Falling Into Place (reflective fiction)

  In the Shadow of Light (reflective fiction)

  Secrets of the Gap (romantic suspense)

  Searching for Secrets (romantic suspense)

  NONFICTION

  Monett (Arcadia Publishing)

  Words to Write By: Putting Your Thoughts on Paper

  Writing in Retirement: Putting New Year’s Resolutions to Work

  500+ Hashtags for Writers

  Orr, Campbell, Mitchell, Shirley Families: Descendants of Paul Orr and Isabella Boyd in Ireland and America

  Family history ebooks about William Orr and Jennie Adams, George Orr and Elizabeth Brown, and Isabella Orr and Ephraim Campbell