MacKay - Canadian Detectives Series Book One

CHAPTER 3 – DIRTY DISHES IN THE AFTERMATH OF A PARTY-1

CHAPTER 3 – DIRTY DISHES IN THE AFTERMATH OF A PARTY

––––––––

WHEN SHE GOT BACK TO the office with Mark in tow, the detective squad was full of noises and movement, as always.

Anyway, Leah had already learned to ignore the cacophony of sounds. She would surround herself in a bubble of isolation and concentrate on her own conversations or on the research she had to do at a certain moment. She had stopped noticing what was going on around anymore. It was just background noise.

In any case, she was content that by then, smoking on the squad floor had been f*******n. She could still remember the smog and smell that always lingered around a few years back, at the beginning of her career.

Her eyes would turn red and watery for days and sometimes she had bouts of coughing that required a lot of coercion to go away. She had drunk so much raw egg yolk that she was afraid she would start cackling one day.

Working in those conditions had never been very easy. Of course, people had grumbled and protested the new rules, but to no avail.

Leah respected other people’s rights as much as the next person. However, she expected that her rights to breathe clean air were also respected.

She hadn’t gotten involved in any of the arguments at that time, though. She had been aware that the new smoking rules would be in force without any contribution from her, and that was why she kept quiet.

That turned out to be a very wise decision. Leah thought that her reserve was the reason everyone still spoke to her.

Those heated discussions divided people that had been friends for eons. They broke into two fighting camps and many of a friendship dissolved and never mended in the aftermath of the boisterous war.

Anyhow, two years back, Leah quietly snuck into one of the corner offices. That was what she thought at least, but in reality, her tenacity and audacity in solving cases had helped her advance in the ranks and affirm her competence in the field.

Leah’s hard work led her to the rank of lieutenant and had opened the door of that office for her, not her ability to talk her way in.

The policewoman might have entertained the belief that she was an accomplished diplomat, but her empathic abilities didn’t give her the necessary skills to grease her way up the ladder.

Not that she had too much tact to begin with. There were moments when she was far too direct with everyone and she liked to give people a piece of her mind. People’s memories were long and they never forgot.

Once in her office, Leah signaled Mark, who had followed her, to close the door behind him. She didn’t think of hiding something from the detectives in the squad anyway, because the entire wall toward the squad room was glass. Still, that glass was thick enough and represented a barrier of sorts against the omnipresent clamor. She needed that buffer, as she wanted to start working on the case without any kind of inconsequential interruptions.

The young woman sat down in her chair and turned her computer on. As she knew that her computer liked to take its sweet time to run the initial software, she turned her iPad on, as well, and waved Mark to sit in one of the chairs before her desk and do the same.

Her office was strictly functional. There wasn’t an object in there that didn’t fulfill a practical function.

Leah wasn’t too fond of frills when it came to her working space. She had found out that she preferred them at home where certain people didn’t have access and therefore, they couldn’t catch a glimpse into her psyche.

Not even a photo warmed the top of her desk. Only three small baskets, which she regularly filled with snacks, softened the Spartan décor. Leah considered them practical. She didn’t always have the time to go out and eat during the day.

“So, Mark, let’s see what you have there,” she invited him to begin the discussion.

Mark nodded, but first, he leaned over her desk and checked the little baskets with snacks carefully, just to notice that she had filled them with grapes, cashews and peanuts. Now, that was downright disappointing, and the line between his eyebrows deepened.

The day before, she had had a selection of cookies and he had enjoyed every one of them. The man scowled with dismay, yet absent mindedly, he took a grape and popped it into his mouth. Only then, he finally turned his attention to his IPad.

Leah smiled with amusement and turned her eyes to the screen of her computer so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed. She didn’t want him to see that she was monitoring his moves.

Sometimes, she found Mark very entertaining with his childlike tastes. She had changed the selection of snacks on purpose. That was her small and petty revenge because the other day, he wiped every single cookie on her desk. She had only nibbled on one and swiftly, there weren’t any left.

Leah knew that she was somewhat mean, but she enjoyed his reactions, and if she provided the food, the least he could do was to provide the entertainment.

“I talked with Mr. Papadopoulos, the owner of the house,” Mark began, “and I found out that he’d had a party last night. It didn’t end till the wee hours of the morning,” he made a point to specify and then, he glanced up at her.

Leah nodded and that was his cue to continue. He checked on his iPad and said, “I understand that he’d had about sixty guests and he couldn’t confirm everyone’s whereabouts during the party... Given the number, I think it would have been impossible,” he observed, glancing at her again.

“Yeah, it would,” she agreed softly, although she imagined that a man of Mr. Papadopoulos’s means would have had the necessary personnel to keep track of all those guests.

A man with his status wouldn’t have allowed anyone to trespass in certain areas of his house. Anyway, he would have had a sizable number of security people on his payroll to secure boundaries at such events.

Mark nodded with satisfaction, and then continued his report, completely oblivious to Leah’s thoughts.

