Changing Woman by Thurlo David

Author:Thurlo, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2002-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

While Justine tried to question Millie in the living room, Ella surveyed the kitchen where the body was located, keeping out of the viewing field while Tache took the necessary photos.

She’d never seen so much Elvis memorabilia in her entire life. The living room had been a virtual shrine, and the kitchen was nearly the same. There were Elvis dish towels, and even an Elvis sponge that featured a grainy image of the King holding a guitar. It looked like something out of a horror flick. The salt and pepper shakers on the table were miniature images of the rock and roll legend in blue or white sequined jumpsuits, and two of the walls held posters of the King—one of them of the young Elvis, and the other of the singer at his best looking—in tight, black leather.

Ella crouched next to the body. Betty Nez was lying prone on the ceramic tile floor inches away from a tipped-over step stool, her neck twisted in an unnatural angle. One of the cupboard doors above the counter was open. At first glance, it appeared that she’d climbed up on the step stool to get something from the cupboard, then fallen off and broken her neck. But experience told her to withhold judgment. Betty worked for the tribe in an office with the tribal chairman, and with a conspiracy going on, that raised questions in Ella’s mind that made everything worthy of a closer look.

Looking at the kitchen table, Ella saw that it was slightly out of alignment with the counter. Bending down to table level, she noted there were a few scattered grains of salt indicating the salt shaker had possibly been knocked over when the table was knocked out of position. But who had set the salt shaker back up again, and why?

“Where’s Carolyn?” Ella asked Tache after asking him to get a shot of the table’s position and the spilled salt. “She’s been called, right?”

“Yep, and I’m right here,” Carolyn said, stepping into the kitchen. She’d put on weight recently and Ella guessed her good friend now weighed in at well over two hundred pounds. For a large woman, however, she had an inexhaustible supply of energy. Dr. Roanhorse-Lavery was arguably the best medical examiner in the state, and virtually the only one still operating outside the State Medical Investigators Office based in Albuquerque.

“Hey, give the doctor some room to work,” she muttered, turning sideways to pass between the table and where Ella stood. “Not everyone is a bean pole, bones.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ella said with a tiny grin. No matter what Carolyn’s mood, the Navajo doctor was one of the most loyal friends anyone could ever hope to have.

“Man, this Elvis decor is a gag fest.” Carolyn glanced around, but once her attention shifted to the corpse, she was all business.

Ella knew the pathologist would miss nothing, but Carolyn hated to have anyone looking over her shoulder while she worked. Ella backed off. One time when she’d hovered, Carolyn had

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.