Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe (2001) Anthology by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

TEN

Wrapping Things Up

By the time their small group returned to Sol House, the two cops who were keeping the scene secure must have succumbed to boredom. In addition to the usual placement of crime scene tape, there was what appeared to be one continuous length of tape wrapped around the entire house, starting on one side of the front door and ending on the other side. It was the most creative use of crime scene tape that Tory had ever witnessed. If they’d only tied it off with a bow, and if the colors had been red and green instead of yellow and black, the result might even look like Christmas decorations. But then that very sort of ethnocentrism, the assumption that familiar behaviors should be recognized and adopted by everyone, was partly to blame for this whole mess.

Snow signed the four of them in on the log the two cops had started—they had obviously taken him seriously about doing things by the book. “When will processing support get here?” one cop asked Snow.

“Soon,” Snow replied cryptically, and led the way inside. “Listen,” he said to Tory, “I’m stretching things by bringing you back over here. What is it that you want to show me? Don’t disturb anything, and make it quick.”

“I’ll bet I’m done before your processing support ever shows up.” This earned a glare from Snow, a raised eyebrow from David and rolled eyes from her own son. “We all agree that there was no sign of forced entry, right?”

“Yeah, except for the glass door your kid broke down,” replied Snow. Well, what could she expect? David had tried to tell her that it didn’t pay to be sarcastic with a cop on duty.

“Except for that,” she conceded. “And we all agree that it looks as though Hafiz was working on constructing another hiding place in the wall. A hiding place to be concealed by a hanging picture.”

“Yeah,” Snow said.

“And that he was shot in the early morning, not too long before Cody found him.”

“Yeah,” Snow said again.

“And that he had exhibited unbalanced behavior for a while now—paranoia, secrecy, threats. It seems he had this mission to sell valuable art for his friends and family back in Eastern Europe, but because he insisted on cash payments, he lost his means of selling, his means of turning art into money. But the art kept coming in. Maybe Hafiz had just a few hiding places to begin with, but now he needed hiding places all over the house.”

“Yeah, so tell me something I don’t know.”

Tory continued her story. “Maybe that’s when he started keeping a gun around, when this valuable art started to accumulate. At the same time, Hafiz is stuck with an enemy for a next-door neighbor, a guy who has this last name Kunz, a name Hafiz associates with some atrocity against him or his family. On top of all this, Kunz accuses Hafiz’s people of being responsible for the same violence that made Hafiz leave his country. Then that neighbor is gone, and someone else moves in.

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