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“Did either of the other bodies have that sort of indentations along the head?”
“No, not that bad. This was… this was so much worse. Jesus, I could barely even look at her head.” He signed deeply and stepped closer to her. “I really don’t think you should be here…a part of this. Stress can’t be good for you, right?”
“I’m fine, Jack, I swear. And if you want pure honesty out of me, I don’t know that I’ve felt this good in the past month or so. And it’sbecauseI’m taking some sort of a part this case, as strange as that may sound.”
“Well, if anyone takes a point to speak with you and figures out who you are, it could get back to Anderson.”
“I’ve thought of that. But I—”
The African American cop appeared in the doorway. Chris Newsome was behind him, and they both slowly entered the room. Chris looked like he’s just been repeatedly punched in the stomach. His entire face was overcome with and muddy expression that rested somewhere between rage and heartbreak.
“Find who did this,” he said to them, his voice a haggard echo of itself.
“That’s what we want, too,” Rachel said. “But we need to ask you some questions in order to get started properly. Do you think you can—”
“Yes,” Chris croaked. “Anything. Just… I don’t know how much longer I can keep it together…”
He was already trembling, and his voice was tight. Rachel had been here before, in this exact situation. Depending on just how long Chris was able to keep the anger at the forefront, overshadowing his grief, they might have five minutes at most.
“There are no signs of forced entry,” Rachel said. “That means there’s a very good chance that you wife willingly opened the door for whoever did this. Can you think of any neighbors, family, or friends that might have—”
“No. Officer Overstreet already asked me all of that stuff,” he said, looking over to the cop.
Jack tried next, doing everything he could to keep his voice low and somber.“Mr. Newsom, we have reason to believe that the man who did this has taken the lives of two doctors over the course of the past five days. I need you to thinkveryhard… think about if there were any patients over the past year or so that might have a grievance against you. And the same question goes for your wife: anyone that might have it out for either of you.”
“Overstreet asked me that, too. But…no. I couldn’t think of anyone. I’m sure… I mean, maybe there could have been something with a patient concerning Donna and she just decided not to tell me… but that’s not like her. I mean… can’t it just be some random whacko that came in here and killed her?”
“If there were items missing, or signs of a robbery, yes, that would be an avenue to pursue,” Rachel said. “But from what we can see, there was nothing missing. Nothing obvious, anyway. Do you have things hidden around here? Maybe a safe or money hidden away?”
“Just a small safe in the closet.”
“And we already checked,” Overstreet said. “The safe is there and hasn’t been tampered with.”
“Dr. Newsom,” Jack said, “as federal agents, we often come across difficulty in getting medical records for proof in cases. You’re a surgeon, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How many surgeries would say you perform in any given month that would be considered emergencies? Where you go in knowing there’s a good chance the person might not make it?”
“I don’t know,” he said, looking at Jack as if it were the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “Two, maybe three.”
“And were there any you lost recently where the family seemed to hold a grudge?”
“No. Nothing like that. I’ve only had that happen a single time and it was years ago.”
“And Donna never mentioned anything about someone at the hospital getting upset with her?” Rachel asked.
She noticed that when she spoke his wife’s name, Chris cringed, and his face tightened up. It looked like they weren’t even going to get their five minutes, which might be okay, actually. They’d asked the most important, pertinent questions. The next step would be to visit the hospital and speak to other nurses and doctors that had worked with Donna. Maybe they’d know some of the details of her job that she hadn’t shared with Chris.
Rachel and Jack exchanged a look, sharing a nod. Jack took the lead when he said,“We’ll leave you to your business, then,” he said. He pulled a business card from behind his ID and handed it to Chris. “Please call us if you think of anything else.”
Chris nodded, already starting to fight with a wave of emotion that Rachel could see coming. Rachel and Jack made their way out of the room as quietly as politely as they could. As they made their way down the hall and back into the hallway, they had to go around through the kitchen and then the den just toavoid stepping in the blood. She assumed that now that the body had been removed, the forensic cleaners shouldn’t be too far behind. She hoped so; it had to be maddening for Chris, knowing just how much of his wife’s blood remained in the hallway.
As they reached the front door, Jack opened itand held it open for Rachel. Through the screen glass door, she saw headlights coming up the driveway—the forensics cleaners, she hoped. She reached for the door handle but paused as the approaching headlights struck the glass.
There were four fingerprints on the glass. They were high up, slightly above her eye level. Three of them were smudged, but the pinky one was relatively clean.
“Jack…” she said, nodding to them.
