Unfortunate Death

We only had one day to work on the Zane disapearence and if we didn't find anything ,we were told to turn this over to our Missing persons unit...Our Lieutenant was enjoying 100 percent clearence right now and had been nominated as supervisor of the year....If our clearence rate stayed at 100 or close to it...he was a lock to win it!

A marine diver went down to look for Marvin's body...While he was down... My partner and fiance,Detective Monica Talbert drove  up...I had been sitting here on the dock of the bay,waiting for him to find something...

''Goood morning Mr. Talbert."she joked..She passed me a tumbler of hot coffee and a bear claw..I kissed her lovingly....

"Hey babes...How is your sister?" I asked..

''She's fine this morning...She just needed a good cry...that's a woman thing...Anyway getting back to your non-case....I checked out Mrs. Zane or Mrs. Zane to be..Megan and Wally Drollinger...Checked their finances and their alibis...They checked out....I also interviewed all six of the women who went out with him on the boat on Saturday...They said he was fine...in good spirits and they last placed him here at the port,waving to them and drinking a beer before they left....Checked their financials and whereabouts for the 48 hours leading up their class and afterwords....They all are rock solid..."she said.

"So the only person we haven't talked to is the Harbor Master..."I said.

''You seen him?" asked Monica.

"He's off today and he was off yesterday...He'll be back tomorrow.." I said.

"If we don't find anything solid today...We got to turn this case over to Missing Persons.."said Monica.

''Yeah I know...What if this turns out to be an accidental death or something?" I laughed..

"Then that's even better..because we don't have to go any further...His fiance will definitely know what happened to him and we can move on to something else."said Monica.

"The next unfortunate death right?" I said.....

"Yeah baby right...unfortunate death...that's what murder is...unfortunate death....and like the Lieutenant told me when I first came to Homicide...We speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves..We avenge the unjustly dead." said Monica.

''Wow...you got me fired up with that speech..Mo-Mo..." I said.

"Fired up or horny?" she asked.

I smiled sheepishly....

"Horny."I admitted....She already knew...she could read my mind,feel my thoughts....We hadn't had sex last night...She had comforted her sister and had sat and talked with her in our room until around 2:30 in the morning...They both fell asleep in our bed...I nudged myself in and slept on the side of them...By the time I woke up...Monique was gone...She had let herself out and gone back down to her room.

I had to admit...It was nice ,sleeping in the bed with two sexy women....Becker and the Lieutenant could eat their hearts out!

"Detective!! I found a body"said the diver....

''Well lover..The Lieutenant owes me five dollars...He bet me that we wouldn't find anything..."said Monica..

I watched as the diver pulled a bloated body out of the water.....

"Call your sister Mo-Mo..."I said somberly....

II-

Monique arrived with her full crew of M.E. officials and C.S.I. personel....They snapped photos of the dead scuba diver... and she and I knelt down with latex gloves and pulled his mask off..

"This your guy?" asked Monique...

I looked at the glossy I had of him...

"Yeah that's him..Marvin Zane..." I said.

"I called his fiance....I told her we found him...She's on her way.."said Monica ,who put on latex gloves and observed the body....

"Look at his eyes.....hemmoraghing....What do you think siss?" asked Monica..

"From first glance I'd say he suffocated...but I'll know more when we get him back to the morgue...He's been in the water for close to 72 hours....He's blue...Mo-Mo...Tell one of my guys to get a refrigeration unit...It's hot out here and decomp is going to start soon.." said Monique.

"Really? he's been in cold water."I said.

"No, he's been in warm water...It's summer Nate...that water is warm.." she said.

"Don't argue with the Doc Nate!!" came the voice of Lieutenant Frankie Cotton Jr.

who had driven the pregnant fiance, Megan Hester to the site....She looked down at the body of her husband to be and burst into tears...

"Ohhh my god...why did this happen???....Marvin...Marvin...whyyyyyyyy?" she cried...

Monica put her arms around her and held her...she no doubt thought about herself being engaged to me and how she'd feel if something like this had happened to me...Us being murder police or police period made it even more likely..

I rubbed her hands softly...

Lieutenant Cotton walked over to Monique...He brought her a carnation..He pinned it on her blouse..
That was to dim the smell of death from her nostrils and he brought her a tumbler of coffee...

"Why thank you Lieutenant." she said ,smiling from ear to ear...

"How you doin today?" he asked..

"I'm fine...Look about last night...That text was from an old boyfriend...He was telling me that he was married now...I kind of uh hadn't gotten him completely out of my system..It was silly..."she said.

''You don't have to explain that to me...I've been there....I know how that can be.."he said.

''Wow! Thank you for being so understanding...Both last night and today..."she said..

He smiled...He stared at the body of Marvin Zane..

"Who is the uh unfortunate dead guy?" he asked..

