PART III Chapter Twelve
Kate received a background check on the victim. She learned the names of Shannon’s parents. Fifty year old Don Graves and forty eight year old Melissa Graves had been identified as Shannon’s parents and they had been notified, by a patrol officer, of their daughter’s death. Kate would call and offer her sympathies and make an appointment to come for an interview. When parents are interviewed, Kate prefers to interview them in their own home, for their own comfort. The background check also revealed a married sister, Diane Webber.
The autopsy report would be coming soon and Kate usually went to the morgue to get the complete report before it was released. The coroner that Kate had worked with for many years had retired and a new one had replaced him. Paula Barnes had transferred from a suburb nearby and became the new chief coroner. Kate didn’t know Paula well and Paula mostly knew Kate by reputation only.
When Kate walked into the morgue, Shannon’s body was still on the table and Paula was sitting in a chair next to it, making notations in a worn leather notebook. Kate didn’t have to say anything, Paula knew why Kate was there and she was ready for her. Paula had a notebook full of notes with the data that Kate would be wanting. .
Paula said, “Shannon was shot twice with a .38 caliber pistol at point blank range. The first shot hit her upper left arm and the second one went through her face into her brain and was the fatal shot. It appears the first shot was a miss and the second one was an additional try that hit where it was intended.”
Kate asked, “Do you have a time of death or anything else we might need to know?”
Paula replied, “I would give the estimate as between five and six in the afternoon, right as she was arriving home from work. Her left arm was hit as she was holding it up in a defensive manner but of course it couldn’t stop a bullet.”
Kate said, “I don’t suppose there was any DNA on the victim other than hers?”
Paula replied, “No. The shooter didn’t get close enough to leave any of their DNA on the victim, although I would suspect the victim left quite a lot of her DNA on the shooter. Blood splatter should have covered his clothes and anyone who saw the shooter right after would have noticed the large amount of blood. The shooter stood close to the victim and the splatter would have escaped out the window.”
Kate replied, “I would guess those clothes are destroyed by now.”
Paula agreed, “You can bet on that. Everything would have been covered. The victim even had enough splatter on her, it had to be cleaned off before I could work. I took a photo of it of course and it will be included in the report.”
Kate responded, “Thank you, I appreciate all of your hard work and you always go above and beyond.”
Kate left the morgue with only a few details that she didn’t already know. She knew what kind of bullet penetrated Shannon’s head when she took her final breath. Kate knew this girl was somebody’s daughter, sister and friend and that was all the incentive Kate needed to work hard to find out who robbed her family of the rest of her life.
Kate knew the first thing she would do would be to talk to the family to see if there was anyone they would suspect as the killer. Most often the family never knows and they all think the victim doesn’t have an enemy in the world but it was obvious, in this case, that wasn’t true.
Megan was waiting in the lab when Kate arrived back at the station. Megan told Kate they had extracted DNA from the gum wrapper and it had been uploaded to CODIS to search for a match. It sometimes took a while to find a match because there were so many samples that had to be compared. The more samples that had to be compared the longer it took.
Kate had made appointments to talk to Shannon’s family. She had a mother, father, and a married sister who all lived in the city and were all anxious to find out who killed Shannon. She had given the family a choice where to be interviewed and they all wanted to do it in their home. Kate knew they had been notified and were all anxious to find out what happened to Shannon.
Kate interviewed the parents, Don and Melissa Graves, first. They lived in the same house and could be interviewed together. Shannon’s sister, Diane, lived in a different neighborhood with her husband Mark Webber. Diane was an older married sister but Kate would soon find out the two were very close and talked daily.
Kate learned from her interview that Shannon had moved out just a few months earlier. Shannon had lived in her parents’ home until that point, graduated from college, and got a nice job as an advertising executive. She saved her money and bought her own place with a substantial down payment and the Buick she was found in had been purchased by Shannon with her own money.
According to the parents, Shannon had no current romantic interest, but Kate was experienced enough that she would ask that question again of Shannon’s sister. Siblings share information that is often not shared with their parents. They told Kate that Shannon was concentrating on her career. Kate knew that might be true or maybe there were people and events that Shannon’s parents were not aware of. Kate would save the questions about boyfriends for Shannon’s sister to get a more accurate answer.
