Bowers was seriously grasping at straws to even suggest there was anything more than professional between him and the happily married Deputy AG.
He seemed to realize that too, backpedaling and trying another argument.“I’m your boss,” he said, jutting a thumb at his chest.
“And Jack is yours.”Nic crossed one leg over the other, hands resting in his lap.“As for Vaughn, you’ve known about this case for months.You know I’ve been working it with the FBI and grand jury.”
“But I didn’t know you were going to serve warrants today.”
“Vaughn was back in the country.It was time to move.”Nic shrugged one shoulder.“Why does it matter if I told you about a routine service of process?”
“Routine?”Bowers scoffed.Nic admittedly had been pushing it there on purpose, and Bowers predictably took the bait.“This is far from routine.Duncan Vaughn is a high-profile local business figure.This is a high-profile case for us.We can’t afford a misstep.”
“I don’t misstep.”
Bowers didn’t argue that one.“Maybe I wanted the press there.”
ThatNic would believe, though he thought it more likely an excuse.A cover-up.He played along anyhow like he would with a witness or suspect on the stand, leading them down Nic’s chosen path.“A photo op?That’s what you’re upset about?That I didn’t include you?”
“It’s a win for our office.”
“Not yet.I haven’t officially brought charges.”
“Is that your next move?”That was the very direction Nic had anticipated.Had led.Back to Bowers fishing for information.
“Depends on what we find in the evidence collected.”It was a hedge and the truth.He couldn’t tell Bowers everything, and they were still processing evidence, but it was enough to set Bowers on edge, rocking on his feet, exactly as Nic had intended.He’d be more likely to make a misstep, off balance as he was, and then Nic would catch him too.
Bowers froze, as if he realized his tell.“When’s Vaughn coming in for questioning?”
“Tomorrow.”
“I want to be there for it.”
Of course he did.Which put their biometrics reading in jeopardy if it was too crowded in the room or if Bowers was there to eavesdrop.
“Give me a thirty-minute heads-up.”On that directive, Bowers spun on his heel, yanked open the door, and stormed out, charging across the bullpen toward the elevators.Back to his club.So much for actually working.
Shaking his head, Nic picked up his pen, ready to get back to revising orders for another case, but before he put ink to paper, his phone rang.“Nic Price,” he answered.
“This is Coroner Jong.”She sounded as tired as he felt.He glanced at his watch.She’d just come on shift when Curtis had been brought in.It would be nearing the end of her twelve hours now.“I don’t have the tox screen results yet,” she said, answering Nic’s first question before he even asked.“But I did fully examine the body.”
“And?”If she was calling instead of emailing, she must have found something out of the ordinary.
“There were puncture marks we didn’t see before.”
“Where?”
“Inside his mouth.Soft tissue of his right jaw.”
Nic winced.He’d seen that before in cases where the killer was trying to hide a murder behind apparent suicide.It usually took a bit for the bruising to appear and that was assuming the coroner even knew to look for it.It wasn’t as easy as spotting bruising on the limbs, torso or...“The bruise on the side of his head?”There’d been an angry welt rising there under Curtis’s thinning white hair.
“Where they knocked him unconscious.It wasn’t what killed him.”
Nic tapped his pen on the blotter, a timeline of events coming together in his head.“Whatever they injected him with did when he was unconscious.”
“Looks like it.With something that induced a heart attack.”
At least there was no pain then, beyond the initial blow.Unless...“Did he know?Did he feel his heart give out?”
“I can’t say for certain but very likely not.”
