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Brief greetings were made all around, Rideout checked the CSIs had finished taking their photos and processing the immediate area near the body, and Rideout and Liam gloved up.
Rideout stood back, angling his head left then right. “Preliminarily, COD is a gunshot wound to the head.” He motioned for Liam to step forward, and together, the two of them worked to hoist the woman onto her back. “Rigor is just barely beginning. Time of death is less than four hours ago.”
Amanda did the quick math in her head, after taking a glimpse at the time on her phone. It was 2:20 PM now. The woman was last seen in the car chase at 10:40 AM. Wyatt found the car at 12:45 PM. She shared these details with Rideout.
“There you go then. TOD is between ten forty and twelve forty-five.”
Amanda glanced at Trent. The timing confirmed the shooter had executed her not long after the botched ransom. “Caliber of bullet?” she asked.
Rideout took a close look at the entry point, pushing hair aside. “I’d say nine mil.”
“Like that used on Leah Bernard,” she said.
“Is there any ID on her?” Trent asked.
“Let me take a look.” Rideout buried his hands in the pockets of her jeans and none of them gave up anything. “Nope.”
“Again, that would be too easy,” Amanda muttered. If they had her name and address, they could use this to track down the shooter, especially if they did indeed have history.
“Not sure if you two noticed this, but she suffered from abuse. She did a pretty good job covering the damage with makeup, but there is bruising around her orbital sockets and on her cheekbones,” Rideout told them.
Trent took a heaving breath and stared straight ahead. Amanda let him have his space.
Amanda hadn’t picked up the bruising in the crappy photo she had taken. “From recent assault?”
Rideout shook his head. “Spanning a few weeks.”
Trent was still eyeballing the trunk, his eyes glazed as if unseeing.
“That supports our theory about there being history between her and the shooter,” she said to him.
“Yep.” It wasn’t much more than acknowledgment, but Amanda took it.
“And speaking of bruising,” Rideout started, flicking a finger toward Trent’s eye. “You’ve got yourself quite the shiner.”
“At least I’m getting the last laugh. The guy responsible is in holding.”
“Do you think he might be behind all this?” Rideout waved a hand over the car, but his question took in the bigger picture of Katherine’s abduction too.
“We suspect he’s got a hand in it,” Amanda said.
“Then throw the book at him.”
Blair stepped forward, and the ME and his assistant stepped back. It was like a choreographed dance to allow the investigator space to take her photographs.
“Could you email me one of those?” Amanda asked her.
“You got it. Right away, I’m guessing?” Blair said.
“That would be great. Trent and I need to have a little talk with our suspect.”
FORTY-FOUR
It was four o’clock by the time they returned to Central. Liam had texted that the autopsy was scheduled for tomorrow at 11 AM. Amanda had called ahead to have Lowell Mooney put in an interrogation room. She’d also briefed Malone. A lot of expletives had flown across the line.
They joined Lowell in Interview Room Two and found that he was alone. Surprisingly, it would seem, he had waived having a lawyer again.
“You come to personally tell me that I’m free to go?” Lowell asked.