“I understand that the victim, Klavdiya, wasn’t on the list.”

“How come?” Leah asked and swiftly leaned forward.

Her curiosity was piqued. That the victim wasn’t on the guest list didn’t sound quite right. No one should have been able to crash a party in the circles where Mr. Papadopoulos moved. Even a beautiful woman like Klavdiya must have encountered resistance.

“I meant that her name wasn’t on the list,” Mark corrected his statement hastily. “She was under ‘plus one’,” he thought to add. Leah was very particular about his being very specific.

“Ah, I see,” the woman’s understanding shone in her eyes. “She came with someone else.”

Mark nodded in agreement and looked back at his iPad, “A Mr. Angelus...”

“And where was Mr. Angelus when his date was killed?” she asked in a harsh voice.

“He’d left a couple of hours earlier. I mean a couple of hours before the victim was seen in the house the last time,” Mark rushed to add.

He knew that Leah didn’t like it when her officers didn’t show precision when they presented certain details to her, and he’d already slipped once.

It wasn’t as if she had been vicious, but her eyes drilled into the offender and no one felt comfortable when Leah went into scolding mode. Even Mark parents’ lectures over the years had seemed more bearable.

“Why? Why did he leave without her?” Leah leaned over the desk once more and braced her elbows on the sides of the keyboard.

“Someone said... it was an assumption actually,” Mark thought to point out so that he didn’t mislead her, “that Mr. Angelus and his date had an argument. She seemed interested in staying at the party some more time, and he was interested in leaving... So, he just left...”

“And the host didn’t say anything...” Leah noted pensively.

“He didn’t because Mr. Angelus never said ‘goodbye’,” Mark thought to tell her.

“How come?” Leah perched on the edge of her chair and tilted her head to the side inquiringly.

The etiquette in those circles would have required at least a few polite words before leaving a host’s house.

Mark blushed and looked down. Leah mused because she had a good guess about what he had to say.

She had heard him pulling a raw one to the boys in the past and he had never blushed. Or at least, he didn’t blush before he had laid his eyes on her.

She had the feeling that her subordinate was concerned about stating some things in her presence as if they had lived in the Victorian era and he couldn’t have tarnished her perception upon the world.

That was another constant source of amusement for her. It was downright funny, albeit a little puzzling, for her to see that the thought she already had a certain perception of the world never crossed the detective’s mind. It slipped his mind that her perception already included abominable crimes and far worse things than what he said in his jokes or when he presented his reports.

Mark was a contradiction in terms. Just a couple of years older than Leah, he either acted like a teenager or like a concerned parent before her and sometimes, she found it difficult to balance the man’s two sides. Sometimes she even had doubts about his mental balance although he seemed normal enough.

“All right, Mark, just spell it out,” she cajoled him into spilling the beans. The smile flourishing on her lips didn’t lack some malice, though.

“Well... the host was otherwise engaged...” Mark explained evasively.

“With?” she insisted mulishly.

“With... a beautiful model, with skin rivaling alabaster and such long and shapely legs that would have made Venus weep...” the officer continued and then glanced up at her just in time to see her eyebrows going up. He tapped his finger on the iPad and specified, “That’s what he said, word for word.”

“I see,” she murmured. “Do we have any picture of this... modern Venus, Mark? We should get an idea for ourselves,” she explained to a mortified Mark.

For a moment, the man had feared that she implied that he already had a picture with the fashion model and he couldn’t fathom why she’d think that of him. Leah had sensed his outrage and tried to smooth his feathers.

“No, not really...” Mark stuttered somewhat.

His eyes were focused on the geometrical pattern of the carpet as if he’d found something extremely interesting there, something that hadn’t been there for the last two months since the carpet was replaced. Then, he glanced back to her and proposed, “We can try on the Internet. I’m sure that there must be a photo with her...”

Leah invited him with a wide gesture, “By all means, be my guest, Mark, find one.”

With nimble fingers, Mark opened the browser on his iPad and started a search with the model’s name. The avalanche of pages dedicated to the woman startled him.

“Should we try only images?” he asked Leah. “There are so many pages with mentions of her...” he shook his head, at a loss of words.

“Let’s try just images for the moment,” she acquiesced. “We’ll go through the rest if there’s any need later.”

The man clicked on images and the page turned to tens of pictures reflecting the cold beauty of a modern Venus. Leah hadn’t missed her target. Her label was more than appropriate.

The detectives looked from one photo to another and everywhere, they saw the same impersonal and cold smile. White and perfect teeth, an elegant arch of the lips, but no sparkle in the eyes. However, they both had to admit that the host of the party had been very close in his description. The modern Venus’s skin rivaled alabaster, and her limbs were supple and beautifully shaped.

“Now, I can understand Mr. Papadopoulos,” Leah said quietly. “He wouldn’t have cared even if all his guests had left without a word. Not when he busied himself with... such a delightful creature.”