Seeing Red by Terry Odell

Author:Terry Odell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: murder, revenge, florida, star trek, red shirts, homicide detective

~~~~~

Back at our office, Rocky and I set up a white board. I drew the timeline, filled in information while he dug through databases and contacted the authorities in Brazil. I took a moment to hit the head and raid the vending machine. When I got back, Rocky was still on the phone, busily scribbling notes. He hung up the phone, shaking his head. “Well, that was interesting.”

“Interesting as in—?”

“Our victim is one very evil dude. The Brazilian police have been trying to catch him for years.”

“What did he do?”

“You name it. He’s connected to just about every facet of the underworld, but his specialty is trafficking. Drugs, women, weapons. And, he’s a suspect in at least a dozen mysterious disappearances. They said they’d like to thank whoever killed him, but since we caught him, we get to clean him.”

He was found in our jurisdiction, which made him ours. But my motivation to find whoever did it had dropped a few notches. Curiosity ruled, though. Why would a Brazilian mobster end up in the woods in central Florida? “You think we need to start looking for Brazilian hit men?”

“They do tend to police their own.” Rocky added the relevant findings to the white board. “Pedro Zerbini—he’s our counterpart in Brazil—said he’ll keep us posted if anyone in a rival gang claims bragging rights. He’s checking on the whereabouts of any likely suspects. We’re never going to be able to trace every Brazilian who came through town.”

So, our suspect list had just grown from seven neighbors to thousands of tourists.

Rocky stepped away from the board, tossing and catching a marker. “What was that caregiver’s name again?”

“Nélio,” I said as the light bulb went off. I hadn’t paid much attention at the time, since we hadn’t discovered the body yet. I’d merely noted his Latino features and my brain went to Cuba. But Nélio was more of a Brazilian name. I also remembered how easy it would have been for him to slip out at night and bury the body. He had the brawn, for sure.

“I think we need to go talk to him,” I said. “But let’s dig a little deeper into the rest of the neighborhood. Inefficient to keep running back and forth.”

Charlie had nailed it with her means, motive, and opportunity. Trouble was, we had lots of potential suspects with means and opportunity, but we didn’t have any motives. Yet.

“Do we have anything more than the obvious as to cause of death?” Rocky asked.

“I doubt Bones will get to the autopsy—and it’s likely to be a cursory one, given the gunshot wound is fairly obvious—for a day or two. But I’ll give him a call.”

“You sure you don’t want me to?” Rocky said, reaching for the phone.

“No, I’ll do it.”

After giving me the requisite, “He’s dead, Jim,” Bones said he’d ordered a basic tox screen, but he had five cases ahead of our Brazilian mobster.

“Too bad you can’t whip out one of those medical scanners the real McCoy used.” The best defense was often a good offense.

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