Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Lieutenant Deviled Yeggs.  I work homicide in the big city of Tracy.  Working for me are my old partners: Detective Sgt. Jim Wednesday and Detective Poached Yeggs, my nephew who is slowly becoming a good detective.

But I start this report at Lily the Pink.  With Blaise and Sophia at Aunt Tensie’s lab, or is it their lab next to Aunt Tensie’s apartment?  That placed Glyce at home alone with Gigi.  Then there was the Lothrop family to think about.  Margaret Maclean Lothrop’s husband had been killed by someone in an alley in the downtown area of Tracy.  What we never divulged to his wife, Margaret, aka Maggie, aka Mags, an old friend of my wife’s that I never knew about, was that in Larry Lothrop’s wallet was a receipt.  Written on the back of the receipt was a scribbled note, barely legible, “Mags’ old friend Frick. Where is Frack?”

We were following other thoughts.  The crime seemed to be disorganized, a crime of passion or expedience.  It was in an alley, so the trace evidence might have nothing to do with the crime.  There were no witnesses.  All we had was a note.  The receipt was for a piece of jewelry from a nearby jewelry store, not expensive, but the receipt was from the same day that the body was found.  The time of death was narrowed to a tiny window, in that it must have occurred within minutes of leaving the jewelry store, having checked the accuracy of the date and time of the jewelry store register.  But there was no piece of jewelry found on the body, nor the pen Larry had used to write the note.  We got security camera footage.  The one inside the jewelry shop showed Larry writing something on the receipt, using the pen that the proprietor had given him to sign the credit card receipt.  We got random people walking by outside, but only Larry Lothrop going into the alley.  His car was parked on the adjacent street.  We found out that Frick and Frack were women who, when in high school adopted the names of Frick and Frack when they befriended Mags and my wife, Glyce.  The four high school girls indulged in sexual experimentation in the bedroom of Mags, mostly playing with adult “toys” that Mags’ sister Moe had provided.  Supposedly, my wife, Glyce, watched the others.  At least, Mags supports my wife’s claim.

We could not ask Moe any questions.  She had died two years before of an overdose.  Mags had a hard time talking about it.  She was convinced that Moe had finally gotten clean.  She was taking Moe to church each Sunday, but then one Sunday she got to Moe’s apartment and found her dead on the floor.  The M.E. knew the drug use history and listed it as an accidental overdose.  We had no evidence to support any other view.

But if we have an unknown assailant that is getting rid of 20+ year old friends, we thought it safe to have both families live at Lily the Pink.  They had completed the second water slide, higher, faster, and a longer ride.  They could consider it a vacation until we closed the case, at least until we learned the identity of Frick and Frack and found them.  It is bizarre that these girls allowed two friends into one’s bedroom, did intimate things, and never learned their true names, but each of Mags and Glyce stand by their stories that they thought the other one knew their real names, never inquiring as to where these two girls showed up.  When I heard the story Mags told, it was shocking that my wife had been involved, but it also made no sense.  After hearing how the two extra girls had insinuated themselves into the bedroom, it only made marginal sense.

So, I was working out the arrangements with Pink Lady while Glyce and Mags were catching up on each other’s children.  I walked up as Mags changed the subject.

“Getting back to you watching us three having fun while you watched, you said that you were just learning.  Learning what?  Did you put anything into practice?”

