The Swap Ch. 02

Teresa was referring to the Crime Lab's technician's finding this morning that the second plug-in outlet in the shed under the fuse box was wired past the main and delivered 220 volts like a laundry dryer... but the outlet was for a regular 110-volt. The work on that rigging seemed to have been done fairly recently, according to the Crime Lab technician. It meant that whoever had dropped that stripped extension cord into the hot tub water was bringing tremendous electrical power that not only utterly destroyed Dr. Schelle but pulled so much juice that it waxed the transformer on the pole out front... and it meant that the set-up definitely showed some pre-meditation on someone's part.

"Yes." I said. "Myron pulled up Schelle's financial information. Schelle's company had been having a tough time with money. His wife was paying all their personal bills. I suspect he sold his RV just to get money and pay company bills."

"Think they were fighting over that, over money?" Cindy asked.

"Dunno." I said, "but we're going to have to do some old-fashioned leg work and dig hard to find other suspects. And pursuant to that, I think I'll go find out more about Dr. 'Chelle Chelle' from my secret Source, over lunch."

"Tell Laura we said hello." Cindy said. "So what do you want us to do?"

"Who's running data on this case? Myron? Lainie?"


"Sonali." Cindy said, naming a lovely young Indian woman that we had hired a few months before. Just the thought of her made my loins stir with desire...and I noted how Cindy's eyes had lit up as she'd said the girl's name.

"Get with her. See if anything pops out that might give us a lead to a suspect." I said. "This one is going to be hard, I'm afraid." As Teresa walked out, Cindy stopped me.

"Can I talk to you a minute before you go? Privately? Very privately?" Cindy asked.

"Sure. Walk me to my car." I said. Once outside, Cindy started talking in a low voice.

"I need to tell you about the other case, about Karla Warner and Katherine Wilson." she said. "They're lesbians. I know because I've dated both of them."

"Hmm, that confirms a thought I had. When did you date them? And did either of them know that you were dating the other one?" I asked.

"I don't think either one knew about me dating the other, not for sure. I dated Karla about three years ago and Katherine two years ago." Cindy said. "And I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they're having a relationship with each other."

"I won't bet against you." I replied. "We may be able to use that, and soon. Keep out of their sight for now."

As I got into my Police SUV, I said "Thanks for the info, Cindy. And enjoy your lunch..."

----------------------

"First, let me tell you about Karen Warner, whose father was also murdered last night." Laura Fredricson said as we ate lunch outside on the back porch at her favorite Soup and Salad restaurant, enjoying its lakeside views.

"Karen is a very beautiful young woman, and she is one of the most promiscuous women on campus, one of the most promiscuous women I've ever met, period. I enrolled her in a study of nymphomaniacal women. She tells me that she has sex at least three times a day, usually with three different men."

"Oh really?" I said. "Chip off the old block?"

"Genetics is part of the study, so I can't reveal anything confidential like that." Laura said. "Why, do you know something?"

"Only that Karla Warner had her son at age 16 and her daughter at age 17." I replied. "Doesn't take much for the simple ol' police officer to consider the hereditary aspects of Karen's behavior."

"Hmm, true enough." Laura said, laughing at my self-deprecation. "Anyway, you wanted to talk about Dr. Schelle. I knew 'Chelle Chelle' fairly well. She had been studying Old English sexual stories and came to me asking if I had any information on sexual habits and mores of those time periods. I'm more of a present-day sexual studies researcher, so I didn't have much, but we had a good number of conversations and I did a little bit of research with her.

"Was she respected on campus?"

"Oh yes. In fact, she was up for tenure, and while the official announcements have not been made, I just happen to know that she was going to get the English Department's tenure slot."



"That's big, isn't it?"

"You better believe it. Tenure is everything to us in Academia. I could not possibly study nor teach what I do if I didn't have tenure; the religious nutballs like Beatrice S. York and Myrtle L. James would run me out of town on a rail. And in fields like English, History, Liberal Arts... in this economy, it's even more important to be tenured when the job cuts start coming."

"Religious nutballs? You and my dad would not have gotten along." I said, grinning.

