Title: A difference
of opinion
By
Author: Tracie Rae Griffith
Tag line: Investigating a suspicious death, the
detectives wished the deceased could speak for himself!
Police characters: Detective Kristine
Kay, Sgt. Bill Hunt
The gist: A call comes into the station and Det. Kay
answers. A novelist, Graham Harris, was found dead by his secretary. Det. Kay
turned to the sergeant and said, “Okay, Bill let’s go.” When they arrived at the home a visibly shaken
woman answered the door and pointed them to the den where the body was. She
explained that she was supposed to work half a day today and came in after
lunch. She has a key. She said she found him unresponsive, checked
for a pulse and called the police. Det.
Kay told Sgt. Hill to stay with the secretary while she checked the body out. She found Harris, a burly man, slumped across
his desk, and an empty coffee cup by his right hand. There was an empty container of prescription sleeping
pills in the trash can next to the desk.
The
secretary asked if it was a heart attack and was shown the RX container. “More likely suicide,” said Det. Kay. “I suspect sleeping pills in his coffee.” The secretary was alarmed. She said she had
picked up those pills for him yesterday and she produced a to-do list from her
purse. The list was in Harris’s looping handwriting
(Det. Kay had seen his handwriting on some papers in his office) and it said “cancel
dentist appointment, return reference books, take car in for oil change, pick
up prescription.” When asked if Harris had been depressed, the secretary said
it was just the opposite; that he was writing well, and lately had gone on a
diet. She added, “He finally decided to
end things with Victoria.” Victoria turned out to be Harris’s money-hungry (according
to the secretary) wife. Just as they
were speaking of Victoria, she showed up at the house. Seeing the police she asked what was wrong.
When told her husband was dead, she asked, “Was it suicide?” She claimed her
husband had been depressed, that his books hadn’t been selling well, that his
health wasn’t good, and their marriage had been having problems. She added that she told him she would stay
with him if he got rid of his secretary, who she claimed was causing problems
in the marriage. She said he agreed to
fire the woman and was going to give her a month’s salary.
Det. Kay
knew it wasn’t suicide.
Crime scene: Author Harris’s home.
Clues: The list of things to do.
Suspects: The wife or the secretary.
Red herrings: None.
Solution: Victoria killed her husband by putting
sleeping pills in his coffee. Harris had
not been depressed. A man who is
contemplating suicide does not have the oil changed in his car. By killing her
husband before the divorce, the wife would get all the money.
My two cents: What a great
clue. I didn’t figure it out. So
refreshing to have a decent clue that makes sense. We have two suspects. We have motive, both women
disliked each other and wanted Harris. This
was well written and the pacing was good.
Now here’s my gripe about the police
work. The police are a paramilitary organization,
in other words organized similarly to the military. They have a ranking system. Sergeants do not get ordered around by mere
detectives.
First of all, Det. Kay would never
answer the phone from a citizen. Those
calls go through dispatch; dispatch sends out a unit, the patrolman would see
the body and then call in the detectives.
There’s a system they follow. Det.
Kay could get the phone call from the officer at the scene, but not the reporting
party.
Next, Det. Kay would never say to her
superior, ‘Okay, Bill, let’s go.” He
might say that to her, as it’s his decision to take either take the call
himself or hand it off to another detective.
Then Det. Kay tells the sergeant to stay
with the secretary while she goes and views the body. It would be the other way around. The sergeant makes those calls. He might
still choose to stay with the woman and continue interviewing her and send the
detective in.
Det. Kay is telling a possible suspect
her thoughts on the cause of death. This
is just not done.
But other than the police ‘stuff’ I
thought this was a spot-on story. The
average reader won’t even pick up on the police protocol boo-boos. This is a 5-star story, and I hope we see
more from Ms. Griffith.
