His Last Cup

"Rise and shine sleepyhead!" A gentle voice spoke to May, who was in a deep sleep.

May woke up startled and groggy. She felt as if the morning light was burning her eyes, so she took cover behind her sheets. She tried to identify the source of the voice, who happened to be none other than her housemate, Bethany Hunter.

"What time....is it? What's up?" May muttered. 

"9:00 AM and about time you get up. Today we have much work to do and it promises to be exciting." Bethany said.

May quickly got up, the prospect of having a new case seem to dissipate her morning grumpiness. "Really? So what's the case?" 

" A most peculiar one.  A man died of natural cause, yet his wife claim that there must be foul play. The police are not buying it, so the head of the homicide department, James Clark, asked me to see if I could find a link that proves there is foul play. Detective Clark is a close friend of the couple so even though his hands are tied, he wants to help her in any way possible."

"So we need to prove that it's murder? Then what?' May asked.

"Then we obviously need to find who did it. But we are not gonna do that by standing here, so get your butt up, go take a shower, while I prepare breakfast and coffee. We leave in an hour." Bethany said, before leaving.

May quickly jumped from her bed and sprang into action, heading to the shower as soon as she could. She quickly took her shower and dressed up. In 45 minutes both girls were ready for action. As soon as they were in the car and on their way to the client's apartment, May decided to inquire more about the case.

"What's the "victim's" name?" May asked.

"His name is Evan Walker, his wife Melanie Walker." Bethany replied.

"So what do you have in mind regarding the case?" May asked.

"I don't have any theories yet as I lack data. But I must admit, the idea of a 29 year old man dying of a heart attack is most uncommon. We must explore every thread that could have lead to this event." Bethany said.

"What if he had some vice?" May added.

"That is a possible angle and I did asked about it. However, Clark insists that the man had no drug addictions, nor even alcohol. He exercised and had a healthy diet, had no reports of health issues. Then one day he simply died of a heart attack." Bethany replied.

"How odd, it does leave the possibility of foul play." May pondered.

"And yet, the initial autopsy did not reveal any foul play. As it stands the man died of clear natural cause." Bethany said.

"But if that's the case, then why are we even bothering investigating?" With every question, May ended up more confused.

"Just because the initial autopsy did not reveal anything, does not entirely rule out the possibility of a foul play. It just means that we have to look closer to unravel the mystery." Bethany said, "And here we are, get ready. This should prove to be interesting." 

As Bethany parked her car and got out along with May, they were greeted by a tall handsome man. It was none other than detective James Clark, who had been waiting for the two of them. 

"Good morning, Ms. Hunter. I see that you arrived on time, just as you promised." Clark extended his hand to offer a handshake.

"Good morning to you as well, detective Clark." Bethany shook his hand, "I brought my assistant with me, I hope that isn't an inconvenience. I assure you that she will prove to be a valuable aid."

"Not at all. A pleasure to meet you, miss. My name is James Clark." Clark once more extended his hand to offer a handshake, this time to May.

"May Starr." May shook his hand.

"Very well, detective, let's get to work." Bethany said, " Could you give me any more details." They began to walk to the lobby.

"I'm afraid I haven't gathered much. I am hoping that you can help us confirm one way or the other what's going on. Your experience has already help us solve quite a few cases and I have no doubt that you can help us once more." Clark said.

"I appreciate the compliment, I just hope I can form a proper theory by talking with Mrs. Walker." Bethany said.

Once inside the building, they took the elevator in order to reach the 9th floor. Detective Clark then led the way to Mrs. Walker's apartment, which happened to be to 908. Clark knocked on the door and the lady of the house quickly opened it. Behind that door, a woman dressed in mourning clothes awaited the three detectives. It should be noted that despite her mourning state, Mrs. Walker had a distinguishable elegance and grace to her. A beautiful chestnut hair tied in a bun, made her almost porcelain like features. She almost looked like a life size porcelain doll. 

