Chapter 7 #2
“He was always very respectful,” Minnie stated, “for lack of a better word.”
“That word works,” Kate replied. “Just because you’re a ladies’ man doesn’t mean you have to make it difficult for everybody.”
“Right,” Max confirmed, “and that would not have been him. Damn.” He looked at her and asked, “How did he die?”
Kate shrugged. “We’re looking into it, but he was found dead in his bed.”
Max snorted. “I almost want to laugh at that.” Kate’s eyebrows shot up at the manager.
“Not the fact that he’s dead,” Max clarified quickly, “but because he was such a ladies’ man that being found dead in his bed kind of suits him.
” He looked over at Minnie and asked her, “Doesn’t it?
I mean, that’s where he always wanted to be—with somebody in bed.
Maybe it sounds harsh and superficial, and I don’t mean it that way, but, if you had asked him how he wanted to go, he probably would have suggested something about a heart attack in bed, while enjoying himself with somebody half his age. ” He sighed.
“There are definitely worse ways to go,” Minnie added, with a smile.
Max nodded energetically. “Oh my gosh, there absolutely are worse ways to go, and, for John, that would have been one of the better ways. So I’m not upset about that part,” Max explained.
“Yet I can see how this will affect everybody here.” He turned to Minnie beside him.
“Maybe it’s a guy thing to die in bed, and I don’t mean it in a bad way.
It’s just, … I think that’s how John would have looked at it himself. ”
“I’ve met guys like that,” Kate replied. “They don’t have anybody serious. They’re all about fun and games, until something happens, and it’s no longer fun and games.”
“Exactly,” Max agreed in relief. “And I’m really not trying to be disrespectful or anything.”
“I get it,” Kate noted. “I’m not taking what you’re saying in that way.”
“Thank God for that.”
“How often did John come in?” she asked them.
Max turned to Minnie, and she shrugged. “Not every day but probably at least two to three times a week.” She sniffled again.
When the bell rang as somebody entered the coffee shop, the manager chose to go see to their order.
Kate turned to Minnie and asked, “Did you ever date him?”
She seemed surprised, glanced back around at her manager, then shook her head. “I didn’t, no, but I know one of the girls here did.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Will you talk to her?”
“Yes, I need to,” Kate whispered back. “We’re still trying to get an idea of what happened, who saw him last, what he was doing, that kind of thing. Did you know who his current girlfriend was? He was dating someone long-term for a while.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t. I think, in Mary’s case, they broke up a while back. She was pretty bummed about it. She was really hoping it was the real thing. She’s getting a little older,” Minnie added, “and I know she was really looking for the whole marriage thing.”
“Which I understand he was very much against.”
“Yes, and he made no bones about it. We all warned her, but, when you fall hard, it doesn’t matter what anybody says. You’re always positive you can change their mind.”
Kate didn’t say anything, but she kept hearing that line over and over again.
It wasn’t exactly something she understood because the guys had the right to decide.
It was their decision to make. Just like it was the women’s right to want marriage.
In her world, those kinds of decisions rarely changed, but she didn’t have a ton of experience with relationships in the first place.
She got the name and contact information of the barista Mary, who wasn’t on duty that day at all. Kate thanked Minnie for her time, waved to Max, and left to sit in her car, deciding it might be easiest to just go to Mary’s apartment and take a chance that she might be there.
Plus, Kate was better able to gauge reactions if she was in person versus over the phone anyway.
She keyed in Mary’s address and noted it wasn’t all that far away.
Most people tended to find work close by, so this would only be a ten-minute drive.
Traffic wasn’t too bad, and she got there just before four o’clock.
She walked up, knocked on the woman’s door, not calling first, and, when the front door opened, a guy stood there, just staring at her.
Kate smiled, held up her ID, and asked to see Mary. He frowned, looked back, and called out, “Mary, the cops are here for you.”
Mary gasped and came running, and Kate realized that she was probably thinking something was wrong. “I just need to ask you a few questions.”
“Sure,” she agreed, “but I don’t know about what or who.” Then she looked at Kate’s card closer and gasped. “You’re a homicide cop.”
“I am,” she confirmed.
“Who’s dead?” she asked, her voice deepening anxiously. “Is it my family?”
“No, not at all,” Kate replied. “I’m not here for a death notification but for questions about somebody who has recently passed on.”
