Through The Grinder

Two

I didn’t notice when he’d arrived. Not right away. Which was very unusual. Because ever since he’d first walked through the Blend’s front door a few months back, I’d always noticed.

Today, however, I’d been especially distracted. So when I finally did realize that Detective Mike Quinn of the Sixth Precinct’s detective squad had entered the coffeehouse, crossed the sun-washed room, and wandered up behind the huddling group of us, I was caught by surprise and actually became a little flustered.

The main floor of the coffeehouse was rectangular in shape, with a row of tall, white French doors lining one side. In summer, these were thrown open for sidewalk seating, but on this chilly autumn day they were shut tight. At the room’s far end was an exposed brick wall, a working fireplace, and a wrought iron spiral staircase leading to the cozy second floor. (This staircase was for customers. The staff used the service stairs near the back door behind the pantry.)

At the moment, the Sunday papers were spread out across one of the circa 1919 coral-colored marble-topped tables near the coffee bar. The Times, with their usually restrained reportage, had tucked the story of Valerie Lathem’s suicide on the inside of the Metro section. The Daily News and New York Post, however, had splashed lurid leads across their tabloid fronts.

“Final Cup of Coffee” and “Jumpin’ with Joe” headlines were accompanied with nearly identical front-page photos of a Village Blend cup lying in the middle of grimy subway tracks. Because of the subway train’s height, the paper cup had been left eerily unmolested between the rails — unlike Valerie herself, whose blood had been splattered everywhere. This bizarre contrast had clearly piqued the morbid interest of the photographers.

A color photo of the pretty young woman had been inset next to the stories on her suicide. Apparently, reporters had borrowed the picture from her grandmother, whom they’d visited for quotes before filing.

“Any of you know Ms. Lathem?” the Detective abruptly bit out.

Even on good days Mike Quinn’s manner wasn’t the warmest. On days like this, however, days after a particularly tragic death, the man had a voice like stale coffee — wrung out and bitter.

I turned to find his twilight blue eyes on me, his square jaw sprouting the shadowy stubble of a beard. His clothes were relatives of the family Beige: brown pants, a gold printed tie hanging from a loose knot, and a winter coat the color of a cinnamon roast bean. From experience, I knew that beneath that coat, strapped across muscular shoulders, was a brown leather holster that held a gun the size of a howitzer.

Under his bloodshot eyes, I noticed shadowy crescents. He’d probably been up half the night.

“Let me get your usual,” I told him.

He nodded, and I noticed his dark blonde hair, which was usually trimmed fairly short, was looking a little shaggy.

The conversation around the table continued as I pulled the fresh espresso shots and steamed the milk for Quinn’s latte.

“I’ve seen her come in here,” Esther Best told Quinn. “But I didn’t know her.”

Tucker, Joy, and Kira all concurred. Each had recognized Valerie Lathem as a regular customer, but that was it.

“The typical Manhattan existence,” said Tucker. “Many recognize you, but no one knows you.”

“It’s awful,” I said, when Quinn moved to the coffee bar to take his latte. “She was so young.”

“Twenty-seven,” said Quinn, leaning on the blue marble counter. He took a sip from the paper cup and closed his eyes. For the briefest moment, his features relaxed and his load seemed to lighten.

When I’d met the detective a few months back, he’d been on a steady diet of stale Robusta bean crap, poured from a stained carafe at a Sixth Avenue bodega. I’d converted him into a regular with one good mug of Arabica house blend, followed by a freshly drawn latte. Ever since, I’d been savoring these brief flashes of surrender that would cross his routinely haggard face.

My ex-husband seemed to think Quinn’s interest in me went beyond my ability to mix perfect Italian coffee drinks.

I begged to differ.

Quinn was a married man and our conversations rarely went beyond the level of a coffee barista bantering with her customer. On the other hand, if this truly was the only time the detective allowed himself to surrender to pleasure in the course of his day — I really did wonder what that said about our relationship.

“Do you remember what she ordered?” Quinn asked me, suddenly opening his eyes. “As her final cup?”

“What you’re having,” I said. “A double tall latte.”

Quinn nodded.

“It’s our most popular drink — which isn’t surprising. It’s the most popular drink at most specialty coffeehouses in America.”

Quinn raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Part of my research for an article I did last year for Cupping magazine,” I explained.

He nodded.

Behind the coffee bar, I prepped the espresso machine for its next shot, unclamping the portafilter handle and dumping the packed black grounds, knocking the cake-shaped debris into the under-counter garbage can.