Glyce smiled as she stared at her tea.  “On our honeymoon, Dev told you about my explosion on the wedding night.  After we got to Florida, the Big Bend area, I was a lot calmer, that first time was behind us.  We did what most newlyweds did, hardly ever walking the beach, just staying in the cabin, another of my mother’s friends.  Going south and east of the cabin along the beach, there were a lot of spots where there were no cabins or condos nearby, at least, back then.  Dev started looking at the tide charts.  On about the third day there, he suggested that since the sky was going to be clear, we would have moonlight.  We could look for seashells along the uninhabited areas of the beach.  We went down as far as we could and then as we started walking back, both of us with only wearing our bathing suits, we started kissing in about waste deep water.  I guess he saw the moon dancing in my eyes, and he asked what was on my mind.  Without saying anything but looking around to confirm no one around and no artificial light off in the woods, I reached down and pulled his swim trunks down to his knees.  He said something like two could play that game.  Instead of seashells, we put our swimsuits in the mesh bag we had brought for seashells.  But Dev demanded two things.  One, I was to not make so much noise while we did it, and two, we had to go slow.  We started out as we lay there with our heads barely above water and when we were done, the tide had gone out, wet sand, but the waves weren’t near us.  The only part of the story that has ever been told until now is that I tripped over a dead body on the way back to the cabin and Dev’s homicide career started innocently on a beach far from Tracy.”

Mags was confused, “You had sex on the beach and no one spotted you?”

Glyce shook her head.  “No, a few fiddler crabs, maybe some birds, but not even the early morning beachcombers were out yet.  We had sex on the beach and then we found a dead body.  But I would never try it again.  Sand gets in very inconvenient places.”

Sophie yelled, “Blaise, did you hear that?!  Mom finally admitted to the sex on the beach mystery!”

Glyce yelled, “What are you two doing out here in the greenhouse?  You are supposed to be working in the lab!”

Blaise laughed, “We control our time.  We have no contract projects, so we thought we’d try out the new slide.  Secret confession time was just a bonus!”

Glyce growled, “Why, you two rats!”

Sophie giggled, “And to think we learned earlier today that Goodie Two Shoes Mommy frequented nude beaches and half the teens in Tracy saw her naked!”

Glyce was seeing fire in her eyes now.  “Where did you hear that?!”

Blaise said, “Notice that she did not deny it.”

Sophie said, “Poached …”

I interrupted this darling mother-daughter time. “Sophie, do not lie about Poached or lie to Poached.  That is what has gotten you suspended and grounded.  Have you been hacking my computer?”

Sophie said, “Oops!  No, Daddy, your passwords are hackable, but Poached is predictable.  I hardly have to try…”

Glyce gritted her teeth, “Your Daddy can confirm this, but I think hacking into police records is a serious offense.  You are suspended, although not part of the force officially anyway, and you are grounded.  You obtained that knowledge illegally.  If you want a job with the police someday, you better stop.  And my feet hurt.  I’m thinking adding another two months to the nightly foot massages.  And your Daddy is a cop.  Their feet always need a massage.”

Sophie whined, “Oh, Mom!”  Then they stormed off and joined Emmett, Margie, and Mags’ three youngest.

Glyce mused, “Okay, if I have this right, those are Mindy, Mercedes, and Michael.  Maude is taking classes in summer school and will be here about lunchtime, and Madelaine is in the nursery with her new part-time job helping Jochebed.  And, Mags, don’t worry.  Jochebed is a great midwife if she is needed for that, but I hope this loose protection of our families is over before she delivers.”

Mags chuckled, “You have the names down, but I might need to make this apartment permanent.  We have been in a middle-income area of town because Larry worked tons of overtime.  I have no marketable skills, so we might lose the house.  I had not thought of that until Pink Lady offered me free room and board just during this protection period.  But looking at your two.  That was Blaise and Sophia.  The tall boy must be Sophie’s boyfriend, but who was the tall girl?”

I replied, “That is Margie, Blaise’s girlfriend.  Margie skipped one grade.  Blaise skipped four grades.  They are both officially Sophomores in high school, while Emmett Dalton missed a year of school after the flood in your part of town, and he and Sophie are about to be high school freshmen.”

Mags smiled, “That’s interesting.  I think Blaise might be confident enough to not worry about the height difference.  Besides, he’ll catch up soon.  But getting back to the case, do you have any ideas of how to find Frick and Frack?”

