Post by bishop on Jan 15, 2010 9:21:47 GMT -5
Chapter One:
Tuesday. 6:30 AM.:
Detective Lucas Bishop gazed at the cloudy sky as he got out of his unmarked police car. It always seemed to him to be the same dull gray color every time he was called in to investigate homicides even at the crack of dawn.
He craned his head to stare up at the building before going in. It was a finely made, elegant three story brownstone apartment in a somewhat fashionable neighborhood. From what he had gathered in reading earlier reports, the entire place had lived by only one family. Which meant old money.
Once inside, Bishop was led by a uniformed police officer to the scene of the crime in a large study on the second floor. Forensic technicians and cops were milling about while the corpse was already inside a black body bag ready to be sent to the morgue for an autopsy. On the carpeted floor by a plush leather chair, a huge dark stain had spread widely. Bishop did not have to guess what the stain was.
"Morning. It seems that you got here late, Detective Bishop." said Sally Dunkirk, one of the forensic techs.
"Spare me, Sal. I haven't even ate breakfast yet. What you got for me?" Bishop answered.
"The deceased was one Leon Hamilton, a lawyer. Aged 55. Divorced with two kids. The body was found here less than an hour ago by the housekeeper. According to her, Hamilton was last seen going to bed at his usual time at 10 PM. It adds up since he was wearing his pajamas and robe at the time of death..."
Bishop had squatted down while she was talking to him and lightly touched the carpet. It was mostly dry. Then he cut Dunkirk off as her statement struck him as odd.
"Wait a minute. Are you saying that he died 7 or eight hours ago? " he asked incredulously. "The blood is nearly dry."
Dunkirk shrugged her shoulders as she ran her fingers over her short cropped blond hair.
"Hard to say at the moment. The preliminary examination showed a very deep cut in the man's right wrist which of course explains the tremendous amount of dried blood on the floor. However the body itself does not reveal any signs that he bled to death nor can we find the weapon. We will know more after the postmortem."
"Okay, Sal. Let me know what you find."
Dunkirk nodded and left. Bishop then walked around the study until he saw another plainclothes policeman, Mark Clay and waved him over.
"Whut up, Clay? The housekeeper did not see or hear anything last night?" Bishop asked him.
The tall thin African American man looked at his hand written notes for a minute before replying.
"No. She had left around 9:55 PM to attend to her sister who is staying at Bellevue due to a sudden heart seizure. We already checked it out. She got there by cab around 10:21 and she stayed all night until 5 AM when she took another cab to come back straight here. It was then that she found the body after he did not answer to her knocking on the bedroom floor.
Nearly two dozen witness including the hospital staff and the cab drivers verified her photo id when we showed it to them. Hell the hospital had even called Hamilton here when the sister had the stroke around 9:00. Apparently he gave the housekeeper the night off to go see her sister."
"How generous" Bishop sneered. "Where is she now?"
"At the station. We are also checking the phone company's record of any calls to this house to see if they match with the doctors and the housekeeper had been telling us so far"
"What of the family? Dunkirk said he was divorced.''
"He was, ten years ago. The ex. She has been living in Rome, Italy since then. We trying to reach her right now. As for the children, they also don't live with him anymore. The daughter is in Yale and the son is currently in the navy in Hawaii. We got all this information from Ian Montgomery, Hamilton's partner in their law firm."
"Alright, have Lt. Burke continue to contact the family while i'll stay here and poke around before i can question the housekeeper."
Clay nodded and left with the remainder of the forensic team as Bishop began his own systematic search of the premises.
To be Continued:
Tuesday. 6:30 AM.:
Detective Lucas Bishop gazed at the cloudy sky as he got out of his unmarked police car. It always seemed to him to be the same dull gray color every time he was called in to investigate homicides even at the crack of dawn.
He craned his head to stare up at the building before going in. It was a finely made, elegant three story brownstone apartment in a somewhat fashionable neighborhood. From what he had gathered in reading earlier reports, the entire place had lived by only one family. Which meant old money.
Once inside, Bishop was led by a uniformed police officer to the scene of the crime in a large study on the second floor. Forensic technicians and cops were milling about while the corpse was already inside a black body bag ready to be sent to the morgue for an autopsy. On the carpeted floor by a plush leather chair, a huge dark stain had spread widely. Bishop did not have to guess what the stain was.
"Morning. It seems that you got here late, Detective Bishop." said Sally Dunkirk, one of the forensic techs.
"Spare me, Sal. I haven't even ate breakfast yet. What you got for me?" Bishop answered.
"The deceased was one Leon Hamilton, a lawyer. Aged 55. Divorced with two kids. The body was found here less than an hour ago by the housekeeper. According to her, Hamilton was last seen going to bed at his usual time at 10 PM. It adds up since he was wearing his pajamas and robe at the time of death..."
Bishop had squatted down while she was talking to him and lightly touched the carpet. It was mostly dry. Then he cut Dunkirk off as her statement struck him as odd.
"Wait a minute. Are you saying that he died 7 or eight hours ago? " he asked incredulously. "The blood is nearly dry."
Dunkirk shrugged her shoulders as she ran her fingers over her short cropped blond hair.
"Hard to say at the moment. The preliminary examination showed a very deep cut in the man's right wrist which of course explains the tremendous amount of dried blood on the floor. However the body itself does not reveal any signs that he bled to death nor can we find the weapon. We will know more after the postmortem."
"Okay, Sal. Let me know what you find."
Dunkirk nodded and left. Bishop then walked around the study until he saw another plainclothes policeman, Mark Clay and waved him over.
"Whut up, Clay? The housekeeper did not see or hear anything last night?" Bishop asked him.
The tall thin African American man looked at his hand written notes for a minute before replying.
"No. She had left around 9:55 PM to attend to her sister who is staying at Bellevue due to a sudden heart seizure. We already checked it out. She got there by cab around 10:21 and she stayed all night until 5 AM when she took another cab to come back straight here. It was then that she found the body after he did not answer to her knocking on the bedroom floor.
Nearly two dozen witness including the hospital staff and the cab drivers verified her photo id when we showed it to them. Hell the hospital had even called Hamilton here when the sister had the stroke around 9:00. Apparently he gave the housekeeper the night off to go see her sister."
"How generous" Bishop sneered. "Where is she now?"
"At the station. We are also checking the phone company's record of any calls to this house to see if they match with the doctors and the housekeeper had been telling us so far"
"What of the family? Dunkirk said he was divorced.''
"He was, ten years ago. The ex. She has been living in Rome, Italy since then. We trying to reach her right now. As for the children, they also don't live with him anymore. The daughter is in Yale and the son is currently in the navy in Hawaii. We got all this information from Ian Montgomery, Hamilton's partner in their law firm."
"Alright, have Lt. Burke continue to contact the family while i'll stay here and poke around before i can question the housekeeper."
Clay nodded and left with the remainder of the forensic team as Bishop began his own systematic search of the premises.
To be Continued: