Page 78 of Charmed Forces
“I won’t ask you to,” I said, still curious about Maddox and Farid’s reason for paying a visit to the coroner. Had they picked up a case involving dead people too? If so, I didn’t envy them. And itdidexplain why Maddox hadn’t returned my calls. “I’m going down there to see if I can catch up with him.”
“Cool.”
I hurried on, turning away from the reception lobby with its gentle gray couches and soothing wall art. It was specifically designed to calm and comfort all the upset, grieving relatives who preferred not to enter this building.
Instead of waiting for the elevator, I jogged down the steps that led to the basement autopsy rooms and followed the arrows. I pushed my way through the first set of double doors, then hit a snag. I didn’t have a keycard to get me any further but I could hear footsteps coming up behind me. I moved a few steps back from the door and bent down to pretend to look for something in my purse while a man walked past me, his arms laden with files. I waited for him to fumble with his keycard while adjusting the files so he didn’t drop them.
“Let me get that for you,” I said as he started to shoulder his way through the door.
“Thanks,” he said, “are you supposed to be down here?”
“No one comes here for fun,” I replied with a flicker of my eyebrows.
“Except the medical examiners,” he said before thinking better of it. “Not that they’re havingfun. They just find it more interesting than ninety-five percent of the population does.”
“You got that right,” I agreed as we walked together, his cover useful for the next person we passed who didn’t question my presence at all.
“This is me,” he said, indicating the office door to the right.
“Have a good day,” I said as I continued on. I didn’t want to go to the mortuary but I did want to get to the files. I figured my best chance at seeing them was finding a computer and printing off the necessary files, or at the very least, using my phone to photograph the computer screen.
I’d only just stepped into an empty office, and was glancing around for a live computer, when a voice behind me said wryly, “I wondered when you’d show up.”
Chapter Sixteen
I spun on my heel and plastered a huge smile on my face. “Hi, Maddox! Great to see you!”
“You two know each other?” asked the man in protective overalls behind Maddox.
“She’s with me,” said Maddox. He flashed me a look that said,Play along. “I thought you were waiting upstairs.”
For a moment, I hardly knew what to say. Maddox giving me cover? What could impossibly happen next? The red carpet treatment from the Feds? “I thought I should assist,” I replied, landing on a line that felt plausible. “Wow, it’s big down here. I must’ve taken a wrong turn.” I took a rueful look at the computer still switched on, its desktop loaded and waiting for me to infiltrate it. Not that I could now. Certainly not while the two men were staring at me.
“Do you mind waiting a few more minutes?” asked Maddox. “Dr. Shaw was just taking me through a few particulars of the case.”
“Your partner can come through if she likes. We’re just about to sew up,” said Dr. Shaw.
I gulped. “Sew up? No thanks, I’ll just wait out here,” I said.
“Rookie?” asked Dr. Shaw.
“No cookies for me,” I said, pulling a face.
“He said... oh, never mind. I’ll be out in a minute,” said Maddox and he followed Dr. Shaw back into the autopsy suite.
I waited until the door shut behind them, then turned to the computer, full of glee at getting my hands on it, only to find the screen dark. “Damn it,” I muttered as I checked the computer for any signs of what the password might be. I struck lucky at the second terminal. The username and password were printed on a Post-it note stuck to the side of the screen. I entered the information and the desktop came to life.
With a quick glance around me to check no one was coming, I parked my butt in the chair and pulled up the database. I placed a mental bet and typed in the witnesses’ surname. Two names popped up, belonging to a man and a woman. Clicking on the first one, I skimmed through the case report. I knew the cause of death already but I checked it anyway to confirm I didn’t miss something. One single shot to the head. Mentally, I filled in what the coroner didn’t: it was swift, brutal and very cold. The killer didn’t hesitate or misfire. This was definitely an execution.
What I was interested in were the contents of Jeff Denney’s stomach, words I never hoped to use again in the same sentence. The information was as I expected, undigested pizza and water were his last meal. No coffee. Nothing untoward in his toxicology report. I took a photo of the screens and exited the document.
I repeated the same search for his wife and found the same information. One gunshot, no defense wounds, nor any other wound. Her stomach contained pizza and tea.
Detective Desmond had eaten a slice of pizza and a ham salad sandwich. No coffee. He was in reasonable health until his untimely death, which was listed as two gunshots, one to his shoulder and one to his heart. Like the witnesses, he died quickly. What the report didn’t say, but what I suspected was: he’d been outside the room, possibly napping while Detective Wayne and Daniel were on duty. When the first shots occurred, he must have rushed in to render aid. I couldn’t imagine his confusion at hearing the gunshots and what he thought was happening. I wondered if he even had a chance to find out before he was killed.
I glanced up, conscious that I hadn’t yet been interrupted and concerned my good luck might soon run out. I hurried to type Detective Wayne’s name but the search returned nothing. I tried again but still got nothing. Next, I tried a couple of variations of his name just in case it was entered incorrectly but still nothing. So I tried John Doe, and although there was one in the system, he was twenty years older than Detective Wayne.
Garrett must have been wrong. Not all the autopsies had been completed.