Glyce pulled out a scrapbook.  “You and Poached were talking dirty the other day.  He joked about what Moe had said.  ‘Frick was a freak’ could mean anything – drugs, alcohol, sexual appetite, anything.  But then you added that ‘Frack going back to back’ couldn’t be sexual, because back to back was not in Kama Sutra, and then Poached started to suggest other positions, and I had to leave the room.  You trying to regain your virginity must not include talking about it.”

Mags laughed, “Poached is a cutey, and he is so easy to tease.  But I don’t know if back to back means anything more than being a freak does.”

Glyce opened the scrapbook and started thumbing.  “Back to back means something in sports, but how it got its meaning is obscure.  It started with home and away games that one team won both, or back to back.  But then that spread to feats within the sport or championships.  These days instead of winning championships back to back to back they call it a ‘threepeat.’  Ah!  Here it is.  My mother made this scrapbook out of press clippings from high school soccer.  Since this was the grudge match of Flintheart versus Diet Smith at Diet Smith high school, it got a color photo on the front page of the paper.  See, here’s the headline, ‘TNT explodes for back to back to back hat tricks.’  We won that game eight to two.  Diet Smith used the strategy of folding their defense back, waiting on us to make a mistake.  Right before halftime, I found a gap and bent one through the corner of the net.  With them behind, they thought they would try to attack right after halftime and catch us off guard.  I intercepted the ball and then easily beat the defense, but my shot was off.  It bounced off the cross bar, bounced on the turf beyond the goalie’s reach, and then slowly rolled over for a goal while the goalie was trying to get back on her feet after diving to block the shot. … Hey, wait!  These two ball girls!  That has to be Frick!”

Mags looked and agreed, “And the one with her back turned is the right size to be Frack.  The hair color is close.  The game was at Diet Smith high.  They must have gone to school there.  They sure went a long way to stalk you.”

“Please, don’t say it like that, Mags.  It gives me the creeps.  These two insinuated themselves into our lives, our lives with no clothes on thanks to you, and they were stalking me.  Nothing happened all those years ago, but I am having a hard time going to sleep.”

I suggested, “That’s why we are here.  Easter is off storm chasing.  Sophie and Blaise are sleeping on cots in the lab.  And the Lothrops are in two apartments that Pink Lady had available.  That leaves us in the guest bedroom in the main house and a married police couple in our house to see if anyone is prowling.  Poached only brought Flintheart school annuals the first time.  He is on the way with annuals from Diet Smith.”

Once Poached arrived, Glyce had already talked to the soccer coach at Diet Smith.  The present coach was a player when Glyce was playing, and she remembered the hubbub about those two ball girls.  The one girl earned her place as a ball girl, someone who chases the balls that go out of bounds and gets the ball to the official on the side of the field.  To make sure they keep their head in the game, they only had one girl for each end of the field, but she made such a stink, that her cousin had been through hard times, that the coach allowed the cousin to join her.  She only knew the one girl’s name.  The other girl was not official, so she was not in the records.

It took Glyce and Mags no time to find Frick in the Diet Smith annual.  And it became obvious why she never had identified herself.  She was Frieda Fricke.  She was in the same year of school with Glyce but at Diet Smith high school.

As we celebrated that victory, Georges Evident appeared with another set of mug shots.  Glyce and Mags both identified Frieda Fricke in those photos.  Her facial features had not changed a lot.  Georges explained that in talking with me, he got the idea that Larry may have gone to the Envy Apple brothel.  Then, maybe in feeling guilty for having done so, Larry bought Mags some jewelry.  He had not had the chance to write his discovery down until the jewelry shop.  We had no idea if he saw her at the Jewelry shop, on the street, or he was her “client.”  Georges, unofficially Georges but Jochebed insists, already had a mug shot display with all the known prostitutes included.  The identification showed where Larry must have seen her.

