He was walking away from the truck and over the guard rail. His boots nearly slipped in the wet grass from the morning dew that was starting to form. Ryan was walking fast going for the treeline in the distance knowing that there would be a sanctuary. He hit the first tree and went into the forest hoping that the trees would help cover his escape. He turned back to look at the line of cars that were stalled on the road. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. The sound of idling engines filled the air this time instead of the rushing cars that had once before.
He couldn't run, he could escape but he couldn't run. They would want him and eventually would get him. He knew that everyone slipped up at some point. No one was that good. He had relied on that to help catch criminals in the past. No one got away with crime, that was a myth a, fairytale gangbangers told each other at night to make themselves feel better about their lives. He wasn't stupid and he knew the tricks but even then he too would get sloppy. Just by being tired right now he knew he was already slipping. That left him with two options turning himself in hoping that they would just let him go once they learned he was really innocent or do what his job was to do. Then again whos to say they wouldn't just hand him back over to the government to be thrown in a cell that had no name windows or location? He was walking again inside the treeline heading against traffic away from the traffic stop. He glanced back, now maybe thirty yards from the car and well hidden in the darkness of the woods he could see two cops nearby the truck talking to the driver. That sealed his fate, and he was walking back to the nearest town the sun coming up behind his back. He would have to clear his name.
Detective Joseph D. Pattersons black sedan pulled up to the crime scene. There were six cop cars parked around here and cops stopping traffic from entering. The lone car still in the parking lot as well as another a tan van that could have belonged to a soccer mom. The driver of the car, standing nearby. Even from the distance, Joe was at he could see that the man's color was clearly faded. There were two cops near him and both were doing their best to take his statement as well as comfort the distraught man. He pulled his unmarked car up next to the ambulance which had both paramedics resting on the tailgate of the big box truck. He shut the engine off and the large six-foot black man got out of the unmarked car. He was bald and clean shaven, the blue lights seeming to glisten and shine off his dark skin. He was of moderate wight not being overweight but nowhere near being in shape as he should be. He walked up to the nearest paramedic who was clearly exhausted.
"Long night?" he asked leaning against the metal cab his arms folded.
The man simply nodded without looking up keeping his eyes on the floor. His hand came up to rub his eyes before yawning. Those on looking would have looked at him and seen the man who was clearly suffering from seeing the woman inside. Only that wasn't true, the man was just tired, death no longer bothered him the way it had used to. He had seen too much of death, had come to close to it a few times to be scared or weary or in shock of it. No, he was just aware and used to death by now, his job dealt with it every day. He couldn't allow himself to be traumatized by it because if he did that could cost someone else their life. He couldn't count the number of times that he sat in the back the ambulance going at close to eight miles an hour as he beat on the chest of an overdose victim trying to bring them back to life as they ran to the hospital. No death was just an occupational hazard for him and something he had grown accustomed to, but the late nights and little sleep was not. That was something he couldn't get used to.
"So, tell me what you saw in there before I go in." The detective said reaching inside his jacket to remove a small note pad from an inside pocket. He took a pen from his pocket and clicked the end.
The man yawned which would have seemed insensitive but he couldn't help the natural reaction to little sleep, "A woman, probably in her twenty’s. She was dead on arrival. Single gunshot wound to the back of her head, probably a twenty-two caliber.” He said and leaned back up straight, “shame she was a pretty girl. But there was a lot more blood than usual for a gunshot to the head.”
“What are you the medical examiner now?” He asked, “how you know it was a twenty-two?”
The paramedic shrugged and stood up, “I’ve seen enough gunshots to recognize what caliber does what. A twenty-two leaves a small entrance hole and big exit hole.”
“Alright then,” he said and scribbled down some more notes, “thank you guys can go.” He said with a nod to them.
The two went to leave and he put the note pad backcrossing the parking lot to the rest stop. He walked past the witness still opting to give the man some more time before questioning him. Let him calm down fully gather his facts and better for the detective to gather as much as he can from the scene to call the man out on his bullshit. He stopped at the glass doors to enter the rest stop. Looking in he could see the men inside, cops who were taking photos sketching the area and measurements. One cop using two rules next to the footprint on the ground for a size snapped off a picture. The flash being much brighter due to the white tile floor. He carefully pushed the door open and stepped in looking at the bloody footprint. Each shoe type and brand had a different design based on several factors. But he couldn’t tell what simply by looking. Instead, he was looking for a different pattern. The floors were freshly cleaned and if there was even a faint trace of another shoe print from dirt, that would mean more then one person had been in here tonight.
He started on heading to the woman who he could barely see in front of the kneeling cop. The man was taking snapshots carefully as the Medical Examiner pointed out the angles to shoot from. Her tattoos which the medical examiner held up her shirt to be shot, the bullet holes and wounds. He stopped three feet away from them and put his hands in his pockets looking at the woman. She was young, probably twenty-three, the same age as his own daughters. Her black hair matted in the blood that had pooled around her lifeless body. Her white skin already going grey. There was blood, a lot of blood that oozed out over the floor. He looked back to the door his eyes tracing the bloody footprints that lead out the door. Who Evers they were had stepped into the blood. He swallowed hard and took his notepad back out. The medical examiner who was a younger man probably in his thirties looked up to the detective.
