“No,” Jesse said.
“You mean somebody murdered him?”
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“Omigod,” she said. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“You just discovered the body. You won’t have any trouble.”
“Will I have to testify?”
“Not up to me,” Jesse said. “But you don’t have much to testify about that Molly or I couldn’t testify about.”
“I don’t want any trouble.”
“You’ll be fine,” Jesse said. “I promise.”
The woman hugged her dog and pressed her face against the top of his head.
“You’ll both be fine,” Jesse said. “Officer Crane will drive you home.”
The woman nodded with her cheek pressed against the dog’s head. The dog looked uneasy. Jesse gave her one of his cards.
“You think of anything,” Jesse said, “or anything bothers you, call me. Or Officer Crane.”
The woman nodded. Jesse scratched the beagle under the chin and got out of the car.
7
3
Jesse was in the squad room with Molly Crane, Suitcase Simpson, and Peter Perkins. They were drinking coffee.
“State lab has him,” Peter Perkins said. “They’ll fingerprint the body and run the prints. They haven’t autopsied him yet, but I’ll bet they find he died of gunshot. I didn’t see any exit wounds, so I’m betting they find the slugs in there when they open him up.”
“Had to have happened last night,” Suitcase said. “I mean, people are in that park all the time. He couldn’t have hung there long without being spotted.”
H I G H P R O F I L E
Jesse nodded and glanced at Peter Perkins.
“I haven’t seen all that many dead bodies,” Perkins said.
“And very few who were hanged from a tree. But this guy looks like he’s been dead longer than that.”
Jesse nodded.
“And . . .” Peter Perkins glanced at Molly.
“And he smells,” Molly said. “I noticed it, too.”
Jesse nodded.
“And there was no blood except on him. He got shot and hanged, he’d have bled out and there’d be blood on the ground,” Suitcase said.
“So,” Jesse said. “He was shot somewhere else and kept awhile before they brought him up to the hill and hanged him.”