We set up a raid on the brothel, seemingly routine.  Practically all the prostitutes were processed in short order, but Frieda Fricke found her way to my old office, Interrogation Room One.  She readily admitted that she had slept with Larry, probably thinking we might have DNA evidence.  That gave us room to ask questions about slipping into Margaret Maclean’s bedroom.  She played dumb until we said “Mags.”  She then laughed.  She loved the idea that she had never given her full name.  When we asked about Frack, all she would say was that Frack was where we (the police) could never bother her.

In looking up familial connections, we were again shocked by a bizarre name, Frick’s cousin, who lived most often in Doyle County, was Francine Frack.  They truly were Fricke and Frack.  Francine had died a few months before Moe Maclean died, both of drug overdoses.  We had no means of recovering Moe’s body due to cremation, but we started wondering if Frick had murdered both Moe and Larry.  Now that we had a person in which to compare, and the mystery of the identity of both Frick and Frack resolved, it was easy to identify some of the random trace evidence in the alley with Frick, and, with video evidence, we spotted Frick going into a bar between the alley and the jewelry store.  But the kicker was that she had stolen the jewelry and had it in her room at the brothel, with Larry’s blood in the clasp of the bracelet.

With Frack gone, Frick decided to clean house, spreading out the murders so that no one would notice.  Many years before, it all started with her and Frack following Glyce into Mags’ bedroom and enjoying the confusion as to who had invited them.  They had seen four of Glyce’s five goals that day at their end of the pitch and they were infatuated.  Moe had gotten Frick and Frack doing drugs and into the sex business if you can call it that.  Moe had to go first, and Moe gladly opened the door to an old friend.  Moe was easily enticed into one last high for old time sake.  She had broken the habit, but she was not able to resist temptation.  Larry was a fluke.  He had chosen her for his woman of the evening.  He acted like he might have recognized her.  She followed him and ducked into the bar next to the alley, which had a side door in the alley.  She waited and killed him.  Her one mistake was stealing the jewelry.  She loved the idea that Mags would have to suffer the loss of her husband before she was killed.  But it had all started with Glyce, and Frick was waiting to kill her last.

By the time this was settled, Madelaine and her husband moved back to their apartment, but Madelaine begged to keep her job with Lily the Pink.  Besides, she could visit her mother and her siblings who had moved in permanently, with her mother in training in wastewater treatment operation, with future cross training in carbon recovery.  She may have nearly pickled her brain with the drugs and alcohol, but she was a good student before that point.  She was motivated, and she only missed the vespers services when she went to her church on the far side of town to teach a Bible Study.

In a quiet moment with Glyce afterwards, Mags talked about Larry.  She had always thought of him as one of the guys in the line, but after telling Glyce how he had always been the one to take her back and clean her up, she knew how much he loved her.  And now it was too late to love him in return.

And then the strangest thing happened soon after we closed our case and turned it over to the District Attorney.  Dr. Kildare was visiting Lily the Pink to observe the occasional rain inside the greenhouse.  With everything that they were trying to do in the greenhouse, they had a giant terrarium, creating, in small part, weather of its own.

But while they were there, Dr. Kildare, a recent widower, and Mags bumped into each other.  They aren’t dating, but they sit and talk while they watch the water polo or beach volleyball tournaments, something Dr. Kildare had never done before, and he claims he is only there to observe the weather.  But maybe the days of recovering her virginity might be over.

But as for Dr. Kildare’s findings, Emmett’s parents, who have taken the lead on the farming aspects of the greenhouse, did not mind being rained on.  It was never a lot of rain, and never stormy conditions.  While some of the rain was over the pool area and the waterfall, the beach volleyball area never got any rain.

But thinking of stormy conditions, Easter, Jemima, and the Turtle crew were moving into the path of a Category 2 hurricane.  Our fear for Glyce’s safety turned to a fear for our two adventurers.

Credits

For the Credits for wanting to regain one’s virginity, Goodie Two Shoes, Frick and Frack, and the naughty beach activity, those Credits are given in the previous episode, two days ago, An Ominous Old Friend.

The revelation that Frick and Frack were indeed Fricke and Frack, I found both surnames in a list of American surnames.