"Your mother loves me, though. Thank goodness, since her grandchild is kicking me from inside right now." Laura replied right back. "Anyway, Michelle was about to get tenure, and so she would've been secure in her job. There is one other thing, too-- ah, here comes Captain Maxwell, good afternoon Captain! Please join us." Brittany Maxwell looked good in her navy-blue-with-white-pinstripes dress and high heel navy pumps as she walked up to us.

"Thank you." said Britt, sitting down. "I knew Don was here, so I thought I'd come over and fill him in, if that's okay."

"By all means." I said. "And you can talk in front of Laura, she's very good at keeping secrets." That got me a glance of reproach from the woman carrying my child, while Britt's eyes sparkled merrily.

"Dr. Schelle was apparently liked by her students and respected by her colleagues," Britt said, in the tone of a report, "but it wasn't universal. Some colleagues called her 'Moosechelle' behind her back when she started gaining weight, and the nickname stuck. Also, she's up for tenure and so are some other professors, and that's the kind of thing that can create tension even among friends."

"Any comments on her relationship with her husband?" I asked.

"One of her colleagues, a professor of Pre-Law English named Paul Berkshire, said that he'd known the Schelle's for a number of years and that they all did a lot of camping, hiking and outdoors stuff with a group of people. But for the last couple of years Michelle had apparently lost interest... and Robert had a way of coming on to some of the women, so they began squeezing him out of their outings."

"Did anything at all come up that anyone else besides the husband might want to do this woman harm?" I asked. "Robert Schelle's alibi looks air-tight right now."

Britt responded "I'd have to ask Laura here if the tenure competition would be sufficient grounds to murder someone. That's all I can think of at this point. And before you ask, I did attempt to ascertain where her competitors might have been last night around the time of Michelle's death. One of them was with his wife at a restaurant, two of them were at social parties, and four of them said they were at home. Think I need to dig into those?"

"Not yet." I said. "I don't want to start pissing off half the campus personnel before there's any other data that might give us something. Britt, I appreciate everything. I'll drive Laura back to her office, and I'll see you at the afternoon pow-wow at HQ." We made our goodbyes and left.

On the way, I said "What was the other thing you were going to tell me? From your reaction to Britt's comment about Robert chasing women, I figured it might be something you wanted to tell me privately."

"You noticed that?" Laura said, smiling. "I've really got to guard myself better. But yes, I wanted to tell you this: First of all, several years ago, about four to six years ago, Michelle was very open sexually and was a very hot fuck. Some women, but mostly men. The SEX Fraternity studs at that time really liked her and dated her a lot, similar to how they've been dating Melina these past few months. Sometimes they dated Michelle with her husband around and sometimes not. Then she started throwing herself into her work, going for tenure, and she began gaining weight."

Laura continued. "Secondly, do you remember the Libertines, the swingers group we've talked about?"

"Yes." I replied. "You said we might could join them after we're married."

"Yes." Laura replied. "And what I also know is that the Schelles were candidates to join them two years ago, before you and Melina moved here. I checked with a couple of people, and the word was that they liked Michelle but she started letting herself go physically and got out of shape. They also thought Robert Schelle was a little too eager, too hungry for sex, and this is a group where friendship and sensuous good times are as important or more important than the sex. Members soft-swap more than hard-swap."

Soft-swapping was where two couples or a group get together but either have no contact or just light contact like kissing and fondling, and only spouses have sex. Hard swapping was actual swapping of partners and sexual intercourse with persons other than one's spouse.

"I see." I said. "So Robert is sex-starved and his wife began getting big, started concentrating on her work, and it's likely their sex life went way down..."

As we pulled into the faculty parking lot of Laura's building, I saw her car, a Mercedes. And a thought struck me. Hard.

"Darling, what is it? What's wrong?" Laura asked, breaking me out of my reverie.

"Laura... your car has a safety alarm system, doesn't it?" I asked. "It alerts you if someone were, say, hiding in the backseat when you came up to it?"

"Why yes, it does." Laura replied. "It's on the car fob with the key. I have to press the button to deactivate it as well as unlock the doors. But... why?"


"Anthony Warner's car was a similar model to yours." I said. "I'm going to confirm if it has that same safety system. If it does, that means that the perp either could not have been hiding in the car waiting for him, or..."

As I thought about that, my cellphone rang at that moment. It was Detective Martin Nash.

"We've got a real problem with both the Warner kids." he reported.