“So, Valerie Lathem’s death was a suicide then?” I asked. “I mean, according to the newspaper reports, the transit police are calling it a suicide. You’re not involved in the investigation, are you?”

“It’s transit’s case. But Ms. Lathem was a Village resident, so my partner and I have been assigned to assist my transit brethren,” he said. “Search her apartment and such.”

The caustic tone was subtle. Although you could never be sure with Quinn, I assumed he was not entirely happy with the course of the investigation.

“You searched her apartment?” I repeated softly, pausing before I rinsed out the filter.

Quinn nodded.

“What do you think?”

Quinn took another sip of his latte.

Before he could say more — and, knowing Quinn, he certainly wouldn’t have said much more anyway — he was distracted by the increasing volume of the conversation at the table I’d just left.

“…and the Post reports at the end of the article that she was just promoted,” said Tucker.

“Where did she work?” asked Joy.

“According to the Post…Triumph Travel,” said Tucker, examining the page.

“Triumph has a lot of contracts around the city,” noted Kira. “They specialize in booking business trips for CEO-level execs.”

“Really?” said Tucker, skimming the page, then looking at another paper. “How do you know that, Kira? Nobody mentions it.”

Kira shrugged. “Easy, Tucker. I’m a genius.”

“Why would she kill herself, do you think?” asked Joy.

“Why does anybody kill themselves,” said Esther with a shrug. “Love.”

“Love?” said Tucker. “And this from you, our Goddess of the Jaded?”

“It’s only, like, monumentally embedded in our literary history,” Esther said. “Don’t you know that?”

Tucker rolled his eyes, then loudly cleared his throat and clapped his hands. “People! People! I have a question — ”

I tensed as the entire coffeehouse of customers looked up.

Esther should have known better. As an NYU English major, she liked to display her literary attitude on her sleeve (such as her frequently announced reason for working here — Voltaire and Balzac both supposedly drank over forty cups of Joe a day). But to imply that Tucker, a playwright and actor, wasn’t acutely aware of the myriad causes of human angst was practically daring him to make a scene.

“Show of hands please!” shouted Tucker. “Who in this room can trace their pain to (A) their parents? (B) Events that happened in the school or peer arena? (C) Genetics?”

The customers blinked and stared.

“I trace my pain to my bad mattress.”

The place erupted in peels of laughter.

Tucker turned and gave a little bow to the woman who’d made the quip — a strikingly elegant brunette standing by the front door in a gorgeous floor-length shearling.

Like Valerie Lathem, I’d seen Shearling Lady a few times before, but I’d never gotten to know her by name. Tucker took her order as she approached the counter.

“I don’t care what you think,” Esther called to Tucker. “I still say it was love.”

“Word,” said Joy. “Someone might have broken her heart.”

Oh god. My daughter had finally mentioned the subject of broken hearts.

“A guy just dumped me,” Joy told Esther rather matter-of-factly.

Now I was really tensing.

“If I had loved him, I think it would have been really devastating.”

I sighed with extreme relief, grateful to hear that Mario Forte hadn’t caused my girl any real pain.

With her cute heart-shaped face, bouncy chestnut hair, and equally bouncy personality, my daughter had gone on her share of dates in high school, but she had yet to fall — really fall — in love.

As a woman, I certainly did want Joy to experience the exhilaration Juliet felt for Romeo. But as a mother and ex-wife, I was acutely aware of that character’s completely screwed position at curtain’s close — so you’ll have to excuse my being profoundly happy that my daughter had just announced she had not in fact experienced the L word.

“What if it was a lack of love — lovelessness,” suggested Tucker as he coated the bottom of a cup with chocolate syrup for Shearling Lady’s Café Mocha.

“What are you implying?” I asked. “That Valerie Lathem was so lonely she leaped in front of the Broadway line?”

“Not having a man is a pretty common issue for women in this town, you must admit,” said Tucker. He added a shot of espresso, splashed in steamed milk, then stirred the liquid to bring the chocolate syrup up.

I frowned.

“He’s right,” said Shearling Lady. “According to the latest Census figures, there are four hundred thousand single women in New York City between thirty-five and forty-four, compared to three hundred thousand in a traditional marriage. And there are three times as many divorced women in the city as men.”

“I have more bad news,” said Tucker. “Désolé. Not all of those men are straight.”

Shearling Lady’s perfectly shaped raven eyebrow rose. “Neither are all the women.”

