The Breakfast

Tess woke up in a strange room, in a strange bed, in a very strange mood. The room was incredibly girly and frilly and insanely comfortable. She sat up and looked around. So much pink. Pink PJ’s, Pink spread, pink curtains. The computer on the desk was on, screensaver showing pics of cool natural spots. On the desk was a small android phone and a prepaid card, sitting on a piece of paper that said, “for Tess”. The computer was pink. It was an old iMac with one of those silly plastic shells over it. Hot Pink. She rolled out of the four-poster full-size canopy bed and onto her feet. The top of the bed was just below the ceiling and the top of the mattress came to her chest. There was a little footstool next to the nightstand, Tess must have hopped up there using it last night. She didn’t remember much after getting in the car with Billy. On the desk chair was a complete set of clothes, neatly folded.

The bedroom had a connecting bathroom. Tess wondered, “Did all the bedrooms have their own bathroom? Did the man own a cleaning service? How did he keep the house so clean? How much money did he make on a Lieutenant salary to have such a big house?”

Knock, knock on the door. Billy said “Tess? Are you awake? It’s around 1.”

Tess said, “Yes?”

Billy said, “Hey, that bathroom isn’t connected to any other bedroom. Just go ahead and do your thing. There are all sorts of toiletries in there, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, all the important stuff. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors.”

Tess said, “Okay, I’ll be down in a bit.”

Tess sat in the desk chair and took a breath. She felt... odd, like she belonged. So weird. It’s almost as if she was glad that poor man had gotten murdered and turned her life upside down in seconds.

Billy said, “Dad’s up. He’s in the kitchen, and said he’d cook breakfast for you when you got up. You WANT that. He’s a really good cook.”

Tess opened the bathroom door and stepped in. It wasn’t pink. It was white, kind of a relief really. There were towels and all the usual stuff hung around. This bathroom had a full tub, instead of a shower stall, just like you’d expect for a girl's bathroom. There was Curls shampoo and conditioner in the little caddy and a bodywash dispenser you’d expect from a gym. Tess did her morning routine and dressed in the clothes which turned out to be a pretty good fit.

She picked up the phone and card and wandered downstairs. The hallway wasn’t as long on the return trip. The stairs hit the foyer and the kitchen was straight through to the back. She stepped through the archway into a really big kitchen, like 15 x 30 at the smallest. It had a cooking area, and a seating island, double ovens, a full gas range and bakery oven, double fridge and full table and desk in the eating area. The eating area opened into a full screened in sunroom. Tess said, “Okay, this house is awesome.”

Billy was sitting at the island drinking a cup of coffee, barefoot, in a robe and nightgown, and she said, “Thanks!”

Tess looked at Billy and elevated one eyebrow.

Billy shrugged and said, “Okay, you gotta show me how to do that, the eyebrow thing. It’s my house. When Mom bailed on us, her parents transferred it to me. They really don’t like Dad. They didn’t want their princess marrying a common policeman. Daddy doesn’t care, he says it’s better that way. Grandma pays for everything to do with the house. The mortgage, electric, water, gas, all of it.”

Foxx was standing in front of the huge 6 burner gas range. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and house shoes. next to him was a bunch of bowls all laid out with fixings, he shrugged and said “You want an omelet? Billy, can you get her some coffee?”

Tess looked over at the ingredients and said, “Spinach, tomato and feta cheese, if you don’t mind. Can you make it solid? Not watery at all?”

Foxx said, “No problem. Coming right up.”

His hands started chopping and dicing and mixing, and somehow an omelet pan appeared and had eggs in it. He put the inside stuff in, impressively flipped it and all the while maintained an even conversation, “So, last night after Billy took you home, I found out that Billings asked my Detective to lean on you. He told her that he’d found incriminating evidence in your file and in your home.”

Tess said, “They’ve searched my home?”

Foxx said, “Nope. He lied. I haven’t got the warrant yet. If he has searched it, I’ll have his job. I may just have it anyway. But I sealed the doors with the tape. Plus, I don’t really have cause to search the house. I could probably get a warrant with the current evidence, but since I have no idea what to look for, it would be silly. And by the way, your friend came and got your animals. She said she'd talk to you later.”

Tess said, “Why would he do such a thing. He must know that I wouldn’t stand for it.”

Foxx said, “Billings is one of those cops that believes that getting a conviction is more important than the truth. Always has been. Usually, he’s right about his suspects. Only problem is you were never a suspect.”

Tess said, “Never?”

