Brian was waiting for him. “Where’s Marty?”
“At the house. Why?” Eddie asked.
“A call just came in from where he works. We need to get over there right away,” Brian said as he headed for the door. “You drive.” They got into a department car, and Eddie flipped on the lights and sirens, screaming down the same streets he’d just traveled, back to the Haver Supply office.
The place was in an uproar, with everyone standing around. Eddie whistled, and suddenly, everyone stopped. “Back here,” someone called, and Eddie made his way through to the office.
He peered inside and stifled a groan. “Who is this?” he asked.
“Bryce Prickard,” a woman said with a sniffle. Marty’s boss, and from the look of it, there was little doubt about what happened. A gun sat on the floor, and there was blood spattered on the desk and the wall behind him.
Brian was already calling for backup, and Eddie motioned for people back away so he could secure the scene. They needed the medical examiner as well as crime scene technicians to help process the room and make sure all evidence was safeguarded.
“Can you call Marty?” Brian asked, but Eddie shook his head.
“Not until we have time of death,” he said. “I want to make sure he has a solid alibi.” Dammit, he had to make sure Marty wasn’t involved. Other officers arrived, and so did the coroner’s office, who took charge of the body, and after pictures had been taken and a ton of evidence gathered, they got down to interviews with the various people in the office.
“How long has he been dead?” Eddie asked the coroner as they closed the back of the van on Marty’s boss’s body.
“I’m going to say about twelve hours or so. He was probably killed last evening, given the temperature in the office. I’ll know more once I finish the autopsy, but that should be pretty close.”
Eddie nodded and thanked him before returning to where Brian directed the other officers and reviewed statements. “Marty couldn’t have been involved. He was at the house all evening and went to bed early. I stayed up until midnight, and he was there.”
“Okay. We’re going to need to talk to him once we’re done here, so don’t tell him. We’ll do that together, and then I can take his statement. We need to do this by the book.” Brian glared at him as they moved away from the center of activity. “I knew you had feelings for him the minute you saw his number come up. You had the same look Phillip does when he walks down the Lego aisle at the store. So this has to be done right.”
“I know. But you do realize this complicates everything. Our chief suspect in possible money-laundering and fraud is dead….”
“Yeah. And I’m willing to bet that someone really was following Marty, and they are probably looking for him right now. It’s not too much of a stretch to figure that whoever is behind all of this took care of Bryce, and they will have no hesitation about cleaning up Marty. With him gone, there is no one to corroborate the missing money or how it was moved. We will have nothing but some money movement on reports.”
“True.”
“Let’s do our best to figure out who murdered Bryce so we can keep Marty safe. And while we’re at it, I’m going to see where those bank videos are. We may get another lead if we can find the person making the deposits. And let’s hope it’s not Bryce himself.”
Eddie nodded and went back to work, hoping like hell that they found something that would lead them to the killer. They were going to need a real break if they were to find out who wasbehind all this… and so he could keep his promise and make sure Marty was safe.
“Okay, what do we have?” Brian asked as he approached the scene, getting information from the various officers.
Eddie shook his head to clear it and got back to work.
By thetime they were done at the crime scene, they had bagged all possible evidence and spoken to everyone present who worked there. They also checked the security system to check who had been in the office on the previous day, and there was only one person who registered in or out of the building and that was Bryce himself.
“Bryce knew his killer and let him in the building. Either that or the killer followed him inside, but that doesn’t seem to be the case since they were in his office. If the killer forced his way inside, then why not just kill Bryce right away and get it over with.”
“I agree,” Eddie said to Brian as they reviewed what they had. “He gets let in, they do whatever business they have, the killer finishes Bryce off, and then he leaves the building and uses Bryce’s ID so there is nothing left open.”
One of the officers hurried in and handed Brian an evidence bag. “I found this in the trash at the restaurant next door.”
“Good work, Davis,” Brian said. “What made you check there?”
“Well, I just thought that if I wanted to get rid of something and didn’t want it found, why not stash it in a garbage can filled with rotting food.” He curled up his nose. “So, I gave it a shot.”
Brian showed Eddie Bryce’s ID badge. “This supports our theory.”
“It does. But it doesn’t get us any closer to who might have done this. I can have this checked for evidence, but I doubt we’ll find a thing. The suspect most likely wore gloves.”
“True.” Eddie turned to Officer Davis. “Can you check all the businesses around here and see if they have any cameras, interior or exterior, that might cover the building’s side door? That seems to be the one they used.”
“Of course.” He left, and Eddie tried to think. They had sent enough off to the county lab for testing, but it was going to be a while. The fastest way of solving this case was to figure things out from what they had.
