Log:A Listed Murder

A List of Questions 2019/09/24 Night Marshal|Carpenter 5

Back from a beach vacation, and already back to the grind. While Gabrielle was not the actual date, there may have been some island fun with other tourists for Carpenter to pursue.

It's 7am, and Carpenter is answering a call to a residential home in Colonial Heights to investigate a murder. Police officers are already on the scene, taping off the home.

Carpenter rubs his eyes. It's early. He has a coffee with him. He takes a couple of sips of it, and leaves it in his car before crossing the taped line. He shows his badge to the officer, just in case it's someone he doesn't know. Force of habit.

The CSI van is already parked outside. Some of the neighbors across the street are on their lawn, being nosey.

The officer nods and jerks a thumb over his shoulder. The front door is open, and Carpenter can see a few camera flashes as the scene is documented. "Straight back to the back," he informs Carpenter.

Carpenter nods to the officer, and pulls on a pair of gloves before walking into the home. He makes his way into the home, looking around to see what the status is.

The house is a sizeable single story family home. The front area living room is clean and uneffected, but as Carpenter moves towards the back, he comes upon the family room and open kitchen. A body, male, lies face down with his arms to his sides, next to the kitchen island. A few items on the island are knocked over.

The CSI is currently opening up their toolbox, gloves already on. She's someone Jack has seen on a number of cases. Jessica Williams. She's in her mid-thirties, african american, and she has seen some stuff during her career on the CBPD.

Carpenter checks the address and the home owner's name on his PDA, and then says to Jessica, "So, what do we have, other than the super-obvious?"

"Male vic. Been dead about...seven or eight hours, I'd say." Williams points along the bruising around the body's neck. "Trauma to the neck. Looks like our vic was strangled with something."

As Carpenter looks at the name, he recognizes it from the list. Edward Lawry.

Williams stands up from her crouch. "Just your run of the mill strangulation. Some defensive bruising. But he was killed from behind."

Carpenter looks around, "Probably hit some items on the island here while fighting his attacker. Which means...the attack probably started over in this area."

Carpenter tries to estimate where the attacker either hid or approached Mr Lawry from behind. "Did you get a positive ID on the victim? Is it the homeowner?"

The CSI goes to collect dirt from under the victim's nails. After she collects the evidence and puts it in her case, she hands Carpenter the wallet. "This was on the victim. The wife IDed him when she came home this morning from a trip. She was the one who reported it."

Carpenter takes a look at the wallet, checking to see if anything obvious was taken. Cash. Cards.

Looking around, there's no sign of forced entry. The signs of struggle are limited close to where the victim died. As Carpenter takes a look, one of the cops volunteers, "I was the first one on the scene. The wife claims the front door was locked when she came in. Neighbors claim they didn't hear anything."

Carpenter does spy that the back sliding glass door is unlocked. The wallet seems intact. Cash, cards, ID, all still there.

Carpenter sets the wallet down. "Looks like whoever it was came in the back. And probably was someone the victim knew, I'm guessing. No real sign of forced entry, it seems. That let him get nice and close." He pauses. "Do they have any security cameras in the house? This place is nice enough that they might have one in the house or in their yard."

Carpenter looks around for any obvious security measures.

"There's one at the front door," the officer mentions. Looking around, there's a house alarm system panel.

Carpenter grumbles. "That likely means that the assailant knew about it. Whoever it was has been here before. Still, wouldn't hurt to check the footage at the estimated time of the attack." He looks around for any clues arond the door. If the attacker left a print, it might be there. Outside handle, perhaps? On the glass? He dusts for prints there, looking for anything.

There are a lot of prints. Carpenter's able to pick up some samples for the lab.

"We'll look through it," says one of the officers. More like they'll acquire it for lab techs to review.

Lawry is a big man. Not the most fit, but still pretty strong. Someone strong, fast...and does this professionally. They were careful to avoid cameras and not disrupt the scene much. It's not unheard of for Mafia to do something like this. But given the list, Carpenter recalls a few Triad cases over the years where witnesses suffered a similar fate. Thin wire used to strangle the victims and keep things quiet.

Carpenter considers the options, "Jessica, can you tell what he was strangled with? Wire? Something a bit wider? If it's the former, I have a suspicion about what went down."

"Something fairly narrow. I'd say potentially a nylon wire based on the width of the markings and lack of lacerations on the skin," Williams comments, which fits with Carpenter's suspicions.

Carpenter sighs. "I think it was a hit, then. Best guess is a Triad killer got him." He checks to see what the victim did for a living and where. What would the connection to Chinatown likely be?

"Triads? Really?" a rookie asks in awe.

A quick lookup shows Lawry worked for the city's building permits office.