over, slung a wet leg over his and snuggled into his shoulder.
Stone reflected that it was nice to have her sleeping beside him. He didn’t fall asleep for a long time, though, because he was running every possible permutation of the events in the house through his head and getting nowhere. He resolved to get to the bottom of Dick’s and his family’s death. It was the last thing he could do for them.
Chapter 7
AT BREAKFAST the following morning Stone asked Mabel if he should make a ferry reservation for his trip to Belfast.
“Well,” Mabel said, “you won’t need a reservation going over to the mainland, and you won’t get one coming back. Too many folks are arriving today for the summer, and the ferry’s been booked up for weeks.”
“Is there an airport in Belfast?” Stone asked.
“Yup. Bigger than ours, too.”
“Okay, I’ll fly,” he said.
“I’ll come with you,” Dino chipped in. “I don’t have anything else to do.”
Lance spoke up. “Now that I’ve got Dick’s computer up and running, I’m going to check out some things. Holly, I’d like you here with me to see what I’m doing. You’ll find the knowledge useful, eventually.”
“Okay by me,” Holly said, rubbing Stone’s leg with her toe under the table.
Stone looked at his watch. “I’d better get a weather forecast,” he said, getting up from the table.
STONE AND DINO LANDED at the Belfast airport at 9:30 and took a cab to the Waldo County Courthouse. Stone found the probate office, filed Dick’s will and was sworn in as his executor. By 10:30, he had all the necessary documents for disbursing Dick’s estate. He and Dino walked outside and found a bench in the sunshine where they could wait for the inquest to begin.
Shortly, Sergeant Young appeared with an envelope and handed it to Stone. “Morning,” he said to Stone. “Here are the photographs of the scene, the autopsy report, the ballistics report and a copy of my report. Will you have anything to say at the inquest?”
“I’ll take a look at your material and then decide,” Stone said.
“Tell the coroner who you are,” the trooper said. “See you in the small courtroom downstairs.” He walked back into the courthouse.
Stone opened the envelope, and he and Dino began poring over its contents. The ballistics report confirmed that the gun in Dick’s hand had killed all three, and the photographs were competently taken and in color.
Stone picked up an autopsy photograph, a closeup of Dick’s head. He pointed at Dick’s forehead. “Look at that,” he said.
THE CORONER CALLED the inquest to order at five minutes past eleven. There were no more than half a dozen attendees, one of whom, a young woman with a notebook, appeared to be a reporter from the local press. They had passed a television crew in the hallway outside the courtroom.
Sergeant Young was called as the first witness and gave twenty minutes of testimony, using a large television set to display the photographs of the scene. When he was done, the medical examiner gave the autopsy results and agreed with the trooper’s assessment of the events.
“Is there anyone else who has relevant testimony?” the coroner asked.
Stone stood up. “Your Honor, my name is Stone Barrington. I am the attorney for Richard Stone and executor of his estate. I have some questions for the medical examiner, if I may.”
The coroner instructed the M.E. to take the stand again.
“Doctor, I refer to your photograph number four taken at the autopsy. May we have that on the screen, Your Honor?”
A technician brought up the photograph.
“Doctor, as part of your autopsy, did you place a rod or other object in the head wound to determine the trajectory of the gunshot?”
“I did,” the doctor replied. “I inserted a twelve-inch rod into the wound.”
“And what angle did the rod indicate?”
“It indicated that the gunshot came from the left side of the head and from an elevated angle of fifteen degrees.”
“Was the wound a contact wound? That is, was the barrel of the gun held against the head before firing?”
“Yes, it was a contact wound.”
Stone held his left hand, finger pointing, to his head and elevated his elbow. “So, in order to create that trajectory, the gun would have to have been held in this fashion?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Doctor, have you ever conducted another autopsy on a person who killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head?”
“Yes, at least a dozen times. It’s a very common way of committing suicide.”
“In any of those cases, was there a gunshot trajectory similar or identical to the one in this case?”
The doctor thought for a moment. “No, I don’t believe there was.”
“Doctor are you aware that Mr. Stone was right-handed?”
“Yes. It was in the trooper’s preliminary report.”
“But, if Mr. Stone indeed shot himself, he would have done so with his left hand?”
“Yes, that is so.”
“In any of the other cases you mentioned, did the victim use other than his dominant hand to fire the shot?”
The doctor thought again. “I can’t be positive from memory, but I don’t recall such a case.”
“Doctor, the trooper has testified that it is his belief that Mr. Stone laid his head on the desk, then fired the fatal shot. On reflection, do you believe that the trajectory of the gunshot is consistent with his theory?”
“Perhaps not,” the doctor said.
“Your Honor, may I use the blackboard?” Stone pointed to the board at one side of the courtroom.
“Go ahead,” the coroner said.
Stone walked to the blackboard and quickly sketched a man’s head lying on a desktop, then he drew a line through the head and into the desktop.
“Doctor, is this approximately the path that the trooper described in his report, with the bullet lodging in the desktop?”
“Yes,” the doctor replied.
Stone drew another line through the head, approximating the trajectory of the bullet described by the doctor. “Doctor, is this the approximate path of the bullet, given the trajectory in your report?”
“Yes, I suppose it is.”
“Do you see that the bullet would have lodged in an entirely different place in the desk, if fired in this manner?”
“Yes, I do.”
“It would then appear that the only way to reconcile the trajectory of the bullet with the place where it struck the desk would be with Mr. Stone sitting in an upright position?”
“It would seem so.”
“With the gun held so?” Stone again assumed the awkward position he had demonstrated earlier.
“Yes.”
“Would this trajectory also be consistent with the gun being fired by a person unknown standing next to and above Mr. Stone’s position?”
The doctor took a deep breath. “Yes, it would be.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Your Honor, I suggest that the preponderance of the evidence suggests that this was
