A Good Man Gone (Mercy Watts Mysteries) by A.W. Hartoin Read Free Book Online

There’s also a similar bruise on the back of the head.”
    “Gavin was in a fight?” I said.
    “Doubtful. If it was a fight, as you say, it was short-lived.”
    “It caused the MI?”
    Dr. Grace shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
    “Why didn’t Forester notice this?”
    “Your friend Gavin here was pretty hairy. I didn’t notice it at first glance either, and Forester didn’t have the benefit of Tommy’s feeling either. He was looking for an ordinary MI and that’s what he found.”
    “He was sloppy,” I said.
    “Yes, and no.”
    “Give him the benefit of the doubt, in other words.”
    “I think we have to, in this case. I could’ve missed it myself,” he said.
    “I doubt that.”
    Dr. Grace smiled and led me to the other side of the table.
    “Tell me what you see,” he said, pointing to Gavin’s chest.
    I looked over the area slowly, not wanting to miss anything and let Dad down. Whatever was there, he wouldn’t have missed it. I saw another shaved area next to Gavin’s neck. It was small, the size of a quarter. Inside the area were two quarter-inch-long marks, identical and about a half inch apart.
    “What’s that?”
    “Can’t be sure yet, but if I had to guess I’d say burns from a stun gun.”
    “Like in that Maryland cop case?”
    “You read,” he said.
    “An unfortunate habit of mine.”
    “And a good memory to boot. Ever think of a career in forensics?”
    “Not for a minute,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself.
    “Too bad.”
    “How on earth did you notice these with all this black and gray hair everywhere?”
    He tapped the side of his nose and smiled. “I smelled them.”
    “Say what?”
    “I have a very sensitive sense of smell.”
    “Bet you wish you didn’t.” The smell in the room, although mild, was getting to me. Dad told me a thousand times that death has its own odor. The antiseptic wasn’t helping the situation either.
    “Not at all. My sense of smell has helped me on a number of occasions like this one. The instrument used to make those marks burnt the hair on top of them. I smelled the hair. Now look at his mouth.”
    Oh crap. Do I have to?
    “Come on, I have to show you.”
    I looked at Gavin’s face and was surprised how different he looked in death. Like his wife, he needed wakefulness to make him recognizable as the man I knew.
    “You shaved his beard,” I said. Dixie was going to be pissed. Gavin had a beard for as long as I could remember.
    “Couldn’t be helped. After the burn marks, I started looking for a cause of the MI, needle marks, something like that.”
    “Just being attacked couldn’t have caused it?”
    “Maybe, but I had to be sure there wasn’t a direct cause from an outside source. I think we can assume whoever stunned him didn’t do it for kicks.”
    I leaned over the table to get a better look and saw a portion of Gavin’s thigh was shaved. “Is that a puncture?”
    “Looks like it to me. My guess, he was injected with something that brought on the MI.”
    “Like what?”
    “Could be any number of drugs or poisons. I’m waiting for more extensive labs to come back now.”
    “Did you call the cops?”
    “Your dad’s old shop to be exact. Called them before I called you, but they’ve got their hands full today and he isn’t going anywhere. Should’ve called before the autopsy, but I was hoping I wouldn’t find anything. I should’ve known better.”
    “You didn’t break any rules bringing me down here, did you?”
    “Depends on who you ask. Don’t let on though.”
    “No problem.” He pulled the sheet back up over Gavin’s head and we left the room. I thanked Dr. Grace in the reception area that was now empty and left the hospital. I went straight to my parents’ house to see if Dixie was awake and willing to give me her house keys for no good reason. I wasn’t ready to tell her that her husband had been murdered.

Chapter Five
    UNCLE MORTY’S JEEP sat at my parents’ back gate, parked