"Hello James. I imagine these are the detectives you spoke of," The woman scanned the two women as she tried to identify who was the one in charge, "Where are my manners? My name is Melanie Walker. Please do come inside, I hope we can discuss this in the privacy of my home."

The three followed the instructions and entered the Walker residence. Bethany quickly scanned the apartment, noticing that everything was kept very tidy. The room's furniture was organized in a peculiar manner, perhaps indicating that Mrs. Walker believe in the arts of Feng Shui. The quality of the furniture show that the Clark family lived a bit more decently than the average family, but that they weren't also very wealthy. They were at best a middle class working family. Mrs. Clark motioned her guest to sit in a sofa that she had prepared, the three of them did as instructed. Bethany and May quickly introduced each other, clearing Mrs. Walker's inner inquiry.

"Mrs. Walker, let's get to the point. The autopsy shows that your husband died of natural cause, yet you claim that there must be some sort of foul play involved. Why?" Bethany asked.

"Call it woman's intuition if you will, but two days ago, the day of his death, I just had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. The way he spoke to me, the way he behaved, I felt as if he had been hiding something from me." Mrs. Walker said, trying to contain her sadness.

"Madame, while I myself know how a woman's intuition works, as a detective I need more concrete information. I know that it's painful but if you can, please help me trace your husband's movements of that unfortunate day." Bethany placed her hands over Mrs. Walker's' as to comfort her.

"I understand Ms. Hunter and I will try to the best of my capabilities to tell the tale as it should. I remember that he had the day off so he stood around the house for the majority of the day. He kept pacing himself across the room as if he was thinking of something that trouble him. I asked him in more than one occasion if something what's wrong and every time he tried to comfort me by telling me that everything would be alright, but it only help to worry me more. Then at around 3:30 PM he told me that he had a meeting with someone, he was holding a folder and when I asked about it he refused to tell me about it. His expression seemed more worried than before, however, without much choice I told him to be careful and gave him his kiss. He was gone for around 2 hours and when he came back, he didn't have the folder nor his worried expression. I was relieved, thinking that whatever had caused him to worry was over. Then around 3 hours later, like at 8:00 PM he began to convulse. I tried my best to help him, but before I could do anything, he died." Mrs. Walker finished her tale, and Bethany kept holding her hands to comfort her, who was on the verge of crying. 

"I see. Well I must say, I agree with you, Mrs. Walker. If what you are telling me is the absolute truth, then I do believe there is foul play involved." Bethany replied, comforting the woman.

"You think there is? While it particularly seems strange, I don't see a connection. After all the autopsy didn't bring any clues." Clark added.

"Which is why I'm here after all, isn't it?" Bethany said with a little smirk, "I am sure that if I can trace his movements I might just be able to give you the clue you need."

"Fair point." Clark did not protest.

"Madame I must ask you a few more questions in order to make a clear picture." Bethany said.

"If it will help the case, I'll answer anything."Mrs. Walker replied.

"Do both of you work?" Bethany asked.

"We both used to. Evan was an accountant in a company. I used to work until 6 months ago." Mrs. Walker replied

"Ohh? What was your job?" Bethany asked.

"I used to work in human resources but the company closed down, which I then took the opportunity to work on my writing." Mrs. Walker said, "I'm currently working on my first piece, it's a horror tale."

"So you yourself haven't had any income in the past 6 months?" Bethany asked.

"That's correct." Mrs. Walker replied.

"This is a very nice apartment in one of the nicer parts of the city. If you haven't been working in the past 6 months, how have you been able to keep it?" Bethany asked.

"Evan was earning quite a bit of money. He said that I shouldn't worry about it, that he had it in control and that I should instead focus on following my dream of being an artist." Mrs. Walker said. 

"Did Evan had an insurance?" Clark asked.

" Are you trying to suggest that I am after some sort of money, James?!?!" Mrs. Walker had been upset by the question for obvious reasons.

"No no no no that's not what I meant!" Clark tried to appease the woman.