I took a closer look at Shearling Lady, wondering whether she were gay, too. Mid-forties was my guess. Her short raven hair, a rich black color with reddish highlights, was cut in the kind of trendy, feathery style I’d only seen on models. Her makeup was flawless. I was dying to ask where she’d gotten the coppery lipstick with a matte finish that perfectly set off the cream of her complexion — but I didn’t bother. I could tell by the coat and the hair that I probably wouldn’t be able to afford it, anyway.

“What are you? A Census taker?” Tucker asked the woman.

Shearling Lady smiled and shook her head. “Just a lawyer with a good head for stats. And recently divorced myself.”

That explained the money. Obviously, she was a highly successful lawyer. It also explained why she’d moved to the Village. Same reason as me — to start over, whether with a man or a woman. For my part, there was no wondering. Men were my cup o’ tea…as long as they were coffee lovers.

“I’m Clare Cosi,” I said, extending my hand. “Thanks for patronizing us.”

“Winslet’s the name,” said the woman. “Just call me Winnie.”

“You know what I think?” said Kira from her table. “A good cup of coffee is better than any man…it’s warm, satisfying, and stimulating. And it won’t cheat on you.”

“Amen,” said Winnie.

Tucker finished the Café Mocha with a dollop of whipped cream, shaved chocolate, and cocoa powder.

“Girls,” he said, handing Winnie her drink. “You’ve got it all wrong. A good man may be hard to find, but a hard man is definitely the best find of all.”

I smiled. Detective Quinn didn’t.

“Clare,” he said, quietly motioning me over as the coffeehouse conversations continued.

“Another?” I asked, seeing him hold up his nearly empty cup.

“Do you have anything stronger?”

I smiled. “You want a Speed Ball?”

Quinn choked on his last sip of latte. “You got heroin back there?”

I laughed. “Our Speed Ball is a grande house blend with two shots of espresso. It’s like a Boilermaker with coffee instead of beer and whiskey.”

“Speed Ball,” he muttered. “And I thought I’d encountered every street drug alias there was back when I was in uniform.”

“You want?” I asked.

“Set it up,” he said, and I did.

“You know, the same basic mix is called a Red Eye in L.A.,” I told him as I pulled the espressos. “I’ve also heard it called a Depth Charge, a Shot in the Dark, and a Café M.F.”

“Thanks for the street-slang briefing, Captain.”

“No sweat, Detective. And don’t forget” — I handed him the Speed Ball — “this drug’s legal.”

He took a healthy hit and his eyes widened. “Maybe it shouldn’t be.”

“I’m warning you, Quinn. Don’t mess with my fix.”

He smiled — for the first time since he’d walked in, and I wanted to keep it there.

“I’ll bet you didn’t know that Germany’s King Frederick once hired a special coffee police force known as Kaffee Schnufflers,” I told him.

“Coffee police?”

I tried my best to affect a cheesy Gestapo accent. “Yavolt. To sniff out unauthorized coffee roasters. He didn’t think coffee-drinking soldiers could be depended upon…Fortunately for the Germans, he failed.”

Quinn shook his head, but I was happy to see the smile remain.

“So, Miss Census,” said Tucker, still conversing with Winnie Winslet. “I’m curious. Now that you’re divorced, are you having trouble finding a man?”

“Me?” She laughed. “I don’t find men, darling, men find me. But the truth is, the signature on my divorce papers isn’t even dry yet, so I’m not actually interested in being found. Not yet anyway.”

“Well, when you’re ready, you should look into our Cappuccino Connection night,” said Tucker.

“And that is?”

“A local church group puts it on twice a month on our second floor. You just sign up and show up.”

“Which church?” asked Winnie skeptically.

“It’s nondenominational,” said Tucker. “Just a way for single straights to meet. They even do that ‘Power Meet’ thing so you’ll meet a lot of men in one night.”

Winnie shook her head. “No thanks. If I were actively looking, which I’m not, I’d probably go with the e-dating thing.”

“Ohmygod!” cried a new voice. Inga Berg walked up to the counter. “I totally don’t know how I met men before the on-line thing.”

An assistant buyer for Macy’s, Inga had just been promoted to buyer — and the raise had given her the income to move out of her rental share off Seventh Avenue and purchase a condo in one of those new buildings overlooking the Hudson River.

“Inga, you can’t tell me you ever had trouble meeting men,” I said. She was a bubbly woman with a curvy figure, nearly waist-length golden hair, and dark eyes, so frankly it was hard for me to imagine.

