Chapter 6 : Crime Scene Investigation
1487 Words
Half an hour later.
The police car pulled up in front of an apartment building.
Police tape had already been stretched across the entrance.
Several officers stood near the entrance.
Ethan stepped out of the car.
It was the first time he had actually stood outside a crime scene.
The air still carried the dampness left by the previous night’s rain.
The entrance was lit, and the police tape moved gently in the breeze.
Tom headed inside.
Ethan followed.
As they reached the entrance, a woman approached them.
She looked at Ethan.
“Who’s this?”
“From the university,” Tom replied.
The woman looked at Ethan.
“A student?”
“Forensic science graduate student.”
She nodded.
Then she held out her hand.
“Maya Bennett. I’m handling this case.”
Ethan shook her hand.
“Ethan Cole.”
They let go.
Maya glanced at the files in his hands.
“I heard you were the one who noticed something wrong with the scene photographs?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go inside and take a look.”
Ethan nodded.
They walked into the apartment together.
The smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke was strong.
Even after a night, the air still carried the stale mixture of beer, whiskey, and tobacco.
Daniel Reed’s body had already been removed.
The living room remained in the same condition as when the police first arrived.
Several empty bottles were scattered across the floor.
A half-full glass of whiskey sat on the coffee table, beside several cigarette butts.
A large area of dried blood covered the floor beside the couch.
There was a clear impact mark on the corner of the table.
Traces of blood could still be seen nearby.
Maya began explaining the scene.
“The victim was Daniel Reed, thirty-eight, and he lived alone.”
“According to the neighbors, he often had different people over, so there are quite a few fingerprints throughout the apartment.”
Ethan looked around.
“No sign of forced entry?”
“None.”
“And the doors and windows weren’t damaged?”
Maya nodded.
“We haven’t found any obvious property missing, and there are no clear signs of a struggle.”
She looked toward the blood on the floor.
“At first, we thought he might have had too much to drink, lost his balance, and hit his head on the corner of the table.”
“From the scene, that explanation made sense.”
Ethan nodded.
Maya continued.
“The person who found him was a pizza delivery driver.”
“He was passing by when he noticed Daniel’s door wasn’t fully closed.”
“He thought something might be wrong, so he went inside to check.”
“That’s when he found Daniel.”
“Then he called the police, who arrived and found Daniel dead.”
Ethan continued examining the scene.
A few seconds later, he crouched down.
He studied the blood around the victim’s original position, then looked toward the couch.
“There’s something I noticed.”
Maya looked at him.
Ethan pointed toward the floor.
“The blood droplets here aren’t all the same size.”
He indicated the area closer to the table.
“The larger stains are more consistent with blood that flowed or dripped from the original injury. If Daniel fell and struck his head on the corner of the table, we’d expect to see blood around the point of impact, followed by blood running down from the wound and collecting on the floor.”
He shifted his attention toward the area between the table and the couch.
“But if Daniel was still conscious and walked from the table toward the couch by himself, I’d expect to see a pattern consistent with his movement.”
“The wound would move with him, leaving blood at different points along the way.”
Ethan looked toward the couch.
“If someone was supporting him instead, the pattern would be different.”
“His body would be moving, but his weight and the position of the injured area would be controlled by the person holding him.”
He pointed toward the blood on the floor.
“That can produce interruptions or changes in the distribution of the blood rather than a straightforward trail from one point to another.”
Maya looked from the table to the couch.
“So you think someone moved him?”
“It’s a possibility.”
Ethan stood and looked toward the other side of the room.
“But there’s something else.”
Then he noticed another group of bloodstains.
He walked over.
Tiny red droplets were scattered across the wall.
He studied them for several seconds.
“These are different.”
Maya followed him.
“Different how?”
Ethan pointed toward the wall.
“Look at the size.”
He moved his finger across the pattern.
“These droplets are much smaller. And they’re distributed differently.”
He looked back toward the first group of bloodstains.
“The droplets are oriented differently.”
Maya studied the wall.
Ethan continued.
“This isn’t blood that simply flowed down.”
“These are individual droplets that were projected outward.”
He pointed to several of the smaller stains higher on the wall.
“A blunt-force impact to an actively bleeding injury can produce a pattern like this. The force can propel small droplets outward from the point of impact.”
Maya looked toward the table.
Then toward the couch.
Ethan crouched down again.
His eyes moved to the tabletop.
Then stopped.
Near the edge of the table was a circular area that was lighter than the surrounding surface.
Ethan walked over.
He studied it carefully for a moment.
“Something used to be here.”
Maya stepped closer.
“What?”
“Something round.”
Ethan looked at the cigarettes on the table.
“Probably an ashtray.”
The dust around the circular area was thin, but the outline remained clearly visible.
Ethan crouched down.
Several small gray-white particles were scattered near one of the table legs.
He looked at them.
“Ash.”
Maya followed his gaze.
“There’s no ashtray at the scene?”
“No.”
Maya turned to one of the officers.
“When you searched the apartment the first time, did you find an ashtray?”
“No.”
“Check again.”
The officer turned and walked away.
Ethan continued looking at the scene.
Cigarettes.
Ash.
The empty circular mark on the table.
The blood near the table.
The different pattern near the couch.
And the second group of droplets on the wall.
The details began to come together.
Daniel had been drinking.
He had been smoking.
Someone had been with him.
They had argued.
During the argument, Daniel had been pushed.
He fell and struck his head on the corner of the table.
That was the first impact.
The injury explained the blood around the table.
But Daniel hadn’t necessarily died from that first impact.
Someone may have tried to help him.
They supported him and moved him toward the couch.
Then something happened.
Daniel said something.
Something that made the other person lose control.
The ashtray was within reach.
The person grabbed it.
And struck Daniel once.
In the same area where he had already been injured.
The second impact would have reopened or worsened the existing injury and produced another burst of blood.
Ethan looked at the different blood patterns again.
Suddenly, the scene no longer looked like a simple accident.
It looked like a sequence of events.
Maya walked over to him.
“What are you thinking?”
Ethan was silent for a few seconds.
Then he said,
“I think there was a third person here. Something happened between them, and then Daniel was either pushed down or fell.”
“Then hit the corner of the table?”
“Right.”
“And someone helped him over to the couch.”
Ethan continued.
“Then the second impact happened.”
Maya looked at the tabletop.
“The ashtray?”
“If there was an ashtray here, and now it’s gone…”
Ethan didn’t continue.
It was enough.
If Ethan’s theory was correct, the sequence was simple.
Daniel was pushed down, and his head struck the corner of the table.
Someone then helped him toward the couch.
And somewhere along the way, the second impact happened.
There was no elaborate staging.
No deliberate attempt to rearrange the scene.
The person simply took the ashtray with them after everything went wrong.
Maya closed the report.
“This case needs to be reopened.”
Ethan nodded.
Maya looked at him.
“Thank you, Ethan.”
“If you hadn’t noticed these things, we might have continued treating this as an accident.”
Ethan gave a small nod.
“Glad I could help. If there’s nothing else, I’ll get going.”
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