Ashes to Ashes by Nathaniel Fincham Read Free Book Online Page B

imply fear, like when an abused wife
murdered her husband while he was passed out drunk. Ashe could
clearly remember a fragile lady, Tela Poling, who had been sent to
his cage for assessment, after having been convicted of first
degree murder. Her complexion was pale and her frame was fragile.
The area around her eyes was forever bruised by worry, lack of
sleep, along with her husband’s fist. Outside observers might say
that she had “lost it” but it was clear to him, without Tela having
to utter a single word, that she was a gentle woman pushed too far.
In a moment of desperation, she had given in to fear and stabbed
her husband 34 times while he slept off a two-day binge.
    Two or three jabs hadn’t been enough. Tela
made sure that her husband was good and dead.
    Ashe had tried to put his professional two
cents in on Tela's behalf. He had gone to Oscar for advice and
help. Tela was not a killer, only a battered wife who had finally
stood up for herself, desperate to make the hurting stop. Her
defense counsel had been incompetent and her own voice was never
heard during the trial. And yet, there seemed to only be dead ends
down the road he tried to take. No one had listened to what he had
to say, even if he had had some good points. He too eventually
succeeded to the fact that Tela would remain in prison, her thin
form rotting away.
    There could also have been a severe disregard
by the shooter for Owen as a person, which was why they killed him
in his sleep, like nameless cattle. If that was the case, the
murderer would surely be either a sociopath or a psychopath. Cold.
Calculated. Unfeeling.
    A professional hit? But why would anyone hire
a hitter to kill a college student? That didn't make any sense.
Unless Owen had gotten himself in deep with the wrong people, the
kind of people that didn’t take being let down lightly.
    Ashe shook his head in disgust.
    Owen's room was simple. The bed had been
nothing more than a twin mattress and a box-spring on the floor. An
old television sat on top of an old stand. The stand was wooden and
slanted slightly to the right, looking ready to tumble over in a
heap. A DVD player was on the stand’s one and only shelf.
Everything was unplugged from the wall. Ashe wondered if Owen had
fell asleep watching television, which meant that it would have
still been on when the YPD found the body.
    Did they take the movie, he wandered.
Squatting down, Ashe plugged in the DVD player and pushed the EJECT
button. Out came the tray revealing a disk. The Crime Scene Unit
must not have viewed the disc to be of forensic importance. Using
only the tips of his fingers, he picked up the disk and examined
the top picture. In the picture were images of sex and sexual
activities. Owen had been watching porn.
    The fact that Owen had been watching porn
could mean something but it could also mean absolutely nothing. It
would depend on how much he watched and whether or not it was an
addiction. A porn addiction could be important. It was hard to say.
Ashe knew, from experience, that most college men were highly
sexual and probably watched porn quit a lot during their free time,
especially when they were alone in bed.
    Placing the disk back in the tray, Ashe
closed the player and unplugged it. He remained squatting. That was
when he noticed a sprinkling of powder alongside of the television,
spread finely next to the base of the television. The thin layer
stood out under the light of the cell phone. It was barely visible,
as were the scratches across the wood of the stand, which had
obviously been done by a sharp razor.
    Owen did drugs, Ashe concluded.
    But the coke would have kept Owen awake and
alert and aware that an attacker had appeared in his doorway. The
evidence of coke use was strong, but Owen could not have been using
the drug before he was killed. Turning, the psychologist used his
lowered position to scan the floor around the stand. Down by the
base of the stand was a gathering of green seeds,