The Visitor by Easton Livingston

Author:Easton Livingston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Easton Livingston
Published: 2020-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Part II - Suspect Apprehended

Detective Samuel Neff stood at the doorway of the Johansen residence just getting the cobwebs out of his mind. The call came in on his cell phone at 2:03 a.m. It took thirty-four minutes to get dressed and get to the scene. Uniformed officers were already there, the darkness around the home lit up by silent police sirens and side lamps.

He had fifteen years on the force with a little less than half of that in homicide. Neff got a sense of the situation as soon as he walked into a place where a loss of life had occurred. There was always a sense of some amorphous appendage cloying at him. It was the part of his job he hated because he knew it was the vestiges of pain and misery. Hated it because of how well he knew it and how well it knew him.

With a pensive look up the stairs, he listened to the activity that was going on. Breathing out a heavy sigh he rolled his eyes. He wasn't ready to deal with this tonight, or rather, he really didn't want to. But he had no choice. It was his job.

He made his lethargic march up the stairs. No need to rush it. The major damage was done. The voices and cameras were getting louder in his ascent. Pausing at the landing to put on his mask of hardness, he made his way through the officers gathered around the doorway of the scene. They parted to make room for him to enter.

He looked inside and froze. After all the homicides he'd investigated, he never got used to it which was a good thing. He never wanted to.

“Sargent Neff?”

Neff pulled his eyes away from the sight before him, happy that he had a reason to.

“Yeah?”

“I'm officer Downey.”

Neff glanced over at the body then fixed a firm eye on Downey.

“You the responding officer?”

“Yes sir.”

“What ya got?”

“About 1:50 a.m., the neighbors next door, the Wallaces, report that they heard a gunshot coming from over here. Me and my partner got the call to come over and check it out. When we got to the premises, the doors were locked and there didn't appear to be anyone home. Just as we were about to leave, Mrs. Johansen pulls up in the driveway. We tell her the situation. We take a minute to calm her down. She lets me in the house and Cady, my partner, stays outside with her while I check everything out. I get up here and . . .”

Downey looked down at the body sprawled on the floor.

Neff surveyed the scene again, this time with more precision. Kneeling down with a soft grunt, he observed the gunshot wound. Entry point was at the top of the mouth. The charred blackness surrounding it suggested it was point blank. An involuntary sigh left him. The crime scene unit didn't need to tell him anything.

“Any history of mental illness? Depression?”

“Not sure. The wife mentioned that they were having marriage problems for months now.

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