----------------------------

Back at Headquarters, the clock was showing 1:15pm as Martin filled me in.

"We simply could not get Mrs. Warner to leave the room and let us talk to her daughter. When we insisted, the mother told her daughter to demand a lawyer, which the girl immediately did. The son, Seth, was willing to talk alone, but when we talked to him he said he was out but wouldn't say where or give us anything. Finally, he said he wanted a lawyer, also. I told them to have their lawyers meet us at the station, and we brought them in. The mother and daughter are in Interrogation-Alpha with their lawyer, and the son is in Interrogation-Bravo. He's once again not hasty about getting a lawyer but won't say anything."

"All right." I said. "Who's the lawyer with the women?"

"Jeanine Olivet." Nash said.

"What the hell?" I said, surprised. "She's a divorce attorney." In fact, she was my divorce attorney, but I saw no reason to tell Martin that. Nash only shrugged in reply to my comment.

"All right, let's let the ladies stew for a few minutes and talk to the son." I said. We entered Interrogation-B and I introduced myself to Seth Warner, offering my condolences upon his family loss. He was a good looking kid, 20 years old, in shape with wavy dark-brown-to-black hair. I felt an aura about the young man, an aura I'd only felt around Todd and a few other guys... a sexual aura. This young man was getting a lot of pussy.

"Seth, I really need to know where you were last night around 10:00pm, when your father was killed." I said. "The sooner I can eliminate you as a possible suspect, the better off we all are."

"Yes sir, I understand." Seth said. He was well-mannered and respectful. "And I didn't kill my father, but I just can't talk about where I was." His eyes were pleading, and I immediately knew what was going on. I turned to Martin.

"Martin, I think that I'd like to take Seth outside for a stroll, get a little fresh air." I said. "Come on, Seth, let's go outside." Martin looked a bit confused, but wisely said nothing. He stayed inside while I walked with Seth out the front door and down the sidewalk towards the public parking lot to the right of the front of the building.

"Okay Seth, we're outside, no microphones listening to us, just you and me." I said. "I suspect you were with a woman last night, and you're doing the chivalrous thing by not telling us who she is. I perfectly understand that Seth." Seth looked nervous as hell.

"I can keep things quiet, Seth." I said. "You tell me who she is, I check things out very discreetly, and no one else but my boss, the Chief of Police, will ever know. I won't even write it down. On the other hand, if I can't clear you of involvement in your father's murder, then I have to get public about it, and I sure as hell don't want to do that."

"Yeah, I understand, but..." Seth said. He was clearly torn up. "Are you sure you can keep it secret?"

"Yes." I said. "We police have confidential sources and informants just like the Press. I have a lot of latitude in what I don't include in a written report. I just want to find your father's killer or killers, Seth. Help me out here, buddy."

"All right." Seth said. "I was with Shayla Belle. She's married, and her husband has threatened to divorce her if he catches her cheating again. She's a great lady, and I don't want to get her in trouble..."

"I understand perfectly, Seth. Trust me, I know what to do, and it'll be all good. Meanwhile, let me ask: how were your relations with your father?"

"Good." Seth said. "He was beginning to teach me about the company, and I was going to have a leading role after I graduated."

"What about your mother and sister?"

"My mom and dad got along fine; I never saw any problems between them. Karen?" Seth paused. "I think my dad didn't think much of the way she slept around so much, and she pouted a lot because he wouldn't buy her a car, but other than that there were no problems between them."

"Thanks, Seth. You can go. I'll go back inside." I said.

---------------------

"I apologize for keeping you ladies waiting." I said as I entered Interrogation-A with Detective Teresa Croyle. Cindy was waiting behind the mirrored glass, but I did not want Mrs. Warner to see Cindy yet. "It's good to see you again, Mrs. Olivet." I said as I shook hands with Jeanine Olivet, who was looking fine as her pregnancy developed, her long dark hair combed straight down her sides and back.

"And you, Lieutenant. Oh yes, congratulations on your promotion." Jeanine said. She was sitting to Karen Warner's left and Karla Warner was sitting to her daughter's right side.

"Thank you." I said, sitting down. I looked at Karen Warner for a second. She was a very beautiful girl, and I could see her resemblance to both Seth and her mother... and someone else... but I couldn't quite place it.

