Vendetta Stone (1) by Tom Wood

Author:Tom Wood [Wood, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Wood Walnut Hills Press
Published: 2014-01-20T08:00:00+00:00

Sergeant Mike Whitfield didn’t like working weekends, but with everybody—from the mayor’s office to the chief to the media to the public—watching how the police handled the Stone case, pressure intensified to solve the case. Detectives handled most of the workload, but relied on Whitfield’s street-smart instincts to determine what forensics couldn’t. He’d played a major role in finding the East Nashville rapist last year.

“There’s gotta be a clue here, somewhere.” Another report flew across the desk littered with a stack of papers detailing physical evidence, none pointing to the killer’s identity. Fingerprints in the house belonged to the Stones and their closest family and friends. The city-wide manhunt for Angela began in East Nashville and slowly fanned out over a twenty-mile radius. It took more than a week for the search party to reach Warner Park, but once they did, police dogs discovered her body less than a half-mile from the golf course. A couple of volunteers swore they combed over that area less than twenty-four hours before the call went out that a search dog sniffed out her shallow grave. No trace of her car.

The autopsy revealed the cause of death as asphyxiation, and the ribs broken by something swung—a metal rod or a tire iron—indicated a left-handed killer. Neck and facial bruises showed Angela was unconscious before she died, which meant the murderer didn’t rush. Sexual abuse, but no semen. No flesh underneath her fingernails, no bloody shoeprints, no tell-tale traces, no muddy tire tracks at the scene to help identify the killer.

“Nothing, dammit,” he said in frustration as his phone rang. “East Precinct. Sergeant Whitfield.”

“Good afternoon, Sergeant. Chief King here.”

“Yes sir,” Whitfield said, straightening in his chair. “What can I do for you?”

“You can tell me you’ve found something to crack the Stone case.”

“Sorry sir. There’s nothing useful. But that suggests we’re dealing with somebody who knows how to cover his tracks.”

“Not surprising. What else?”

“Detective Williams rechecked the FBI database for comparisons to other cold case files and ongoing investigations around the South, with no hits. There’s a missing connection. I’m going back to the crime scene tomorrow.”

“Send somebody else,” the chief ordered, “and be in my office at ten a.m.”

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