Free Flipping Out by Marshall Karp Page B

shoots my wife
next.'
    We went outside
and found Big Jim. He had talked his way out of the backseat of the squad car
and was standing in the road, cell phone to his ear. He saw us coming and
snapped it shut. 'It's about time,' he said. 'One of your cops said something
about bodies. As in more than one.'
    'Julia's dead,'
I said. 'Tell us what you heard, saw, and did from the time you got here.'
    'I got here at
six ten, five minutes early. I waited twenty minutes and called Nora from my
cell. All I got was her machine. I said something like, "Pick up if you're
there," but she didn't. So I got out of the car, walked up the steps, and
rang the bell. No answer, so I tried the door, and it was open.'
    'Open, like wide
open, or open like not locked?'
    'Open like an
inch, so that it looks closed, but it's not latched, so when you push it, it
opens.'
    'Then what?'
    'I knew
something was wrong. I go in and call Nora's name. No answer, so I walk to the
living room, and I see her on the floor. Dead. Then I called you.'
    'On the phone you
said she was shot. Did you hear anything?'
    'No. But I could
see the gunshot wound and there's blood on the floor by her head. I'm sorry,
but I stepped in it.'
    'Yeah, we saw
your tracks. The crime lab will need your shoes, and since you touched the door,
your prints. Then I want you to write out a statement.'
    'Anything you
need.'
    'Terry and I
have to get back to work. I'm going to have one of the officers stay with you.'
    'OK. But I knew
you were wrong about Julia.'
    'Meaning what?'
    'Did you really
think she could kill her own mother?'
    'No,' I said.
'Most people don't kill their parents. They just fantasise about it.'
    He gave me the
finger.
    I gave him a
quick hug and went back to the house.

Chapter
Twenty-Two
     
     
    Jessica Keating was
waiting for us at the front door.
    'Nice going,
Biggs,' she said. 'It's not every day that my lead detective bleeds all over
the evidence.'
    'Your job's been
too easy lately,' Terry said. 'I decided to make it a little more challenging.
And I didn't bleed all over.
Just the kitchen. My partner's father helped out by slogging through the blood
in the living room.'
    'Darn,' she
said. 'My guys followed those bloody footprints right out to the squad car. I
figured the killer must have turned himself in. Give me your hand. I need a
swab of your blood for my Dumb Cop file.'
    'Only if you
promise to bandage me up.'
    Jessica took a
blood sample from Terry, sprayed the cut with an antiseptic, and began wrapping
it.
    'I walked the
scene,' she said. 'First impression - same MO on Mrs Bannister as on Jo
Drabyak. Small-calibre bullet to the back of the head. The killer took a lock
of hair. With Mrs Knoll it looks like she saw him coming and tried to defend
herself with the Pellegrino bottle. He shot her head on. Then he cut the hair.'
    'There's no sign
of a forced entry,' I said. 'It looks like the shooter rang the bell, Nora knew
him, and invited him in.'
    'Him or her,'
Jessica said.
    'Right. Nora
leads the way, she gets to the living room, the killer pops her from behind.'
    'But he doesn't
cut her hair yet,' Terry said.
    'Why?' I already
knew the answer, but Terry and I work best when we try to reconstruct the crime
out loud.
    'Because he
knows that Julia is in the kitchen,' Terry said, 'and he's got to do her right
away.'
    'How does he
know she's in the kitchen?'
    'OK, so maybe he
doesn't know what room she's in, but he knows she's here somewhere. Otherwise,
he'd have shot Nora and took off.'
    'So Julia is in
the kitchen,' I said. 'She hears a gun go off. Bang.'
    'Or he used a
silencer. But even if she did hear it, she's afraid to come running out. She's
unarmed. She goes for the phone. It's not there. She hears him coming, so she
grabs the bottle, but that's useless. He walks in, shoots her, she falls down,
bottle breaks, end of story.'
    'Not quite,'
Jessica said. 'There are bits of green glass on the edge of the counter in the
kitchen. I think she smashed it in the hopes