Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 86

After the team split up to attend to their assigned duties Purrazzo was first to offer a theory. "Initial guess? An ex-partner of Hemmings. Maybe there was an affair or something, and this was retribution from the ex."

"Not going to argue against it. That's why Erin wants to know how long they've been together. But remember not to approach a case with preconceived ideas. Work the evidence and see what it shows you."

Purrazzo nodded. "I hear you."

For now they ignored the body of Phillip Steel, leaving the coroner to his work. They walked over to the blown in living room window and looked inside. It was a grim scene. Karin Hemmings had been shot in the chest twice. It was a common misconception that shotguns sprayed their pellets everywhere once they were fired. The reality was quite difference. There were two big holes in the victim's chest, a great deal of blood on the floor, and some spray on the wall opposite the window.

"I'm confident we'll find out one of those shots was fired through the window," Halstead said. "And the other through the opening while she was already down, to make sure she was dead."

"Seems logical. Wonder if Steel was killed before or after?"

"Could be either. Let's go in and see what we can find."

They went into the house and conducted a search, but didn't find much of interest apart from two phones, presumably belonging to both victims. They would go back to the 21st for Zelina Vega to go to work on them. Either one, or maybe both, might offer up some clues. Forensics would also do a full workup on the scene.

Lindsay reconvened the team outside, where it seemingly got colder by the minute. Gonzalez and Atwater had done the easy job, sitting in her car doing background checks on the victims. As a detective, outranking Atwater, she had by default taken the senior role in their temporary partnership.

First to detail her discoveries was Lindsay, who had learned from neighbours that the victims had been living together since the summer, so approximately six months. She reiterated the story about the ex-cop who had heard the shotgun blasts, three in total, and gave an approximate time.

"What did you get in the house?" she asked Halstead when she was done.

"Not a lot to be honest," he replied. "Found their phones, so we'll get them to Z. There was a framed photo of the two victims together. Nothing anywhere that spoke to who might have done this, or a motive."

"I might be able to help you there," Gonzalez said. "Hemmings has one prior on her record – arrested along with several other people for fighting outside of a bar. I pulled up the incident reports. One of the other people arrested that night, apparently the one who started the fight, was her boyfriend at the time. His name is Allen Styles, known as AJ. He has spent a year in prison for injuring someone badly in a separate incident. He was released last week."

"Good work," Lindsay said. "Hemmings was with him, then he gets out of prison and she's with Steel. Styles is our prime suspect. Put a BOLO out. Halstead, Purrazzo, get his address and get a warrant. Whether he's there or not, toss the place. Gonzalez, Atwater, start work on associates of Styles. It's quite likely we won't find him at home if he did this, which would leave him needing somewhere to hide out. Find out where he might go. I'm going to go inform Hemmings' next of kin, and I'll have uniforms do the same with Steel's. Let's all keep in touch. Okay, that's it."

Dismissed, Halstead walked with Purrazzo to his car. Once they were in, he fired up the engine and got the aircon turned on to warm the car up. Then he got on his radio for an address for Allen (AJ) Styles.

"We can drive past our place to get there, and I can drop my car off," Purrazzo said when she heard the address come back over the radio.

Halstead nodded. "I'll follow you."