He tapped on the door, got no response. So he opened the passenger
door. Bad decision. I think he’s still upstairs puking. At least he
managed to call it in.”
The men moved over to the limo. Hardy motioned for the FBI agents to
have a look. After peering inside the front and back, Sawyer looked up
at Hardy. “Guy on the floor looks familiar.”
“He should be: Paul Brophy.”
Sawyer looked over at Jackson.
“Gentleman in the backseat with the third eye is Philip Goldman,” Hardy
stated.
“RTG’s counsel,” Jackson said.
Hardy nodded. “Victim in the front seat is James Parker, an employee of
the local RTG subsidiary; the limo is registered to RTG, by the way.”
“Hence, Triton’s interest in the case,” Sawyer said.
“You got it,” Hardy said.
Sawyer leaned back in the limo and studied the wound on Goldman’s
forehead before scanning Brophy’s body. Over his shoulder, Hardy
continued, his tone calm and methodical. He and Sawyer had worked
innumerable homicides together. At least here all body parts were
intact. They had viewed many where that was not the case. “All three
died from gunshot wounds. Appears to be heavy-caliber, fired from close
proximity. Parker’s wound is a contact one. Brophy’s looked to be a
near-contact, the little I was able to see of it. Goldman probably
bought it from about three feet, maybe more, considering the burn
pattern on the forehead.”
Sawyer nodded in agreement. “So the shooter may have been in the front
seat. Took out the driver first, Brophy next, and then Goldman last,”
he ventured.
Hardy didn’t look convinced. “Maybe, although the killer could have
been sitting next to Brophy, facing Goldman. Popped Parker through the
partition opening, shot Brophy and then Goldman, or vice versa. We’ll
have to wait for the autopsy to get the exact trajectory of the shots.
That may give us a better idea of the order.” He paused and then added,
“Along with some other residue.” The interior of the limo was indeed a
grisly sight.
“Got an approximate time of death yet?” Jackson asked.
Royce checked his notes. “Rigor hasn’t peaked yet–far from it,
actually. Lividity isn’t fixed either. They’re all in similar stages
of postmortem, so it looks like they all bought it at roughly the same
time. Coupled with the body temp, ME just gave me a preliminary of four
to six hours.”
Sawyer checked his watch. “Eight-thirty now. So anywhere between two
and four this morning.”
Royce nodded.
Jackson shivered as a cold draft swept down on them when the elevator
doors opened to emit additional police. Sawyer grimaced as he watched
clouds of breath floating everywhere. Hardy smiled. “I know what
you’re thinking, Lee. Nobody screwed with the air-conditioning like
with your last corpse, but as cold as it is down here–”
“I’m not sure how accurate that time of death is going to be,”
Sawyer finished for him. “And I feel pretty certain that every minute
we’re off is gonna be real significant.”
“Actually, we’ve got an exact time of entry for the limo into the
garage, Agent Sawyer,” Royce volunteered. “Access is limited to those
having valid key cars. The garage’s security system records who enters
by the individual card used to access the premises. Goldman’s card was
entered at one-forty-five this morning.”
“So he wouldn’t have been here long before it all went down,” Jackson
ventured. “At least it gives us a benchmark.”
Sawyer didn’t answer. He rubbed his jaw as his eyes continued to dart
around the crime scene. “Weapon?”
Detective Holman pulled out an object enclosed in a large sealed plastic
bag. “One of the uniforms found this in a nearby sewer drain.
Luckily it had gotten hung up on some debris lodged in there or we might
never have found it.” He handed the baggie to Sawyer.
“Smith & Wesson nine-millimeter. Hydra-Shok rounds. Serial numbers
intact. Shouldn’t be much trouble tracing it. Three rounds short of a
full clip. And we’ve preliminarily accounted for a total of three
wounds in the victims.” All of the men could easily see the traces of
blood on the pistol, which was natural enough if it had been used to
perpetrate a contact wound. “Sure looks to be the murder weapon,”