A Steep Price by Robert Dugoni

Author:Robert Dugoni [Dugoni, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503954182
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2018-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

Tracy knew logistics would be the CSI investigators’ biggest hurdle. It wasn’t like they could just plug in a light to an electrical circuit in one of the trees. CSI had a van that provided power, but there was no way to get the van to the grave site, which was how Tracy now thought of the hole in the ground. CSI’s only option was to haul generators to the site, a difficult and time-consuming process. Once accomplished, the investigators expanded the perimeter Pryor had marked with yellow crime scene tape. Anyone who breached this designated area would be required to sign a log-in sheet. Next, they’d erected a tent over the grave, and attached lights to the tent’s interior framework, enough light to illuminate the site like an archaeological dig for some lost treasure.

Tracy wished it were so.

CSI did all of this while trying not to disturb the trails leading to the hole any more than Tracy and Pryor already had. Kaylee Wright arrived and worked with the CSI investigators to reestablish Katie Pryor’s walking path to the grave site, designated with red tape. Anyone who crossed that tape would have to complete a statement, which was a way to keep the brass from venturing too close to the crime scene. Not that the brass was going to be a problem this night, not with the majority of them flocking to the officer-involved shooting in South Park.

Once she’d reestablished the walking path, Wright used a powerful beam of light to examine the area surrounding the grave, the trails leading to it, and the main walking paths into and out of the park. She was trying to detect patterns, footprints leading to and from the hole, veering off course suddenly, or signs of an altercation, like trampled plants and disturbed soil. CSI would also take a healthy number of photographs and, where possible, cast any shoeprints found.

After Katie Pryor had provided elimination prints of the soles of her work boots, Tracy sent her home. Pryor had protested, but with Kins present, and the missing person having now become a possible homicide, Pryor was no longer needed, though that was not why Tracy sent her home. She sent Pryor home to be with her family.

Kelly Rosa arrived and quickly climbed down a ladder with a CSI photographer to document the grave site and the body’s relationship to it. Rosa’s first order of business, however, was to confirm a death and to obtain positive identification. Next, she sketched the position of the body relative to the hole. After documenting the site in photographs, Rosa turned her analysis to determining whether Kavita Mukherjee was the victim of a homicide, an unfortunate accident, or had taken her own life.

As this work went on, and although a significant number of police and forensic personnel were present, the site remained respectfully quiet, as if a pall of sadness had descended over the forest, disturbed only by the hum of the generators and occasional hushed voices.

Tracy

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