"You are one smooth operator, detective. With friends like you...." Bethany looked at Mrs. Walker once more, "With that being said, madame, if you could answer that question it would clear any assumptions that the detective here might have."

"No, Evan did not have an insurance. We felt that we should care about getting such a thing once we were into our late thirties and with children. Seeing as how we been married for three years, that wasn't in our minds." Mrs. Walker replied.

"Just as I imagined. Anyway back to my questions. I already ask this to the detective, but I feel I should ask you regardless. Did Mr. Walker had any vices?" Bethany asked.

"No."

"Did he had any conditions or an unhealthy lifestyle?" 

"No. James was in top physical condition, he and I worked out together and we had a diet. We visit the doctor regularly. No known conditions. We were preparing to have children, so we have to do everything to make sure that we were capable and healthy to do so." Mrs. Walker replied once more.

"Very well. Did he talked about where the meeting was taking place?" Bethany asked.

"No."

"In that case, could you please provide me with anything he may have used on that day? I'm trying to trace his movements."

"Well he never leaves the house without his wallet and keys." Mrs. Walker said.

"Good, then if you could, please show me his wallet." Bethany asked.

Mrs. Walker did as instructed. She went back to her bedroom and after a few minutes brought with her a leather wallet. Bethany quickly inspected the wallet. It had a few pictures of the couple, a few credit cards, his driving licence, a bill of 20 dollars and a bunch of receipts. Bethany quickly took out the receipts. She began to categorize them by date. Some of these dated back to one week before the incident. On more than one occasion there was a receipt from a place called Tom's Diner. Once she separated all the receipts by date, she found that there was only one for the day of his death. It was a receipt from Tom's Diner, which located him at the place at around 4:15 PM on the day of his death. The receipt showed that Evan had bought a cup of coffee for $1.00 and nothing else. 

"Mrs. Walker did your husband frequented a place called Tom's Diner?" Bethany asked.

"Oh yes, he was a regular there, used to visit it every day on his way to work and on his way back. Always ordered a cup of coffee." Mrs. Walker replied.

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Walker. For you have given me the single piece of evidence that will prove your claim. Now I must do my work, but I promise you that by the end of the day, I will bring out the truth of this case." Bethany said

"Ohh thank you so much, Ms. Hunter. You don't know how happy it makes me to know that someone believes in me." Mrs. Walker seemed as if she wanted to hug Bethany in gratitude.

"Don't worry, madame, I am simply doing my job." Bethany took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a note, she then handed it over to Clark, " Detective you will take this note back to forensics and demand another autopsy. This time they will be looking for what I wrote in the note. Once they have the results, you will call me and I will head over there."

"All right, what are you going to do now?" Clark asked.

"I'm heading to Tom's Diner for a cup of coffee." Bethany said, "Come May, we have work to do."

The two ladies bid farewell to Mrs. Walker and headed back to their car. They quickly headed to Tom's Diner.

"What are you planning on finding there?" May asked.

"Nothing related to Evan just yet. Which reminds me, I want you to search the web for any information regarding this place." Bethany replied.

They arrived at Tom's Diner and Bethany quickly got out of her car and began to survey the place. She instructed May to remain in the car as she worked with the web. Bethany took a look at the outside of the small diner. Nothing remarkable save for the fact that there was a sign saying "FOR SALE". With that little bit of information, Bethany had an angle. She headed inside and looked for the owner. It didn't take much time, since he was the only one working. Bethany sat in one of the stools and waited for Tom to get her "order".

"Welcome to Tom's. What can I get ya?" A burly bald man, asked Bethany.

"Are you Tom?" Bethany asked.

"The one and only." Tom replied, "What can I get ya?"

"I'm not here for anything on the menu, I'm here for business." Bethany said, "My company is interested in this place and they are willing to pay top dollars for it." Bethany said.

"I appreciate ya offer, but place is not for sale anymore." Tom replied.

