Circle of Influence (A Zoe Chambers Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

removed the glasses and deposited them into an evidence bag. She scrawled her initials and the date on it before handing it to Pete.
    Then she went back to work, flicking the penlight in both of Ted’s eyes. “Fixed and dilated.” She checked her watch then dug a notepad from her hip pocket and a pen from inside her coat. Pete shone the light on the paper as she scribbled her findings.
    She handed the pad and pen to him. “You write. I’ll examine.”
    He tugged off his gloves and tucked the flashlight under one arm. “Got it.”
    One at a time, she picked up Ted’s hands and examined them. Then she secured each in two more paper bags. She took several minutes to study his face. Pete knew why.
    “Multiple contusions and abrasions on his face.” She scowled. “Note possible broken nose, too.”
    He wrote it all down.
    She worked her way through Ted’s hair and her frown deepened. “I can’t tell for sure, but it feels like there may be a compressed skull fracture. Help me lean him forward.”
    Zoe supported Ted’s head and neck while Pete grasped the shoulders and tipped the body toward the steering wheel. He considered reminding her that Ted’s cervical spine was in no danger of injury at this point, but decided to keep quiet instead. 
    She finished her exam with a quick once-over of the body, back and then front. Marshall and his forensic pathologist would do a more thorough external examination and x-rays once Ted was in the morgue.
    Easing out of the car, Zoe turned to Pete. “Rigor mortis is already setting into his extremities and his face.”
    “Can you guestimate his time of death?” Pete was fairly certain of what her answer would be.
    “I wouldn’t want to venture a guess based on anything here. But we know he died sometime after seven-thirty p.m. That’s when we saw him—” Her voice cracked.
    That’s when they saw him outside the supervisors’ meeting, threatening Jerry McBirney.
    Pete pulled her into his arms. She clung to him, shivering and sniffing back sobs. Zoe liked to play tough, but he knew she cared deeply about those close to her. And she and Ted had been friends since before he’d married Rose. Pete suspected they’d possibly been more than just friends way back when, but he’d never asked, and she’d never told.
    “What the hell happened to him, Pete?” she said with a shuddering breath.
    “I don’t know yet. But I will find out.”
    She pushed free from him. “We,” she said. “ We will find out.” Zoe blew her warm breath onto her fingers and then reclaimed her notepad and pen. “Did you notice the ice crystals in his hair?”
    “I did.”
    “His clothes are frozen, too. It’s as though he went swimming fully dressed.”
    Pete touched the coating of snow melting in her blonde hair. “Or he was out in a snow storm.”
    Zoe met his gaze. “I think it’s more than that. Look at his face. And there’s a tear in the front of his jacket, but the back is fine. I think he was dragged face down.”
    Pete pondered her theory. “Dragged? Maybe. But I’d think his clothes would be a little more ripped than they are.”
    Chewing her lip, she studied Ted’s body.
    Flashing amber lights swept over the expanse of snow. A large flatbed truck advanced toward them from the exit ramp.
    “Are you done here?” Pete asked.
    “I guess so.”
    “Good. Here comes the tow truck.”
    He studied the gray, icy face of what had once been Ted Bassi. How had he come to be way out here on this bitter night in Jerry McBirney’s Buick? Had he and Jerry gotten into a fight and Ted escaped, mortally wounded, in Jerry’s car? And if he hadn’t driven himself, who left him here and why?
    So many questions burned in his mind. Not the least of which was where had McBirney been in the hours after the supervisor’s meeting?
    First things first. He wanted the Buick secured inside the township garage before the weather further ruined any evidence he might find.

    Zoe doubted she’d ever be