AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was an open suitcase on the luggage rack, its contents jumbled, and a golf bag with a full complement of clubs in the corner. A glance into the bathroom revealed a towel on the floor and a toothbrush and a disposable razor on the sink.
She could smell the stench of death, but it wasn’t all that strong. Of course, the body had already been taken away, but the odor of a rotting body took a while to dissipate. The housekeeper must have had a very sensitive nose.
“To start with, nobody heard a shot,” Marshall said. “There was no suppressor on the gun found in the victim’s hand, but it can take one.”
“You think someone took the suppressor with them?” Kit asked.
“I think it’s possible.” Marshall showed them photos of the body on his phone. “Also, he’s holding the gun in his left hand, but he was right-handed.” He pointed to the golf clubs. “Right-handed clubs. I checked. He could have been an ambidextrous shooter, but it made me pause.” He shrugged. “Plus, I read all about that staged suicide that was really murder six months ago. I didn’t want to be fooled.”
“Smart,” Connor said with a sigh.
Kit smiled wryly, saying nothing. She’d suspected that death six months ago had been a staged suicide, but her superiors had been anxious to believe the man had taken his own life. They’d had a good reason, but it had sucked when the truth had been discovered.
It would be a long time before any of the homicide detectives dismissed a case as suicide before doing a thorough study of the evidence.
“I left Forensics to process the scene,” Marshall went on, “and went to notify next of kin—his wife, Denise Crawford. She said that he was golfing in Palm Springs with friends. He left Friday in the early afternoon and was supposed to be gone for four days. I haven’t checked with the friends yet, but in my experience, when a man lies to his wife about his whereabouts and is then found in a motel ten miles from his own home, that spells affair.”
“Make sense,” Kit said. “How did the wife seem?”
“I didn’t tell her that I thought he’d been murdered. I only said he’d been found with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I figured I’d wait for CSU to process the scene before I shared the murder angle. She was shocked that he’d killed himself. Then angry when I asked why he’d checked into the motel so close to their home. She’d suspected he’d been having an affair but had been telling herself that she was overreacting. Said she’d even packed his bag for him for this trip.”
Kit winced. “Ouch. Poor woman.”
“Yeah. She had several choice names for her husband. She gave me the names of the friends he was supposed to have been with, as well as the name of his employer.”
“Shady Oaks,” Connor said.
Marshall nodded. “I hadn’t heard that there was a murder there this morning when I turned in my initial report to the lieutenant, or I would have called you directly. So I guess it’s your case now.”
He didn’t seem upset by this, fortunately.
“Most likely,” Kit agreed. “The victim here was the director of security at the retirement facility and one of the few people with a key to the room housing the security camera controls. The cameras were conveniently not working in the hallway where the murder took place.”
“Then, yeah. Your case, and you’re welcome to it. My partner is slogging through the financials of the suspect on our highest-priority case, and I’ve got a ton of interviews to do. I’ll forward all the photos I took to your email. You’ve got my initial report?”
Kit pointed to her phone. “Read it on the way over here. Before you go, did you ask the ME to do any specific toxicology tests?”
“Just the normal. You think he was using?”
Kit swiped to the first page of Marshall’s report. “He was a big man. Five-ten, two hundred pounds. Faye Evans, the director at Shady Oaks, said he was an army vet, so he probably knew how to defend himself. Since we’re thinking this was not suicide, that means someone put the gun into his mouth. If he was conscious, he would have fought. But you noted that there were no defensive wounds or signs of a struggle.”
“You think his killer drugged him, then set it up to look like a suicide,” Marshall said.
“It’s been done before.” Kit sent a quick email to the ME, requesting a full tox screen, especially for sedatives. “Did the ME give an estimated time of death?”
“Rigor had passed, so thirty-six to forty-eight hours. Can’t be any more than three days because that’s when he checked in—on Friday.”
“When he called in sick to work,” Connor observed.
Kit nodded. “Let’s hope whatever his killer used—if he did drug the victim—has a half-life greater than two to three days, or it’ll be gone.” She scanned Marshall’s initial report once more. “Oh. The manager said that the victim had initially reserved the room for only one night, but that he’d extended the stay online for an additional two weeks. So his killer could have changed the checkout date without talking to the front desk.”
“Assuming his killer had access to his online account,” Marshall said. “If he brought a laptop with him here, it’s gone now. So’s his cell phone.”
“His killer wanted the victim to remain undiscovered for as long as possible,” Connor said. “Cameras?”
Marshall made a face. “I requested the footage. The manager said the surveillance system’s been broken for years. I don’t think he wants to be able to provide the police with evidence. I saw two drug deals going down in the parking lot while I was waiting on Forensics to arrive.”
“Once a narcotics cop,” Kit said with a smile. “You arrest them?”
