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“Not how I thought I’d spend my holiday,” James said to him on New Year’s Day. It was eight in the morning and they’d gotten the call about an hour ago. Double murder in a house that was trashed from a party the night before.
“The same,” he said. “This is going to be a nightmare.”
Sawyer was looking around at broken bottles everywhere, food on the floor and every other surface that he could see in the living room and kitchen, glasses turned over, maybe some vomit on the floor there.
James used his pen to nudge something aside. “One hell of a party, I’d say.”
A used condom right there next to a plate full of food. Jesus Christ.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to a bash like this, college or not.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve got drug residue over there. Looks like some nose candy and who the hell knows what else.”
“Is that a Narcan there?” he asked.
“It looks it. Seems like whoever was here was prepared for anything,” James said. “Just not gunshots.”
“Yeah, no vests on,” he said sarcastically and shook his head. Not that he’d thought that would be a new fashion statement.
“What are you thinking?” James asked as he walked around.
They were only looking and taking notes. There were others on the scene taking pictures and bagging evidence. The bodies had been bagged and tagged.
“No clue,” he said. “Maybe jealous lovers?” There was a man and a woman both shot in the chest. Lots of shit all over the place and furniture knocked over. “I can’t tell if the party caused this or people running to get out of the way.”
“Someone stumbled downstairs this morning and found the bodies. Said they never heard a sound. Coroner puts the time of death between three and five this morning so far. When we got here there were only five people upstairs in the rooms. Three of them resided here; the others were passed out. All of them were hungover. I’m not sure how much information we are going to get,” James said, scratching his chin.
“Right now we need to find out everyone else who was at this party besides the two dead bodies and the five people who said they never heard a thing,” he said. He wasn’t so sure he believed that but had no choice in the matter until they started the interviews and going over evidence.
“That’s going to be fun,” James said sarcastically. “I heard one of the guys saying it was an open door. That meant anyone could invite anyone else.”
Sawyer looked around the house some more. It wasn’t in the best part of Charlotte. He doubted there would be anyone in the neighborhood with cameras on their houses, but they’d start to find out now.
“How much do you think anyone is going to cooperate with us?” he asked.
“This time of morning, not much. Even if it weren’t a holiday. Guess we’ll find out. There are plenty of people outside looking around.”
“Let’s get to it,” he said.
Hours later, he was back at the station with James. “I got a lot of, ‘I didn’t see anything’. How about you?” James said.
“The same. No one has security cameras. I was looking too so it’s not like they were lying. I couldn’t even get some people to open the door.”
“We’ve got a list of names to start,” he said. “Some numbers but not all.”
It amazed him how many names were just nicknames and not legal names. Let alone not knowing numbers.
“Let’s get to it,” James said. “I’d like to get home for dinner tonight at the very least.”
“Go,” he said. “I’ll get started on this. I doubt we are going to get anywhere and can pick up tomorrow. Be with your family.”
“Nah,” James said. “I’ll keep you company. Let’s get some lunch.”
“Because the coffee and bagel you had a few hours ago wasn’t enough?” he asked. “I’m sure Sondra fed you this morning too.”
