Murder by E-mail Excerpt

Lt. James (Jimmy) Hong sat behind his desk reading the morning paper. His usual mug of coffee locked in his hand on the chair arm. He was scanning the front page looking to see what the press had discovered about the last two murders on Oahu. It seemed they always knew the answers before the police did, or at least they tried to present the idea that they did. Hong was a thirty-year man on the force and well respected by everyone. He had broken several cases that had been tossed in the “unsolvable” files. He was noted for his silence when he worked on a case and wildness when he was off duty. He had lost his wife ten years ago when she was killed in a hit-and-run automobile accident on the Pali Highway. Since then he had visited her grave every day when his shift ended, sometimes spending hours sitting on the grass beside her tombstone talking softly to her.

He turned the page and continued to read.

Across from him sat Sgt. Connie Jones. An eleven-year vet of the force, she had made detective in just three years. A rapid rise for anyone in the police field, she had helped Hong find the murderer of his wife in just six months, while only a beat officer. CJ, as she preferred to be called, was married with three children. Her husband, Rick, was a police officer when they met seven years ago, but had left the force due to an injury. It had been love at first sight. They had married one year later and the first of the children followed one year after. Rick was the apple of CJ’s world and of course the children were the apples of both their lives.

CJ stared at the blank piece of paper on her desk. Every lead so far on the killings of the two women had been a dead end. The murdered women didn’t know each other, didn’t work in the same part of town, and didn’t have any friends in common. The only things in common were that both were between thirty-five and forty years old, lived alone, had nice homes, were nude when found, nothing was stolen and they were murdered in their living rooms.

There appeared to be no motive for either murder, yet according to Hong they were tied together somehow? For the first time since becoming a detective Jones was lost. She looked up as Hong rustled the newspaper.

“You know CJ, we are missing something, something right in front of us. We should be able to see it but we don’t. I know the crime lab went over the scenes with a fine tooth comb, but damn it, either we missed something or they did.”

“I agree, but what?”

Hong only shook his head and laid the newspaper on the desk. He reached into the desk drawer and retrieved a folder packed with photos. Opening it, he spread the photos on the newspaper and desk. Jones came around and peered over his shoulder at the mass of photos of the dead body and room where it lay. Nothing was over turned, nothing amiss. It was like the murderer had cleaned up the room, dusted, swept and placed everything back where it had been before the crime.

It was right there in front of them but they couldn’t see it. There was some little item that they had over looked. It was the average dinning room. A table, four chairs, white tablecloth, even dishes laid out for the next meal, pictures on the walls, a sliding door to the lanai, over in one corner a computer with printer and scanner. Something you would see in just about every house on the islands, but something was there that they had overlooked, something that would take them to the murderer.

“I don’t see anything different than before, boss!”

“Nor do I CJ, but I guarantee it’s there.”

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