Twenty-Five

Dr. Arielle Harper was the Chief Medical Examiner. A middle-aged woman with red hair tied back in a tight ponytail and piercing green eyes, she stared Nick up and down as though she didn't know what to make of him. "I'm Nick Stokes," he told her, extending his hand to her.

"Arielle Harper," she replied, shaking his hand. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to look over the autopsy reports for Merle."

"You must be one of those boys working for the Sidle girl," Arielle replied. She made her way over to her desk.

"That would be us." Arielle shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but we can't give out that kind of information. You're not in our jurisdiction." Her tone became cold, curt. Nick took a deep breath.

"Look, Dr. Harper, you can either give us a hand and show us the results of your findings, or my friend, Captain Jim Brass, can go to San Francisco and get an emergency exhumation order on the grounds of gross incompetence," Nick threatened. "It's your choice."

She stopped for a few minutes and scowled. Nick knew he had struck a nerve. He was inwardly gloating. Arielle led him to her files.

"I could get in a lot of trouble for this, Mr. Stokes..."

"Please. Nick."

She scowled again. "Nick." She reached for his files. "Things are a little messed up around here."

"Tell me about it," Nick replied. "We're trying to get your suspect out of here."

"She's not really a suspect," Arielle replied. "There's no possible way that she did Merle in."

"How do you know?" he asked as she handed him the file.

"We did the bloodwork on her at the hospital. There was no way she could have ingested that much Larazapam and killed Merle. It was a miracle the girl could even walk."

"Well, our investigation found that Sara was drugged at the bar and was assisted home. She's remembering bits and pieces now."

"Look, I'm not supposed to say anything. And I could be in huge trouble here," she told him, tightening her ponytail a little more, "but they were hoping to catch a Sidle. The police department have been chomping at the bit to avenge their good old boy."

"Sara's father?"

She nodded. "I remember when it happened. I had just moved here. I could hear the whispers. Product of a hippie lifestyle, married too youg. That Sara...she was a beautiful young girl. My first call when I became CMO was to the Sidle house the night Sara's mother killed her father."

"Is that right?" Nick replied, reading the findings. The cause of death for Merle had been an incision of the carotid artery. "Wait one second." He handed her the file and rushed out to his car. He grabbed the knife from a bag and brought it into the office. "We found this cleaned up and put back in a knife holder at the Sidle house. Luminol spray shows blood. Test shows human blood. Can I get you to run whatever we can get off of this against Merle's blood and see if we have a match?"

She nodded. "I can see what I can do."

"So, Arielle, what happened the night Merle died? If everyone knows that Sara's innocent, why isn't there an uproar to get her free?"

"Because most of the people on the case are the ones looking to nail her for her the actions of her parents. Otherwise, everyone else is too young to remember."

"Have you told them it's not right to do this?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Sgt. Peterson threatened to have me transferred out of the Bay area." A low whistle escaped Nick's lips. He was starting to harbor a strong dislike for this Sgt. Peterson.

"How are we going to get Sara out of here?" Nick asked. Arielle shrugged.

"Thanks to you and your two friends, they know that they're grasping at straws. They're pretty desperate. Their entire case is on its last legs, all you guys need to do is just kick them out."

Nick nodded. His cell phone rang. He quickly fumbled through his pockets and answered it. "Stokes." He listened for a few minutes. "I'll go do that, and I'll meet you at the police station." He hung up the phone. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. "This is my cell number. It's long distance, since it's a Vegas number. The second you get the results of the bloodwork, you call me." She nodded and Nick bolted out of the doors and towards his car.

He could feel it. They were rounding third base and heading for home.