Major Crimes Mysteries
The Family McCoy
Chapter 12
Sharon walked into walked into Morales' office with a cup of coffee and Danish pastries for both of them. Morales clapped at his hands at seeing the treats in Sharon's hands. He explained to Sharon that he had a horrible night sleep the night before as the daughter he and his husband had adopted had started teething. He eagerly sipped the coffee and bit into the cheese danish and said "Ok, let's get started."
He proceeded to explain to Sharon the wounds that each victim had victim by victim. When he got to Rebecca McCoy, he informed Sharon that Kendall had been correct that someone had spit on Rebecca McCoy although he stated he didn't know if it was before or after death. "Doctor, can we send that out for DNA?" Sharon asked excitedly. "Already done. For what was done to that baby, it is on the house." Morales responded. He continued "Even in death, she looked like a little angel." Sharon looked down at her cup and reflected on seeing Michaela with a pillow with a noticeably clear bullet hole covering the baby's head and slowly shook her head yes.
"Let's head into the autopsy suite, shall we?" Morales said standing up and taking his coffee with him. Sharon stood up as well but chose to leave her coffee in his office. She could never understand how Morales could eat and drink in the autopsy suite. Granted, he never had his food or drink by the bodies, it was still within the room.
As they walked into the room, Sharon saw all the bodies of the McCoy family lined up from largest to smallest.
Starting with Michaela, Morales said "First, we have Micaela McCoy, age three. Cause of death is gunshot wound to the right temple. Time of death is between 8:30pm and 10 pm based on stomach contents and liver temperature." Sharon gently touched the toddler's head, stroking her curls and saying a prayer as they moved onto the next daughter.
Morales continued "Next we have eight-year-old, Elizabeth McCoy. Cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head done while victim was in a prone position. Time of death is consistent with her sister, Michaela." The Commander touched this child's head as she had done Michaela and moved onto to daughter Katey.
"Katherine McCoy aged 15 years" Morales continued in a formal, detached manner. "Cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head. Unlike her sisters, Katherine was sitting upright at the time of her death. Death is determined to have occurred within the same time frame as her sisters. Unlike the other two," Sharon interrupted Morales "Doctor! During our interviews with Katey's friends, her friends told our detectives that Katey was sexually active. Can you confirm that? Can you also confirm whether she had sexual relations that night or was raped?" Morales informed the Commander that he had seen no sign of sexual activity consensual or nonconsensual when he had done the autopsy.
Sharon looked pensive in her thoughts trying to piece everything together they had determined so far. Why was Katey the only one up and sitting up? Did she normally go to bed later than her family? Was she waiting for whomever had keys to get into their house that night? There were so many questions, Sharon thought, that surrounded this fifteen-year-old girl.
Morales put the sheet back over her head and moved to the father. "Patrick McCoy, aged 41, cause of death, single gunshot wound to the head. No sign of struggle or defensive wounds. He was more than likely sleeping at time of death." Again, Sharon looked puzzled. Thinking out loud, she looked at Morales, "How could he sleep through shots that even his neighbor could hear outside?" Morales was quick to respond "I can answer that. Ambien. He had Ambien in his bloodwork and in his medicine cabinet. When I counted the number of pills from the time it was filled, he takes Ambien every night to sleep." Sharon just shook her head. It was making sense to her.
As Morales pulled back the sheet on Rebecca Morales, it was noticeably clear that gunshot to the head was not her cause of death. Rebecca's face was destroyed to the point she was unrecognizable. "This one is going to take a bit, Commander." Morales told her. He continued, "Rebecca Morales, age 39. Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head. Victim has clear defensive wounds on her arms and hands. That isn't what killed her though." Morales told Sharon. "Seriously?" Sharon asked. "Yes. She would have lived for a bit following this beating. Make no mistake it would have killed her, but." Morales pulled down the sheet a bit more to expose a large knife wound in her heart area. Sharon's eyes widened. Morales continued. "This is what killed her immediately. Someone didn't like this lady, Commander." Sharon shook her head in agreement. "Let me show you this." Morales moved to the area where Rebecca had been spit on. "It looks like they tried to spit on her face, but it missed and went to her shoulder. It was a great catch by Kendall. With all this blood, it easily could have been missed or contaminated by the blood. It is almost a miracle it survived." Sharon agreed with him and asked him to let her know the second the DNA profile came back. With any luck, the profile would be in CODIS and this case would wrap up quickly.
As Sharon was telling Morales goodbye, her phone rang with Andy's special ringtone. She waved to the doctor and stepped into the hall and leaned against the wall to give some resemblance of privacy. Before Andy could tell Sharon she was on speaker phone, she said "Do you know how much I absolutely love and adore you?" In the background, she heard Provenza moan and say "EEEE, Gods." Andy then let Sharon know they were on speaker phone. "Get over it, Provenza. Don't think that I didn't see you and Patrice being all lovey dovey by blowing and catching kisses on the alter at Sharon's and my wedding. You didn't see me have a meltdown, did you? Andy told Provenza, ignoring the whole reason for calling Sharon.
By this time, Sharon was used to the fact that these two would digress frequently from any task, be it at work or home, whenever they were together, but she would still trust either of them with her life. "Andy, I'm still here. What is going on?" Sharon yelled into the phone. Flynn immediately stopped squabbling with Provenza and asked her what time she was heading back into the building. "I'm on my way there now. Why?" she asked. "Because we just had a meeting with Doc McCoy's partner and let's just say it was a really interesting discussion. See you there. Love you." In the background, Sharon could hear Provenza moan and Andy tell him "I love her. I love her. I love her." The two started to squabble about keeping PDA out of the police cars before the phone clicked off.
Sharon giggled to herself. She could remember when she was with FID how much those two drove her crazy. Now, all she could think about how much joy and they both brought her.
Sharon pushed herself off the wall and started the trek back to PAB.