Web of Secrets

CHAPTER TWO-1

CHAPTER TWO

DETECTIVE JOE WALLACE had been on shift about three hours when the call came in. He grabbed his g*n and keys and headed out to the location given by dispatch.

He noted the area as he pulled up to where two squad cars and the coroner’s van were parked. Older neighborhood, he mused, but not the rough side of town. Lot of college kids in this area. Texas Christian University was five blocks away. He walked up the driveway to speak with the officer standing just inside the tape.

“Morning, Joe,” the man said as he raised the yellow ‘do not cross’ line up enough for Joe to duck under.

“Hey Brad,” Joe replied. “What have we got?”

Brad consulted his little notepad. “Andi Taggert, twenty-five, graduate student at TCU. She didn’t show up yesterday for the study group she leads, or for her shift at work this morning, and that’s not like her, so two of her friends, um...” Brad flipped his notebook page, “Donna and Gayle Huntings, came to check on her. They noticed her car was here, front door was unlocked, so they went in, found her in the bedroom.”

“Where are they?”

“In the living room. Officer Sander is with them.”

“Coroner loaded her up yet?”

“Not yet; they just pulled up, and I told them you were en route. They said they’d wait for you before they got started.”

“Okay. I’m going to go in and have a look around. Let’s move the friends out here, Brad, and I’ll interview them when I come out. Maybe put them in your squad car, out of this wind. I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to be inside the house when it’s time to transport her.”

“You got it.”

The two walked into the house. Brad walked over and murmured to Sander, who gently led the two distraught women outside. Brad nodded once to Joe, then stepped outside as well.

Joe looked around the small living room and kitchen. Andi kept a tidy place, no dirty dishes. Cramped in here, but very squared away. No sign of any disturbance or struggle; at least, not out here.

He wandered down the narrow hallway to its termination point. Here, another officer stood guard. He nodded once to Joe then moved aside to let the detective enter the room.

Andi lay face up on her bed, nude except for a bracelet, necklace, and earrings. There were no obvious signs of trauma or force, and no obvious causes of death that he could see. Slipping on latex gloves, he waited until the coroner joined him in the tiny room.

Dr. Broder came in with a small bag. “Hi, Joe.”

“Hey, Doc.”

“Let me take her liver temp right quick.”

Joe gestured to the officer who’d been standing guard. “We already got pictures of the scene, yeah?”

“Yes, sir.”

The coroner nodded and moved toward Andi with the probe. A few moments later, Dr. Broder announced, “Based on rigor, lividity and liver temperature, I’d estimate she died twenty-eight to thirty-two hours ago. But it’s cold in here, which may have slowed things. I’ll get you an exact timeframe during autopsy.”

He leaned in a bit closer to Andi.

“No signs of obvious trauma, no ligature marks.” He gently lifted one eyelid. “No petechial hemorrhaging to indicate asphyxiation.”

Next, he examined her hands. “No scratches, cuts or defensive wounds, and it doesn’t look like she fought back, her nails are intact and clean.”

He gently placed her hands back down by her side, looked at Joe, and said, “This one’s probably going to require toxicology to help determine cause of death.”

“Agreed,” Joe answered. “There’s zero obvious sign of foul play here.” But because Andi had been found unclothed, he added, “Let’s run a s****l assault kit too, Doc, just to cover our bases.”

“Yep. You got what you need, Joe? Can we transport?”

“All yours, Doc, let me know what you find,” Joe said solemnly. He walked back outside into a bracing north wind to learn more about Andi Taggert from Donna and Gayle, two extremely upset young women who’d found their friend dead in her bed.

He’d seen the same red-rimmed eyes and shell-shocked expressions hundreds of times now in his career, but Joe Wallace still took his time and treated every witness to death with sensitivity and respect. Over the years, he’d learned to appreciate the subtleties this approach could yield in the way of information.

Now he crouched down beside the car as he opened the back-passenger door. Two youthful, pale faces swung his direction, each stamped with the mark of deep grief.

“Ladies, I’m Detective Wallace,” he began. “I’m so sorry for your loss; I know Andi was your friend. I need to ask you some questions that can help me find out what happened here.”

“We know,” whispered Donna. “Our dad is on the job down in Round Rock. So, you know, we knew not to touch anything once we saw she was...you know...” her voice trailed off as more tears skimmed the surface.

Gayle squeezed her sister’s hand. “We didn’t even go near the bed. We went as far as the doorway and could see by her color and stuff that she was already gone. We came back out on the porch and called you guys. When the officers arrived, they sat us on the couch once they’d cleared the place.”

“Okay,” Joe answered. “About Andi. Any enemies you two know of? Anyone giving her trouble lately?”

“Not that I know of,” Gayle said, with Donna nodding her head in agreement. “I know this sounds cliché, but anyone who had a chance to meet her loved her. She had a really big heart.”

“Do you know if she has any family around here?”

“She’s from Salina, Kansas, she’s just down here for her Masters’ degree... I mean was... she was down here. Her mom and dad still live up there,” Donna told him. “But I don’t think they’re home. She told us at last week’s study group that she’d surprised them with a seven-day Caribbean cruise for their thirtieth anniversary. But I just can’t remember when she said they were going. Either this week, or next week. I think.”

Gayle closed her eyes a moment in concentration. “Pretty sure she said this week, when she was telling us about it.”

“Do either of you have their contact information?”

The sisters shook their heads.

“But Andi talked to her mom just about every day, so I know it’s in her cell phone,” Gayle pointed out. “Or the registrar’s office on campus could get it for you, too.”

Joe looked over his shoulder at Brad at the mention of a cell phone, and the officer nodded then headed back into the house to look for it.

A few follow-up questions later, the sisters were thanked for their cooperation, given Joe’s card and were cleared to leave. Joe’s timing was impeccable. Mere minutes after the Huntings sisters left, the gurney bearing Andi Taggert was wheeled slowly to the waiting hearse. Joe watched as her body was carefully loaded, then turned on his heel and went back to his car.

“Now,” he mumbled to himself as he slid behind the wheel, “to track her parents down.”

“Joe!” Brad yelled as he double-timed it down the front steps and the narrow sidewalk.

Joe rolled his window down. “What’s up?”

“No cell phone, Joe. No purse, either.”

“Huh,” Joe thought a moment. “Crime scene techs coming?”

“They’re about two minutes out.”

“Have them go over everything with a fine-toothed comb,” Joe said sternly. “I mean everything. I’m headed to the registrar’s office. Call me if you find something.”

Within an hour he had Andi’s parents’ contact information, and twenty minutes after that was on the phone with the lead detective, a Lt. Mitchell, from the Salina Police Department relaying the sad news about Andi’s death. Mitchell agreed to make the notifications, and he also took down Joe’s cell phone number to pass to her parents along with his deepest condolences.

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