I introduced myself to Karen. "I'm very sorry for your loss. I need to ask you a few questions." I then turned to her mother. "Mrs. Warner, would you please excuse us?" I said politely.

"No, I will not. I am staying here with my daughter." Karla Warner said flatly. I should've interviewed the girl last night, I thought to myself. But she was hysterical last night, I reminded myself. As to Mrs. Warner, I decided not to play around.

"Counselor Olivet, would you please inform Mrs. Warner that her daughter is of age and that you will adequately represent Karen's interests here." I said, acknowledging Karen with a nod of the head. "And tell Mrs. Warner that if she does not leave my interrogation room immediately, I will be forced to place her under arrest."

"On what charge?" Karla Warner demanded angrily as Karen's eyes widened.

"Obstruction of Justice, Mrs. Warner." I said. "You are impeding my investigation into your husband's murder. If you do not leave now, Detective Croyle will arrest you and take you through the booking process on the other side of the building while I talk to your daughter and her lawyer."

"It's okay, Karla." Jeanine Olivet said in her most reassuring voice. Mrs. Warner glared angrily at me, but finally got up and left, escorted by Detective Croyle. After the door closed, Cindy Ross came in from the secure side and sat to my left. I introduced her to the ladies across the table.

"Karen, I just need to ask you a few questions." I said, trying to keep my voice smooth and friendly, as the girl was glaring at me.

"Why should I talk to you?" Karen replied, her voice hostile and confrontational.

"We just need to know where you were last night, especially around the time your father was killed. It's basic procedure."

"I was having sex." Karen replied, trying to create shock value. "I was fucking two men. Real men, not like you."

"Care to give us the names of those two real men, so we can verify your story?" I asked, unperturbed. Cindy just glanced at me before turning back to Karen, who looked at Jeanine, who nodded. The young beauty then gave the names, which Cindy wrote down.

"I was fucking them in Ted's dorm room." Karen said, her eyes boring into me.

"What did your father think about you dating two men at once?" I asked.

"Oh I 'date' a lot more than just those two men." Karen said. "I fuck a lot of men. I like sex, a lot."

"So I've heard." I said. "You're working with Dr. Laura Fredricson, I understand."

"Been checking up on me?" Karen said. "Yeah, I'm working with Laura. She's a great woman. She's sure as hell out of your league, Lieutenant."

I didn't even flinch. "No doubt about that, Miss Warner. Laura Fredricson is definitely out of my league. Wouldn't you agree, Detective Ross?"

"Stoppit." Cindy said, trying mightily to keep a straight face. Jeanine Olivet could not keep her face straight; she had to cover her mouth with her hand to suppress a giggle. Karen's expression changed from derision to confusion, wondering what the joke was.

"Miss Warner, did your father know about your promiscuity? How did he feel about it?"

"My stepfather didn't know. He was all about his business."

"Did you love your stepfather, Karen?" I asked. "Or did you fight with him? What about your brother and your mother? How did they get along with your dad?"

"Me? I loved my stepdad, he was good to me. My brother's always been too busy getting married pussy to argue with his dad." Karen said. "And my mother and father didn't fight in front of me, if they did at all."

"Thank you, Miss Warner." I said. "That's all I have. Detective Ross, do you have any questions?"

"Karen, do you know anyone, anyone at all, who might have wanted to murder your father?"

"He was a hard businessman." Karen replied. "I'm sure he made enemies, but I didn't know, or care, anything about his business."

"What about his employees? His board members?" Cindy inquired.

"That old coot Willoughby kept making passes at me whenever he saw me, and I sure wouldn't trust him with my books like Dad did, but other than that I don't know of anyone."

"Did your father seem worried or distracted the last few weeks or months? Did he say anything to you or maybe your mom about business problems or anything else?" Cindy asked, pressing.

"No. I never saw him act strangely. And it's been a very long time since I've heard him talk business with Mom."

After we wrapped up and excused her, Karen left the interrogation room, but Jeanine remained behind a moment. "Did you get the FedEx package?" she asked me. The package had contained my divorce papers.

"Yes." I said. "Are you coming to the party tonight?" I asked.

"Sorry, I can't." Jeanine replied. "But I wish I could... she's so out of your league, you know." She giggled as Cindy and I grinned.