"Ohh how come? There is still the sign outside." Bethany replied.

"Ya, but I don't have the need anymore. I forgot to take the sign out." Tom shot back.

"But surely we can offer you quite a hefty sum for it." 

"Look here missie, the only reason I was selling the place is because I needed da money. But I don't anymore, and frankly I am done with loans and businessmen or women." Tom shot back.

"Very well, if that's your stance, I respect it. But I'll have to talk with my superiors and see what they think. Good day, sir." Bethany said, storming out of the place.

She got back into the car, hoping that May had finished her part of the job. The mystery was beginning to unravel itself before her eyes. It wouldn't take much longer before she had the entire picture.

"So what did you find there?" May asked.

"Something that you are about to confirm. Now tell me, is it not true that this place was for sale?" Bethany asked.

"Yes, there is a real estate page for the place. It was selling for $750,000 a hefty price considering the place." May replied.

"Indeed, but it will make sense soon enough. What else did you find?"

"Well, apparently in the last year or so, the place was under scrutiny for two cases of food poisoning. They were sued twice and lost. Apparently there were two chefs, and the owner fired the one responsible for the terrible cooking." May said.

"Interesting, did you know how much they have to pay in the suits?" 

"I think it must have been around $200,000 from what I read. That being the sum of what they had to pay the victims and the hefty fines."

"Interesting. May I think..." Bethany's phone began to rang, "Oh, hello detective Clark. You have the results? Good, I'll be on my way then."

Without hesitation, Bethany and May headed to the forensics lab. If what Bethany had in mind proved to be true, this case was on the brink of being solved. Once they arrived, Bethany quickly headed to the lab, followed by May. Detective Clark was waiting for Bethany with a grin.

"Well I'll be damned, you were right." Clark said.

"Oh I was? Did they found it?" Bethany asked as they walked into the morgue. The forensics team was waiting for Bethany to explain the results.

"I dunno how you figured it out, but yep. They found dextratinine in his blood. Dunno what exactly it does, but it's the clue we were looking for." Clark said, taking a look at the dead body once more.

"Ms. Hunter, thank you so much for the information." A young man from the forensics team said, "It didn't occur to us to search for it."

"I don't blame you, it wouldn't have occurred to me had I not dealt with this before." Bethany replied, checking a set of papers the forensics team had given her.

"What exactly is dextrotinine?" May asked.

"Glad you asked!" Bethany said, "Dextrotinine is a rather recent poison but undeniably one of the best. Basically, it's a chemical compound that you can place on any sort of meal or drink and get rid of someone you dislike in arguably one of the cleanest methods. Once the body consumes the poison, it takes roughly around 2-4 hours for its effect to kick in, giving you the opportunity to come up with a good alibi by the time the person is dead. On top of that, it's quite hard to spot. It's almost untraceable, not perfectly as you may figured out by now, but you need to know that you are looking for it. Which is what caused our little mystery in the first place. The first autopsy showed now signs of foul play, but that was merely a trick. The closer you hide it, the harder to see it."

"But how did you figure that he had been poisoned with dextrotinine?" Clark asked.

"A 29 year old with a good health, no known conditions, dying randomly of a heart attack is uncommon. When Mrs. Walker explained the situation, it reminded me of another case where this had been the murder weapon for lack of a better word. As for my knowledge of the poison, I have a chemist friend to thank for that." Bethany said.

"But who did it? Could it have been the wife? Maybe they had some problems?" The forensics team asked.

"No that doesn't make sense. One thing is to distract the police by pretending to care, and another thing is to open a case that has been closed. The police had already determined that the man had died for natural reasons, therefore there wasn't going to be a criminal investigation. If Mrs. Walker had done it, she would had kept her mouth shut, as opening the case was only going to hurt her." Bethany said.

"On top of that, Mr. Walker did not have a life insurance and Mrs. Walker is currently unemployed. From a financial standpoint, killing him doesn't benefit her at all." May added.