“Oh, right, of course,” Mary muttered. “It’s such a shock to have the police come to the door. … I’m just a little unnerved.”
“That’s fine,” Kate replied. “The questions are about John.”
“John Smith?” Mary asked, staring at Kate, and then all the color fled from her face. She whispered, “Are you saying John’s dead?”
“Yes,” Kate confirmed. “He was found dead in his bed a couple nights ago.”
She just shook her head and whispered, “Oh my God, oh my God.”
The man beside her asked, “Who’s John?”
Flushed and flustered, Mary turned to Kate.
Kate offered an answer, saying, “John’s an old friend of hers, a customer from the coffee shop.”
The man beside her glared at Mary. “Surely you didn’t know him well enough that you’re completely distraught over this.”
Kate addressed him. “You don’t need to be here while I question Mary. If you want to leave …”
He stiffened and glared at her, then at Mary. “Is there any reason Mary can’t talk with me here?” he asked, his tone aggressive.
Kate studied his features. “No. However, there’s also no reason for you to get difficult about this. I have a few questions to ask Mary. So either you leave us alone to do that or perhaps you stay quiet. Dealer’s choice.”
His glare upped in wattage. He obviously did not appreciate being reprimanded.
Kate didn’t really care. She had a few questions to ask, and asking them would make her investigation a little bit easier. She looked over at Mary and added, “Unless you prefer for me to ask them in private.”
She sighed. “It won’t matter. He’ll still get upset.”
“And why is it I will get upset?” he asked, still aggressive.
Mary turned to face him straight-on. “Because he was before your time, and you don’t like hearing about previous boyfriends.”
“You went out with this guy?”
“Yes,” she snapped, staring at him. “I did. I had a life before I met you, and you need to remember that. But,” she took a deep breath and added, “it was only for a few months.”
He relaxed at that. “Is it that big womanizing dude?”
“Yes, that’s him,” Mary confirmed, as she turned to Kate. “Go ahead. What is it you need to know?”
Kate was very happy to see Mary standing up to her volatile boyfriend with his self-confidence issues. It allayed some of Kate’s fears for Mary if she stayed in this possibly abusive relationship. “When did you last see John?”
“Oh my.” She closed her eyes as she thought about it. “I didn’t work yesterday. I’m on my two days off. I did work the day before, but I don’t think I saw him then, so maybe Thursday, maybe Friday?” she offered, with a frown. “It was a couple days ago anyway.”
“Did he act any differently? Did he mention anything was wrong in his world?”
Mary considered her questions. “It’s not that he was acting differently,” she began, “but he definitely wasn’t his usual happy, joyous self.
I did make a comment to him, asking if he was having a bad day, and he shrugged it off and mentioned something about maybe a bad life, which I thought was a really odd thing for him to say. ”
Kate wrote down a couple notes about John’s odd reaction and then asked, “Did he elaborate as to what was wrong?”
“No, not at all,” she said. “He just made a joke about knowing how to pick them. I didn’t know what that meant, but he was looking at me at the time. So I wasn’t exactly sure what I might have done that would have been wrong,” she admitted, with a roll of her eyes.
“Did you two often disagree or argue when you dated John?”
“Not really. Only one issue was between us, but it was a big one. I was looking to settle down, and he was not,” she shared. “So, he was playing the field and yet chose somebody who didn’t want that. Did he warn me about this issue? Yes, he did, and I guess I didn’t really believe him.”
“You thought you could change him,” Kate offered.
Mary winced. “I know it sounds trite, but I guess that’s exactly what I thought,” she conceded.
“I’m definitely older and wiser now,” she claimed, with a hurried glance at her easily upset boyfriend.
“I’m not looking for that permanent relationship anymore because I realize it’s just not what most men want.
” She shrugged. “So, I’ve just shelved all that for the moment. ”
“Right,” Kate replied. “Understood.” And she did.
In other words, Mary still hoped for that married relationship, but this current boyfriend would potentially not go in that direction, nor would she go in that direction with him.
Either way, Mary would be better off to leave this jerk beside her than to stick around, especially if her heart wasn’t in it.
After a couple more questions, Kate thanked Mary and explained, if need be, she might get back to Mary later, as they were just starting this investigation. More questions might come up.