The first two chapters of my one and only mystery/police procedural Race.
MONDAY
One
It was hard to say what witnesses noticed first—the shrill piercing screams or the nearly naked young woman uttering them. Apparently she woke up next to a dead boyfriend, both of them allegedly passed out from too much alcohol consumption. The designated “sleeping” tack rooms at the track were located at the end of the long shedrows. Though not large this couple’s was tidy with a few creature comforts such as the mounted flat screen, a queen-size bed, a sturdy and colorful throw rug, a small locked black metal file box, and what looked like a well-preserved near-antique chest of drawers with a pole rigged above it to hang clothes on.
When I arrived at the scene at 3:30 AM, Carmella Ortiz stood barefoot on the dirt in the shedrow, now clad in the couple’s bedspread concealing her apparently barely there lingerie. She spoke fast with intermittent tears and a hint of a Latino accent. Her story was she’d gone over to her sister’s place for some girls’ night-out event and proceeded to get too drunk to drive back, so her sister dropped her off at one of the racetrack gates, and after she staggered into the tack room, she passed out. When I spoke to her I asked if Mr. Wonderful was present at the time, she said she thought so but couldn’t really remember. Must’ve been some girls’ night-out. Easy to verify.
After speaking with the young woman, I took a few moments to survey the group huddling behind the tape and to inhale the familiar fragrant aroma of horses, listening to the whooshes of their nostrils, some of them pawing their hard rubber mats at the fronts of stalls wondering what all the commotion was about. Brought back memories of high school summers spent working at the track, of underage drinking and girls who liked taking their clothes off, guys who loved it when they did. Funny how some things never change.
Next I needed to ascertain Mr. Wonderful’s whereabouts the previous night and wait for the determination of cause of death. Turned out his name was Roman Diego, the assistant trainer for Walter Casey who was kind of a local big-shot, perennially in the top five leading trainers. Lying on his right side at the edge of the bed, Roman’s only clothing was the beige sheet covering his manhood, no blood anywhere, and it looked like he fell asleep—or passed out—and never woke up. Long dark wavy hair obscured his face, but his torso and left arm bent at the elbow and resting on the mattress were well-muscled which made me think he probably exercised the Thoroughbreds at his barn.
The crime scene tape forbade entrance to the immediate area which would surely annoy the people who had to work at this end of the barn and live in the neighboring tack rooms, not to mention spook a few Thoroughbreds with its unfamiliar yellow color flapping in the cool breeze.
Death always presents an inconvenience.
Two
A long day ahead presented itself accompanied by the gut feeling this was indeed a homicide and it wasn’t going to be an easy solve. My partner Jesse Davidson called to tell me he was en route. The ME arrived shortly after Jesse’s call. Doctor Loren Walsh set the initial estimate of time of death at sometime between midnight and 3 AM., a fairly precise window, putting the girlfriend at the top of my suspect list if natural causes were ruled out.
Racetrack security, our patrol officers, and Detectives Phil Phelps and Mark Griffin helped keep the group outside the tape from crowding the scene and separated and contained those who first arrived because of Carmella’s frantic screaming. At my request they’d contacted the particular guard who manned the gate during the shift when Carmella supposedly arrived back at the track and sent a replacement to relieve him so he could come and talk to us.
We needed to notify the owner of the racetrack and inform him of our investigation. No doubt he wouldn’t want this publicized and neither did we, but word always manages to get out. I’d send Detective Griffin to do this after we got done with the preliminaries.
The official cameras flashed recording the scene, and the two other detectives converged to get interviews after discouraging those with cell phones attempting to take pictures although the crime scene itself was not visible.
Jesse arrived looking a whole lot more refreshed than anyone should at this hour. I’m obsessive about how people dress so I notice Jesse’s attire. Dapper dude that he was, he’d elected to wear pressed Levis and some kind of Redwing boots with his professionally cleaned button-down pale yellow shirt with the one button undone at the neck to expose the tight-curving collar of a blinding white T-shirt, and his black leather jacket which he tossed into his car to don his ballistic vest. The brisk morning air sent a shiver more than once under my light POLICE windbreaker, my polo shirtsleeves not providing much warmth in spite of the extra layer my vest provided.
“So. Guy dies in his sleep? Girlfriend can’t remember if she’s in bed with him? Convenient, huh?”
“Looks that way.”
“That her over there?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Kinda hot, huh? How ‘bout him? He a looker too?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Okay. We find the other guys and gals these two’ve been sleepin’ with and we got a suspect pool. If we need one.”
“Pretty much.”
Father, thank you for every one of these stories, every one. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