"And I should add, that I have known them for years. Those two have love each other as much as a man can love a woman and woman can love a man." Clark added.

"But then who?" A woman from the forensics team asked.

"It's quite simple, in order to find our killer we must trace the victim's movements. We know that the victim left his home at 3:30 PM to head to Tony's Diner, he was going to meet with someone there. At 4:15 PM more or less, the victim ordered a cup of coffee there. Our victim returns home at around 5:40 or 6:00 PM, then he dies at around 7-8 PM. If we consider what I said about dextrotinine, then we should infer that our friend ate or drank something at around 4:00 PM that contained the poison, and we do know that he did. Therefore it stands to reason that he was poisoned at Tony's Diner." 

"If someone poisoned him at the diner, then that leaves two potential suspects." May added, "Either the person that had the meeting with him or the owner of the diner." 

"I would wager it was both?" Bethany replied.

"Both?!" Everyone in the room asked. 

"The person more than likely with the interest of murdering him was the one who had the meeting with him. But the coffee could only be touched by two people. The one drinking it and the one who brewe it. It stands to reason that there must have been some sort of collaboration." Bethany crossed her arms.

"And now what?" Clark asked.

"We get the truth out of Tom." Bethany said.

"But how?! We don't have conclusive evidence that was him." Clark asked, confused.

"By bluffing, of course. He'll break down under pressure. Just leave the talk to me." Bethany smirked.

The three detectives headed back to Tom's diner. As they entered, Tom quickly recognized Bethany. 

"Like I said before, missie, I am not interested in selling da place." Tom shot.

"Oh but I have a business proposition that you simply cannot resist." Bethany gave him a devilish smile, "I'm after something else this time."

"What do ya want?" Tom was clearly annoyed at Bethany's presence. 

"Your confession of assistance in the murder of Evan Walker." Bethany replied calmly.

"WHAT?!?!" Tom quickly began to sweat bullets, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! EVAN WAS A REGULAR HERE WHY WOULD I KILL HIM?"

"Quite simple, someone had you grabbed by the balls and forced you to do it. And how could that be? Let's analyze the situation. You had a debt of over $200,000 and no way of paying it. Now where would someone go when they don't have money and need? To the bank, but you couldn't, because no bank would seriously think that you could pay them after the reputation of your place came crashing down. So without that option, where would someone look? Where can you borrow money even if your credit is horrible? A loan shark. You took money from one of them and you soon realized that this had been a bad idea. You tried to sell the place to no avail. Knowing how generous loan sharks are with their interests, even if you sold this place at $750,000 you wouldn't even have enough money to buy ramen. So you find yourself between a rock and a hard place. That is, until said loan shark offered you a way out. During a meeting that he was going to have here, you had to place a little bit of a chemical he gave you, on Evan's cup. Now Evan might be a regular, but his two cups of coffee a day wouldn't get you out of the pile of debt you were in, even if he stopped here every single day of the rest of his life. So you, like the scumbag that you are, agreed and poisoned Tom. Am I wrong?" Bethany's terrifying gaze had been locked on Tom.

"How did I aha I ahaha what aha oh god how" Tom was completely shocked.

"So, are you going to confess that you assist or should we charge you for murder?" Bethany kept her deadly stare, "Given the circumstances, if you confess that you were force into it, the judge might be a bit lenient with you. The same won't apply if we charge you with murder, and believe you me that we can." 

"I I I......I confess." Tom sighed, looking down, "I feel horrible, but I had no other option. When he told me what was at stake, I knew I had no other option. It was my only way to be free, but cruel fate would have it that I felt more imprisoned than before."

"Good boy, now one last thing. I need the name of the loan shark." Bethany demanded.

"I can't, I'm afraid of what he can do." Tom said.

"In case you haven't noticed, you are the only witness to his crime. You are the only one that can testify to what he did to Evans. It should be fairly obvious that he can do to you what he did to Evans. So it should be in your interest to help us stop him." Bethany said.

