Read Online Cracked to Death by Cheryl Hollon - Free Book Online

much.”
    They followed the yellow crime-scene tape back to the narrow beach area behind the mansion’s garden and screened-in pool. A portable canopy with view-blocking panels on three sides had been erected to discourage onlookers.
    The tide had gone out, and the body was faceup and fully outfitted in diver’s gear, with one flipper missing and no sign of a tank. Sandra knelt beside the diver’s face.
    â€œHe’s been struck . . . a single blow.” She glanced at the hands. “It doesn’t look like he put up a fight, so we might not get DNA from his fingernails.”
    â€œHis diving knife is also missing from its sheath. Time of death?” Parker had been scribbling away in his notebook.
    â€œYou know I don’t like to speculate on TOD prior to the autopsy.”
    â€œI do know that. I also know how much experience you have.” He raised an eyebrow and smiled as winningly as he knew how.
    â€œOkay, okay. You can turn off the charm. It looks like he died sometime after midnight and probably before two a.m. He’s been in the water at least a few hours. Sufficient?”
    Detective Parker nodded. “Before the body is taken away, can we look in his dive bag?”
    â€œNo problem. We can do it now.” Her gloved hands untied the blue mesh bag, the size of an eight-by-ten-inch sheet of paper, from the diver’s weight belt. She pulled open the top and removed a key ring and what looked like fragments of a broken deep blue bottle. She held one of the larger fragments, which appeared to be the bottom of the bottle, up toward the rising sun. “It looks odd.”
    Parker tipped his head so he could also take a look through the fragment. “Difficult to tell with so much grime and growth.” He placed his hand on Sandra’s and turned her hand ever so slightly. The new angle revealed the broken edges of the glass. “This is a recent break. You can see the clear color of the glass, without any evidence of it being underwater.”
    â€œIt looks like the entire bottle is in the dive bag.”
    â€œWell . . . ,” he began, then quickly released Sandra’s hand, as if it had a mind of its own. “I know a young woman who knows a lot about glass. I’ll give her a call and see if she can help identify the bottle.”
    Sandra put the key ring and the bottle fragments back in the dive bag, pulled its string tight, and placed it on top of the diver’s chest. She rose and signaled for the technicians to prepare the body for transport to the morgue downtown. “I’ll start the autopsy immediately. We’re going to need some luck with this one, David.”
    â€œI’m going to need more than luck. Thanks.” After admiring Coroner Grey’s retreat, Detective Parker spotted Officer Boulli and waved him over.
    â€œWhere are the witnesses?” the detective asked.
    â€œOh, they’re a young couple with a dog who live right in the neighborhood, so I sent them home to wait for your interview.”
    Detective Parker lifted his eyes to the sky and growled low. “What if they were not telling you the whole truth, Officer? What if they wanted to escape, perhaps? You certainly gave them an easy way to leave. You had better hope they are honest citizens. Now, give me the address, and you stay here and keep people out of the crime scene.” Under his breath Parker continued, “And out of my way.”
    The walk back toward the street gave Parker the small bit of time he needed to recover from his temper. Officer Boulli could frustrate a monk, but he always managed to perform his job minimally—not in any way proficiently, but not badly enough to be dismissed or reprimanded.
    The witnesses’ house was indeed only two doors down from the body of the diver. Detective Parker rang the doorbell, and a fierce barking instantly followed. He could hear the owners telling their dog to quiet down. The barking