Page 33 of The Paternity Puzzle
“I know you will. I, uh, I’m proud of you, Royce. You’ve made a wonderful life for yourself with your career and yourhusband. You really impressed me at the graduation ceremony on Thursday. Those kids are lucky to have you as an influence.”
“Thank you for being there. It meant a lot to me.”
Eddie scrubbed a hand over his face again before he said, “Getting deep in here, isn’t it?”
Royce could tell his dad wanted to pull himself together. “Sure is.” He rose to his feet and reached for Dolly. “I’ll take her so you can get within a foot of Jo.”
“Appreciate it.”
Dolly gave him a little sass when he tried to take her from Eddie, but her tantrum didn’t last long, and she offered an apology by licking his cheek. Royce pulled a leash from his back pocket and connected it to her harness. He usually let her run free at the Keys’ house, but there were too many people at the barbecue. Royce didn’t want her tripping anyone, and he surely didn’t want her to get trampled. Dolly’s distaste for Jo was another concern to consider. “Sorry,” Royce told her. “Just for today.”
They retraced their steps into the backyard and joined Sawyer and Jo in conversation with Evangeline and Barron. After they exchanged pleasantries, Eddie struck up a conversation with Barron about his new smoker. The next thing Royce knew, their fathers were exchanging tips and recipes like lifelong friends. Eddie moved with an ease Royce had never seen before, and he decided to stop questioning the change and enjoy it.
Sometime later, after stuffing their faces with an exorbitant amount of food and playing more lawn games than Royce dreamed possible, Sawyer pressed his lips to Royce’s ear. “Told you so.”
They’d snuck off to the dock to enjoy a few private minutes alone. He’d planned to tell Sawyer all about the conversationhe’d had with Eddie until his husband got smug with him. “You did,” Royce said instead. “Right as always.”
“I caught bits and pieces of conversations about Dr. Matisse today.”
“It’s shaping up to be quite a scandal.”
“Sure, but these chats sounded more personal,” Sawyer said. “I bet there are a lot of people here who know him.”
Royce didn’t doubt that Barron and Evangeline ran in a similar circle to the doctor’s family. “There’s nothing to investigate until something or someone gives me a reason to.”
As if he’d tickled the mighty cosmos’ taint, Royce’s cell phone rang.
“It’s the medical examiner’s office,” Royce said. And since he only had one active case, he was pretty sure Dr. Fawkes was about to give him the something or someone he needed to investigate.
Sawyer shook his head in resignation. “You just had to tempt fate.”
“Sorry,” Royce said before answering the call. “Why do I have the feeling you’re about to blow up my holiday weekend, Doc?”
“Because I am,” she said dryly. “And maybe it’s only fair since I’ve hardly left the building since we delivered Dr. Matisse to the morgue. Something about misery loving company, perhaps?”
“Would you like me to bring you something good to eat?” Royce had learned long ago that the staff at the medical examiner’s office had iron stomachs. Nothing put them off their food.
“My husband already delivered a care package, but thank you for offering,” Fawkes said before getting down to business. “There are two sets of fingerprints on the poolside pill bottle, but neither belongs to Dr. Matisse. We ran the prints through IAFIS but didn’t get a hit.”
Royce’s spine straightened so fast he felt something crack in his lower back. “I bet I know who they belong to.”
“Perhaps. One set is also on the liquor decanter and the tumbler, along with Dr. Matisse’s.”
“The matching set will belong to Alyssa Matisse. The prescription belonged to her, and she told us she’d poured her husband a drink to settle his nerves.”
“That is a logical deduction, but you’ll need to get a warrant to obtain her fingerprints. Based on the phone calls I’ve received from Chief Mendoza, Commissioner Rigby, Mayor Barclay, and someone named Richard Todd, it seems the widow doesn’t plan to participate in the investigation.” Dr. Fawkes’ droll tone made it clear how she felt about the constant intrusions and the roadblock.
“I’ll also get a warrant for Julia Matisse’s prints as well, though the third set on the pill bottle could belong to someone working in the pharmacy. What else did you find?”
“There wasn’t enough benzodiazepine in his system to kill Dr. Fawkes on its own, but his alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. Oh, and the drugs weren’t ingested whole,” Dr. Fawkes said. “They were ground up and added to a green beverage. I’d say a smoothie, based on the large amount of blended spinach, kale, banana, and protein he ingested. I can confirm that there was no residue from the pills in the tumbler or decanter, only traces of the alcohol.”
“Someone ground up the benzos and put them in his smoothie.” Wife or daughter? That was the question. Dr. Matisse had hundreds of angry victims, and some of them might’ve been out for blood, but it was unlikely they’d gotten past security without inside help. Royce made a mental note to check if the security team had documented deliveries to the Matisse house on Saturday morning or afternoon. That was a tried-and-truemethod murderers use because people still fell for it. “What is Matisse’s official cause of death?”
“The combination of alcohol and benzodiazepine triggered respiratory and cardiac failure. His autopsy also revealed pulmonary and cerebral edemas, which are both pretty standard finds with drug overdoses. By my calculations, Dr. Matisse had been dead for a minimum of three hours before his daughter found him in the pool. Because he hadn’t administered the pills himself, my preliminary report will list his death as suspicious. That should help you obtain the necessary warrants.”
“Thanks for getting back to me so soon,” Royce said. “I’m sorry you’re missing out on spending time with your family.”
“It’s par for the course. We both knew what we would sacrifice in this line of work,” Fawkes said. “I gave the bulk of my staff time off for the holiday, so I only have a skeleton crew assisting me. No pun intended,” she added before Royce could comment. “So, I likely won’t have additional information for a few more days.”