Sub-spense: A Substack Mystery

Part Two

Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. The characters, publications, usernames, and events depicted are fictional and are not intended to represent actual people or events. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Eddie looked over the list of suspects. Placing a finger on each, one at a time.

Did any of them have a motive to harm Grace?

He was getting ahead of himself.

What he needed to do was to somehow review the evidence first.

That might rule out a suspect.

Ruling out a suspect would mean less work, and Eddie was a fan of less work, especially on a case…

…Not that this was a case…

…Officially anyway.

The problem with this… non-case was that all evidence was three thousand miles away on the other side of the country.

Eddie wasn’t about to hop on an airplane to investigate a case that he wasn’t officially assigned to.

The world had changed since Eddie had retired from the Bureau. Back then things were done in person, being there, seeing the evidence with your own eyes.

All of a sudden everything was web-this and online-that.

Eddie came back to Grace in his mind.

Even her death happened online! In front of other people, who were watching where?

Online!

If he couldn’t see the evidence himself, the closest thing he could think to do was to talk to someone who could.

Eddie picked up his phone, hoping the police still talked on those, and called the lead detective.

Someone answered. Small miracle.

“Detective Beck.”

The familiar sound of a homicide room played in the background.

In a strange way Eddie missed it. It felt like home… with talk of cadavers.

“Hi there. This is Edward Bruce about the Goodness n Grace case. Online death. I was one of the viewers.”

“Yes. How can I help you?”

“Actually, wondering if maybe I could help you,” Eddie answered.

The detective sighed.

Eddie knew that sigh.

Ordinary citizens tried to be “helpful” on cases all the time, thinking they were detectives having watched one too many crime dramas on television.

Eddie was about to tell the detective about his background, but Beck beat him to it.

“Wait. What was your name again? Bruce? FBI? The Dunkin Donuts guy?”

“That’s me,” Eddie replied. “I hope you remembered to share the donuts.”

“No comment,” laughed the detective.

Photo by Kayl Photo on Unsplash

Eddie began by explaining that he would be happy to provide any relevant information about the victim’s online comments and habits.

Beck said that would be helpful, but then Eddie made his real play.

“Look, I’d be more than happy to be a resource… to assist in any way. You know my background, and I’d like to think I could be useful.”

“We’ll see,” Beck said. He was not convinced.

Eddie wasn’t finished.

Eddie knew just how lonely this line of work was.

He used that.

“It’s hard to talk… you know… to normal people in this line of work. Heck, even after. Truth is, I’m bored… and lonely.”

The actual truth was he was neither.

Beck thought for a moment.

“Well, it is nice to talk to someone who understands all this.”

Eddie smiled. Like candy from a baby.

From then on Beck was very forthcoming.

Eddie learned about the pastries and the ingredients in each.

“So thaaaat’s what’s in a rugelach?” Eddie said.

“I never even heard of one before this,” laughed Beck.

Eddie brought up something the detective hadn’t considered. Whether any of the food may have spoiled during delivery.

The food was already out for testing. Beck said he would contact the lab to look into it.

Eddie looked at his notebook where he had written about the starfruit drink. As a diabetic, he circled it more because of that than for the case.

Best to cross every I and dot every T, so he asked if the drink was being analyzed as well.

He knew he had the expression backwards. Eddie said it the wrong way all the time on purpose.

Finally, Beck got to the preliminary findings from Grace’s autopsy.

“Acute kidney failure. Her kidneys were pretty badly damaged but the medical examiner doesn’t know why yet. Her toxicology report is still pending.”

He got all he could for now.

Eddie ended the call and looked at his notebook.

More information.

More questions.

Eddie looked at the time.

Bingo was in an hour. He needed to get dressed.