Beverly Connor - Dead Secret

“Mr. Taggart, your mother said little to me. She isn’t a stupid woman. She knew exactly what she wanted: information. She may be elderly, but she is not frail, nor is her mind diminished in any way, so you needn’t worry about what she may have said. We’ll get out of your house as soon as we can.”

A young woman dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase came in holding an official-looking document. Garnett came in with her. He shrugged at Diane.

Steven’s lawyer looked briefly at the document. “You’ll leave now,” he said. “I have a court order stopping this invasion of privacy. You have your photographs and the samples you need. Get out and leave the family alone.”

Diane read over the document. It said that once they had inspected the scene in the immediate vicinity around the desk where the victim was found, they had to leave in a reasonable time. She had never seen anything like this. She wasn’t even sure it was legal, but in the time it would take her to challenge it, the family would have a chance to get rid of anything incriminating. Her cheeks flushed with anger. Amazing, she thought, what money will buy. She looked at the judge’s name and noted it for future reference.

“Very well. David, Neva.” Diane motioned toward the door. They came walking out of the study with a camera and an evidence bag.

“I need to see that,” the lawyer said.

Neva pulled the evidence bag back away from the lawyer’s reach. “It’s a sample of blood spatter,” she said.

“That’s evidence of the crime, collected under legal authority,” said Diane. “It has to remain in the chain of custody. No one but members of the crime scene unit can touch it until it is processed. I’m sure you know that.”

“What about the case?” said the lawyer, indicating the forensic kit.

“What about it?” said David. He opened it and showed the various collection paraphernalia. “What’s going on?”

“Just making sure you follow the warrant,” the lawyer said. “The new one that restricts your collection of evidence to what you find around the desk.”

David raised a hand. “That’s all we had time to search-around the desk and the area of the rug immediately where Mr. Taggart was shot. But is it not proper procedure to search the room?” he said.

“There are private matters in the filing cabinets and other places that are none of your business,” said Robert. “We have suffered a tragedy, and you barge in here like you own the place.”

“An attempted murder, which may become a murder, was committed in this room,” said Garnett. “We are just doing our job as is required under the law. I read something about that in your law-and-order political platform. I would have thought we would have your support.”

“This is not some crack house,” Steven said.

“The law does not specify that we are to investigate only those felony crimes that occur in crack houses,” said Garnett. “However, we obey the orders of the court. We have done what the law demands of us, and will be on our way.”

David closed up the forensic case and they all walked out of the house.

“I can’t believe those people,” said Diane on the way back to the crime lab. She sat in the front seat of the van. David drove, and Neva and Jin were in the back. “I can’t believe the judge.”

“A billion dollars buys a lot,” said David.

“Except brains,” said Neva, who broke up in a fit of laughter. Jin and David joined her.

“What?” asked Diane.

“We found one of those fancy fantasy knives sticking up in a stone on the desk where Taggart was shot,” said Neva. “Guess what?”

“It has the tip missing?” said Diane.

David nodded. “That’s probably why it broke-wasn’t made out of good steel-unlike the knife of our mystery stranger who stabbed you and Mike. His knife was top-of-the-line.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Diane rubbed her arm.

“So, even with that restricted search, you found the knife?”

“Yeah, you’d think they would talk to each other,” said David. “You know, coordinate their criminal activities.”

“I bet somebody moved it and they didn’t know,” said Jin. “But that’s not all we got.”

“Wait a minute,” said Diane. “You didn’t come out with anything but the camera and blood samples. And Jin, how do you know what they found?”

“David’s paranoia,” said Jin. “You know, I’m going to have to get some of that myself. It’s sure working for you and David.”

“Neva overheard the lawyer talking on the phone,” said David. “I had a feeling they might try to pull something, so I called Jin on the cell and handed him the evidence out the window. However”-he held up his hand-“everything we found”-he started laughing again-“everything we found was right inside the limits of the new warrant.”

“I thought you were fairly unruffled when you showed him your case,” said Diane.

“Just part of the show.”

“What else did you find?” said Diane.

“Neva found it under the desk. The old man must have had it in his hand. It was the letter that Flora Martin wrote to her grandson Donnie. We’re hoping for Donnie’s fingerprints.”

Diane was speechless the rest of the way to the lab.

“You are sure this was around the desk-all of it?” said Garnett. He sat across from Diane at the table in the crime lab looking at the report they had written up. “I mean, this guy’s running for senator.”

Diane showed him a photograph. “David took this from the doorway before we even entered the room. It shows Robert Lamont standing by the window with his head in his hands. It shows the desk with the fantasy knife in the stone. Look at this blowup of the area beneath the desk. You can just see the corner of an envelope. The envelope contained Flora Martin’s letter and it had Emmett Taggart’s blood spatter on it. All this is in line with the very-and may I say criminally-restrictive search warrant.”

“Yes, but sneaking the evidence outside. .”

“That’s not against the law. Just my crew saving themselves from going back and forth through the house.”

“The prints?”

“David saw Robert Lamont touch the desk and lifted his prints from there. Steven Taggart was in the military, and they had his prints on file,” said Diane.

“I’ll go pick them up and let Mr. Steven Taggart explain what his prints are doing on a letter written by a murder victim. Mr. Robert Lamont can explain what he was doing with a knife whose point was embedded in that same murder victim, and what his prints are doing inside the-what did you call it?”

“Dermestarium. The container where the missing colony of dermestid beetles were kept.”

“And people keep these beetles. . why?”

“To strip bones cleanly and quickly of tissue.”

“Okay, I’ll pick them up-with pleasure.” Garnett rose and started for the door. He turned and looked at her. “You know, I was going to vote for the law-and-order son of a bitch.”

He hesitated and then said, “I suppose I should tell you, we’ve identified the dead stranger.” He came back to the table and sat down.

Like a swarm of flies at a picnic, the three members of her crew appeared out of nowhere and sat down. It was obvious they had been listening.

Diane leaned forward. “You found him in the Book of the Dead, I’ll bet.”

“Do we need to hire an exorcist for the bone lab?” asked Jin.

“I almost decided not to tell you,” said Garnett. “It makes me sick to think about it.”

Diane and her crew exchanged glances. “Who was he?” “His name was Dr. Jermen Sutcliff. He was a gynecologist.”

Diane drew in a breath and put her hands over her mouth. The others were similarly horrified.