hold you at the station for questioning overnight. Are you certain the children are safe with the neighbors?”
“Yes, they love the girls and often baby-sit for us. They’ll be fine there but not in some cold, sterile social services shelter!”
“ OK, we’ll do it your way but you will have to sign a consent form to indemnify the city.”
“ I don’t care. I’ll do whatever it takes to shield them from this.” Jim eyes were red and swollen but set in determination.
“ Alright then Jim, I’ll have an officer organize the paperwork and we will have to inspect the neighbors’ apartment but I think everything should be fine. As soon as suicide is confirmed, we can leave you to take the girls to Helen’s parents’ house. I’ll give you a business card for a specialized cleaning company that can take care of the carpet and chair.”
“ Thank you Alan.” Jim’s face showed a vague glimmer of relief for the first time.
Alan took a quick look around the master bedroom and en suite bathroom then went out to inspect the rest of the apartment and examine the scene more closely. He knew that the body would have been jostled and moved during Jim Benson’s attempts to revive his wife and the size of the blood pool made it difficult to detect movement and origin but the blood pattern on the seat of the chair showed that it began with her seated. She had obviously fallen to the floor as her strength waned but there was really very little else Alan could glean from what he saw, other than Jim’s bloody footprints that verified his story of running to the kitchen and back for the towel and his bloody handprints on the telephone from when he’d called 911.
“ I think I’ve got everything I can from this Dr. Wescott.” Alan called over to the Medical Examiner, who was waiting in the kitchen. “If you’re satisfied, you can take the body to the morgue.”
“ Thank you Detective Beach. I was just waiting for your say-so. The Crime Scene Unit has already left so we’ll load the body and I’ll start the autopsy when I get back to the office. Call me if you need anything.”
“ Thanks doctor, I’ll do that.”
Alan spoke briefly with the uniformed officer at the door to arrange an inspection of the neighbor’s apartment and requested he take Jim Benson to be held for questioning at the police station and sign an indemnity form for the girls. He then headed back to the lobby of The Eleanor building to speak to the security staff. As he approached the security desk, he pulled his detective’s shield from his belt to show it to the guard on duty.
“ Detective Beach, Homicide.” he announced.
“ Homicide? I thought it was a suicide.” queried the large man behind the counter. He had a stiff, humorless appearance like that of a serious former soldier.
“ All unnatural deaths are treated as suspicious until we can clear them so it falls on us to investigate. May I see the security monitoring office please?”
“ Follow me detective.”
The big man seemed even bigger when he stood and led Alan to the door of The Eleanor’s security monitoring room. He punched a code into the digital keypad beside the door and pressed his thumb against the biometric reader. The door opened with the loud clunk of a heavy duty magnetic lock.
“ That’s some security for a residential building.” Alan remarked.
“ People pay top dollar to live here detective; they expect the best protection for their money.”
“ Understandable.”
They entered the room and Alan saw at least twelve monitors, each screen divided into four different picture feeds, a large bank of digital recording machines, an elaborate computer hardware rack and two seated guards watching the monitors.
“ Gentlemen, this is Detective Beach from Homicide. He has a few questions for you and will want to see some footage, I assume.”
“ That’s right, thank you.” Alan confirmed, motioning to the monitoring system. “How many cameras are