AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At three thirty Falco had called with news that the ME wanted to meet with the two of them at his office. Moore wouldn’t call for a face-to-face unless something was up. As much as she wanted to stay on the Myers case, this was a meeting she couldn’t miss. It wouldn’t take long.
Falco’s Charger pulled into the lot, and she climbed out. Met him at the halfway point between their vehicles.
She summoned a smile. “You have any idea what this is about?”
He shook his head as they walked toward the entrance. “No idea.”
Moore’s assistant waited for them in the lobby. Kerri exchanged a glance with Falco. This couldn’t be good.
The assistant ushered them toward an autopsy room and left them at the door. Falco took a moment to survey Kerri. “You okay?”
She nodded. “I’ll catch you up after this.”
He opened the door, and they entered the room. Moore stood next to the table where Leo Kurtz’s body lay covered with a sheet from the waist down. The usual closed incisions made after an autopsy were visible.
Once they’d gathered around the table with Moore, he began, “Leonard Kurtz died of a single gunshot to the back of the head. The weapon used was a .22 caliber. All his lab work came back clean. No drugs were found. His blood alcohol content was well below the level considered to cause impairment.”
He couldn’t have told them this on the phone? Kerri liked the man, but dragging her over here for this was a little frustrating. She could have picked up her daughter from school and spoken with her face-to-face if not for having to come to thisurgentmeeting.
“Kurtz isn’t why I asked you here,” Moore said quietly, as if he feared someone overhearing even though the door was closed.
Kerri’s frustration fizzled as Falco asked the question that suddenly cleared through the worry in her brain: “You have something to share on Walsh?”
Moore nodded. Kerri and her partner shared a look.
“Dr.Moore,” Kerri cautioned, no matter that the cop in her was dying to hear what he had to say, “as much as we appreciate anything you’re willing to share, we don’t want to put you in the line of fire. You’re aware of the protocol established for the task force investigating this double homicide.”
Moore chuckled. “Your concern is duly noted, but I’ll take my chances. This isyourcase. I’ve never cared for the way certain federal agencies play.”
Kerri nodded her understanding.
“Asher Walsh died by the same manner and cause as Mr.Kurtz. Except,” Moore qualified, “his lab work came back with a positive hit. He had used cocaine before he died.”
Kerri and Falco shared another look. Asking the ME if he was certain wasn’t necessary. He was, or he wouldn’t have released the information.
“Thank you, Dr.Moore,” Falco said. “This could be very helpful.”
Kerri thanked him as well before following Falco from the room. They didn’t speak until they were out of the building and halfway to their vehicles, but tension throbbed as thick as coagulated blood between them. Words weren’t necessary to understand something was way, way off.
Falco stopped and turned to her. “Are you buying this?” He shrugged. “I mean, there’s plenty of people out there who preach one thing while doing the other. Just because Walsh stayed on his soapbox about drugs doesn’t mean he didn’t dabble.”
“No question,” Kerri agreed, though every instinct she possessed was screaming at her that this was wrong, wrong, wrong. “But his aunt seems awfully certain he was squeaky clean.” Kerri was the one shrugging now. “Then again, sometimes family is the last to know.” On a purely personal level the idea scared the hell out of her.
Falco’s gaze narrowed, and his lips thinned. “But not Cross.” He moved his head side to side. “Cross is adamant about Walsh’s antidrug standing. The aunt might have missed the mark when reading her nephew, but Cross wouldn’t have. No way. He wouldn’t be able to fool her.”
“I have to agree with you there. I can’t see Sadie missing that about him.” Kerri drew in a deep breath, mostly to slow the pounding in her chest. She watched the anger dance across her partner’s face.
“They want us to believe Walsh was buying from Kurtz,” he said, the fury simmering in his voice.
Kerri could see the beauty in the plan. It flipped everything. “It was a simple drug deal gone wrong. Territory dispute or something like that.”
Falco braced his hands on his hips. “I saw this kind of cover-up all the time when I was undercover. This is the way you shift attention to make the potential witness or, in this case, the victim, look dirty. Walsh loses credibility, and the investigation turns in a whole different direction.”
“How do you suppose his father is going to react to this?”
“I was wondering the same thing.” Falco’s nostrils flared with a big breath. “Someone is working hard to change the direction of this investigation. Someone who was there the night Walsh and Kurtz died.”
“The shooter,” Kerri suggested, “or the one who gave the order.”
