The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [30]
“I don’t believe so,” said Dr. Peters. “Let’s have a look at the next one … this would be a Dirk Colson,” he said, checking his notes. “Notice that both entrance wounds are from the top of the head, in the right rear portion of the skull.” He pointed. “The second round entered just ahead of the first, also traveling downward. It caused these fractures here,” he said, “that stop at the sagittal?? suture, and also stop at the hole made by the first wound.”
“This second one travels in a path to here,” he said. “Again in the basilar part, but on the left and more forward.”
We could see that one, too. It appeared to be on its side.
“This is the one that caused the extrusion of the brain tissue out the first entrance hole.”
I remembered that. Like frosting out of a cake decorator.
“Close examination of both these wounds indicated a contact or near contact gunshot, as well.” He removed the last X ray, and put one of each victim up on the board.
“Likely a double murder, then,” said Art.
Dr. Peters said, “Oh, yes. And a bit more flavor, I think.” He paused, pointing at the X ray of Dirk Colson. “From the nature and path, I would strongly suspect that this second victim was in a lowered position, possibly seated or kneeling, possibly squatting, when the two wounds were inflicted.” He cleared his throat. “With the shooter behind the victim.
“So,” said Dr. Peters, “based on the angles of the bullet tracks, the second victim was shot by a gun almost directly above and behind him. Even with a .22 pistol, that would require that the victim be either on his knees or seated.” He paused. “Well, absent a ladder.” He shrugged. “However, given the fact that both victims would very likely fall just about right where they were shot, it would explain the bloodstains on the floor. With the lack of bloodstains on the chairs that were moved to cover the stained area of the carpet, I will say this: The major carpet stains likely were from each of the victims, that the stains occurred when they were lying on the floor, and that the blood came from their heads. With the stained areas nearly in the center of the room, there doesn’t appear to be any item of furniture close enough to permit the second victim to have been shot while seated, or for the shooter to have stood upon while shooting.”
“An execution, sort of?” I asked.
“I can narrow your parameters, Carl. I can tell you they weren’t shot at a distance. I can tell you what the evidence tells me happened. An execution … is a possibility. A strong one. But a possibility. Not a proven fact.”
“Execution,” said Art, disdainfully, “in my book requires restraints, bindings, things like that. Could this, Doctor, have been done in the heat of anger, not in a cold-blooded style?”
“Yes.”
Art shrugged. “Well, that still leaves us with Fred. He goes in with them, gets mad, and shoots both of ’em.” He looked around the room. “Like they say, go for the simplest solution.”
Keep it simple. Naturally. But I hate oversimplifications like that. In the first place, people are complex. In the second place, you can get too simple, and jump before all the facts are in. I said as much.
“Oh, sure, Carl,” said Art. “I can keep an open mind. But I’ll tell you the truth … it’s gonna take a lot of evidence to convince me that it wasn’t either Fred or the hired man.” He shrugged. “I sure don’t think it looks like it’s anybody else.”
Like I said, Art always liked the quick and dirty approach. I suspected he was right more often than not, but I was getting just a little weary of this approach. Simple is one thing, easy is another. If we went with Fred, the easy touch, we were going to cut off the rest of the possibilities. If I was right, and Fred hadn’t done it, that would be a catastrophe.
“This still doesn’t go down quite right with me,” I said.
“It’s probably just because you know Fred,” said Art.
“Could be,” I replied, “but I’ll still reserve judgment.”
What bothered me about all this was that I felt Fred would be more than willing to talk with us, and probably would be a great help, but Priller