Read Online Random Victim by Michael A. Black - Free Book Online

he caught a glimpse of the satyr. The lecherous goat-man stood in silent vigilance, his cold, metallic
     eyes seeming to twinkle with mischief as Martin looked on.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    The Morass
    Leal set the empty Styrofoam cup down on the counter and slowly crushed it in his fist. He’d tried to go over the file the
     previous night after he’d gotten home, but the beers and the way the unexpected events had played themselves out sapped all
     his powers of concentration. Despite repeated attempts to make sense of things, he found himself dozing as he sat at his desk.
     So he’d gone to bed, deciding to get up early and take another shot at it. Now, after several cups of strong Dunkin’ Donuts
     coffee, he’d gone through it and found himself agreeing with Ryan. The trail was cold. The case wasn’t just complicated and
     confusing, it was a morass.
    Leal knew that the peak time for solving any homicide was in the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the crime. In
     some cases it might be extended to a week or so, but after that the solvability factors all dropped signifi-cantly: evidence
     perished, witnesses disappeared, recollections grew hazy. He reviewed the facts from the original case reports, trying to
     set the sequence straight in his mind.
    Miriam Walker had left her board of directors meeting at the Women Against Domestic Violence coalition at six thirty. She’d
     gone to a restaurant in south suburban Justice, and paid with her American Express card. From there, she’d effectively disappeared
     until her badly decomposed body was found in a pond adjacent to some Forest Preserve woods. The summer drought had caused
     a recession in the waterline, and two young boys looking for frogs had discovered a large trunk in the water. They attempted
     to pull it out, but the weight and terrible smell stopped them. The father of one of the boys had stuffed body bags during
     the Gulf War. When he went back with them to the pond, he knew the smell.
    An entire alphabet soup of police agencies was called, and the case was initially assigned to the Forest Preserve police.
     Their detectives dutifully processed the scene, photographing and retrieving the trunk. The preliminary autopsy by the medical
     examiner revealed that it was the body of a Caucasian female between the ages of thirty and fifty. The corpse’s dental records
     and fingerprints were cross-checked with the reported missing persons in that category, and the dental records provided the
     matchup. Miriam Walker had been found.
    The Forest Preserve police, barely able to conceal their glee, immediately turned over the case to the sheriff’s department,
     since it was the primary agency investigating the original disappearance. The Walker case quickly turned into what was known
     in the vernacular of homicide investigations as “a heater.” The preliminary investigators had gone through all the standard
     motions: speaking with the husband (a prominent corporate attorney and CEO for a savings and loan), and questioning the rest
     of the victim’s family, friends, business associates, and colleagues. No one could shed much light on any possible reasons
     for her death. Although a few friends mentioned that her marriage had been less than blissful of late, they also mentioned
     she had seemed quite happy recently and was totally devoted to her work both as a judge and an advocate against domestic violence.
     Martin Walker vehemently denied that he and his wife had been anything but totally happy, and embraced the role of the grieving
     widower, and promised to donate a hefty portion of her life insurance payment to the Coalition of Women Against Domestic Violence.
    Leal flipped the file closed and looked up to see the young waitress standing over him with the glass coffee pot.
    “Guess you need another cup, huh, mister?” she said. He looked down at the crushed white fragments protruding from his fist
     and shook his head. Standing, Leal left her a tip