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MINKA
“Doctor Mayet?” Seraphina’s fast, clipped voice echoes from my desk phone. “Emilie Elenora is here to see Paul McGregor.” She waits a moment to allow my brain to catch up. “The, uh, decapitation victim.”
“I know who you mean.” Picking up the phone from the cradle, I bring it to my ear and frown. “Who is she to him? I didn’t think he was married.”
“She’s the next best thing, I suppose. Business partners, best friends. She essentially runs the back end of the youth center, while Paul hung with the kids and managed things in the public eye.”
“Only next of kin allowed right now.” Glancing across to Aubree at her desk on the other side of our glass wall, I wave her over when she instinctively looks up. “I can’t just let a pal in to see this brutally murdered guy, Fifi. Can I call you Fifi?”
“Absolutely not.” Insulted, I see in my mind the way Seraphina shoots tall at her desk. “And Ms. Elenora is more than a pal. She has power of attorney. She’s the one who would have had the power to turn off the machines if he was in the hospital, and she’ll deal with his estate now that he’s gone.”
“Oh, well…” I glance across when Aubree lopes through the door. “I guess thatdoesmake her next of kin, in a way. I’ll come down now.”
“Do you want me to send her up?”
“Nope.” I push up to stand and set Seraphina on speaker again as I reach back and swing my coat on. “No need. He’s down on the second floor. Did she say why she’s here?”
“Just to see him,” she answers. “To pay her respects, I suppose.”
“Mmm, we’ll see.” Dropping my cell into my pocket and switching off my computer monitor, I stand tall again and reach out to my phone. “I’m coming down now.” Then hanging up the call, I look across to Aubree while she waits at the doorway. “I’m going down to the fridge. You wanna come?”
“Sure.” Stepping back and holding the door wide as I approach, she falls into step as I pass through, and we head toward the elevator. “What’s happening?”
“Emilie Elenora is Paul McGregor’s business partner and appointed emergency contact. She takes care of the youth center housekeeping, while he takes care of the kids. She’s here to see him.”
“Ooookay.” She slides into the elevator beside me and hits the button for the ground floor. “Why do you seem cranky about it?”
“Not cranky, just curious. She’s the executor of his estate and has power of attorney.” I look across and raise a brow. “I wonder if she benefits from his death? And if she does, do the good detectives know?”
Frowning as the elevator doors open, Aubree lowers her voice as a portly little woman glances up and locks eyes with me.
“His killers are already in custody,” my second murmurs. “They turned themselves in.”
“Sounds awfully convenient to me,” I grunt.
Pasting on a fake smile as I step off the elevator, I cross to the woman I assume to be Emilie and offer a hand. “Ms. Elenora, I’m Doctor Mayet. I was the lead medical examiner on Mr. McGregor’s case. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
She takes my hand after palming a wad of tissues in her left. “It’s all so…” Her voice crackles with grief… or guilt. “It honestly doesn’t seem real. I’ve known Paul most of my life, Doctor Mayet. I spoke to him the night he… the night…”
She shakes her head and swallows down a burst of tears. “We were planning a thing for the kids. It was getting late, so we promised to continue discussions the next day. And now, he just… Now he’s gone. And I’m getting so many calls about him, and about the center. And about how we’ll lay him to rest. I’m just so overwhelmed,” she whimpers. “I don’t know where to start.”
“So you thought to come here first,” Aubree says gently. “To come back to Paul and take a moment? Then you can make the next step?”
“Yes.” Watery-eyed, Emilie releases my hand and takes Aubree’s. “Do you know how, when you have a thousand things to do but you just don’t know where to start, you go around and around and around and tire yourself out, but when you stop and look back, you haven’t actually done anything at all?” She releases Aubree’s hand and brings that wad of tissues back up. “That’s what it’s been like for me ever since the police left.”
“We’ll show you the way.” Aubree, gentle, the calm-spirited woman she conjures in times of need, steps to Emilie’s side and tucks the visitor’s arm in hers. “I’ll lead the way.”
“Thank you.”
Sniffly and stiff-legged, Emilie allows Aubree to move her to the elevator. So I follow them in and hit the button for the second floor, then I keep my eyes to myself and my mind wide open as I listen to the woman reminisce about her friend.
“He was just so sweet and selfless,” she moans. “We were preparing for a weekend retreat, where Paul and the kids would go camping a few towns over. There’s a bubbling creek there, and safe camping grounds where no one would bother them. It’s quiet, untouched but for our group.”
The moment the elevator stops, Aubree leads the woman off and toward the check-in desk. “Do you go camping too, Ms. Elenora?”
“I didn’t for the longest time,” she weeps. “But things change. Groups evolve. I used to just prepare the food and send it along with Paul and the kids, but the last couple of years, I went along too and cooked it fresh over a campfire.”
“If you’ll excuse me.” I fake a gentle smile for the woman and wait for her eyes to come to mine. “I’ll head in for just a moment and prepare. Then you can come in too.”
