Page 39 of The Woman Left Behind

TEN

Fork Maneuvers

Harry

At five the next evening, Harry was in his office.

He’d received word that day the dentist practice was incorrect. They’d checked their unit, and Sonny and Avery’s charts had been purged when their dentist retired, because they were old enough to be purged.

They apologized profusely, they’d wanted to help, but Harry expressed gratitude and reminded them they’d done nothing wrong.

They’d just have to wait for the DNA.

He’d come into town early (he was picking up Lillian in half an hour to take her to Luigi’s) to check if he’d heard anything from Coeur D’Alene (he hadn’t), or if there was any shit he had to deal with that he could get out of his way so he could hit the ground running on Monday.

There, he’d found a file on his desk with a Post-it on top from Rus, his friend, but also his lead detective, that said, You’re right. Shady. And worth a look. Let me know.

It was one of the files they’d tagged as suspect from Dern’s term.

Harry opened it, even if he’d already been through it closely.

He read it again.

It was the case of the apparent suicide of Clifford “Muggsy” Ballard.

Harry had been working at the department then, and by that time, the department had split down the middle. Men (and there were no women back then, not deputies, nor were there any people of color…at all) who were serious about the job were in Harry’s camp, and the others who were there to get what they could out of a position of authority and power were in Dern’s.

Harry had been one of two investigating deputies, the other one was in Dern’s camp.

However, neither of them worked this file directly.

Unusually, only Dern worked it. And very quickly, it was ruled suicide.

Though Harry remembered it, not only because that was unusual, but also because a woman came in, had a loud argument with Dern, and came out, shouting, “You’re a useless piece of dirt, sheriff!”

When Harry asked Polly who the woman was, he was told it was Muggsy’s mother.

The file was slim, with just some photos of the scene that Harry had to admit, if you took ten citizens off the street, showed those to them and said, “You’ve got twenty seconds to decide what happened here,” all ten would say it was a suicide.

However, the report was only three-quarters of a page long, and noted only friends and acquaintances suggested deceased had shown recent signs of depression.

Nothing else was done, including testing for GSR on the deceased’s hand.

It was the ME’s report that caught their eye.

Where she checked “suicide” on the report, there was an asterisk. And at the asterisk, it said see notes in report about bruising.

Harry had never seen anything like that.

Upon reading these notes, the medical examiner described the body had bruising and swelling about the face consistent with taking a beating, and defensive wounds on his arms. All of which happened very close to death, though in her estimation, not directly prior to it.

Anyone, but perhaps Dern, would think that was beyond hinky.

After studying the pictures in minute detail, with nothing jumping out at him except for the fact the man had experienced a beatdown before he died, Harry was about to close the file, shut down his computer and purge his thoughts on it (for now), deciding to sit down with Rus and discuss a way forward on Monday, when he sensed someone approaching down the hall.

He looked up to see Megan, the president of the town council, lifting a hand to knock on his doorframe.

“Hey,” he greeted before her knuckles struck frame.

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