Foxx said, “Never. You called 911 instantly, stayed on the phone with the operator and the recording corroborates your statement in every respect. The body was tampered with after the murder, we know the man was killed after it started raining hard, and before your call which is a about a 2 minute window. You have no record of any wrongdoing, ever. Plus, all your clothes were dry.

Billings is an idiot, but that’s not normally a problem, but as of this morning at about 8am he’s out of it. By tonight he might be suspended. I just wish I knew why he was being such a moron.”

Billy said, “So why Tess?”

Foxx said, “No clue. Billings told Jan that Tess had a record, read off a whole laundry list of charges.”

Billy said, “Excuse me?”

Tess said, “Excuse me?”

Foxx said, “As it turns out he pulled the rap sheet (if I may use the term) of a Teresa Smith and she has a record a mile long.”

Tess said, “Oh. I see.”

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Billy said, “What? Oh. Wrong Tess. Got it.”

Tess said, “It happens all the time. That Teresa is probably the one from Ohio. I get collections people calling me for her... all … the .. time.”

Somehow an omelet and coffee appeared in front of Tess, white plate gleaming with eggs and toast. Where did the toast come from? This food magic, how did it happen? Tess considered herself observant, but this cooking magic was inscrutable. Billy also had an omelet, and Foxx procured a third from somewhere and they all sat together and ate at the cozy little counter in the huge kitchen.

There was a plate of bacon in the middle of the table/island, and jam and jelly and butter. The table/island was white, the napkins were white and the plates where white. The chairs were some kind of modern steel chrome things, with arms and padded seats. Very comfortable.

Tess said, “But what about...”

Foxx said, “After. We don’t discuss work while eating.”

Billy said, “Dad!”

Foxx said, “I want her to eat.”

Billy said, “You just want to show off your skills.”

Foxx shrugged and said, “So?”

Tess said, “I’m already impressed. The house, the company, the cooking. Thank you for having me. This is all so crazy.”

Billy said, “Oh, it’s no trouble. As you can see, it’s not a problem.”

They ate and talked about the house, Billy’s college, the coffee, other things. After they finished, Tess carried the dishes over to the sink and rinsed them off, and Foxx put them in the dishwasher. Billy refilled the cups and they moved over to the screen porch. It had very nice little coffee table, and a view of nothing.

Tess said, “Why are you telling me all this?”

Foxx said, “Why shouldn’t I? You already know most of it, the part that I might ever want to keep to myself, and you don’t seem like a person to ‘spill the beans’ as it were. You might remember something important. Most murders are simple, common, pedestrian. Billings was right about that. This kind of case almost never happens. When it does, most times we figure out what happened but can’t get enough evidence to convict, or have to depend on a confession. This case we don’t have the slightest clue as to motive.”

Billy said, “Dad, something’s been bothering me.”

Foxx said, “Yes? What?”

Billy stopped for a moment and said, “... Why was Billings there? I didn’t put it on the general. I just called you and a couple of units. They called the ambulance. I understand all the rest of the deputies, but what was a State car doing there so fast?”

Foxx said, “Oh? It could be he was right there, or talking to one of the patrol offices. I’ll find out. Oh, Tess, we ID’d the victim. His name is Donald Eleesworth. Does that ring any bells?”

Tess said, “No, I don’t think so. How do you spell that?”

Foxx spelt it for her and she said, “I vaguely remember when I was a kid there was a family like that, but it’s been a really long time, but the spelling was so odd. How did you find out his name?”

Foxx said, “A little amazing detective work. The CSI tech handed me his wallet.”

A voice from behind them said, “Hey, who’s the babe, Dad?”

Foxx turned his head and said, “Your eggs are in the microwave, Ben. The ‘babe’ is Ms. Theresa Smith, a person we are taking care of for the moment. It’s about work. She’ll be staying in Lara’s room for a couple of days. Tess, this is my second and rudest son, Benjamin.”

Tess turned around and beheld an extremely tall teenager of about 16 with braces and curly brown hair, blue eyes and all arms and legs. The boy grinned impudently at her and took off into the kitchen. Clumping, stomping, clanging and beeping went on and the boy came back out with a huge pile of eggs, toast, beef strips, pancakes and jam, plunked it on the table and commence to inhaling it. Tess watched in awe, mouth agape, as the food immediately vanished into the seemingly bottomless pit.

Foxx looked at her, raised his eyebrow and said, “Never had a boy in the house?”

Billy said, “You can do that, too? No fair! Somebody better show me that trick!”

Tess said, “How many children do you have?”

Foxx said, “Five.”

Tess said, “Good lord!”

