She nodded as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why?” she managed to choke out. “Why would anyone do this to him?”
“That’s something we’re uncertain about at this time,” Hawkeye called from the door as he made his exit.
“Good luck with Internal Affairs,” Hunter said. “I can’t stay with you for that part.”
Harley looked at him and drew in a slow breath. “Thank you.
He got up and left as well, closing the door behind him.
Hawkeye headeddown the hallway to a smaller conference room and found Brand, Dugan, and Mitchell Simpson the union representative waiting for him. “Gentlemen,” he said when he entered.
“Commander,” Scottie replied.
“Commander,” Mitchell echoed.
“The medical examiner returned his report on Reilly Flynn this morning. He ruled the death a homicide.”
“What?” Scottie’s gaze went from Hawkeye to Brand. “But you said I didn’t need an attorney?”
“You don’t,” Brand said.
“He’s right, Dugan,” Hawkeye said. “I’ll explain the situation if you stay quiet and let me finish. The fight on the ice that resulted in Flynn getting cut by your skate didn’t kill him. He was killed by ingesting rat poison that was laced in the peanut butter he was eating all the time.”
“Say that again?” Scottie demanded.
“Someone tampered with his peanut butter and mixed in rat poison which caused his blood not to clot when he was cut,” Hawkeye explained. “That’s what killed him.”
Scottie exhaled a sharp breath and then began to laugh softly. “We always told him that peanut butter was going to kill him one day.” He gasped. “No body could eat as much of it as he did without something going wrong, but we had no idea…”
“I know,” Brand said. “You should have seen that goo Dr. Holland removed from his…”
“Brand,” Hawkeye called and shook his head.
“Sorry.”
“As far as I’m concerned, my investigation into your part in this incident is over,” Hawkeye said. “I believe what happened was an accident. However, Internal Affairs wants to speak with you again this afternoon so it might be best if you stuck around.”
“Sure,” Scottie said, the anxiety fading from his face.
“I also had to inform Trainor about your relationship with Harley after I found out, even if it had no impact on the incident,” Hawkeye said.
“I understand,” Scottie replied.
“And since I have you here,” Hawkeye began. “I was wondering if you could look at a photo and see if you recognize this tattoo. We’re trying to identify the man who has it.”
He took the photo from a folder on the table and handed it to Scottie. Both he and Simpson Studied it for several long minutes.
Finally, they both shook their heads. “It looks pretty common to me,” Scottie said. “Nothing special about it, but I don’t recognize it.”
“Me either,” Simpson admitted.
“That’s what we decided,” Brand said. “Even Rookie thinks that maybe Don Juan has that same tat and that is why we think it looks familiar.”
“Have you checked with him?” Scottie asked.
“Haven’t seen him yet today to do that, but I will,” Brand assured.
Mitchell stood. “There’s one thing that hasn’t been mentioned in this meeting. When can Dugan be taken off of administrative leave?”
