TW: depictions of suicide
🙂
Kenzie pulls out sunglasses out of her back pocket, trying to block the sun from her eyes. Patrick turned to her.
"I have plenty of other things I could be doing, Kenzie. I don't know why you brought me out here."
"It's good to get some sunshine and fresh air," said Kenzie. "You've been holed up for weeks obsessing over Lorelei. It's not healthy."
"Lorelei Martins is the closest we've ever gotten to Red John. It doesn't bother you that the FBI just took her away from us?"
"I guess, but we can't do anything about it."
He sighed. "How long is this gonna take?"
"Don't be a whiny baby. It's a jurisdictional thing. It's probably gonna take a couple of hours."
"Jurisdictional?"
"Vehicular fatality. We're in a state park. Park rangers can't deal with this sort of thing. That's why we're here– to do the stupid paperwork."
"Excellent. Let's get on with it." He looked at her. "Shall we?"
She playfully rolled her eyes and walked up to the sheriff. "Hey, thanks for coming out," said the sheriff. "If you could just sign this, we can get her out of there."
A police radio chattered. They walked down to the beach. Patrick walked up to the car with Kenzie behind him. "Damn it!" she exclaimed.
The sheriff raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Get your yellow tape out. It's a crime scene," said Patrick.
"Say what now?"
"It's a murder. Do whatever it is you do when it's a murder."
"Murder? What? No, it–it was an accident."
"Oh, really? Why weren't there any skid marks?"
"Well, but–"
"Damage to the guard rail indicates the car went straight through it at a high rate of speed. Which means the driver never engaged the brakes, never touched the steering wheel."
"So then it's a suicide."
"She was halfway through a cheeseburger. She just had her car cleaned. And where's her handbag, unless, of course, you have it." He turned to the officer. "Do you have her handbag?"
"No."
"Then it was stolen. Probably by the same person that pushed her off the road, or tampered with her brakes."
Patrick started to walk away. "My work is done here."
🙂
The team made it back to headquarters.
"Forensics just confirmed it," said Rigsby. "No way those brake lines failed on their own. Definitely murder."
"Poor kid," sighed Teresa. "What have we got so far?"
"Uh, the victim was Cassie Flood, 26," explained Grace. "She worked for Channel 7 doing human interest stories."
Kenzie narrowed her eyes at Grace's computer screen. "I recognize her. She did that story about the baby tiger at the zoo, right?"
"Probably. The last story she did was about space travel. For rich people."
"Huh?"
They turned to the monitor where one of the news stories was playing.
YOU ARE READING
I Bet on Losing Dogs - Patrick Jane
Fanfiction"I bet on losing dogs, I know they're losing, and I'll pay for my place by the ring, Where I'll be looking in their eyes when they're down, ...
