Rancor: Unrestrained, Book 2 (Haunted)

Fourteen

Det. Haley Wanat sat at her desk across from Det. Becker. "Those papers are so musty I can smell them from here. What are you reading?"

"I'm looking through these medical records from 1969," Det. Becker said, brushing a dry flat centipede from a page. "I'm looking for the blood type of the patient Susan Knight and the orderly that was murdered. I need to see if the karambit used in the Zimmerman murder case is the same one that was used in 1969."

"If it is, how did McGee get it?" Det. Wanat asked, tapping computer keys.

"I don't think McGee got it," he said. "I have a hunch it was someone else."

Wanat looked up from her desk. "Who?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to speak with Doctor Suharto this afternoon," Det. Becker said, blowing more filth from the pages. "I have Peggy checking to see if the Doctor Suharto from 1969 is the same doctor currently overseeing Ms. McGee's case."

"You don't think the doctor committed the murder, do you?" Det. Wanat said.

"I highly doubt it. But if it is the same weapon, and it was hidden in the building all these years, I think Ms. McGee either found it while she was a tenant there. Or someone else found it and framed her," he said.

"So McGee could still be guilty," Det. Wanat said. "She found it, went nuts, and killed the superintendent."

"It's possible, but there's no motive," Det. Becker said. "Ms. McGee had no reason to murder him, other than the disease she has, schizophrenia, could have made her think he was someone else. Maybe she believed she had to protect herself—a hallucination or delusion from someone not in their right mind. On the other hand, she could have been framed as she has said, but by who and for what reason. I don't think Doctor Suharto framed her."

"What about the ghosts," Det. Wanat said in jest. "Didn't McGee talk about reincarnation and that she was one of the nurses working there in 1969. She even mentioned their names, Deborah somebody and a doctor she called Bruce. She even mentioned the little girl she called Susie, who apparently is Susan Knight. Is it possible that she got into the medical records when she lived there, found their names and the knife, and then went off the deep end and killed Mr. Zimmerman? No reincarnation. No ghosts. Besides, can ghosts even lift things?" Det. Wanat laughed.

"According to the current property manager, Tim Chandler, no one has been in that room in years," Det. Becker said. "And by all the cobwebs, dust, and dirt in the medical records room, that appears to be the case. If Ms. McGee had been in that room, there was no evidence of it."

"Maybe there are more medical records in the building, or maybe the psychic said something to her," Det. Wanat said, leaning back in her chair. "Especially since that Ethel used to work there in 1969. Could she have committed the murder? Maybe she framed McGee. It would be pretty easy to frame a crazy person."

"That is another possibility," Det. Becker said. "Ethel doesn't seem like the type to commit murder, but I've been a detective long enough to know you can't judge a book by its cover."

"To me, the psychic seems to be the most likely suspect," Det. Wanat said. "She knows the history of the building. And she would know the names of the staff without having to go into the medical records room, she may have known where the karambit was hidden, and she knew Mr. Zimmerman a long time. In fact, they were the only ones in the building for quite some time. Maybe they were romantically involved and something happened, and the psychic got angry or jealous and wanted revenge and the new tenant, McGee, provided the perfect way to commit the crime. Ethel Dory could even have had a key to McGee's apartment, especially since McGee's apartment still used an old skeleton key. McGee would be easy to setup, especially since her husband just committed suicide and the disease of schizophrenia has apparently been progressing." Det. Wanat clasped her hands behind her head. "This whole mission she has to save McGee could just be a ruse to keep us off track."