The 24th Letter

EIGHTY-ONE

Detective Dan Grant met O’Brien at the crime scene. The Johnson driveway and front yard were covered with police and emergency vehicles. The Volusia County Medical Examiner’s car was one of the vehicles parked closest to the house.

The medical examiner was coming out of the house as O’Brien and Grant approached the front porch. The ME wore dark green suspenders holding up trousers that seemed secure around his paunch. Wire-rimmed glasses. Gray beard and hair to match. He loosened his tie and said, “She died a quick death.”

“What happened?” asked Dan.

“I hope you gents can tell me that. I can tell you how she died. Broken neck. Whoever did it knew exactly what the hell he was doing. I’m assuming it’s a he, ‘cause it takes a strong person to break a human neck like you would yank a chicken’s neck.”

O’Brien said, “How long do you estimate time of death?”

“Few hours, tops. Some reddening on the neck and intracutaneous hemorrhages around the eyes. Died in her child’s bedroom.”

“Talk with you later, Doc,” said Dan as he led O’Brien into the home. A half dozen uniform deputies and crime scene investigators moved around the house. One investigator dusted the walls for prints. O’Brien and Dan could see flashes from a camera coming from an open door down the hall. They entered the room just as the crime scene photographer was shooting the final pictures of the body.

Anita Johnson’s body was on its back, hand on her chest. Eyes open.

A detective got up from squatting beside the body, jotting in a small notebook. He seemed to be near retirement. White hair about two weeks beyond the need for a haircut. He had a look of resolve and pessimism over the state of mankind that the body seemed to represent to him. He stepped next to Dan and O’Brien, pursed his lips in a low whistle and said, “Another young one. A mother. What a waste.”

Dan made the introductions and said, “What do you think, Ralph?”

“No apparent sign of rape. No sign of burglary. Neighbor next door heard the kid crying and screaming. Came over to check and saw the font door open. Found the body and the little boy in that crib crying his eyes out.”

“So he saw his mother die?” asked Dan.

“Looks that way. Neighbor is taking care of him until social services gets here.”

“Anyone see anything? Stranger? Delivery person?”

“I questioned the neighbor. She didn’t see or hear a damn thing until the baby started wailing. Not much to go on here. Maybe we’ll get some prints, but I doubt it.”

O’Brien looked around the room, tuning out the drone of the detective. Near the child’s bed, on the floor, he saw a small piece of paper about the size of a postage stamp. O’Brien used the clip on his pen to lift the paper off the floor.

“Got something?” Dan asked.

“Don’t know. Looks like it is a piece of an envelope. I can make out the top of a curved letter. Possibility an ‘S.’ Maybe she’d just opened her mail, reading a letter, walked in here to quiet the baby and was attacked.” He handed the paper to Dan who dropped it in a Ziploc bag. O’Brien crouched next to the body. He looked at the position on the floor. The angle of her head. Hands. He was silent for more than a half minute.

“Sean,” said Dan. The guys are here with the body bag.”

O’Brien said nothing.

“Come on Sean, the place has been picked over. Photographed. Examined by the CSI team.”

“Got a pair of tweezers?” asked O’Brien

“Tweezers?”

Dan turned to an investigator standing near the door, “Hey, Jimmy,” he said. “Hand me some tweezers out of your box.”

The investigator dug around in a box twice the size of an average fishing tackle box and handed Dan a pair of long tweezers. Dan gave them to O’Brien.

They watched as O’Brien used the tool to lift something from a ring on Anita Johnson’s left hand. Caught in a prong, barely detectible, was a dark fiber that O’Brien slowly lifted with the tweezers.

“What do you have?” asked Dan.

“Looks like a piece of wool. Probably not from something she’d wear in the summer in Florida. Doesn’t match the carpet color. Maybe it’s dyed black. Hand me a bag.” O’Brien placed the fiber in the bag, stood, and said, “How would a piece of wool get embedded on the woman’s ring?”

“Good question,” Dan said.

The senior detective, Ralph, put his glasses on and leaned over the body. He said, “That was a nice catch.”

“It stood out against the stone, which, at that size, looks like a nice imitation diamond. If it is wool, the fiber might have come from a ski mask.” O’Brien used his pen to point. He added, “There, near the corner of her mouth…the lipstick goes from a horizontal application-the way she applied it-to a vertical serration.”

Ralph said, “Maybe that’s were she sipped her coffee.”

“Maybe,” said O’Brien. “But it might mean she bit the hand of the guy snapping her neck. Check her teeth for skin cells, and if the perp wore plastic gloves, see if any tiny bits of plastic might be between her teeth.”

O’Brien started for the door.

“Where’re you going?” asked Dan.

“To see if our only eyewitness might have seen something.”

Ralph cleared his throat and said, “Who’s the only eyewitness.”

“The postman.” O’Brien turned and left.