Hidden Truth

One

Dana

"Good night, Detectives. This way please." The young police officer who had first arrived at the scene lifted the tape so Mark and I could get to the scene. "We got the message from 911 only some minutes ago, a neighbor called to alert of the accident. He's over there." She pointed at a fifty something year old man who was talking to another officer.

"We'll talk to him in a moment. Do we have the identity of the victim?"

The girl took a look at her notes. "Yeah, he had his wallet with him. He's Michael Sampson-Collins, twenty nine."

"Holy shit! "Mark almost yelled "Another high profile case, let's see how long does media take to start snooping around."

"You're too grumpy, know that?"I teased him. "I'm going to talk to the witness."

"Night guys, what do we have here?" Derek  asked when he went down of the scientific team van. 

"It's a car accident, the victim's over there." Mark answered.

"Okay. Jim, Zoe, go take some samples of the tyres. Hope rain hasn't washed everything."

I left Mark with the scientific team and walked where the witness was. He was an average fifty something year old man, clearly satisfied of playing an important role in something for the very first time in his entire life."Good , Mr..."

"Jackson. I heard everything that happened, I was already telling your colleagues." He said.

"Thanks so much for your help, Mr Jackson. Now, if you don't mind I will need you to tell me what did you hear."

"I was in my kitchen, in that house over there." He pointed at a nearby brick building. "Shirley, that's my wife, and I were about to have dinner when we heard the thump. I rushed outside and saw the poor fellow lying on the floor. I told Shirley to call 911 and after a moment the ambulance was here."

"And did you see any car going away?"

The man hesitated for a moment "No, but I heard one , the noise of the noise of the engine came from there." He pointed at the other side of the street.

"Had you ever seen the victim around?"

"No, not that I remember. This is a small street, we know most of the neighbors."

"Okay. You've been very helpful Mr Jackson." I handed him my official card "This is my phone number, if you remember something else don't hesitate in contacting me." 

"Did the witness say something relevant?" Mark asked when I approached him and Derek.

"Pretty much, yeah. He heard the thumping when Sampson was struck and after a moment he heard a car driving away from there."

"So, it wasn't an accident after all."Derek replied "It matches with what I found out, I want to show you something." He lit his flashlight and led us to the beginning of the street."I think the car must have been here, look at the marks of the tyres." He directed the flashlight to a point in the road"It's almost invisible here, the car was at low speed. Then, it accelerated enough to hit the victim. What I don't understand is why Sampson didn't react, the street has light enough."

"Maybe the car didn't had the lights on." Mark suggested.

"It's the only option. However I need to make some tests, even if he didn't see the car he must have heard it."

"Detectives!" The young officer who had first arrived called us "We've found the victim's cell phone, it was under a car ." She handed us an evidence bag with the phone in it.  As if on cue, the phone began to buzz and a name showed up in the display.Tracy. Mark put his gloves on and pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

"Michael, where are you? We're all here , we've been waiting for ages." A nervous female voice was in the other side of the line.

"Who's that?" Mark asked as softly as he could.

"What...what happened? Where's Michael?" The woman stuttered.

"Ma'am , this is Detective Davidson from Washington police department. We need to talk to you, please tell us where you are."

"Oh my God, what happened to Michael?" The woman's voice broke "We're at the Opera house, we were holding a charity event hosted by my husband's family."

"We'll be there in a moment, Mrs Sampson."

We told Derek and the rest of the team we had to go and drove to the Opera House. As Mrs Sampson had said, there was a gala event there, considering the line of limousines parked in the surroundings  waiting for their wealthy owners. 

"Phew!" Mark exclaimed "Guess one of this would cost like two or three time my car."

The hall of the Opera House was full with almost all members of the most representative and powerful families in town, all of them elegantly dressed and enjoying an exquisite dinner. As we came in, hundreds of eyes turned to us, probably shocked by that unexpected and unwanted interruption. A young woman, followed by two elder couples got up from one of the tables and walked to us. She wasn't more than twenty eight or twenty nine and wore a long red dress. "You must be Detective Davidson," she said in a shaky voice.

"Good night, Mrs Sampson. This is my partner, Detective Mitchell. Is there any place where we could talk?"

"Yeah, yeah...I have a small office here." She rummaged in her small bag and took a key. Before opening the door she turned to us, her eyes full with tears "Michael is dead, right?"