Spilling Guts

Part 3 - Emails from the Grave?

Reese came back to his desk with a can of soda and a packet of fruit chews. He had been lucky and found a few quarters in the change slot of the vending machine instead of bumming money from a fellow worker. He smoothed down his black tie and sat...

Only to freeze at the single, colorful, Cadbury Crème egg on his desk. If one could look haunted by all the chocolate ever eaten, it was Reese. He glanced around, looking worried at Beni's empty desk.

"Beni?" he called out.

A small chirping voice came from behind the partition at the back of his desk space. "Eat me!"

Reese shot to his feet, white as a sheet before his face reddened to match his flaming hair. "That was not funny!"

Beni leapt over the partition and balanced her seat on it while her boots rested on a pile of paperwork on his file cabinet. Lithe and small as she was, her presence took up space like a pile of confetti. "It was a little funny."

"It was not, and you know it."

"The chocolate is for you, ya know."

Reese considered the egg for a moment. "Just one?"

Beni sighed and then pulled another egg out of her pocket. Reese snatched it quickly, like a gambler reaching for the ace up his sleeve.

"What is black, white, red on top and cheap all over?" said Beni, swiping at the forgotten fruit chews.

"My suit is not cheap," Reese sniffed at the insult. The colorful foil was quickly peeled away. "It's bespoke. And you are forgiven."

Both of them paused at the squeal of chair wheels. Louis stood at Will's desk, glaring at the papers left scattered. It was amazing how Reese could still tell Louis' expressions even with sunglasses on. It wasn't as if his mood changed. Beni had called it a "resting-grouch-face".

"He's taking a break," said Beni.

Louis righted the fallen mug, sneering at the wet teabag that squished under his fingers. "Where?"

Beni shrugged. "Why don't you ask him?"

A small piece of paper, a list, grabbed Louis' attention and focused it like the sun through a magnifying glass. For a second Beni and Reese thought Louis would take the paper. Dirty thief. Instead Louis grabbed Will's mug, swung around, grabbed his own cup of cold coffee, and went towards the break room.

Reese's teeth cracked into the chocolate shell of the Crème egg. He let the sugar and chocolate flood his mouth, making him smile in bliss before swiping his tongue across his teeth and sucking the slurry down his throat. "So, where is our dear Will?"

"With the shrink," said Beni, popping back the tab on the soda can. She chewed with her mouth open, smelling of strawberry candy and fierce breath.

"Ah. Did you parents raise you in a barn?"

"You got egg crème on your face."

Reese rubbed his chin with his thumb and it came off with a blot of sugary white fluid. "Touché."

***

Agent Megan Shiloh leaned against the passenger door as she waited for the tank to fill. It wasn't a Watch issued car with the gadgets and high efficiency motor that made gas stops a thing of the past, but it served her well so far. They were an hour out from Denver. As the numbers on the pump climbed higher, she checked her phone messages.

Her husband had a quick shout out that frozen lasagna was back on the menu tonight; don't ask what happened to the trout they caught yesterday. Her son replied a smiley to her quick text of "good luck with your test". And then a picture of their youngest boy waving "bye bye you're free" to a lifeless trout in the puddle out back. Megan smirked. So that's what happened to dinner.

These were bright things in her day. She and her partner were wading thorough dead bodies and dead ends, but life and freed trout still went on.

And then a message from BOSSMan.

She knew Cetz hated being called "boss", hence the name programmed on her phone. She gave the message a quick read and then put her phone away just as the gas nozzle automatically clicked off.

Teegan walked back from the gas station with a plastic bag in hand. She held out a Gatorade to her partner as the two of them sat back in the car. "Anything important?"

"Cetz wants us to meet with Dr. Balcuwitz when we get back," said Megan as she put the car into drive and joined eastbound traffic on the highway.

"The pudgy new guy in the sweater vests?" asked Teegan.

"That's the one."

Teegan shrugged and unwrapped the plastic cover from a lemon custard snack cake. One of Megan's rules of the road was "never buy doughnuts or pastries from gas stations." Far too much sugar and preservatives for her comfort. Teegan didn't care for that particular rule and took joy where she could.

Another rule of the road that both of the agents lived by was never text or talk on the phone while driving. That was shotgun's job. So when Megan's phone went off Teegan was the one to answer-- right after she had taken a huge bite out of her lemon cake.

"Agents Carry and Shiloh." Teegan listened for a minute, giving quiet responses as needed. Then she tapped Megan's elbow.

"It's the coroner," said Teegan. "A family member showed up to claim and identify the body. A sister, Charlotte. She's very distressed."

"Wish she had been there earlier," said Megan, never taking her eyes off the road. "Do we need to talk with her?"

Teegan held up her hand for a moment as she listened, the custard slowly squeezed from the pastry held between her finger and thumb.

If that lands on the upholstery, you're cleaning it up, thought Megan.

After another minute of Teegan asking questions and taking notes with one hand while the phone was squished between her shoulder and neck, she clicked the phone off. Blessed day, she licked the custard off her wrist before it could fall.

"We might have a problem."

"Problem?"

"I could hear Charlotte in the background. She said her sister couldn't have been dead for four days because she had gotten an email from her just yesterday."

Megan whistled. "Yeah, that's a problem."

"Stolen identity?" suggested Teegan.

"That's far more likely than an email from beyond the grave, maybe." Her gut was still telling her Retten was involved in Lenore's death. She wouldn't be surprised if he was a part of this too. "You get Charlotte's info?"

"She lives in Colorado Springs. We can meet with her when she gets back from the morgue this afternoon."

Megan took another sip of her Gatorade. It was going to be a long day. She might not get that frozen lasagna tonight, but they might get a lead on Retten.