AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The ME returned. “All right, death was by a single gunshot wound through the mouth, apparently self-inflicted; Forensics found the slug in the pillow, and he’s taken charge of the gun, the shell casing and the slug. He’ll run ballistics on all that today. I found some Ambien, a sleeping pill, in the bathroom medicine chest, one left from a prescription of twenty-five, and there’s a booze bottle by the bed, so my guess is I’ll find both of those things in the stomach contents.”
“Can you do the Bruno autopsy first, before the woman victim?” Hurd asked.
“If you like.”
“Call me when you’re done,” Hurd said.
“Call me, too,” Jimmy added. The ME left.
“Okay, time for the bedroom,” Hurd said. “Lauren, you can wait in the living room; Jimmy, with me.” He led the way into the bedroom.
“I’ll take the chest of drawers,” Jimmy said.
“All right.”
Jimmy began opening drawers and emptying the contents of each, one at a time, on top of the chest, returning them to the drawer after his search. He was on the bottom drawer when Hurd, who was searching the closet, spoke up.
“Jimmy, I’ve got something here,” he said. “Lauren, come in here!” he yelled.
Lauren came to the door. “I don’t want to come in there.”
“Get your ass in here,” Hurd said quietly. “I want you to witness this.” He set an open shoe box on the bed. “I found this on the closet shelf.”
Jimmy and Lauren came in close and watched.
“Give me an evidence bag,” Hurd said. “No, two, and big ones.”
Lauren opened her large purse and produced the plastic bags.
“We’ve got two, four, six pairs of women’s panties,” Hurd said, dropping them one at a time into an evidence bag. “We’ll want DNA from those.” He held up something the size of a staple gun with a small bottle attached to it. “And we’ve got a vaccination gun with a chemical attached.” He dropped it into the second bag, then emptied the shoe box onto the bed. “Nothing else but some old photographs,” Hurd said, poking through them. Finally, he returned them to the shoe box and replaced the cover.
“Ten to one, that’s a Rohypnol solution in the plastic bottle attached to the gun,” Lauren said.
“Right,” Hurd said. “Jimmy, we’re going to take charge of this evidence. We’ll log in everything, then photograph it all, test the panties for DNA matches with the victims, check the serial number on the vaccination gun against hospital records, then, since you’re the lead investigator, return it all to you to lock up in your evidence room.”
“That’s fine with me, Hurd,” Jimmy said.
Hurd took a small evidence bag from his pocket. “I’ll bag the suicide note. I think we’re done here for the moment.”
“Hurd,” Jimmy said, “We should get out a pre
ss release at some point.”
“Let’s wait for the autopsy, the ballistics and the DNA tests to be completed,” Hurd said. “I’ll write something up and fax it to you for your approval before I release it.”
“All right,” Jimmy said.
“One more thing,” Hurd said. “You’ve both seen everything I’ve seen. Did either of you find any indication that this might be a homicide, instead of a suicide?”
“No,” Lauren said.
“Me, neither,” Jimmy added. “It all seems straightforward.”
“Okay,” Hurd said, “the letter gives us his guilty conscience over the murders as a motive for suicide; he apparently took Ambien and booze, then shot himself with his service pistol. The women’s underwear and the vaccination gun are corroborating evidence. Anything to add?”
“No,” Lauren said.
“No,” Jimmy said.
