Save Her Child: A completely gripping and suspenseful crime thriller (Jericho and Wright Thrillers Book 3) by CJ Lyons

Author:CJ Lyons [Lyons, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800194335
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-04-18T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

As Harper waited for Tierney to finish his exhaustive examination of Spencer Standish’s body, she followed up with the CSU techs who were examining the SUV he died in.

“Double-check for any signs of blood or hair,” she instructed them. “He died of a head wound and with the black paint and upholstery—”

“We know how to look for blood,” the tech cut her off. “But we’ll double-check. I’ll follow up on the other samples from the garage as well.”

“Thanks. Anything from the car’s computer? It would help with calculating TOD.” If she could tell Tierney the exact time the car was turned on, compared to Standish’s carbon monoxide levels and the time his body was found, along with other variables like temperature, then she hoped he would be able to calculate a narrow window for their time of death.

“Yeah, sure. Hang on.” The sound of computer keys echoed through the line. “Let’s see. The engine was started at 8:04. Hmm, he must have been close to the car with his phone, because there’s a call showing at that exact same time—maybe he was already on the phone and it switched to the car’s Bluetooth when he got close to the car? If so, that would mean he started the car himself.”

An image formed in Harper’s mind. Standish in his garage, doors still shut, using his key fob to remotely start the car, walking toward it while speaking on his phone. But before he either got into the driver’s seat—or perhaps he had gotten inside the car but left it again—he fell, breaking his neck. An accident? Or was he attacked by whoever moved him into the driver’s seat and left him to die? Either way, there had to be a second person present, and that person’s act of abandoning Standish constituted premeditated murder. “We’re still missing his phone. Can you tell me who the call was with?”

“Yeah, it’s listed in the car’s contacts. Says he was talking to a Matthew Harper.” He paused. “Any relation?”

“How long did the call last?” Harper asked. The Reverend had been the last person to speak to Spencer before he was killed? Why hadn’t he told the police?

“Not sure. It wasn’t dialed through the car, so he might already have been connected as he got into the car and started it? Anyway, it was disconnected four seconds after the engine started.”

“Four seconds?” Long enough for someone to reach inside the SUV and grab the phone from Spencer. Had her father heard the killer?

“Does that help?”

“Yeah, thanks.” She hung up and passed the information about the timing on to Tierney.

“Fits with what I’m finding,” the medical examiner told her. “My guess is that he’d started the car, was hit on the head—or hit his head on something—and while unconscious he was placed inside the car, the engine left running. He breathed in a few minutes of exhaust, enough to raise his blood carbon monoxide to the levels we found, but not high enough for the CO to kill him before the lung failure from the cervical spinal fracture caused fatal asphyxiation.

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