When Kate asked the questions most of the answers came from Shannon’s dad, Don, with an occasional correction coming from Melissa. They answered every question without hesitation, even though sad overtones were intertwined with every answer. The murder of their daughter was still recent and fresh, it was understandable that there would be some sadness mixed with their answers. Kate wanted to be thorough and worked hard to solve this case.
Kate made every case personal. She always told the people she worked with that murder was personal. She just wanted to solve the puzzle to bring closure to the family members. If she could figure out why, it would be much more likely to figure out who. The more people she could identify in Shannon’s life the more likely she could figure out the why of the case. Listening to Shannon’s parents answering the questions, Kate got the feeling that they had arguments over little things like most couples who had been married for a long time. There were no real revelations that came from the interview. Kate hoped she would get more information from the older married sister.
The advertising agency that Shannon worked at was a new one. Shannon was the creative director in the first year of operation and the agency had been very successful in the first months it had been opened. Kate had the list of employees on her interview list. Someone intended for Shannon to die and Kate had to wade through a lot of people to figure out who that was.
Kate had an interview with the president of the ad agency and an interview later with the victim’s sister, Diane. The president of the ad agency was a fifty-ish looking man with graying temples and a few wrinkles forming on his face. Dan Andrews had easily agreed to talk to Kate and set aside time at Andrews and Associates agency for Kate to ask whatever questions she had in mind. Sometimes work associates know more about each other than family members do.
Dan had no negative comments when he talked about Shannon. He said she was very talented and as reliable as they come. She ran the show on anything creative and watched over her staff closely. Dan said he didn’t know of anyone there who didn’t get along well with her. Kate kept thinking to herself, “It is the usual story, they are great people and everyone likes them.”
Dan said, “I don’t pry into the employees personal life so I don’t know what may have been happening there but I don’t know of any issues with anyone here. I don’t think this is the direction that will help you, but I will advise all of the employees to answer any questions you have for them. I have an empty office you can use for interviews in case you need one. All of the employees here should cooperate in any way you need.”
Kate replied, “Thank you for your generosity that would save some time. I would like to talk to everyone before they have a lot of time to think about their answers. I want a spontaneous answer of the first thing they can think of. The less time that elapses from the event the more likely the information will be relevant. I don’t want them to tell me what they think I want to hear, I want the truth.”
Dan led Kate to the empty office he had told her about and allowed her to get set up for the interviews. He gave her a list of employees that included the job function they performed for the company. Kate would organize the list to talk to the employees first who worked more closely with Shannon. It would be important to locate anyone who had formed a closer bond with Shannon and had more information about her personal life. She wanted to know who her closest friends were, at the office.
A girl named Bryntley was brought into the office first and introduced to Kate as Shannon’s best friend. Kate introduced herself and shook the girl's hand before beginning the interview.
Kate asked, “You were designated by your boss as the closest friend to Shannon at the office, can you tell me about your relationship?”
Bryntley replied, “Shannon was the one who hired me. We both went to college together and I knew her. We didn’t hang out but I knew about her work. I recognized her when I came in to interview for the art director job and she hired me on the spot. We didn’t call each other all the time or anything but I have been to her house and she has mine as well, so I guess you can consider us social.”
Kate asked, “Do you know much about her personal life, maybe some boyfriends or other males?”
Bryntley answered, “Shannon always said she didn’t have time for relationships, she was too focused on her career. Despite what she said, she was seeing someone, I was at her house once when he called. From what I overheard he was more of a friend with benefits and I think he was married.”
Kate said softly, “I can see several motives forming from that. I need to find out who she was seeing and that could lead me to a killer.”
Bryntley said, “I don’t know any names, I only know there is someone. If he was married, maybe his wife found out or something. Maybe she was going to break things off and that made him mad.”
Kate said, “We will be going through her phone and may find her boyfriend listed in her call logs.”
Kate thanked Bryntley and added her information to her notes. There would be several more employees to interview and she didn’t want to waste time but Shannon’s boyfriend was someone she wanted to find. He would at least know about other people she may know.