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“Hi Marnie,”Jessie said, not moving any closer but using her warmest, “you can trust me”voice. “My name is Jessie. I work with the police. May I call you Marnie?”
The woman noddedweakly.
“Thanks. How areyou feeling?”
“Okay, so far,”Marnie said, sounding distant behind the mask. “But they tell me it’s too earlyto know if I was affected.”
“We’re all hopingthat’s not the case,” Jessie told her. “I know they’re about to take you to thehospital, but I was hoping we could ask you a few questions before then. Isthat okay?”
Marnie nodded alittle more firmly.
“Sergeant Kentongave us the basics of what you told him already,” Jessie explained, “but I’dlike to get a few more details. We understand you arrived here at six. Did youtalk to Tabitha earlier in the day, maybe to reconfirm?”
“Yeah,” Marniesaid. “We spoke this afternoon to talk about what we wanted to order fordinner.”
“Do you rememberwhen that was?” Ryan asked.
“I think it wasaround four,” Marnie said. “I was still at work. I remember that I still hadabout an hour before I could leave. I was calculating whether I could buy thewine, get home to change, and then get over here by six. But you can look at myphone to double check the time that we spoke.”
“We’ll do that,thanks,” Jessie assured her. “So you talked to her around four and got here atabout six. We heard why you opened the door and went inside. I know this isdifficult, but when you entered the loft, did you notice anything unusual?”
“Like what?”
“Anything out ofplace?” Jessie suggested. “Anything missing?’
“I couldn’t reallysay,” Marnie admitted. “We’ve been friends for a half dozen years, but most ofthat time was in her old house. Since then, this was the second apartment she’dlived in, so it wasn’t like she’d really settled in completely.”
“What about in thebathroom?” Ryan pressed. “I know finding her must have been horrific, but wereyou able to pick up on anything out of the ordinary in there? Perfume shedidn’t use? New flowers?”
“To be honest,Detective, I couldn’t focus on anything other than my friend lying dead on thefloor,” Marcie said. “I called 911 right away. I thought maybe she’d had aheart attack or something, what with the way she was still in her towel. Itlooked like she’d just gotten out of the shower. It wasn’t until the coronerguy said something about the silver can in there that I got worried thatsomething else had happened.”
Jessie and Ryanlooked over at Sergeant Kenton, confused.
“Sorry, I shouldhave mentioned this earlier,” he said, “I was so focused on your questionsabout the scenes that I let it slide, but Dr. Roone thinks this case may beconnected to another one he worked earlier in the week. There was an unmarked,silver cylinder found there too. As soon as he saw that, he called in thehazmat team.”
"I'm sorry,but we really need to get moving," the petite EMT insisted.
“Sure,” Jessiereplied, doing her best to temporarily set aside what she’d just heard, “onemore question before you go, Marnie: did Tabitha have any enemies that you’reaware of?”
Marnie shruggedawkwardly inside the suit.
“I mean, she couldbe pretty harsh in her fashion commentary,” she acknowledged. “Not everybodywas a fan. And she had a tendency to flaunt her newfound wealth, like a lot. Iknow there were some haters online regarding that. But she never mentioned anybodyin particular who concerned her. I feel like she would have.”
“What about herex-husband,” Ryan wanted to know, “did she get along with him?”
“Pretty well,yeah,” Marnie said. “I would call their relationship ‘amicable.’ They wanted tokeep it that way for Sammy. She once told me that she didn’t have any animositytoward him. Shejust felt like she was stagnating with him.”
“That’s twoquestions,” the EMT noted and indicated that she wanted to close the doors.Ryan looked at Jessie, who nodded that she was okay with it. It took less thanten seconds from that go-ahead for the vehicle to pull out with siren blaringand lights flashing.
Once it was out ofsight, she turned around to find herself face-to-face with a man wearing a gasmask. She half-jumped until she realized it was the coroner.
“Whoa,” she said.“You startled me, Dr. Roone.”
“Sorry aboutthat,” he said, removing the mask, “I forgot I was wearing this. I called outto you both on the way over here, but I guess you couldn’t hear me with thesirens. Sergeant Kenton said you were anxious to speak to me, so I came out assoon as I could. I assume you'd like to hear what I've learned."
Very much so,” shetold him.
Jessie appreciatedthat the man didn’t want to waste their time. Dr. Michael Roone, an assistantcoroner with the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, was asfastidious in his manner as in his dress. Though his voice was perpetuallygravelly and tired-sounding, he spoke quickly, as if he was constantly tryingto end whatever conversation he was in. As usual, tonight he was wearing a suitjacket, tie, and slacks, despite the risk of the clothes getting stained or inthis case, possibly covered in poison.
