Corpse in the Campus by Harry Glum Read Free Book Online
Authors: Harry Glum
also going to have to keep your station wagon, Mr. Stone, in order to analyze it.
James Stone, who no longer knew what to think, just nodded slightly. A part of him wanted to believe the detective blindly, to grasp hope that all of this had just been a bad nightmare, but another part of himself had serious doubts that his son were not telling them the truth.
—You´d better come with me —said Karen, taking Mr. Stone from the room and beaming her colleague Stevens a reproachful look.
—What the hell is wrong with you, Gordon? —asked Davies, at the first moment they were alone.
—Have you really not seen it? Do I really have to explain it to you?
—It´s not my business to be telling you this, but you should never assume anything. Aside from that, you have just placed the investigation at risk, and you know that perfectly well.
—The hell with it!
Suddenly Ron´s Smartphone vibrated in his jacket. The investigator answered the call and listened to the agitated voice of one of the department´s youngest agents on the other end of the line.
—Ron, you´ve got to come urgently.
—What´s the matter? You talk like you´ve just seen a ghost.
The young agent took a few seconds to answer. Surely the analogy had suddenly knocked him out and he needed to get his breath back before he could talk.
—I´m at Tom Campbell´s house. I´m with the cadaver right now.
XIV
T he medical coroner judged on an unofficial basis that Tom Campbell, University of Northern Iowa security guard had been dead some three days when the police had finally found him at his house sitting in front of a folding table covered with news clippings where there were reports of Sarah´s murder and the scant progress made by investigators up to that moment.
His colleagues and the administrative staff at the university had missed him, and finally two agents had gone to the guard´s home. It seemed that he had committed suicide taking a lot of sleeping pills with a great deal of alcohol, because they found a couple of empty pill bottles at his house and a bottle of vodka that was half drunk. The autopsy determined the definite cause of death.
When Stevens and Davies got to the house, it was already cordoned off and at least four agents were proceeding with the first search. Tom Campbell´s dead body was in a horrific state, and all his skin was bruised, and one could deduce that the natural process of decomposition had very much set in.
—What have you found so far? — Ron asked the young agent that had phoned him from the house to ask him to get over there as soon as possible.
—This guy was very strange. Really strange. I don´t know how in the world he ever got the job as a security guard.
—Explain yourself, please.
The agent held out several books and DVDs. Most of them had to do with murder or autolysis, but there were some on torture or kidnapping. They were bloodcurdling.
—Hell, you don´t really know anybody until you get into their shack —mumbled Davies, while he held out these things to Stevens.
—But that´s not the worst. There´s more, much more. Follow me.
They got to a room that was almost completely covered with press potos about Sarah Brown. Almost all of them were the same image: a young smiling girl with an angel like face. There were also more clippings that described how the investigation was advancing, and the most surprising. a copy of the official report on the autopsy carried out on the student. It seemed that the guard had jotted down his own reflections on it with a pen.
—¡Heck, how the devil did the guy get a copy of the autopsy report! —exclaimed Gordon, kicking the doorframe.
—Oh Lord, it´ll be better for me to go out and get some fresh air —said the young agent, trying to be as polite as possible—, because you still haven´t seen the worst.
—What? Is there still more?
The agent guided them to a kind of trap door that led to a kind of attic on the top of the house. They had to
James Stone, who no longer knew what to think, just nodded slightly. A part of him wanted to believe the detective blindly, to grasp hope that all of this had just been a bad nightmare, but another part of himself had serious doubts that his son were not telling them the truth.
—You´d better come with me —said Karen, taking Mr. Stone from the room and beaming her colleague Stevens a reproachful look.
—What the hell is wrong with you, Gordon? —asked Davies, at the first moment they were alone.
—Have you really not seen it? Do I really have to explain it to you?
—It´s not my business to be telling you this, but you should never assume anything. Aside from that, you have just placed the investigation at risk, and you know that perfectly well.
—The hell with it!
Suddenly Ron´s Smartphone vibrated in his jacket. The investigator answered the call and listened to the agitated voice of one of the department´s youngest agents on the other end of the line.
—Ron, you´ve got to come urgently.
—What´s the matter? You talk like you´ve just seen a ghost.
The young agent took a few seconds to answer. Surely the analogy had suddenly knocked him out and he needed to get his breath back before he could talk.
—I´m at Tom Campbell´s house. I´m with the cadaver right now.
XIV
T he medical coroner judged on an unofficial basis that Tom Campbell, University of Northern Iowa security guard had been dead some three days when the police had finally found him at his house sitting in front of a folding table covered with news clippings where there were reports of Sarah´s murder and the scant progress made by investigators up to that moment.
His colleagues and the administrative staff at the university had missed him, and finally two agents had gone to the guard´s home. It seemed that he had committed suicide taking a lot of sleeping pills with a great deal of alcohol, because they found a couple of empty pill bottles at his house and a bottle of vodka that was half drunk. The autopsy determined the definite cause of death.
When Stevens and Davies got to the house, it was already cordoned off and at least four agents were proceeding with the first search. Tom Campbell´s dead body was in a horrific state, and all his skin was bruised, and one could deduce that the natural process of decomposition had very much set in.
—What have you found so far? — Ron asked the young agent that had phoned him from the house to ask him to get over there as soon as possible.
—This guy was very strange. Really strange. I don´t know how in the world he ever got the job as a security guard.
—Explain yourself, please.
The agent held out several books and DVDs. Most of them had to do with murder or autolysis, but there were some on torture or kidnapping. They were bloodcurdling.
—Hell, you don´t really know anybody until you get into their shack —mumbled Davies, while he held out these things to Stevens.
—But that´s not the worst. There´s more, much more. Follow me.
They got to a room that was almost completely covered with press potos about Sarah Brown. Almost all of them were the same image: a young smiling girl with an angel like face. There were also more clippings that described how the investigation was advancing, and the most surprising. a copy of the official report on the autopsy carried out on the student. It seemed that the guard had jotted down his own reflections on it with a pen.
—¡Heck, how the devil did the guy get a copy of the autopsy report! —exclaimed Gordon, kicking the doorframe.
—Oh Lord, it´ll be better for me to go out and get some fresh air —said the young agent, trying to be as polite as possible—, because you still haven´t seen the worst.
—What? Is there still more?
The agent guided them to a kind of trap door that led to a kind of attic on the top of the house. They had to