"You.....you are right. That monster needs to be slain once and for all. His name is Hugo Mortimer, he runs a few money laundering business, besides lending money.His office is located in downtown, next to the abandoned casino." 

"Thank you, Tom. I hope for yours sake that we can catch him." Bethany said.

While Bethany was interrogating Tom, Clark had called for backup, so that they could arrest Tom. Once the police had taken him into custody, only one thing remained.

"So the man that Evan was meeting was a loan shark?" Clark asked.

"It seems that way, and it makes sense. Consider that Mrs. Walker had been fired 6 months ago, yet they kept the same lifestyle. Clark must have found some way to compensate." Bethany crossed her arms, "I'll explain later. Now we need to focus on arresting Hugo."

"Right!" Both Clark and May nodded.

Bethany along with the police forced quickly made their way to Hugo's office. The police surrounded the building, as Bethany and Clark entered the premise. They bashed the door leading Hugo office, but he was waiting them with a gun. Bethany being unarmed took cover, while Clark quickly shot an incapacitating shot to Hugo's knee while Hugo's shot missed. 

"You are under arrest for the murder of Evan Walker. You have the..." Clark gave him his rights as he proceeded to do the legal arrest.

"That sonofabitch rat me out!" Hugo shouted.

The police began the search for dextrotinine, and they did in fact found a couple of bottles of the poison hidden in his safe. Bethany and May's attention however, was fixated on a folder cabinet that held the record of all of Hugo's clients. After a thorough search, they found both the records of Tom and Evan Walker. Both men were being extorted by Hugo. By the end of the day, Hugo had been arrested and there was enough evidence to prove his case.

"There are a few things that I still don't understand." Clark crossed his arms, "Judging by the file, he was better off keeping Evan alive."

"The key lies in the folder that Evan was giving him. My theory is that Evan had some dirt on him and exchange it for his debt. However, Hugo was afraid that Evan would later used it against him, so he decided to kill him." Bethany said.

"But why would Evan get himself involved with a loan shark? I know him for years and he is an honest man." Clark said.

"Well I lack concrete data here, but my best guess is that it has to do with trying to maintain they lifestyle they had before his wife lost his job. My best guess is that he might have fallen into gambling or some other thing in an attempt to make more money. He probably wanted to keep it a secret from his wife, so he didn't take any bank loans, instead opted for a loan shark. Sadly for him, he didn't know into what kind of world he got into."

"That's a darn shame, he should had come to me, I could have helped." Clark seemed saddened.

"Well I can tell you one thing. He did everything for his wife, he wanted to make sure that she could follow her dreams and live the life that he thought she deserved. Sadly it came at the expense of his life." Bethany added.

"Well in any case, thank you for your help, Ms. Hunter. As always, you prove to be an invaluable asset in our investigation. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to Melanie and tell her that you were right." Clark chuckled.

"Please be gentle with the widow." Bethany smiled.

"Will do my best." He responded.

The detective bid his farewell and left. Bethany and May headed back to the car, preparing to go back to their home.

"I think I had enough excitement for one day, wouldn't you agree?" Bethany chuckled.

"You bet! I hope we have an even crazier one tomorrow." May laughed.

"Knowing our luck, it wouldn't surprise me." Bethany chuckled as she began to make her way back home.


Epilogue:

A few months after, during Hugo's trial, Evan's computer became a key evidence against him. In it, Evan had a folder of information on Hugo illicit businesses, the folder also contained a note detailing that he was going to meet with Hugo on the day that he died. Tom testified against Hugo, and while he went to prison his sentence was lenient. Hugo on the other hand was not only accused of the murder of Evan, but for a considerable amount of illicit activities. The web that the loan shark had created had been brought down by Bethany and the late Evan. 

Melanie Walker's first book became a massive success, it even spun a movie about it. The sacrifice that Evan made to make sure that she could follow her dream paid of. She is currently writing a detective novel and many people have a theory as to who the inspiration for the novel is.