"That's uh Marvin Zane...He was a diving instructor here.."I said.

"Damn...a diving instructor and he dies in the drink...Damn..What a way to go.." said Lt. Cotton..He went in his wallet and pulled out five singles...

Monica quickly grabbed them out of his hand..

"I'll take those singles lou." she said.

"Damn girl...you're rough....Nate my man, you have my sympathies..."he said laughing...

"You taught me everything I know." said Monica laughing...

"I sure as hell did." he laughed..

I marveled at their closeness and their relationship in general...It was more like a Father-daughter relationship...Or Big Brother and Little Sister....But what he felt for Monique was far beyond that....I couldn't understand because both girls looked exactly alike..Same bangin bodies..No difference...Both dressed sexy.....Was it Monique's reddish brown hair in contrast to Monica's jet black hair...?? Who could say??  Wally Becker??...I could understand him more..He was attracted to both girls...The Lieutenant however was different, he thought of "Mo-Mo" as we both called her as his daughter..his little sister....While Monique,only three minutes older ,he wanted to screw the panties off of...Go figure...

"Nate can we release the body?" asked Monique...

''Yeah,release the body." I said...

Monica took my two hands and rubbed them softly....She knew that for some reason this death upset me...

"It'll be alright baby.."I said as the two of us walked away.

III-

Monique examined the body of Marvin Zane and the contents of the scuba diving tank..She worked diligently for hours..She looked up and saw another guy she hadn't seen in about six weeks..Detective Wally Becker...

"Hey you!!!...How are you Detective Becker?...I haven't seen you around in awhile...Big Case?"she asked ,smiling at him...

"I've had a few...Haven't been as busy as you..."he said.

"Well my sister and brother and a few of their colleagues have kept me with work...."she said.

"So uh you and the Lieutenant now huh?" said Becker...Never one to be subtle..

"Me and the Lieutenant?? Lieutenant Cotton? No...I wouldn't say we are an item or anything..Just good friends."she said.

"Good friends huh?  So good friends sleep over and then go to brunch with you right?" he said.

Now Monique was getting a little annoyed and angry...

"What do you do..Stake out under my bedroom window?  For your information...The Lieutenant has never spent the night over my house...In fact ,the first time and only time he's ever been to my house was last night and he was only there for 15 or 20 minutes at best...If you saw us at brunch weeks ago..I was there with my sister and Nate...The Lieutenant just happened to be there....You should have come in,said hello...Instead of jumping to conclusions detective."she said.

"Oh...uh...so you and the Lieutenant are not ,uh seeing each other..?" he said.

"No...and in fact..I just ended a relationship with a guy from New York that I was seeing..Not that that is any of yours or anyone else's business.."she said...

"Monique...Look...We kissed a few weeks ago and-" he said.

"Wally,I didn't want to kiss you, but you were persistant...I told you that that kiss didn't mean anything..I wasn't trying to lead you on.."she said.

"I know...but I got feelings for you...and I think if you gave me a chance...I could make you happy..Look I know the Lieutenant is a snazzy dresser and a pretty boy and all...but he has a woman...while me,I don't.."said Wally Becker..

''I wonder why that is?"asked Monique sarcastically...but it went right over Wally Becker's head..

"Because fine ass women like you won't give a brotha like me a break.."he said.

She had to laugh...She wanted to be mad at him, but she couldn't...She found herself laughing so hard she couldn't control herself...

"Look Monique...He aint the man for you..He may seem like it...but he aint...I'm the man for you...Just say you'll think about it...Tell me you'll think about it."he said.

"Think about what?" I asked as Monica and I walked into the morgue....

''When we didn't hear from you ,we decided to stop by." said Monica.."Oh Hi Wally."she said.

"Hey Monica...Nate." he said.

Monique looked relieved to see the both of us...

"You two have a murder!  I found Nitric Oxide in his air tank...Not something he would have loaded into his air tank and I found a barbituate in his blood stream...The beer he drank was laced with it..He passed out shortly after he went under the water and then he choked to death...His death was as painless as possible...kind of like a lethal injection...Then of course he drowned..which is why his body is bloated." she said.

"Could you rule out suicide?" asked Monica...

"Yup!  This was a homicide..." said Monique...

"The Lieutenant is going to be pissed....There goes his 100 percent clearance..."I said.

"Not if we crack it fast!!....I'm kind of excited...Those four we cracked last week were boring, run of the mill cases...Here is one of the weird ones that I like." said Monica.

''Me too...It means we get to think.."I said.

Wally Becker looked at Monique...

"That could be me and you...In sync....Just like those two....Think about it Monique...Me and You baby."he said as he walked out....

Monique busted out laughing...

"And you know what the funny thing is...He's serious." she laughed....

(TO BE CONTINUED)