“Oh, Clare, you just don’t get it. The on-line thing opens up a whole new world. I mean, it let’s you brrrrrrrowse.”

Now she sounded like Catwoman.

“Inga,” I said, “you make it sound like a shopping spree.”

“Exactly! And you know shopping is totally my life!”

O-kay. “So what can I get you this morning?”

Inga was a regular but she didn’t have a “usual.” She ordered something different almost every time she came into the Blend — which, now that I’d heard her approach to dating, helped me understand her ordering philosophy in a whole new way.

“Hmmmm…let me see…what do I feel like…how about a Café Nocciuola?

“Coming right up.”

Nocciuola, which is Italian for hazelnut, was basically a latte with the addition of hazelnut-flavored syrup.

(We didn’t have a liquor license, but I did keep a bottle of Frangelico, a lovely Italian hazelnut liqueur, hidden under the counter for the occasional spike — for a few very special customers upon request. When Matteo was around, he preferred to mix his own cheeky version, which he called a “Coffee-Hazelnut Cocktail,” a combination of Kahlúa, Frangelico, and vodka — hold the espresso. He especially liked to whip these up for the staff after closing on Saturday nights.)

“You know, I’ve been thinking of trying the on-line thing out,” said my daughter, approaching the counter. She turned to Winnie and Inga. “Can you recommend any sites?”

I tensed.

The last thing I wanted to hear was my daughter, my innocent Joy, inquiring about signing herself up for the shop-and-drop grinder of this city’s computer dating scene. Not that I knew about it firsthand — but I’d heard quite enough war stories from the front lines.

Still, what could I say? The last thing my daughter wanted to hear was advice from her mother, telling her to stop before she’d started. So zip it, Clare, I counseled myself. Joy doesn’t want your advice…She doesn’t want it…She doesn’t —

“Joy, aren’t you busy with your culinary classes?” I blurted out. “I mean, computer dating doesn’t sound like something you’d have a lot of time for.”

Joy gave me a look I can only assume was also used on heretics during the Spanish Inquisition.

“I’d really like to know,” my daughter told Winnie, ignoring me completely.

“Um…I don’t know,” said Winnie, glancing uneasily from Joy to me and back again.

“SinglesNYC.com,” said Inga without hesitation. “I’m on it, like, 24/7, you know, to check out the new guys.”

“Thanks,” said Joy. “I’ll register this afternoon.”

God, Joy, sometimes you’re as stubborn as your damned father!

“You know what,” I said. “I’m going to register this afternoon, too.”

“You!” cried Tucker.

“You?” cried Esther.

Then everyone stared.

“Why not?” I said.

“Because…” said Tucker, “for one thing, you’ve never even attended the Cappuccino Connection.”

“And that goes on right upstairs!” added Esther.

“True. But I feel differently all of a sudden.” I threw a pointed glance at Joy. “Like computer dating might be worth a try.”

Joy rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mom, first of all, it’s called on-line dating. Not computer dating. ‘Computer dating’ was like something somebody did with punch cards in the stone age. But, you know what, go ahead. You register, too. In fact, I’ll help you with the profile. Maybe you’ll finally see there’s nobody better than Daddy out there.”

“I sincerely doubt that,” I told her.

I also sincerely doubted I’d actually meet anyone of romantic consequence. But, for my daughter’s sake — or maybe my own peace of mind where my daughter was concerned — I was going to make sure any service she used was legit.

A few minutes later, a crew from St. Vincent’s Hospital came in looking for their caffeine hits, and Tucker and I were swamped.

“Got that lat?”

“Got it!”

“Skinny cap with wings!”

Cappuccino with skim milk, extra foam.

“Dopey X!”

Doppio — aka “double” — espresso.

“Caffé Carm!”

Caffé Caramella — a latte with caramel syrup, sweetened whipped cream, and a drizzle of warm caramel topping.

“Americano!”

Espresso diluted with hot water.

“Grande skinny!”

Latte with skim milk.

“XXX!”

Triple espresso.

“Cap, get the lead out!”

Cappuccino with decaf. I shuddered — decaf drinkers truly gave me the creeps.

“Clare,” called Detective Quinn, approaching me behind the counter. “I have a question for you before I go.”

With his grim expression back, I expected a query concerning Valerie Lathem…or at the very least one about the list of coffee drinks that seemed to constantly perplex him. But to my stunned surprise, he didn’t mention either one.

“Are you free for dinner Thursday?”