Chapter 2: Chapter 2
She sniffed and walked past the stairs leading to the door. The medical examiner, Dr. Kessler, had arrived before them, but had waited before moving the body. She was ready now.
Kessler scowled. “The person who rolled him over almost took off his head.” She squatted and pointed to the massive wound in the victim’s neck, which lolled dangerously.
Abby grimaced. “This isn’t a throat slashing. Someone tried to behead this guy.” The coppery scent of blood mixed with the low-tide aroma of the Fort Point area started to churn Abby’s stomach. Lord, she shouldn’t have had that paneer thing tonight. Dairy didn’t agree with her most nights, but it was even worse when she had an especially fragrant murder scene to deal with. This could only be a rage killing. If they could figure out why someone would get angry enough at this guy to want to take his head like something out of Highlander, they’d find a suspect.
“I can’t speak to intent, and I can’t get into specifics until I’ve examined the body in the lab. But speaking in layman’s terms, yes. The assailant did come close to severing the victim’s head from his body.” Kessler wrinkled her pretty little nose. “Transportation may be an issue. We’ll do our best, but I’ve told the crime scene specialists to take extra care with photography just in case.”
Christ.“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Abby looked around for Mark. He was in the alley between The Gin Barrel and the next building over, squinting at something on the brick wall.
“What’ve you got here?” Abby slipped a pair of nitrile gloves onto her hands and joined her partner.
“Five wads of used chewing gum, all stuck on the wall in a neat little row.” Mark waved at a spot on the wall, and Abby stared. Whoever had put the gum there had indeed lined the gum up perfectly. Maybe one person would have lined their wad of chewing gum up with the previous vandal, under an impish impulse or just by accident. Five people all doing the same thing was unlikely.
Abby hailed a crime scene tech, who brought a photographer over. “That’s quite a find. With any luck, we can get some DNA on it,” she said to Mark. “It’s a big clue. Completely disgusting, but a big clue.”
Mark made a face. “You know you’re in Boston when…” He shook his head. “It proves intent, though. Our boy must have stood here waiting for the vic for quite a while, you know? He wasn’t just looking to take out some guy. He was targeting our boy, and he had all the time in the world.”
“Even though it’s cold and damp.” Abby ran her tongue against the back of her teeth. Boston had homicides. They had fewer homicides than other cities of the same size, but they still had homicides. Any time someone gathered people, money, and dirt in the same place people were going to kill each other.
Most of those murders were pretty solvable, though. Domestic homicides were terrible, but Abby could at least follow the process from point A to point B. Abusers turned into killers at the drop of a hat. Gang-related homicides hurt Abby on a fundamental level but she could understandthem. She could figure out the why, and once she had the whyit was a pretty quick process to get to the who.
Creepy and unique crimes like this were another thing. Boston didn’t have a lot of stranger or stalker crimes. And while the violence of the assault said rage, the gum said stalker. It was a bad combination.
It was harder to solve, but at the end of the day murder was murder.
She straightened her back. “Do we have an ID on our victim?”
“Austin Connery, age thirty, currently living in Stoughton.” The crime scene tech didn’t look at either of them. “The medical examiner just pulled his wallet.”
“Cool.” Abby didn’t comment about the tech knowing that information before the detectives. It wasn’t a contest. “Let’s go see if anyone inside knew him.”
The people in the bar were restless already. Most of them just didn’t like being denied the opportunity to leave, even though uniformed officers were taking statements as fast as they could. A few had distinctly nervous expressions, and one jumped from one leg to another in front of the bathroom door. Mark rolled his eyes and sighed before going to talk to that individual in person.
Working cases at a bar always had complications.
Abby took in the scene before talking to anyone. The Gin Barrel had low lighting, deep pools of shadows broken up by regularly spaced lights. Three small, sleek, square bars took up the middle of the space. It wasn’t a huge place, which explained why there was always a line to get in. The staff dressed in black outfits intended to look old-fashioned, with striped aprons that provided pretty full coverage.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone