Songbird (completed)

chapter three

Delia and Thomas headed back to the morticians office, knocking lightly on the door. "Come in." He called. Delia opened the door and whisked in before Thomas could process anything. "Mr..?" Delia held out her hand. "James Buchard." He held out his hand and shook Delia's hand. Thomas held out his hand and he shook it as well. "We hear you've concluded how she died?" Thomas sat down in one of the chairs in front of James. Delia took a seat in the chair next to him and pulled out a notepad and asked to borrow a pen from the mortician. "Yes, after you guys left yesterday, me and my partner did checked her over some more and ran some more tests." He pulled out a file and slid it towards the detectives. Delia took it and looked through the file. "Blunt force trauma?" Delia raised her eyebrow and scrunched her face up. "Not only blunt force, but poison as well. This seems to be the making of a hate crime." James nodded as Delia slid the file over to Thomas, and made a note in her pad. "Normally people don't just poison people for shits and giggles." Thomas looked to Delia and tilted his head. "I don't think this was a hate crime, but a 'She-knows-way-too-much-let's-get-rid-of-her' crime." Thomas slid the file back to James and he thanked him, sliding the file back into the cabinet. "So she knew something she wasn't supposed to know, told somebody she shouldn't have trusted and they snitched on her. Therefore, the big boss made sure she wouldn't tell anyone else." Delia nodded and stood up, slipping the notepad back into her jacket pocket. "Again, thank you doctor." Delia held out her hand and shook his one more time. She looked at Thomas and nodded towards the door. "We're good here. Gonna call the inspector and let him know." She explained as they walked out of the office and back out through the hallway. 
As they made their way back to the car, Thomas sucked in his lips and looked at Delia. As Delia opened her car door, he put her hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him, her eyebrows raised. "Hey look. I'm really sorry about what I said in the restaurant. I didn't mean it I was just being a ignorant jerkwad." Delia let him finish and then nodded. "To be honest, yeah." She got into the car and started it and Thomas stood there stunned. 
Delia drove back to the hotel and left Thomas in the hotel room as she headed down to the lobby. Delia took a cup and poured some of the coffee sitting there in the cup putting sugar and creamer in it and taking a sip. She winced. It was disgusting. She took another sip and threw the rest of it in the trash. She walked back to the hotel room and looked at Thomas, who was asleep on his bed. Delia shook her head and sat down on the foot of her bed. She pulled out her phone and went through her contacts looking for the inspector. She pressed on the contact and stepped out the door while the phone rang. "Inspector Riggs." He said when he answered. "Hey dad. Delia. We got some more information on the case. The mortician found out her cause of death. That's all we have so far." She explained as she paced back and forth in the hallway. "Good work. What'd he say?" Riggs asked enthusiastically. "Well, according to the mortician, she was poisoned. But what actually killer was blunt force trauma to the head. When we went there yesterday there were lots of bruises on her and ligature marks. Like she was tortured." Delia explained as she walked down the hall and outside. She felt like she was suffocating. "Okay, good work Cordelia. If you can find out more information before you leave tomorrow, please do that. We quite literally have zip right now and the senator is riding my ass." Riggs complained. Delia nodded and looked around. "Have anything you want us to do when we get back?"  Delia asked. "Yeah actually. I want you to talk to the Senator. Find out more information about her daughter. And then I want you to talk to some of her popular contacts that she talks to most in her phone. I can get you a warrant for that if you need it. But this case seems real fishy to me." Riggs explained quietly. Delia nodded. "Yeah. When we talked to the mortician, he gave his opinion on it. Said he thought this was a hate crime." Delia gave a non-humorous laugh. "I don't know about hate crime. But this does seem like a 'she knows to much' crime." Riggs said dryly. "That's what Thomas said." Delia rolled her eyes. "Well, Thomas is on to something. Call me back if you have anything more. And get back here as soon as you land." Riggs said and hung up. Delia looked at her phone and shook her head.