Alison made her way around the body, crouching at points to view the body more closely.There wasn’t any other blood apart from what had come from the neck wound.At least, at first glance.Unless there was more to see on the front of his person, the killer had killed him quickly.
Had the lead-up to that been quick?
Alison stood back up and looked around the gym.Everything looked in order.If he had hung back to clean up, that would have been accomplished before he died.Unless that was more she hadn't seen yet.Perhaps there was work to do in the upstairs office.
Alison left the body and made her way back over to Detective Moore.She scanned the area on the way back.The court was clean and clear.No scuff marks that indicated an altercation.No objects on the wooden floor unless they had been collected by the killer.
"Do you have any idea who might have wanted to kill him?"Alison asked.
"Not yet," Moore admitted."What are your initial thoughts?"
"My initial thought is that this looks like an execution," she said, glancing back at the body and the knife sticking out of the back of the neck."The killer obviously brought the knife with them.First impression is that we’re looking at the one wound that killed him, with no fight leading up to that.It was quick and effective, and the killer knew what they were doing.We can't get fully inside the mind of the killer just yet, but I can assume the killer came here to kill Thomas, and they completed that."
The forensic tech hurried over while the photographer kept snapping photos.
"You mentioned that you think it could have been an execution," she said.
"Possibly," Alison confirmed.
"You might be right," the tech said with a shudder."We can't confirm anything until we do a full autopsy, but looking at the angle of the knife, there is a slight downward tilt.That meant it came from above, and the person would have had to be unusually tall to stick it in at that angle.It’s more likely the victim was kneeling."
"Okay, so an execution," Alison agreed.She breathed out through her nose and grimaced.
"You know who did it?"Moore asked."You know something, I can see it in your face."
"I’ve presided over a lot of assessments in my time," Alison said."I don't claim to remember all of them, but there are some that stick in the mind.Thomas Warren was one of them.He had a history, a real bad history, and that was both in and out of jail.Still, I remember talking to him face to face, and I didn’t wonder."
"Wonder what?"Moore asked.
Alison glanced at the lifeless body again as the camera flashed around him.
"I knew he’d changed," Alison asserted."There are some criminals who you know are playing you, and then there are the worst ones, where you can't be sure if you’re being played or not.Warren was neither of those.I was sure he had turned a corner."
Moore sighed."From what I’ve been told so far, it sounds like he had.He was well-liked here by the staff and the kids.He didn't take any crap, and he was genuinely caring about them.He was really helping."
"He wanted to make amends," Alison admitted."I remember that from him, so I’m not surprised that he’s doing that.Still, I remember the things he was caught up in before going to jail, and I remember that he almost killed a man in San Quentin.Word on the street back then was that it was an attempted gang hit.That the order had come from someone outside.The guy he put in the hospital was in a rival gang."
"And you’re wondering if that came back to haunt him?"Moore asked.
"Five years is a long time," Alison admitted."Yeah, I’m wondering if someone from his past caught back up with him, and I can't help but wonder if he was back in with a bad crowd.I fully believed he was a changed man, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t wrong about him."
"Which does lead into the report that was found on the body," Moore said."Come on."
She led Alison back out of the gym and away from the dead body.They walked to a small room attached to the large hallway, where Detective Moore had set up a makeshift office while they investigated the crime scene.The detective walked over to a large black bag and took out a pair of latex gloves, handing them to Alison.
Alison donned the gloves and was given charge of an evidence bag containing the reports left on the body.From the lack of blood on the documents, they had obviously been placed with care.
Before Alison looked at them, she considered what that meant.She had just come from a case where she was the reason for the murders, and she was loath to think that might happen again.There was obviously a reason for the report to be left on the body.
Alison carefully opened the bag and removed the documents.There were two separate documents.The first was the psychological report that Alison had written about the mental state of Thomas Warren.The report was comprehensive, spanning three pages.The details came from her face-to-face meetings with Thomas, as well as observations and interviews with the prison guards.
The report had been amended with a red pen, like a schoolteacher correcting a student’s work.Sentences and paragraphs had been crossed out, question marks had been added in multiple places, words were underlined, and multiple notes were written in the margins.If Alison were looking at a student’s work that had been corrected by a teacher, she would assume that the work was terrible.
Alison set the report on top of the evidence bag, then set both on the desk for now.She turned her attention to the second report, which looked much like the first without the red pen.
The layout and formatting were the same, but the content was in opposition to Alison’s reports.
This is a direct response to the report provided by Dr.Alison Payne on the 4th of March, 2021.In this report, I aim to correct the misgivings and implausible findings that Dr.Payne so eloquently captured…
