Time of Death by Nathan Van Coops

Author:Nathan Van Coops [Coops, Nathan Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-950669-06-6
Publisher: Nathan Van Coops

14

I stared at the dead body for a long time. I wondered if Dirk Walls had plans tonight he was absent from. If so, no one had come to check on him.

From what I could tell, his assailant had surprised him opening the door to the bathroom and hit him hard. Dirk stumbled back through the curtain and landed in the bathtub.

Best guess anyway.

What he was hit with was the next question. There were no signs of trauma to his head or face, but red streaks marked his neck in a fern-like pattern.

Squatting near the edge of the tub, I tugged at the collar of his shirt and found more of the burns on his chest.

They looked electrical. Like the one on my arm.

I donned my sunglasses and hit record, capturing the scene and Dirk’s wounds.

I checked his pockets and found he hadn’t been robbed. Still had his wallet and phone.

The marks on him made me angry. Same weapon that I’d survived at the scene of Foster’s death, only Dirk didn’t have a chronometer to help absorb the shock.

Back in the den I pocketed my shades and stared at the dog in the crate. How long had it been in there?

The dog watched me with a doleful expression.

Fine. I could contaminate the scene a little more.

I closed the door to the den, opened the door to the back yard, then let the dog out of the crate. She immediately went to the interior door instead.

“I’m sorry. He’s not coming back.”

The dog looked at me and when I failed to open the door, she slumped to the floor and pressed her nose to the crack.

I sighed.

Encouraging the dog to go out had no effect so I gripped her collar and guided her to the back door. She finally got the message and went out to do her business.

She was a beautiful dog. Animal services would be called when they found the body but how soon would that be?

After squatting in the grass the dog got distracted, sniffing a pile of dirt near the garden shed. I whistled high and loud and that got her attention. She plodded over to me and obediently slunk back in her crate.

Dirk P. Walls still had a landline in the kitchen. I picked up the phone and pressed 911. When the dispatcher picked up, I left the receiver on the counter. Someone would check it out. They’d find him.

When I looked down, I noticed the dog had crept out of her crate and was watching me. Still doleful.

Okay fine.

The dog followed me out the way I came. I locked the back door behind us and walked out via the side yard. The white shepherd stayed on my heels. I glanced up and down the street. Saw a house on the corner with a tree fort built into the lower branches of an oak. Tire swing.

“Come on.”

The dog obeyed.

I rapped on the front door. A tall, thirtyish black man answered. Friendly face. Kids squealed in the background.

“Excuse me.

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