Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2012 Watty Winner)

Mistrust

"What took you so long?" Jackson asks as I make my way into the coroner's office, an hour after he'd arrived.

"I had to make a stop." I tell him and shrug. "Can we just do this now please?" I ask holding my hand in the direction of the coroner's office.

"Fine." He says and playfully rolls his eyes.

"Ah, Ms. Davies to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I need some info Jeff. I was hoping you could help me out." I smile brightly at him.

"Of course, of course." He tells me standing up from the chair he was sitting in. Jeff has been a coroner for over thirty years, back when my dad was a lawyer they were friends. Jeff practically watched me grow up. After my dad died a few years ago, Jeff sorta took me in, figuratively speaking of course. And I think I've grown so much closer to him.

A lawyer's schedule you know...

"I was wondering if you'd done the autopsy on the Aiden Dennison murder?" I ask and he gives me a small smile before bending down in front of his computer and typing something.

"Mhm. I completed it last night." He tells me standing straight up.

"I was kind of wondering if I could get a copy of it." I ask timidly. Jeff laughs before walking around his desk to me.

"You're just like your father you know." He says placing a hand on my cheek. "Always looking for an advantage." He smiles before pinching my cheek. "Let me get those copies for you." He scurries out of the office.

After Jeff made copies we headed back to the office to go over the autopsy findings.

–

"He was shot three times; once in the hand, chest and back. He didn't have any defensive wounds. Which means he didn't try to fight back."

"Does that prove he knew the victim?" Jack asks me.

"Most likely." I nod.

"Okay so, are we assuming that he was shot in the hand first, maybe trying to shield himself from the attacker. Like a hand can stop a gun. " Jackson scoffs and shakes his head.

"Jack, don't be an ass. The guys dead." I shoot back to my friend who rolls his eyes and continues with his analysis.

"He was then shot in the chest and the back. You got a blood splatter expert on this?"

"Getting one." I answer and nod.

"Only two bullet casings were found though right?" Jack looks up from the coroners report and asks me.

I search through the mountain of papers on my desk for the police report to confirm. "Yeah." I nod.

"If he was shot three times, where's the other casing?" He asks. "What about the bullet, was that recovered?"

I skim over the police report and shake my head. "No. They couldn't find it at the scene."

"The other two were still in him though." He says reading from the coroners report. "According to this, the bullet must have gone straight through his hand, grazed his neck and kept going."

"The police never recovered that bullet." I tell him with a look of joy on my face.

"We've got to find it." He says with a nod and I nod along with him in agreement.

After going over some more details and pulling information together Jack left to get us lunch.

As I'm looking over the first responder on the scene's statement, my phone rings.