Chapter 157: The Body at Dock 9

Chapter 157: The Body at Dock 9
August 25, 2010, Willowbend, Mississippi
Dean's POV
The phone call came around 11:30 PM while Rick and I were at the NYPD station analyzing case files with Erin. It was the Willowbend Police Station calling.
"Dean, you and Rick need to get back here immediately. We found another body." My colleague sounded tense on the other end.
Rick looked up from his reports when he saw my expression. I put the call on speaker.
"Who?" I asked.
"Luka Carfano. Found dead at Dock 9 around midnight. We've got three people in custody."
"Three people?"
"Tyler from the Thornwell family, the mayor's daughter Vivian, and Tara who owns June's bar. Tara called it in around ten PM, said there was a fight at the docks. When we arrived, Luka was already dead."
Rick was already reaching for his jacket. I tried to process what I was hearing. Luka dead. Tara, Tyler, and Vivian somehow involved. This case had just taken another twisted turn.
"We're catching the next flight," I told my colleague. "Don't let anyone talk to the suspects until we get there."
"Copy that. Flight gets in when?"
I checked my watch. "Give us eight hours."
We got some brief rest on the plane, then drove straight to Willowbend Police Station as soon as we landed.
With frequent murders happening, and now a foreign financier dead in Willowbend, the atmosphere at the station was extremely tense. My colleague told us the body had been sent to Dr. Clyde for examination, and the three people found at the scene were now in holding cells.
"Any of them talking?" Rick asked.
My colleague shook his head. "The mayor's daughter Vivian's been screaming bloody murder since we brought her in. Claims she had nothing to do with it, demands we release her immediately. Won't stop cursing at Tara."
"What about Tara?" I asked.
"Stone cold. Hasn't said much of anything. Either she's in shock or she's thinking real hard about something."
"And Tyler?"
"Our town's most famous playboy is now scared out of his wits. He insists he's innocent, claims it was self-defense, that Luka attacked him first."
"Let's go to the morgue first," I told my colleague. "Then we'll talk to each of them separately."
Dr. Clyde's morgue was in the basement of the county building. The sharp smell of disinfectant hit us immediately as we descended the stairs. Dr. Clyde looked up from his examination table when he heard our footsteps.
"Glad you're back," he said. "This body is at least much better than Nina's. The complete report will be ready soon."
Luka's body was lying on the metal examination table, covered by a white sheet. His expensive clothes were torn and dirty, and I could see bloodstains even through the fabric. Dr. Clyde pulled back the sheet to reveal the extent of the damage.
"What do you think happened?" I asked Clyde.
The old coroner gestured toward the body with clinical detachment. "Looks like he was in a fight. Multiple contusions on his face and torso. But the cause of death is this."
He pointed to Luka's chest, where the fatal wound was clearly visible. A piece of rusty steel rebar had been driven completely through his body.
"The weapon was found at the scene," Clyde continued. "It's an exposed steel rebar from an abandoned boat. Someone pushed him onto that rebar."
Rick whistled low. "That's a hell of a way to go."
"How long has he been dead?" I asked.
"Based on body temperature and rigor mortis, I'd estimate between ten and midnight last night."
"Any witnesses?"
My colleague shook his head. "None so far. That dock has been abandoned for years."
"Dr. Clyde," I said, "I need your official preliminary findings."
The elderly coroner adjusted his glasses and looked down at his clipboard. "Victim is approximately six feet tall, male, appears to be in his late twenties. Multiple blunt force trauma to the face and body consistent with being beaten with fists or possibly a blunt object."
He paused and pointed to the rebar wound again.
"Fatal injury is a penetrating wound to the chest cavity caused by this piece of steel rebar. The weapon entered just below the sternum and traveled upward at approximately a thirty degree angle. Based on the wound pattern and depth of penetration, I'd estimate it was driven into the victim with considerable force."
Dr. Clyde set down his clipboard and looked at me directly. "Of course, we'll also test the victim's blood to see if there were other causes of death. Perhaps he was poisoned before the beating. Also, there's blood under the victim's fingernails, likely from scratching his attacker. I'll run DNA comparison between the blood under his nails and Tyler's DNA. That way we can determine if Tyler was really the only one who fought with Luka at the scene."
I nodded my thanks to Dr. Clyde. As Rick and I headed back upstairs, my mind was already turning to the interrogations ahead. Four people at an abandoned dock. Tyler claiming self-defense. Tara making the 911 call at ten PM. And Vivian there for reasons we still didn't understand.
Something about this whole situation felt orchestrated.
Luka had been in Willowbend for weeks, clearly searching for something he believed Nina had hidden.
What if he'd finally found what he was looking for?
What if that something was at the dock?