AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This was true. The last case Jack had been working on, Dickie had made a very convincing suspect. Dickie was the bank president at First National here in Bloody Mary, and United Trust was over in King George Proper.
“Who’s president at United Trust now?” I asked.
“I can find out.” He went to the bank website and the picture of a man I didn’t recognize showed up in the top right corner. “Carl Fortenberry. I don’t know him,” Jack said. “You?”
“Nope, never seen him before.”
“We’ll check him out anyway just in case. I want to go back to Oglesby’s body,” Jack said. “The needle mark from the syringe they used to drug him. You said there was bruising around the entry point.”
“Whoever gave him the shot wasn’t gentle about it. But I can see how it could happen like that. You’re trying to get it done quickly and your adrenaline is pumping. So your strength is more than you thought it was.”
I pulled out the copy of the autopsy file I’d made for Jack and looked at the tissue photograph I’d made as well as the x-ray. “It was a big needle,” I said. “You could see where it entered into the muscle on the x-ray. “I didn’t even notice it on the external exam because all of the damage to the body, but the x-rays picked it up. Once I knew what I was looking for, I could see the bruised tissue under my scope.”
“Stand up,” Jack said. “I’m about Oglesby’s height, right?”
“He had a half an inch on you.”
“So close enough. Where was the needle mark?” He turned around so his back was to me.
“Right shoulder, almost where it meets the neck and about four inches down.” I pressed down on the spot so he could feel the area. “Location indicates the person was right-handed.”
“So pretend you’re about to stab me with a needle in that exact spot.”
“Ooh, I’ve always wanted to stab you with a needle. You sure know how to show a girl a good time, Jack.”
“You weren’t complaining two hours ago.”
I rolled my eyes and lifted my arm above my head, preparing to strike the blow. When my fist came down, it impacted higher than the target I was shooting for. A couple of inches higher. And I could finally see what Jack was getting at.
“I’m too tall,” I said. “Whoever gave the injection to Daniel Oglesby was shorter than I am.”
“How much shorter?”
“I’m a little over 5’7”. So I’m thinking about 5’4” at the tallest.”
“Who at the garage would fit that description?”
“Holy shit. Wormy Mueller.”
“I got the lab results back on the bandana we found at Daniel Oglesby’s crime scene.”
“And?”
“It’s a match for oil and several other things found in a garage. More importantly, it’s an exact match for the kind of oil George uses in his garage.”
“The only problem with that is Wormy might have delivered the initial injection, but he’s too small to move the body. And he’s too small to have been able to kill Oglesby by himself and chain him to that tree. He was also at the station when George was killed, so you don’t have him for murder there.”
“No, but a guy like Wormy isn’t the muscle. He just follows instructions. And he could have called anyone from the garage to let them know when George left. We need to talk to Wormy.”
“It’s two o’clock in the morning.”
“The garage opens at seven,” Jack said. “We’ll catch him then.”
“You know the one problem I have with all of this?”
“Probably the same problem I have. Doc Randall. He doesn’t fit. And we don’t have a body or a murder weapon.”
“You said follow the money,” I reminded him. “Who has that kind of money to throw around?”