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“How are you doing Joe?” He asked standing up from his crouched position. The dark blue jumpsuit losing any baggy lines as he did, showing evidence of his recent weight gain.
“Could be better.” He said solemnly the thought of his own daughters weighing heavy on his mind. “Tell me what you know.” He said in his deep down to a business voice that always seemed to creep out.
The medical examiner nodded taking a look at the body, “she was moved onto her back when I won’t know for sure if at all but she didn’t die how we found her. Shot once in the back of the head my guess a twenty-two but that’ll have to be confirmed by forensics not me I can just give you my best guess. There’s some scarring around her skull where the billet entered so the attacker was close when she was shot.”
“How you know she was moved?”
“Her hair, more blood is soaked into the strands on her right side and face than the back where she was. I can’t give you a time of death till I get her back and perform a full autopsy on the body but she was moved after she bled.” He shook his head, “shame she was a pretty girl.”
He simply nodded and looked to the open register, “robbery gone wrong?” He asked in the open to no one in particular.
The medical examiner shrugged, “I’m not sure, I’m not the detective you are.” He said then after a pause added, “although if it’s a robbery why not take her jewelry?”
Joseph couldn’t answer that, although he had seen crazier reasons people have been killed. “Are you ready for transport back?” He asked. The man simply nodded in response as a yes. “Okay if you don’t need anything else to take her back and get some rest. Chances are whoever did this is long gone on the interstate.” He flipped the book closed and put it back inside the jacket. As he walked back to go talk to the man outside he stopped for a moment looking at the scene as a whole. His mind was alive with what had happened. A senseless killing where the killer walked in asked for something cold then shot her in the head when she turned. A robbery went wrong where she fought back only to be shot. Maybe she never saw him or heard him just walking in and then bam she was dead. He shook his head distastefully. Even as he pushed the door open to walk back out into the darkness of night he could feel something wrong. He could already feel like there was little he could do to find the one responsible. He waited off to the side for the officer to finish speaking with the man before waving him over. Together they walked to a nearby metal picnic table under one of the lamps.
The man was still shaking it seemed, probably the first time he had seen someone die. He knew the man would probably be traumatized for the rest of his life, of course, that came with the territory of finding dead bodies. “My names Detective Joesph D. Patterson of the Washington State Police.” He said calmly folding his hands on the table, “I’m sure you wanna go home and I sure know this has been one taxing night for you. I just have a few questions and then you can go.” He said in his best comforting voice but the reality was he didn’t have one. It came out just as harsh and hard as he talked to anyone. In fact, unless you knew him all your life every tone of voice he used sounded rough. The man nodded not speaking. “Can you tell me why you stopped her of all the places in the middle of the night?”
The man shook his head, “I’ve been driving all day and night, to get home from New York. I wanted to drive straight through without stopping so I stopped to get an energy drink to keep me awake and...” his voice trailed off as he remembered what he saw.
“And what sir?” He asked not bothering to take notes this time, it would probably just upset the man further.
“And I walked in to find a man kneeling next to the body...he flipped her over when I walked in...” his voice was going on and out as he spoke, “there was so much blood...”
Joseph showed no emotion outside but inside he was already questioning the second man, had he, in fact, stumbled across the killer or another person who found the body? Then again who touched a body after it was dead? Too many questions. “Don’t focus on that tell me about the man what was he doing?” He asked
”Nothing I could tell his back was to me. I heard him mumble something and stand then we locked eyes when he turned.”
“What was he? White? black? Hispanic?” He said this time reaching into his jacket for the pad, he needed to find this other man. He started scribbling down words without looking.
“White.”
“What was he wearing?”
“Hoodie, jeans maybe...black? I can’t remember...”
“That’s okay what else can you tell me? Scars? Was his nose twisted some to the right?”
“No...no...” he stumbled again “I don’t remember. He walked right up to me just stood there speaking snapping in my face.”
“What did he say?”
“Told me to call nine one one.” He said, “told me to get her help.”
Was she alive? No, she was dead she had to have been a bullet to the head she was certainly dead. No one survived that. “Go on.” He said,
”then he left just walked out.”
“He just left? Left her there?”
“Yeah, just left..”
Joseph waved over a cop and had a little side conversation under a hushed voice that the man couldn’t hear. Then as Joe stood he held out his hand to the cop as if he was presenting an award. “This is officer Jankens. He will drive you home. Thank you for your corporation. If we need anything else we will be in touch.” The officer then helped the man to his feet who seemed to be locked in a daze about what happened and lead him to his squad car parked nearby. Joe didn’t hang around to see them leave safely he was already walking to his own car. There was a second man who needed to be found and found quickly. Because two things he was certain about, one the man fled a crime scene which is against the law and two he would have some more answers.