“White male, estimated early forties. Judging by the road rash on his hands and face, we think he might’ve been tossed out of a moving vehicle, but we can’t say for sure if he was already dead when that happened.”
The dead man was bald, with a dark goatee and a muscular build. He wore a plain white T-shirt and black gym shorts.
“No wallet, phone or ID,” Watts added. “ME is on the way.”
“Do me a favor and start a canvass of the area for camera footage.”
“My partner is already on it. I was just waiting to join her after you guys arrived.”
“Great job, Watts. Thank you.”
“You got it, Sarge.”
“What’re you thinking?” Cameron asked as he crouched for a closer look at the man’s injuries.
“No idea,” Gonzo said. “Hopefully, we can ID him quickly to start digging in.”
Cam pointed to faint lines on the man’s wrist. “Are those ligature marks?”
“Could be.”
They took photos of the man’s obvious injuries and wider shots to show the location of the body in relation to nearby landmarks and buildings.
Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Byron Tomlinson and his team arrived a few minutes later to collect the body.
Gonzo filled him in on what they knew so far. “If you could get us an ID first and foremost, that’d help, Doc.”
“Will do what we can.”
Gonzo and Cam waited until they’d loaded up the body for transport to the morgue before joining Patrol in canvassing the area.
A woman stopped them on the street. “Was that guy dead?”
“He was. Did you see anything that might help us figure out what happened to him?”
“A black SUV came speeding from that direction.” She pointed toward the circle in the midst of Embassy Row. “The windows were blacked out, and it barely slowed down before he was pushed out the back door. It happened so fast, I hardly registered that they’d tossed a body before he landed with an awful sound.” A shudder shook her. “It sounded like bones breaking or something like that.”
“What’s your name?”
“Nina Ward. I live around the corner and was out for a walk when I heard the squeal of tires behind me. I looked back at what was going on and saw the vehicle barreling toward me. I couldn’t believe how fast they were driving with so many pedestrians and bikes in the area.”
Gonzo wrote down the details. “How quickly would you say the whole thing unfolded?”
“Couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds from when I heard the tires squeal until the body landed on the sidewalk.”
“Would you mind sharing your contact info with me in case we need you to make a formal statement?”
“Sure, no problem.”
After she’d walked off toward home, Gonzo joined Cameron at the other end of the sidewalk. “Anything?”
“A flower shop on the corner got footage of the SUV speeding by. They didn’t get the body drop, but look at this.” Cam pulled up the video on his phone and zeroed in on the part he wanted Gonzo to see.
“What am I looking at?”
“Is that a diplomatic plate?”
“Very possibly. If so, this case just got a whole lot more complicated.”
