Part 3

The soft, quiet woman had died instantly. Bullets to the head have a tendency to do that. Stevens crawled out of the office and began barking orders at once. He had to catch the guy behind this.
When all was said and done, however, his attempts were futile. Forensics said the bullet had come from the building next door, a seedy three-story motel. The bullet had come from one of two different second floor rooms. Neither currently had guests checked into them. The two maids and front desk worker were all together when they heard the shot. They were out front on a smoke break. This was verified by two cops who pulled up their squad car just before. That eliminated anyone with definite access to the rooms.
So Stevens was still getting nowhere. He didn’t know who the woman was; he didn’t know why she wanted to kill him; he didn’t even know if she was connected to the case at all. But at least he had something to work with. He had clues, hunches, leads. And more paperwork.
About two hours after the shooting Morgan found Stevens at a card table set up in the hallway outside his office, still blocked off with crime scene tape, a chalk outline positioned across from an overturned desk. Morgan, chewing on a hoagie sandwich and looking tremendously confused, asked what happened. Stevens grabbed a bag out of Morgan’s hand and removed his own sandwich. He was so hungry that he managed only one sarcastic comment, “Take you long enough?”
Morgan stammered, “There was… a long line,” still gawking at the ruined office. After wolfing down his lunch, Stevens brought Morgan up to speed on the events at the station.
“So who is she?” Morgan asked.
“Her license says Rose Sennigan but the address on the card is wrong. So far, we can’t find anybody who knows her. We might have to wait a couple days and see if anyone reports her missing. In the meantime, forensics is done with her so I’m having the morgue clean her up. I’ve got a hunch that our witness Miss Jolie might recognize Rose.”
“You think she was the woman driving the car the night of the shooting?”
“Just a hunch. We’ll see. I sent her gun to ballistics to see if it was the one that shot Detective Forsharpe. Which brings me to my most interesting discovery: the gun she had was a department issue handgun. We might be right about the leak. And get this- the serial number on the gun matches with Forsharpe’s gun!”
“What? But didn’t Forsharpe have a gun on him when he was killed?”
“Yes, he did. I checked. And it was department issue too. But it was issued to someone else- a friend of ours, actually. That gun belongs to Tom Howard, the guy in charge of Forsharpe. But unfortunately, he’s on vacation, right?”
“That’s what I was told,” Morgan squeaked.
“I need you to figure out when he’s getting back. It’s possible his gun was stolen. Howard has been with the department for a long time. I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
Morgan tottered away and disappeared around the corner. Stevens got back to work at his makeshift desk until a distinguished looking older man approached. This was Leslie Quinn, the head of ballistics.
“Leslie! You got anything good for me?”
“Yes and no. First of all- the gun she came in with wasn’t the one that killed Forsharpe. I don’t know what she was doing with it. However, I took a look at the bullets. You’re gonna like this, Stone. The bullet that killed Miss Sennigan was fired by the same gun as the one that killed Detective Forsharpe.”
“What a mess. Rose has Forsharpe’s gun. Forsharpe has Howard’s gun. Forsharpe is killed by a different gun and it’s the one that killed Rose too. Look, I know he’s well respected and everything but things aren’t looking good for Tom Howard right now. He’s the only one in this little triangle that’s still alive.”
“You should go visit him and see what’s up.”
“What do you mean, visit him? I thought he was gone on vacation.”
“Nope. He’s at County General Hospital. Acute mercury poisoning. It’s so rare; the doctors can’t figure it out. They’re not sure he’ll live.”
“The hospital? So not only did someone with access steal the files about Forsharpe but now we’re being lied to about Howard? I swear the entire plainclothes department is corrupt. I’m getting to the bottom of this. If you see Morgan, tell him to meet me at the hospital. I need to talk to Tom Howard.”

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To be continued next week…