I put on a pair of latex gloves as Lupo survey the scene, slipping under the tape.
I few officers are there and I step up to one.
He's a young guy looking like he just got into the force, tall and lanky, with black gelled hair, obviously inexperienced.
"Homicide Detective Green. What happened." I say showing my badge.
"Well, based on reports," he stated, his voice soft and unsure.
"And not very good ones," I add in. They weren't, and it didn't help us at all.
"Sorry, based on our reports there was a shooting here at 9: 00 pm last night. We don't know much sir, there's a lot that goes down here, and not many cops come down here."
"Why?" I ask with a brow raised in suspicion.
"Because the lower class prostitutes, junkies, drug dealers, and gun runners are all here, and they cause a lot of problems for the cops over here."
"So you ignore the activity here?" I ask pulling my notepad from my pocket, and wrote down information, eyebrow raised.
"We, well, uh-"
"That's ...go." I say and the young officer walks away, clearly happy to get off the scene.
I shake my head as I walk over to the coroner and crouch down next to him, right next to the body of a man.
"The body of Canter Wright, male, age thirty-two, height 6'2 weighs in at approximately in at 295 pounds. Four bullet wounds," the coroner said as he bent down and examined the body, showing me as I scribbled information down.
"1st shot through the bicep, exit out of the back, fully missing any vital spots, therefore non-lethal. 2nd shot into abdomen, no exit wound, possible internal bleeding, possibly fatal, but we won't know until we get back to the lab. 3rd shot left pectoral muscle, through the heart and exited through the back the shoulder blade to be precise, and hit the heart along the way. That would be an instant kill, but I assumed when Wright fell to the floor on font, killer shot him in the head from above. The 4th shot was to the head frontal lobe, the travel of the bullet was shot downward at a forty-five degree angle, the bullet traveling through the frontal lobe, causing brain hemorrhaging also an instant kill. The bullet exited onto the back of the head, causing multiple skull fractures and splinters to enter the brain. We also found the bullet that went through the head. It was lodged in the wood counter."
He shows me the bottom of the counter, the brain matter of Wright's head spewed across it, but he managed to find the bullet hole.
"Where's the bullet?" I ask, seeing the indention, with no bullet.
"Already taken to forensics for scanning and identifying."
"Make sure ballistics takes a look at it."
I stand up, and step over the body, careful not to slip out on the blood. That would be a scene.
"Well, someone wanted this guy dead."
I say sarcastically to Lupo who smirked and was surveying the inventory sheet and recent receipts.
"All things are accounted for, not a bottle missing. What robber doesn't steal a bottle of liquor form a liquor store?"
He had a point.
"Maybe the money?"
I say as I head behind the cash register.
I open the cash register and open it.
All the money's here.
"Hey Lupes, the cash's here.
Not a dime missing.
"So, a supposed robbery, but with no liquor stolen or money, and a dead man lying on the floor?"
I say looking back at Lupo's raised eyebrows, before ducking under the counter.
"Ed, what are you looking for?"
I pop my head back up.
"Nothing. Exactly. There's a distress trigger for in case of robberies ya know, but it wasn't triggered. So, the person who shot Canter Wright knew him, or were at least acquaintances to where Wright didn't feel threatened. And a gun is there. There was a holster that-"
I duck back under the counter and unhook the gun from the holster to show Lupo.
The gun was amazingly light to be supposedly loaded.
"There was a holster glued to the bottom of the counter but look," I point to the magazine of the gun. "It's light."
I take away the magazine and there's no bullets.
"No bullets? A gun with no bullets? What sense does that make? There has to be more to this store. We'll return with a warrant. I walk out from behind the counter to my partner when my pen drops from my blazer pocket.
My pen drops from my pocket and I pick it up when I see a white powder on the floor. Most likely not baby powder.
"Lupes, you see this?" He sees the white powder too. "You think it could be a drug related case?" I signal a police officer and tell them to get forensics to check the substance on the floor.
"Make sure you send the results to us, and fast." The crime investigator nods and scurries off to collect samples.
"You know, I'm beginning to think that this robbery isn't really a robbery." Lupo says sarcastically.
"Sounds and looks like this was revenge or payback. Or a deal gone wrong. Whoever killed Canter Wright did it up close and personal. Let's see if my hunch is right."
I walk back to the coroner and step into the van where the body of Wright was in.
"Lift up his pants leg and arm sleeves."
The coroner do as I says, and my little hunch was right.
"Hey Lupes," I say as he approaches.
"Now we actually have information." Lupo says as we see the several injection scars that riddled the man's arms.
" You can go now." I say to the coroner, who was zipping back up the body bag as I jumped out of the van.