Foxx said, “Benjamin, do you think you could breathe while you eat? If you suffocate or choke, I’ll have to take you to the hospital, and I can’t afford the expense, so you’ll probably just have to die..”

Tess said, “You’re the dad, all right.”

Billy laughed and said, “How could you doubt? They are clones of each other.”

Foxx looked back at Tess and said, “So I put the brakes on Jan, and she’s now suitably apologetic. At least she wasn’t silly enough to try and stop you from leaving the room. Anyway, I was hoping you could stay with us a couple of days till we sort this all out. I don’t think Billings is smart enough to give this up, and I’m hoping his antics will tell us something. ”

Ben looked at his dad and then Tess and then back at his dad and smiled, “Dad, I KNOW you. You’re doing something unspeakably clever again, but if you get this pretty lady hurt, I’ll kick your butt. You’d better tell her what you think might happen.”

Foxx turned fully and faced his son. “Do you remember what happened the last time you told me you’d kick my butt? You’d just got your black belt as I recall? Well, this is sparring week.”

Ben turned white. Billy started to laugh, “Ben... relax, he probably won’t kill you, today anyway, he’s too busy. Tess, Ben just wanted to use the word ‘unspeakably’ in a sentence.”

Tess said, “Ben, you do martial arts?”

Ben smiled and said, “We all do. You probably will too if you hang around with us.”

Tess said, “I don’t know about that.”

Ben said, “You’ll see. It always happens.”

Billy said, “Ben, stopped messing with Tess, she’s had a bad night last night. Clean up your dishes please.”

Foxx said in his melodically deep baritone, “Well in this case, my idiot son has a point. Tess, Trooper Billings and I have worked together before, and he’s basically a brute force kind of guy, which for most of the cases we see is just fine. I’m not really fond of his methods, but he doesn’t work for me, and he gets the results his superiors like.”

Ben interrupted and said, “Dad... you have a real whodunit? A murder mystery? Really? You said that never ever happens?”

Foxx shrugged and said, “It seems I was wrong. Anyway, Billings is either so sure of Ms. Smith’s guilt ... ”

Tess said irritably, “Tess.”

Foxx said, “Eh?”

Tess said firmly, “Call me ‘Tess.’”

Foxx said, “Sure, okay, Tess, it is. Billing is either so sure of Tess’s guilt that he’s willing to put his entire career on the line, or there is something else very strange going on. I don’t see Billings as a risk-taker for justice, so we’ll go with the ‘something else’. I want to know how far he’s willing to push this.”

Tess said, “You’re upset. No, you’re angry. You’re taking this personally. Why?”

Foxx said, “A few reasons. The simplest one is that Billing’s is assuming I’m as stupid as he is. That’s silly. Nobody is as stupid as that guy.”

Billy said, “He is sort of a legend in the State Troopers.”

Tess said, “If I’m understanding you correctly, Detective Trooper Billings is the kind of person that assumes guilt based on the record of the person in front of him, and he pulled the record of the wrong Theresa Smith. But why would he pull my record before you gentleman came to my house last night? He assumed I was guilty then and there. You're saying he had my record before he showed up.”

Foxx said, “It’s an interesting question, isn’t it?”

Billy said, “You two are saying he was already there, and he looked up Tess’s record and decided she did it, because he pulled the wrong one by accident?”

Foxx said, “That rap sheet came up first in the cars index. I read it last night. Problem is, that particular Tess Smith is black and 20 years younger than ‘our’ Tess. Billings probably didn’t notice, or did notice and didn’t care. And I don’t think he assumed you were guilty. I think he thought that I would, because he knew I would pull your record before I talked to you.”

Tess said, “I could point out that according to a guy named David Dunning, the set of skills to know if you're good at your job is pretty much the same skill set to become good at your job in the first place, so he probably doesn’t know how stupid he is. Was he alone do you think?”

Foxx said, “I don’t know, because I don’t know why the man was killed.”

Billy said, “You two are talking around Billings being the murderer. Why would he do that?”

Foxx said, “Being the murderer or knowing the murderer, yes. Isn’t that the question? Why would he?”

Tess said, “Money, of course. A man like that would have no other motive. He doesn’t think enough of other people for anything else to work.”

Ben said, “My Dad, Sherlocking. Whoda thunk. We talking about Billings that was here about a year ago?”

Foxx said, “Yeah. Sherlocking? Really?”

Ben said, “He cheated at backgammon with Lara.”

Foxx said, “Did he now? Isn’t that interesting?”

Tess said, “Very.”